Bible Lesson 171

A CHECK-LIST FOR HEAVEN

Dead things cannot grow. Before there can be spiritual growth, the must be spiritual life.
George Sweeting

This time we will look at our Bibles and ask God to lead us into an understanding of His Word and His Will, as we draw our attention to what kind of people will be fit to inherit heaven. We must admit that there is a famine of the hearing and knowledge of God. That should not surprise us because the Bible speaks about it in the Book of Amos, Chapter 8:11-13, when it says, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, But shall not find it.’

We may rightly ask, what does that mean, because in our day there are many people and churches and groups and corporations that are busy teaching and getting out Christian literature’ I believe that that prophesy has a dual meaning, the first is that there is very little of the whole counsel being preached in churches today, and second we have become a people with itching ears, and we can hear without hearing the meat of the word of God even when it is preached.

We have become like the people of Israel, when they heard the Word of God from Isaiah, who told them what God thought of them’.that they were ” A rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord; who say to the seers, “Do not see, and to the Prophets, Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits, Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.’ (Isaiah 30:10-11).

In these verses, in the book of Isaiah, we find the people of Israel, who have gone to Egypt, and found something that was more pleasing to them than their God. They found there in Egypt things that were new to them, different from what they had known, and most of all, they found what they thought was protection; but God told them that the only way that they would ever be secure, is to return to Him and rest (Be settled, be still) (Isaiah 30:14-15).

As I see it, that is pretty much the same situation that our religious practices are in today. Oh, Yes, we go to church and we join churches and we pay tithes or at least we tip God every now and then, but we go to put a check mark in that block that most think is important for our families. But going to church has lost it’s meaning in our day.

Church at one time existed for the purposes of worship of God and gaining a knowledge of God so that we could go forth and spread the good news of God, that good news that Christ made ‘The way’ for men to be reconciled to God. Sadly, we have seen the worship of God morph into some kind of worship of the creature, rather than the worship of the Creator. God makes men feel bad about their evil lives and men did not like that.

Mankind (women and men) desired to move away from the hard truths of the Bible in favor of the promise scripture, and scriptures that when taken by themselves allowed man to escape being convicted of his sin. We now live in a time when the roles of the church contain more people who are not truly saved, than it does obedient, new creatures, who know God through faith in Jesus Christ. What I want to do in this lesson as in all of my preaching is to make sure that those who come to God through Christ know for certain that they come to the right God in the right way, and that is in the way that God gives us in His Word the Bible. There are people in the visible church who stand miles away from the True Church, the ecclesia, which is made up of sinners who came to the realization that they were lost and undone, blind and unheeding, and deserving of death and hell.

These poor lost sinners had come to the end of self and everything else in the world and they ran to the cross of Jesus for cleansing and being made whole. There are no exceptions to that rule, and unless you have been brought from the darkness of sin and death into the light of our Holy God to have all of your sins exposed and repented of , you have not even thought about this ‘Check list for heaven’. We have people today who have joined church groups but have never even thought about their sin, much less, repented of it. There are not any that I know about today in this world that have anything in their lives to recommend them to God. The Bible tells us clearly that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23): That we are all born “dead in trespass and sin, and under the Wrath of God (Ephesians 2:1-3): and Jesus said that unless we repent we will perish (Go to hell) (Luke 13:2-3).

So, lets make sure we are fit to occupy heaven the first item that we must complete before we begin to make plans to inherit heaven . Remember now, This list is given in the Bible, it is not one of our churches programs to self improvement. God has spoken and heaven and earth belong to Him, so if you have any idea about heaven, it must satisfy God’s requirement.

ITEM #1
Have you seen yourself and your life as God sees them’ Have you said from the depths of your heart, I am a rotten sinner, and I have no help or hope unless God intervenes’ Remember now, you are dead in trespass and sin, so you stand before God to be brought to the place where you either pass or fail the ultimate test of your nature. Will you have the strength and the will to hear what God has to say and to see your self as you appear to Him’ If this encounter with God reaches into your soul and causes you to cry out and fall at the foot of the cross to fully trust Jesus Christ the Sinless Son of God, then God will give you time and the will to confess and repent of all of your sin. I know that some have thought to repent of some of their sins, or many of their sins, but they hold back some little sin that they think God will allow. If you do that or they do that, they are not saved. We must deal with every sin by agreeing with God about it’s depravity, and stop committing it. I think that most who are honest will agree that repentance is not something that we hear much about in our churches today; but unless repentance is preached and applied to those who hear it, we end up baptizing sinners who have not known God through Christ. The question now becomes are you willing to examine yourself to make sure that it was God that saved you or whether you were fooled into making a profession, without possession (2nd Corinthians 13:5).

