Suppose I ask you, Who
is going to Heaven? Some would say the man who reads his Bible and prays. others
would say the man who lives good and keeps the Ten Commandments. Still others
would say the man who attends church faithfully or the man who has been
baptized. I have heard people say if a man suffer enough her he goes to Heaven
when he dies.
When I was little boy, there was a great fire in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Winecoff Hotel burned and many people lost their lives. Someone wrote a song
(it was supposed to have been a gospel song) about Winecoff Fire. One verse pf
the song went like this:
Surely there's a Heaven
For folks who die this way;
And we'll go Home to see them
In Heaven some sweet day.
The implication is,
since they suffered in a fire, they would go to Heaven. Yes, people have
different ideas about how to got to Heaven.
When I worked at the Post Office, a lady came in and said,
"Preacher, the way I see this business about Heaven is: we are all at the Post
Office this morning. You came up Covington Highway and out Candler Road and you
are here. So-and-so came through Panthersville, and he is here. I came through
East Lake Park and I am here." She went on to describe how a number of people
had all arrived at the Post Office, none having come the same way. When she
finished, she said, "Now that is the way it is about Heaven. We are all working
for the same thing and as long as we are sincere we will all go to Heaven when
we die." Then she asked, "What do you think about that?" I replied, "There is
only one thing wrong with it: when we die, we are not going to the Post Office."
There are many ways to the Post Office, but only one way to Heaven.
John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me." Acts 4:12: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for
there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved."
Now, who is going to Heaven? Let's see what the Bibles says. In
Revelation 7 we have a heavenly scene. There is an innumerable host, clothed in
white robes. Revelation 7:13 says, "And one of the elders answered, saying unto
me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?" Now,
notice the question of one of the elders: "How did these people get here? From
whence came they?" John answered in verse 14, "Sir, thou knowest. And he said to
me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." These people in Heaven
were there because they had washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb.
Friends, only those who have been washed in the blood are going to
Heaven.
But what does it mean to be washed in the blood? there is no way we
can take the blood of Jesus and put it into a basin and wash our hands. We have
never seen that blood. Let me briefly explain.
The Bible teaches that all men are sinners. Romans 3:23: "For all
have sinned, and come short upon the glory of God." The Bible says in Romans
3:10, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one." Not all men have
committed the same sins or the same number of sins, but all have sinned. Since
all men are sinners, all men owe a penalty. Sin demands a price. Ezekiel 18:4:
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin is
death..." James 1:15: "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
Now, here is the picture: I am a sinner. I have sinned. And being a
sinner I owe a penalty. The penalty for sin is death. But that death is more
than dying with a gunshot wound or cancer. That death is described in the Bible
as the second death, the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14: "Death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." If I pay what I owe as a
sinner, I must go to Hell and stay there forever and ever and ever.
Now, here is the bright side of the story. The Bible teaches that
two thousand years ago God took every sin I ever have committed and all I ever
will commit and placed those sins on Jesus. That is not just preacher talk but
exactly what the Bible says in Isaiah 53:6, "...the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all." Two thousand years ago God looked down through the
telescope of time and saw every sin that I ever would commit, and he took those
sins-one by one--and placed them over on Jesus. And 1st Peter 2:24 says, "Who
his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." The Bible also says in
2nd Corinthians 5:21, "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
Now, you can never change the fact that two thousand years ago God
took every sin you have ever committed, all you ever will commit, if you live to
be a thousand years old, and placed those sins on Jesus; and while Jesus was
bearing our sin in His own body, God actually punished Him in our place to pay
the debt we owe.
Someone said the Jews killed Him. But that is not so. Others say
the Roman soldiers killed Him. They are wrong. the Bible says, "For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son." And Romans 8:32 says, "He
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all..." God actually
punished Jesus in our place to pay the debt we owe so that when we die we won't
have to pay it.
That sounds like everyone is saved, doesn't it? It sounds like
everyone will go to Heaven, because he died for everyone. But everyone is not
saved/ The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient for all, but it is
efficient only to those that believe.
Here is what happened. God transferred your sins to Christ, and on
the cross Jesus Christ died for you. He shed His blood. Leviticus 17:11 tells
us, "The life of the flesh is in the blood." Blood in the body means man is
alive. Shed blood speaks of death. When Jesus shed His blood, He gave His life
for you. He paid what you and I owe. He suffered what we should have
suffered.
That is what we mean when we sing:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without the
shedding of blood is no remission." When Jesus died in our place, he shed His
blood. That is what it means when it says they "have washed their robes, and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb." It means they believe Jesus Christ
died for them, that He suffered their death and paid their debt and they are
trusting in Him as Saviour.
Now let me briefly sum up what I have said: We are sinners. We owe
the sin debt. God transferred our guilt to Jesus. Jesus shed His blood. He died
on a cross. He paid what we owe. That is what he meant when he cried out from
the cross, "It is finished." Now for us to be washed in the blood, or to accept
the payment, we must do it by faith. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."
The main hangup is over the word "believe." Everybody says, "I have
always believed in Christ. I'm not an atheist." But the Bible word "believe"
does not mean to accept the historical fact that He was a person who lived and
died. To "believe" means to trust, to depend, to rely on.
I have often illustrated faith by an airplane.
We go to the airport. You say to me, "Is that a plane?"
"Yes."
"Do you believe the plane will fly?"
"Yes."
"Do you believe the plane will take you to California?"
"Yes."
But I never make the trip. I must not rely only on believing it is
a plane, that it will fly, that it is going to California; but there must come a
time and point when I make a decision that I will definitely trust that plane
and that pilot with my physical life. When I get on the plane, I am depending on
the pilot to take me to California. My physical life is in his hands.
That is what it means to believe on Christ. It means I admit that I
am a sinner, I believe that I owe the sin debt like the Bible says, I accept the
fact that Jesus Christ has already died and that with His death He paid what I
owe as sinner; and finally it means that I will fully trust Him to get me to
Heaven. Just like I put my physical life in the hands of the pilot to take me
across America, so I must put my eternal life in the hand of Jesus to take me to
Heaven.
If you can pray this prayer honestly and sincerely, I promise you
that when you die you will go to Heaven: Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a
sinner. I do believe You died for me, and here and now I do trust You as my
Saviour. From this moment on, I am fully depending on You to get me to Heaven."
If you will trust Him, I promise you that you have everlasting
life. And you can know that when you die you are going to Heaven.
How can you know it? John 3:36, Jesus said, "He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life." God said it. He cannot lie. Hebrews 6:18 says it
is impossible for God to lie. If you are trusting Him completely for salvation,
you have everlasting life, and you have God's Word for it. If you will write and
tell me you have trusted Him, I have some free literature I would like to send
you that will help you set out to live the Christian life. All you need do to
receive your free literature is simply fill out the decision from below and send
it to me.
End of Chapter Eight
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