visitors are and who are not, but I'm really glad you're here this morning. And if you're here in Matthew chapter 7, let's begin in verse 13. If you have red print, it's in red, that means Jesus Christ. It's a quote from Jesus Christ. The Bible says enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You'll know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye who practice lawlessness. Let's open in order prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege to be here, to come and worship you, to open your word. And God, I pray for anyone here this morning that doesn't know for sure if they were to die that they would wake up in heaven. God, I pray that they would be willing to let someone take a Bible and show them from a Bible how they can know for sure And Lord, I pray that for anyone that is here this morning that maybe has a wrong view. They think they are going to heaven, but they're like the people in this passage who will be shocked to find out that what they were trusting in does not get them into heaven. God, I pray that you would help them this morning as well. And God, for all those who are saved, Lord, may we just rejoice in your salvation. Lord, even as the men just finished singing, Lord, we're so thankful that you are the God of our salvation. God, bless our time in your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I have three children, girl, boy, girl, and when they were younger, at Christmas time, we'd get them a catalog and they could circle something they want for Christmas. And could you imagine my oldest daughter as she's two, heading on to three, she circles a dollhouse. It's the only thing she wants. So I go out and I buy that dollhouse for her and I hide it in the attic, a place that no two-year-old could get to. I come to her and I say, ''Hey honey, I bought that gift for you and I've hidden it in the house. If you can find it, it's yours.'' She's so excited, she runs all the way through the house and she comes back a half hour later, ''Dad, I've looked everywhere.'' I go, ''Not everywhere.'' Now, she runs off again and she comes back an hour later. Now, little tears are coming down, her little lip is quivering. ''Dad, I've looked everywhere.'' ''Not everywhere.'' Am I a good dad or a mean dad? By the way, I've not done that, all right? But that would be a mean dad, right? To say, hey, I got something that you really want, but I put it in a place you can never find it. That would be mean. And can I say to you this morning, if God made a heaven and didn't tell you how to get there, would he be a good God or a mean God? He would be mean. So if you're a guest and visitor here this morning, you're gonna have to decide how would he tell us how to get to heaven? And if you know anything about a Bible, this is not a Baptist book, Catholic book, Lutheran book, this is just God's word. And if you ever played the whisper game, did you ever get 10 people lined up and you tell the first person there's a blue car in the parking lot? And then you whisper it down and you get to the last person and they say, what did you hear? Well, I heard the ambulance is on fire. And you go, how did the blue car in the parking lot get to be the ambulance is on fire? And that's the problem with religion today. And this is why God wrote it down. In 1 John 5, 13, the Bible says, these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. The whole reason God wrote the Bible is because he's a good God. There is a heaven. When you die, your soul, what makes you you, is gonna go to one of two places, either heaven or hell. And 100% of us in this room are going to die. I don't think anyone in this room denies that. In fact, I just saw you had a funeral for Gordon. I don't know if that was just recently or not, but those of you who are here in the church, you probably knew Gordon. And you know what a funeral does? It reminds you there's another life after this life. And if you're here today, you have to decide, do I believe that? And that part I can't help you with. I think the whole point of creation is the point to a creator. I mean, God made this world so that you'd wake up and see the stars, go to the Niagara Falls, go to the Grand Canyon, and just go, wow, someone had to have created that. And if that's true, then you need to know what that person has told you you have to do to go to heaven. And that's really what we wanna share with you this morning. It has nothing to do with being a Baptist. It has everything to do with what God says in the Bible. And if you're here this morning and you say, boy, I don't know that, then I'd like to help you with that this morning. In August of 1999, there was a brand new TV show that came out. And it was the first contestant TV show that was going to offer a prize of a million dollars. And it had 14 questions. Each question had four possible answers. And as you progressed, you could get the question. And if you got it right, you got to go to the next question. Each question was doubling the value. And so question 13 is worth 500,000. And if you said, I'll take the next question, then you go for a million. You could quit at any time, walk away with what you have. But if you took the next question and got it wrong, you lost all that money down to a certain point. So really, you're going to take a risk if you're going to keep advancing. And they had three what they called lifelines. If you didn't know the answer, you could have three lifelines, 50-50. They take out two of the wrong answers, leaving you a choice of 50-50. You could phone a friend, or you could poll the audience. And you