ANTIOCH CHURCH OF CHRIST

If you were to die today do you know for certain, without a doubt, that you would go to heaven and be with the Lord forever? Our number one priority in this life must be to go to heaven. Nothing is as important as this, because we cannot afford to miss Heaven.

Our Lord tells us in Matthew 7:13-14 that only few people will go to Heaven, but the vast majority will be eternally lost in the burning fires of Hell. This is not a pleasant thought. But all of us will make the choice as to where we will spend eternity. The only way, to even grasp how long eternity will be, is to think that after we have been in Heaven or Hell a billion years, eternity will have just begun.

Our soul is the most precious thing we possess. "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26) Our soul is worth more than the whole world put together. If we lose our soul in Hell, we lose it all.

Jesus wants us to pay attention to what He is trying to tell us. He says in Matthew 13:41-43, "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom (the church) all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Our Lord is trying to warn us if we will only listen. He has already paid the awful price for our salvation and He doesn’t want to see it wasted.

For a child of God, unrepented sin in our life will keep us out of Heaven. Because of unrepented sins, our name will be taken out of God’s Book of Life. Revelation 22:19 says, "God shall take away his part from the Book of Life and from the holy city." Has your name been taken out of God’s Book of Life? If it has, then this is a very serious matter. Revelation 20:15, "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." God wants to forgive us. As a Christian, how do we get our name put back into the Book of Life? "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Jesus has promised, "Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of Life" (Revelation 2:10).

If you are not a Christian, how do you get your name into God’s Book of Life, so you can be saved and go to Heaven? Our Lord says in Luke 13:3, "Except you repent you will all likewise perish." Jesus also says, "Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will confess before My Father who is in Heaven" (Matthew 10:32). Our Lord then tells us, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16), and in Acts 2:47 we read, “And the Lord adds to the church daily such as should be saved” not MAN. Man does not vote people into the church, God, Himself, adds to the church. If a person misses Heaven, he will only have himself to blame.