The next item on our ‘Check list for heaven’ is ‘. ITEM #2
Do you know why you were saved and how were you saved’ Why were you saved’ You were saved, if you are saved, because you were chosen by God to be saved, before the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 1:4). You were not saved because you were good/bad, smart/simple, handsome/plain, nice/mean, or any other reason other than God decided to choose you. God saved you by His Grace through Faith in His Son Jesus Christ, and His work on the cross in your behalf. Grace and Faith are both gifts of God and you have no part in your salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9). God’s touch on your life brings regeneration. You were born dead in trespass and sin, and in regeneration God gives you Spiritual life, and you are now capable of communing with God. In the regeneration, you are put to death in Christ and raised up (New birth), to newness of life (Ephesians 2:10; Romans 6:1-14).

ITEM #3
Are you a new creature, a different creature than before’ Have you come to realize that you are not a sinner, but a saint'(Romans 1:7). Have you turned from sin to God and are you hungry for the Word of God and do you desire to please Him rather than yourself’ It is urgent that you desire to know yourself as this new creature. Have those old sins and desires gone, and been replaced by new things that are pleasing to God’ (2nd Corinthians 5:17). Is your life now dedicated to serving and obeying God’ If your life has not radically changed and your direction of life is not regulated by the Word of God, then your need is to go back to the Cross and ask God to cleanse you and save you. The thing that all church-members need to understand is that, joining a church makes you a church-member, however submitting to the Lordship of Christ makes you a Christian. This new birth is not something that wears off after a week, a month or a few years, once saved always saved but that means you walk with Christ as long as you live on this earth, and then you go to be with Him forever. It is unfortunate that these Biblical steps are not taught in most churches today: but all of us need to understand that the failure of the church to teach the truth, is no excuse for everyone is individually responsible for reading and studying and meditating on the Word of God.

Item #4
Are you daily feasting on the Word of God, The Bible, and does it speak to you in all of your life’s needs’ The Bible is God’s way of spending quality time with His Children, and as you take up you Bible every day, pray and ask God to point up things that He has for you to know and act upon. Whenever God has given you all the knowledge you need to begin to witness to others He will give you an unction to go and teach others to obey all that He has commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20). Listen for the call from God but do not outrun God because when you act for God what you say will make the difference between heaven and hell for those who hear you. Always remember that it takes knowledge and Zeal to do what God has said to do. The Bible warns us about speaking out of turn to others. (James 3:1).

Be sure that you study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (Understanding), the Word of God. 2nd Timothy 2:15.

ITEM #5
And you need to really consider this, is: Do you love Jesus Christ more than you love anyone on the earth, including spouse, mother, father, sister, brother or anyone else’ The reason I say consider before you answer the question is that we are not used to hearing that Jesus Christ is more important to us than anyone else. We have been taught to compartmentalize, our lives and Jesus may have a part but many times it is a part that is subservient to others. We don’t think in those terms often, but it is Biblical and logical and it must be considered. Certainly, God desires that we honor our parents, love our spouses and our siblings; but they apply only in this short time we are on the earth, while Christ becomes our all and in all. As much as we normally love others, Christ left heaven and became like us in this sin sick world (Only without sin). He gave up all that heaven offered for a time. He gave up to those who He had created, to beat, slap, whip, spit on and crucify, so that some of them (those who would submit and obey Him), in order to provide the way out of sin and salvation. Jesus Christ suffered and died, for my sins and yours, if you can obey all that He commands (Hebrews 5:8-9). ITEM #6. Have you moved off of the Throne of your life, in favor of Jesus Christ to rule there’ Before you make decisions do you think about what God has said about what you are about to do, and then decide to do only the Will of God (Luke 14:26-33.

Ask yourself if you really know the Word of God and believe it just as it comes off the page’ Are you concerned about the souls of the lost of the world to apply yourself to learn all that God has set down in His Word the Bible and do you stand on that word regardless of who it is that come against it. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort on your part but nothing is more important than that which God has given His creatures to do until He returns to receive His Bride the Church. Only the born again, New creature in Christ, is capable of doing that, and in order to be born again, you must yield and submit and commit to God through Jesus Christ, in all aspects of life. If you are saved it will not be you that desires it, and accomplishes it; but Christ living in you. (Galatians 2:20). I know that there are some who will ask ‘how is it that Jesus Christ can take over my life” The answer is that Jesus Christ is God, and nothing can be too hard for God. For those who think that they are so strong and smart that nobody can take them over and cause them to live just as they desire. Think again my friend, because you are controlled every moment of every day by someone or something that controls you so well that they can influence what you think, what you say, what you do!