could use those three lifelines any way through your progression. And some of you know the name of that program. It was called, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? By the way, if I asked you, who wants to be a millionaire, is there anyone that would not put your hand up? Who wants to be a millionaire? We all would wanna be a millionaire, right? By the way, if I often ask who wants to go to heaven, what do most people do? Yeah, we wanna go to heaven. But it's the same issue for both things. To be a millionaire, you have to have the right answer. And to go to heaven, you have to have the right answer. Well, November 19th, 1999, a man named John Carpenter was doing fantastic. In fact, he had gone all the way through to the last question, and he had not even used a lifeline. And so they gave this $500,000 question. They said, do you want to go for a million? Knowing that if he gets this one wrong, he loses everything. He said, I want to go for a million. They asked him the question. He said, I'd like to use one of my lifelines. I'd like to phone a friend. They said, OK, who would you like to call? He said, I'd like to call my dad. And so they rang up his dad, and they said, sir, John Carpenter's here. He's actually going. He's the first person that's ever made it this far. He's actually going for a million dollars, and he'd like your help. And dad came on the phone. He said, son, what do you need? He said, dad, I'm just calling to let you know I'm about to become a millionaire. I know the answer to this question, and I'm going to get it right. And he got it right, and he won a million dollars, first person to do so. You know, that's wonderful, but that only lasts in this life. What about the next life? As you think of Gordon, or you think of anyone else that you know that's gone into eternity, do you ever think, where are they? And the Bible, if you come back to our text here, the Bible says there's two paths, one that leads to heaven and one that leads to hell. And the Bible tells us that there is, as much as they believe in God, I also believe in the devil, and you could go to 1 Peter chapter five, verse eight, The Bible says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. If you took your Bible and went over to John, John chapter eight, Jesus is speaking again, he tells us about the devil here. It says in John 8 verse 44, you're of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it. Some of you might remember God created the first two human beings, Adam and Eve. Super abundant, yes, Adam and Eve, you're in the Garden of Eden, do whatever you wanna do. One thing you can't do, you can't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I have a lot of people ask me, why did God do that? Because becoming a Christian is a choice. Just like when you got married, you chose to be with that person. And without the tree, they would have been forced to obey God. As long as there was a tree in the garden, they were making a choice. And Satan comes down and he says to them, he lies to them and he murders them. He says, did God really say you can't eat of that tree? You know why God told you that? Because the day you eat of that, you'll be as smart as God. That was a lie. But Adam and Eve believed it. and they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good, and even for the first time, they knew what sin was. That'd be like me asking you, how many of you wanna know what it's like to shoot yourself in the foot? Most of us would go, I'm good, I don't really need to know that. If I was working with teenagers, there'd be a teen who'd put his hand up, I wanna know that, you know, but you go, no, I don't need to know, that's the knowledge that Adam and Eve got, and this is why Jesus says in this passage, Satan is a liar and a murderer. I was a hunter, I was up in Canada for 18 years, I became an experienced moose hunter. And so I would go in the calling season. I became an expert at sounding like a female moose. I won't bore you with that sound this morning. But I would sound like a female moose and I would get a bull to come in and I shot a bull every year. And that bull had one thing in mind and I had one thing in mind. And they were not the same thing. You know what I'm talking about? My goal was to kill that moose. And I wanna challenge you this morning, Satan is real and he wants to damn your soul to hell. Just like I wanted to kill that moose. And you know what, Satan's gonna give you a lot of sounds. He's gonna give you a lot of things that sound pretty promising, but Jesus asks, if you could gain the whole world and lose your own soul, what would it profit you? If I had a string this morning and I said every inch is 100 years, Most of us don't live past the first inch. And if I ran that string right down the hallway out past South America, every inch is 100 years. I mean, let's just say I had 100 foot rope. You just say that's 1,000 years. But most of us are gonna die in the first inch, and most of us spend our 40 to 50 to 60 years trying to have fun the last 20 years when our health is failing. But whenever your time ends, and most of us aren't gonna live to be 100, whenever your time ends, all the rest of that time is in heaven or hell. And the Bible's saying it's foolish to ignore eternity, to spend it all in that first inch. The Bible says what would it profit you if you could have all the wealth of Bill Gates? But you do know that Bill Gates is going to die. Warren Buffet is going to die. What then? And you've got to have the right answer. I work at a college. You know, college students would love college