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Eternity: Smoking or Non-smoking?
- Most people think that there is no sure way of knowing where you will go
when you die, but that's just not true. This is what God says in His
holy Word, the Bible. 1 John 5:12-13 - "He who has the Son has
life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write
these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you
may know that you have eternal life." Before you can ever be sure
of Heaven, there are some facts from God's Word that you must understand and
believe.
- 1. You have sinned against God.
- Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God."
- James 2:10 - "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet
stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all."
- 1 John 1:8 - "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us."
- 1 John 1:10 - "If we claim we have not sinned, we make him
out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives."
- 2. God is a holy, sin-hating God.
- The Bible says about God in Habakkuk 1:13 - "Your eyes are
too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrong."
- Psalm 5:4 - "You are not a God who takes pleasure in
evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell."
- 3. God's holy nature demands that all
sin must be punished.
- Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death." For
example, a person who works hard on his job all week earns or deserves
wages for his work, and the wages he receives for his work is money.
God says you deserve or have earned wages for you sin, and the wages
you deserve for you sin is death. That's not just the death of
your body.
- The Bible states in Revelation 20:14-15 - "Then death and
Hell were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is
the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in
the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
- Revelation 14:10-11 - "He will be tormented with burning sulfur
in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the
smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no
rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or
for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
- 4. Though God hates your sin and
has to punish it, He loves you so much that He came down to the earth
and received the punishment that you as a sinner deserved when He
suffered and died on the cross.
- Romans 5:8 - "But God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
- Isaiah 53:5 - "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he
was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us
peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
- Jesus Christ died for your sins. See Him with the crown of
thorns pushed down upon his head. Watch as the numerous men
mercilessly strike His face with their hands and drive their fists
into the bones of His face. Watch the whip come down time and
time again upon the Lord Jesus' body until He barely looks
human. Hear the angry crowd mock Him in their unbelief.
Watch as they pluck out His beard and spit in His bloody, beaten
face. Listen to Jesus cry in agony as the spikes are driven
through His hands and feet as He is lifted up on the cross.
Jesus suffered much. But He did not suffer for His sins,
because He had never sinned.
- 1 Peter 2:22, 24 - "He committed no sin, and no deceit was
found in his mouth." "He himself bore our sins in
his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for
righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed."
- Jesus died for the sins of all the world and you need to realize
that Jesus suffered all this for your sins.
- 5. You must trust Jesus' death alone to
save you from Hell and to take you to Heaven, not anything else.
- If you trust being good, doing good works, keeping the ten
commandments, attending church regularly, or being faithful in your
religion to get you to Heaven, you will with all certainty go to
Hell. These things are good but they could never get you to
Heaven. Only Christ's death satisfied God (Isaiah
53:11). We are not saved by what we can do. We are saved
by what Jesus did when He died on the cross, and that alone.
If our goodness could get us into Heaven, then why did Jesus die?
- The Bible says in Galatians 2:21 - "I do not set aside the
grace of God for if righteousness could be gained through the law,
Christ died for nothing!"
- Titus 3:5-7 - "He saved us, not because of righteous things
we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the
washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured
out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having
been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope
of eternal life."
- Isaiah 64:6 - "All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rage; we all
shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us
away."
- 6. Eternal life is a gift from God to
be received, not earned.
- Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- John 1:12 - "Yet to all who received him, to those who
believed in the name, he gave the right to become children of
God."
- 7. To receive eternal life and be saved
from Hell, you must ask Jesus to save you.
- Romans 10:13 - "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved."
- 8. When you ask to be saved, two things
are absolutely necessary.
- Acts 20:21 - "I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that
they must turn to God in repentance and
have faith in our Lord Jesus."
- Repentance is to have a change of mind about sin, to change your
mind from thinking your sin is not so bad and to realize that your
sin is a horrible offense against a holy God. You must be willing
to honestly admit your sinful condition. And you must turn
from anything that is keeping you from trusting Christ or you will
be condemned. In Luke 13:3 Jesus said - "I tell you,
no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."
- Faith in Jesus as your Savior means to turn from whatever
you're trusting to get you to Heaven and to trust Jesus
Christ alone to save you from sin and Hell and take you to Heaven.
- If you can really mean it from your heart, tell God in your own words
something like this:
- "Jesus I know that I have sinned against You and I believe that
the Bible teaches that You are holy and hate sin and that I deserve to
die and go to Hell. But I believe the Bible says You love me and
died for me in my place, that I might receive the gift of eternal
life. Believing that You said I must turn from my sin and trust
You alone to get me to Heaven, I am willing to turn from my sin.
Jesus, please come into my heart and save me."
- To pray something like that and not really mean it will do nothing for
you. But if you prayed that and meant it, Jesus saved you.
You can be sure that you will go to Heaven when you draw your last
breath and that you have eternal life.
- Jesus want you to be saved (born again) right now. 2 Corinthians
6:2 - "I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day
of salvation."
- You could die tomorrow. Proverbs 27:1 - "Do not boast about
tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."
- Don't let anyone or anything keep you from being saved today.
Mark 8:36 - "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet
forfeit his soul?"
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