We live in a country that is founded on the basis of law. Those laws came forth from the laws of God, which are rooted and grounded in the Bible. In recent years we have been controlled by personalities that we call our government. We have seen nation after nation taken over by men who were ungodly and so depraved and so in control of their people that there has been not only fratricide, but genocide. Of course, we like to think that we are people that no one could control and yet we are like flocks of sheep and herds of cattle who follow after one movement, and then another. We are sheep for almost every would- be king that comes along, so do not think that God cannot cause us to desire Him and His Way and Will, above everything else in the world. Despots draw people to follow them by fear, fear of death and fear of being called out. God draws people to Himself by bonds of love, and no man will ever know God unless and until God the Father draws them to the Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:6). It would serve us all well to always remember that it was God who formed us and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, so we delude ourselves when we think that we are here because we decided to be born on such and such a day in such or such a year. God is the source of all things and He controls everything that happens and if you are saved today or if you will be saved at some point in the future, God will be the first cause of your salvation.

Please remember that God has always had an eternal plan for mankind and included in His plan for man, is The only remedy for our sin problem and His name is Jesus Christ, God with us. We are saved because God is a God of Grace, and because before the foundation of the world God instituted the only way’.that’s right there is one way and one way only for man to be saved and that is because of the shed blood and death, burial and resurrection on the third day, of Jesus Christ which satisfied God’s wrath against the sins of those who can and will obey God’s Will, as they live and serve him as they live on His earth. The death of Jesus Christ was not and is not now a get out of jail free card. The humiliation, suffering that was ours was borne by our Lord and Savior on the cross and that was to change us from a person that was born under God’s wrath, because they were dead in trespass and sin from the moment of their birth. There had to be a sacrifice for our sin, and since none of us was perfect, we could not be that sacrifice. God provided His own sacrifice in the person of Jesus Christ, who was perfect and sinless and who obeyed God the Father perfectly for some 33 years, and then went to the cross in the place of those who would obey Him (Hebrews 5:8-9)

You are responsible for your sin and some would teach that none of us can walk in this world without sin, which is true if you are a lost sinner, but for those who are born from above, recreated in Christ Jesus, we are not sinners because we are in Christ, and there is no sin in Him. As children of God we are not under the law of sin and death’because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. We walk in accordance to the Spirit, not according to the flesh.(Romans 8:1-4). Let me repeat my self here because we can never say this enough in our society: “Joining a church group, regardless of the denomination, or stated belief, does not equate with Salvation. Joining some visible church makes you a ‘church-member’ not a Christian. It take the power of God to forgive sin, and make us justified before God. You will never be saved by anything except, God Grace through Faith in His Son Jesus Christ, and His work on Calvary.

Therein lies a problem in our society, because we have taken the pure Word of God and used it to satisfy sinners, in order to build what we call churches. You will never be saved if you trust in any savior other than the Jesus Christ which is clearly presented in the Bible. Jesus Christ is God and has always been God, He was with God in the beginning, He gave up heaven for a time and came to earth through the womb of Mary who was a Jew. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, who had been supernaturally impregnated by the Holy Spirit (Not of any sexual act). He took on the form and flesh of mankind and pitched His tent with us here on the earth for some 33 years, and then went to the cross for you and I, that is if we are capable of trusting Him implicitly and loving Him enough to obey Him. That brings about a quantum difference in those who are saved.

They still look like they did before but there is a glow of life about them, and they are now dedicated to God, and their life glorifies Him as they live according to His Word. I cannot save anyone, neither can your pastor or the pope. Neither can any denomination or any church or any church program. You must be saved by God or God will not accept you, so study to show yourself approved, a workman that needs not to be ashamed. There are no short-cuts, no hospital class, no way but His way, and you can find that for yourself in His Word the Bible. It is the most important thing that you can ever do’.so get going and seek the face of God, as you beg Him for forgiveness, and trust the work of His Son Jesus Christ to be your only hope. Until next time think on these things and work toward the cross for your redemption is near’.,

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob