Did you know that you don’t have to wonder where you are going to go when you die? There is a way you can know FOR SURE that you are going to heaven when you die!
Think about it…..that means that there is a way that you can lay your head down on your pillow tonight and know for certain, that if you never woke up again, you would go to heaven.
It says so in the Bible!! 1John 5:13 says that the Bible was written for that very purpose – To show the way to know for certain that we have eternal life!
“What does it say?” you ask. Guess…
“Go to church?” — Wrong Answer
“Be good to my neighbor?” — Wrong Answer
“Keep the 10 commandments?” — Wrong Answer
“Love everybody?” — Wrong Answer
“Do the best I can?” — Wrong Answer
“Do ‘good works’?” — Wrong Answer
“Get baptized?” — Wrong Answer
“Try not to sin?” — Wrong Answer
“Give money to charity?” — Wrong Answer
Give up??
Ok, well the message of the Bible is incredible news – in fact, it’s the best news in the whole world! Here’s what it says….
1. Heaven is a free gift! (Romans 6:23) – What? A free gift? Yep, and so because it is a gift, we cannot try to earn it. If we try to earn the priceless gift of heaven by doing good things, it’s like an insult to God. It’s like offering $2 to someone who gives you a $10,000 watch. (Eph 2:8-9)
2. Man is sinner (Rom. 3:23) and cannot save himself – So we’ve all failed to be perfect but what is sin really? It is anything in our thoughts, words, actions, attitudes or motives that is short of God’s perfect standard. Wow! That makes you realize that you sin a lot more than we probably think! Does God grade on the curve? Nope. His standard is absolute perfection! (Mt 5:48)
3. God… is Love, therefore does not want to punish us (1Jn. 4:8b) yet the same Bible that says that God is love also says that God is Just, therefore He must punish sin! So we are faced with a problem: We’ve blown it with our sin…..God loves us and doesn’t want to punish us……God is just and must punish sin…..Big Problem! But God solved our sin problem through……
4. Jesus Christ! – Jesus is True God in flesh (John 1:1-14) and He came for the purpose of being beaten, whipped, spit upon and finally dying on the cross to take the punishment that we all deserved to bear for our sins! Love is what is amounts to! He took the punishment for the sin that we deserved to go to hell for. (Isaiah 53:6) Jesus died for all people, but does that mean that everyone is going to heaven? No. This incredible gift must be received by faith.
5. Faith… is not just believeing the facts about Jesus existence. It means that we stop trusting in our good works or anything that we could do, have done or ever will do to get us to heaven and INSTEAD trust completely in what JESUS ALREADY DID FOR US! The price has been paid and the gift is being offered to each one. You can receive this gift TODAY but trusting what Jesus did on the cross for you! Why not talk to God right now? Acknowledge to Him that you are a sinner and cannot save yourself. Accept His gift of forgiveness and eternal life because of what Jesus did for you! (Acts 16:31)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” – Acts 16:31
“Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me'” – John 14:6
None of us are guaranteed to live another day. Don’t delay in accepting this free gift of eternal life that God offers you. It is the most important decision you will ever make. It will determine where you spend eternity.