HOW CAN A SINFUL MAN GO TO HEAVEN?
April 23, 2000
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1Ti 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I
am chief.
Many are deceived to believe that they are good. They compare with one another and see that
they are not as bad as the drug addict on the street, or a murderer. You may say, “I don’t steal, I don’t lie, I
don’t cheat I may sin a little bit here and there but God sees my heart as I am
very loving, caring and I help people and I know when I die, God will consider
all the good things I have done and I believe that I will go to heaven.”
Objection.
If you believe that God will consider your goodness or your
good works into consideration, then why did Jesus have to come upon this earth
and was crucified to a cross? Jesus
just wasted his time; your good works could have taken you to heaven.
Therefore, if righteousness can be gained by your good works then Christ died
for nothing!
If you are good why Isaiah the prophet say, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a
man of unclean lips…” (Isa 6:5)
Why did Peter tell Jesus, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Paul said, “Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” (1 Tim 1:15)
As Paul said that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and if you are
good then you do not need Jesus. Are you more righteous than Isaiah, Peter and
Paul? Why did these holy men of God see
they were evil and why you cannot see you are not sinful? The answer is you are
seeing sin as horizontally comparing yourself to a bad drug addict on the
street or a murderer. The only way you will see how sinful you are, when you
compare yourself to the infinite holiness of God.
WE ARE EXEEDINGLY
SINFUL IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
King David said in Psalm 25:11, “O Lord, pardon my iniquity; for is great.” He did not say,
“Pardon my sins but I have done much good work to counter balance my sins.” He
did not say, “Pardon my sins they are small.” On the contrary, sin is great
against God. The need for pardon was because of sin against God.
1 John 3:4.
"Sin is the transgression of the law."
1 John 5:17. "All unrighteousness
is sin."
WE HAVE VIOLATED GOD’S LAW
God is the supreme ruler of the universe. All creatures are subject to him.
He governs the sun; moon, stars and we are all dependent on him. The Lawgiver is God, the Creator and
Preserver of all things. He is above the local magistrate, he is above
the police officer on the road, and he is above the President. He is the
majestic and the exalted One, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He
gives life to man and preserves his being. He has the authority to issue
laws without our vote. We are all subject to him in existence and to the
obedience of his law. Summary of the moral law is found in the 10
Commandments. Apostle Paul said, “I had not known sin, but by the law.”
(Romans 7:7) In the light of the 10 commandments, we have broken God’s
law. We become conscious of sin by the Law. In reality, we have sinned
against God in thought, by our speech, and by actions. Jesus exposed the law
and the inability of man to keep the law when he said, "You have heard
that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery, But I say to
you whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery
with her in his heart." (Mat.5: 27) Man sees the result of sin but God
sees the cause for sin. The Law condemned us and showed us to be guilty before
the Lord.
IN THE SIGHT OF
GOD WE ARE ALL SINNERS
Isa 6:1 In the year that king
Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims:
each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he
covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his
glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine
eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
When Isaiah saw the awesome majesty of God’s holiness, he said, "Woe
to me!"
This is the prophet of God, a good man and a righteous man, the servant of God,
but when he saw the holiness of God, he saw his sinful nature, and instead of
saying blessed unto me as I have seen the glory of God, he put a curse upon
himself and said, woe unto me. The word "woe" is mentioned as
a curse in the Bible. Isaiah saw that he was not good in God’s presence. The
word of God says, there is no one righteous…. no one good. (Romans 3:10-12)
Then Isaiah said, "I
am ruined!" The Hebrew root word means, ‘ I am lost.’ It took only one glimpse of the holiness of God and
Isaiah was brought to zero, as he saw how wretched he was in the presence of
God’s holiness. Yes, God is infinitely holy and we are infinitely un-holy. Peter too when he realized who Jesus was, he
said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful
man, O Lord.”
WE ARE ALL
SINNERS WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTIONS
1 John 1:8. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
1 John 1:10. “If we say that we have not sinned we make
him a liar, and the truth is not in us.”
Ro 3:10 “As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one:”
Ro 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God;”
Jeremiah 17:9. “The heart
of man is deceitful above things and desperately wicked.”
You do not have to teach a child to sin, instead of saying, “Yes” in
obedience they say, “No.” in disobedience. Why? Because the sin nature is already in us. We are born with sin.
Romans 5:12 ~ Therefore, just as
through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death
spread to all men, because all sinned.
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother
conceive me.
THERE IS A DAY OF JUDGEMENT FOR EVERYONE
Ac 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
Mt 12:36 But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Ro 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
1Pe 4:5 Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick
and the dead.
Heb 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his
sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we
have to do.
God is going to judge our actions and conduct according to the Law of
God. Every evil thought, every hidden sin, all the pet sins, all the bad motives
and all what we have done in secret will be brought to open light. Why is it
Christ appointed to judge the world instead of the Father or the Holy
Spirit? The great theologian Jonathan
Edwards answers this question by saying, “because he is the one who clothed
human nature, he became a man. He who is in the human nature should be
the Judge of those who are of the human nature.”
Christ Jesus was mocked, spitted upon and condemned to be
crucified. The High priest, Pilot,
Herod and the entire crowd condemned the Lord to the cross. The crowd kept on
shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Now he will be the one who will judge humanity with his righteousness.
Joh 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the Son of man.
He is the judge of the Universe and a good judge will punish the guilty
party, a good judge will not compromise with the lawbreakers.
"…The Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." (Nahum
1:2-3)
ALL SINNERS WILL BE PUNISHED WITH AN EVERLASTING
PUNISHMENT.
2Th
1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
Everlasting means without end.