if it wasn't for tests and homework. And you know what every college student understands? You have to have the right answer. If you get the wrong answer, you're going to fail. And I want to talk to you about something this morning that is so important. In fact, I would challenge you, this is the most important thing you'll ever understand. Now I come back to this question, do you know for sure if you were to die, you'd go to heaven? Not 50-50, not 80-20. As you sit here this morning, you say, I've had someone take a Bible and show me from a Bible how I can know for sure if God's a good God, then he told me how to get to heaven. And he tells me this is written that I may know that I have eternal life. So do you know that this morning? I would challenge you that as much as God wants you in heaven, Satan wants you in hell. And Satan is so deceptive and good at what he does, there'll be many, if you come back to our text in Matthew 7, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? And Jesus is speaking, he says, and I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye who practice lawlessness. Satan is a double agent this morning. He acts like he wants to help, and the whole time he's seeking whom he may devour. So what are some of Satan's deceptions? What are some of the lies that Satan gets people to believe? How is he seeking to murder the souls of men and women? In fact, I titled the message this morning, The Ultimate Murder, because I think you'd agree the ultimate murder is yours. And if Satan can take you to hell, that's exactly what he's trying to do. And so how does he do this? Here's some of Satan's lies intended to murder your soul. Number one, if you believe that there's a God, you get to go to heaven. I have a lot of people who say, well, I just think as long as you believe there's a God, you get to go to heaven. Well, let's look at what the Bible says. If you go over to James 2, verse 19, you can keep your finger Matthew. That's very fascinating what the Bible says in James 2, 19. Says you believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. You do realize that Satan believes there's a God. Satan believes there's a God. Satan believes that he died on the cross and rose again. He was there. How come you're not gonna see Satan in heaven? By the way, it's the same reason that a lot of people here wrestle with God. I meet lots of people who say, I believe there's a God. I even meet a lot of people who believe in Easter. They say, I believe he died and rose again. The rub is the same rub that Satan has. They're saying, that God will never tell me what to do. Bible says, Satan believes in God and trembles. He knows there's a God, but he said, that God will never tell me what to do. And if you're gonna become a Christian, there has to be a point in your life where you say, I know I'm a sinner. I believe Jesus died and rose again to pay for my sin, and I'm willing to do it his way. It's very similar to what happens when you get married. Marriage is a picture of becoming a Christian. I was up in Canada at a lot of weddings, and I was always in the back with the guy, and I would say, hey, are you sure you wanna go through with this? Thankfully, they all said yes. I don't know what I said, but they said no. He comes out, big goofy grin on his face. She's coming down the aisle, big goofy grin on her face. And could you imagine we get up here, we go through the vows for richer, for poorer, and sickness and health, do you so swear, and they both say I do, and I spin them around and say, it gives me great pleasure to present to you Mr. and Mrs. so and so, and the bride looks back at me and goes, you mean I gotta go home with him? And I'm like, well yeah, what'd you think this was about? Oh, Pastor Jim, did you see his car? He drives a Ford. He has stainless steel appliances. Have you seen his bank account? He's loaded. I'm like, well, that's great, but what about him? Oh, no, no, no, I don't want him, I just want his stuff. No guy would be okay with that. But that's how a lot of us are with God. God, I want good health, I want a good job, I want a good family, but I don't wanna read your Bible, I don't wanna go to church, I don't wanna pray. God, I just want your stuff. And God says, it doesn't work like that. In every good, healthy marriage in this room, if you have a good marriage, would you, and don't say anything out loud, because I hope this is full of good marriages, but would you do it again? If you're in a good marriage, you'd say, absolutely, I'd do it again. It's been the greatest blessing of my life to go through life with this person. And can I challenge you, when you become a Christian, you know what you'll find over time? You'd do it again. because it's been the greatest blessing of your life to go through life with God versus without God. But if you came in this morning and say, oh, I'm definitely going to heaven, and if I said why, you said, because I believe there's a God, that's not good enough. That's the wrong answer. The devils also believe and tremble. Satan knows there's a God. It's gotta be more than that. Number two, wrong answer. If you're good enough, good works outweigh your bad works, you get to go to heaven. That's the number one wrong answer. A lot of people say, I say, why do you think you're going to heaven? Well, I'm a good person. By the way, you came to church this morning, you're in the good person category, right? I'm not denying that you're a good person. If I had a glass of water here, 99% water, 1% arsenic, how many of you would drink it? No one, why? Because that 1% will kill