Mt 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal.
Once a person is in hell, there is no escape. Christ has the key of
hell; "he shuts and no man opens."
The torment of hell is extreme. There are no soda fountains or even a
drop of water to cool the tongue. For they will be tormented with fire and
brimstone; and will have no rest day nor night forever and ever. Imagine
yourself to be fall into a fiery great furnace. Imagine also that your body
were to lie there for a few minutes, what horror would you feel in the fiery
furnace! And how long would that few minutes seem to you! Moreover, after you
had endured it for few minutes someone comes and rescues you! What a relief! As
you are rushed to the hospital. However, there is no one to rescue in hell, it
is not a few minutes but for eternity, day and night forever and ever. If there
was an evil judge, he will compromise with sin and there will be less
punishment for the wicked. However, God
is infinitely righteous and the punishment will be infinite.
Many are living a
careless life. They hear the dangers of sin but go on sinning. They are cold to
the word of God. Young and old both live looking for the pleasures of this
life. They spend most of the leisure time on TV, Movies, sports, shopping,
traveling, parties, with friends and relatives but they have no time to study
the word of God and to have fellowship with God. They spend a lot of money for
their food, clothes, makeup, and vitamins but take little care about their
salvation. My friend, there is no TV in hell nor any sports or shopping. Remember the rich man in hell begged of
Abraham to send Lazarus to his brethren to warn them of hell, that they might
take care for their salvation, and escape that place of torment. But
Abraham said, “ If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31) we have the truth, the Bible God’s testimony
much surer than a man rising from the dead.
The Psalmist
said, “Indeed you have made my days as handbreadths. And my age is nothing
before You. Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Surely, every
man walks about like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain.” (Psalm
39:5-6) We need to remember the life on
earth is very short. “One generation passeth away, and another generation
cometh, but the earth abideth for ever.” (Ecc 1:4) Death will come
unexpectedly. But God said unto him, “Thou
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” (Lu 12:20) After death comes the judgment. Many in hell
in their roasted bodies will remember the sermons of the preacher, and they
will be screaming with agony but it is too late! Heb 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;
HOW TO ESCAPE THE ETERNAL FIRE
You can effectually escape the eternal torments of fire by embracing
the Lord Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul said:
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1Ti 1:15)
You have to realize, like apostle Paul, you are a sinner, like King
David who said, “O LORD, pardon my iniquity for it is great.” (Ps 25:11)
Realize you are exposed to eternal punishment as you have violated the
law of God and sinned against God. But
God being merciful have provided a Savior, who is able and offers to save you
from hell. Christ Jesus came into the world and fulfilled the law where you
have broken. We were indebted to God in our sins; Christ paid the full price to
God by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. The justice of God was
poured upon Jesus. If you truly believe
in him, commit your souls to him to be saved by him, in him you shall be saved
from the eternal torments of hell. He satisfied the anger of
God toward the sinners and found peace between God and men. Oh! The grand
discovery of the gospel, the good news is that you can be saved from hell. Oh!
My friend, the justice of God, which was the great barrier to the salvation of
sinners, does not stand as a barrier anymore. Now the sinner can be pardoned,
justified through the blood of Jesus Christ! Jesus
can reconcile you to God.
IN CHRIST SINNERS CAN BE MADE RIGHTEOUS.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians
5:21)
"Oh, hear that piercing cry! What can it is meaning be? 'My God!
My God! oh! Why hast thou in wrath forsaken me?' "Oh 'twas because our
sins on him by God were laid; He who himself had never sinned, for sinners, sin
was made." Our hearts should tremble, when, they spit on his face. It was
the cruelest thing to do upon the most holy person. Oh! The love of Christ to
the believer, that we might be made the righteousness of God. Our sins were
charged to Christ and his righteousness was charged to us.
REPENTANCE IS TO LEAVE THE SINS YOU LOVED, AND TO
HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
Many acknowledge of hell but they keep do not take the word of God
seriously. They say, “I believe in Jesus, and I believe in God. I have a Bible,
I go to church sometimes.” The demons also believe in God and they tremble, but
they are not saved.
Jas 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the
devils also believe, and tremble.
The demons believe God, but there is no repentance. In the same way there are so many people who
believe God, know the Bible, go to church but there is no repentance. This is
what is called the demonic faith.
Repentance is changing one's
mind. There must be sorrow for sin and hatred for sin in true repentance. The
definition of repentance is found in a children’s hymn:
"Repentance is to leave
the sins we loved before,
and show that we in earnest grieve,
by doing so no more."
It is like the tax collector who went to the temple to pray, will beat his
chest and will not even look up to the heavens and said, “God be merciful to
me, I am a sinner.” There is not only sorrow of sin and hatred for sin, now
in there is a love for God in repentance. In repentance, you will see you are a
new person in Christ.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Do not say, “I will repent tomorrow.” That is what is telling you. There is
an old poem.
“I will do it to-morrow, that I will, I will be sure to do it;'
To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes, And you have not done it,
Thus, then, repentance is deferred from one day to another,
Until the day of death is one, And judgment is the other."
Once you hear the gospel the good news how you can escape from the fires of
hell, do not say, later. You will never know at time your life will end and
most of the people who postponed their repentance are in hell.
Obey this divine message and you shall have eternal life. God’s word said, “And
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death,
nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have
passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) but
if you refuse the gospel message and refuse to repent, you will be tormented in
hell forever and ever!
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You are free to make copies and distribute this message, please do not
change the content of the message. We would love to hear from you, please write
to:
Pastor Nick Bibile
Agape Chapel Ministries
P.O Box 59084
Norwalk, CA 90652
USA