you. And you may come today and you say, man, I am really good. In fact, I'm way better than, by the way, Joe's just my generic name. If you're a Joe, I'm not picking on you, all right? But if you drive by or you go to work with a Joe and every day you go, man, I'm better than Joe, that's not the standard to get into heaven. And if you came this morning saying, I think I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person, I would then ask you, are you a perfect person? Can you honestly sit here this morning and say, not one time have I ever told a lie. Not one time have I ever lost my temper. Not one time have I ever said a bad word. Not one time have I ever had a bad thought. I mean, unless, and I've never met someone like that. If you hear this man say, well, actually, I know you don't know me, but that's me. I'm actually perfect. If that were true, then you could actually walk into heaven. The problem is what the Bible says, the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So I personally believe babies get to go to heaven, they're innocent. I mean my daughter when she was two years old ran by me buck naked, catch me dad, catch me. She's 32 now, she would never do that at 32. And if you've ever had a small child, you know why, because they're innocent. And when you lose the age of innocence, the Bible isn't clear, and I think it differs from child to child, but there is a point when you know the difference between right and wrong. And once you know the difference between right and wrong, you're not innocent anymore. You don't automatically get to go to heaven. And yet Satan lies to a lot of people and says, well, hey, as long as you're a good person, as long as your good works outweigh your bad works, then you get to go to heaven. Well, again, the Bible has something to say about that in Ephesians chapter two. In Ephesians chapter two, look what he says in verse eight and nine. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Notice verse nine, not of works, lest anyone should boast. No one is gonna be in heaven kind of snapping their spiritual suspenders saying, hey, if Joe was as good as me, he'd be here too. Now when we get to heaven, we'll all know that it's only because of Jesus Christ. And again, I'm not sure how much you know about the Bible and about Jesus Christ. Your pastor and I share a passion for Israel. And I lead tours there all the time. He's been there many times. And if you ever get a chance to go to Israel, which I tell you, there's two things that need to be on your bucket list. You need to go visit Israel. If you're gonna be a Christian and read about it, you need to go once in your lifetime. And you need to visit Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary, all right? and one is a lot cheaper and easier to get to, so. Let me challenge you, when you get to Israel, you'll stand on the Mount of Olives, and Jesus knew why he was born. We're gonna head into the Christmas season, and the angels show up to the shepherds, and they say, glory to God in the highest on earth, peace, goodwill to men. Friend to you is born this day in the city of David, a what? A Savior, which is Christ the Lord. He knew why he was born. But now comes the night. and he knows that they're gonna come and take him, and if you ever get over to Israel, you'll stand on the Mount of Olives, and you'll see that it slopes down to the Kidron Valley, slopes back up to the wall of Jerusalem, and you'll still see the wall, and you'll see the gate that is now walled in, but you'll see the outline of the gate. You can't surprise Jesus at night with 1,000 soldiers, which is how many, by the way, people say, why'd they take 1,000? Because just not too long before, he'd risen Lazarus from the dead. If you're raising people from the dead, you don't try and take that guy with three guys, right? You say, we need 1,000. And they're coming with torches. The only reason the disciples are still there that night is they fell asleep. But Jesus brings his disciples, he says, guys, tonight's the night, they're gonna take me tonight. And he knows, by the way, no one knows God better than Jesus did. By the way, who knows that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever? Jesus knows that. And that's why it's an interesting prayer. I won't take the time to take you there in scripture, you can read about it in the Bible, but Jesus goes off by himself and he prays this prayer. Father, please. Please, Father, is there any other way that Jim Tillotson and the people in this room can go to heaven without me dying on the cross? The only reason Jesus can pay for your sins is he was that person who never sinned. He'd never done anything wrong. I can't die for you, I'm a sinner like you are. You can't die for me, you're a sinner like I am. but Jesus Christ could die for us because he was without sin. And it comes to that moment when he's gonna take the sin of all of us in this room and everyone in the world. He says, Father, please, is there any other way that Jim can go to heaven? And he would have loved it if the answer came back, as long as Jim does his best. If Jim is a good guy, he can get to heaven. Answer came back, no. You know, if Jim just goes to church, if Jim's a Baptist, he can go to heaven. No. The answer came back, there's no way that Jim can go to heaven because someone has to pay for Jim's sin. And if you don't pay for Jim's sin, then Jim will pay for his own sin in a terrible, horrible place called hell. And Jesus says, thy will be done. And he goes over and the disciples are asleep and he wakes the disciples up and he's like, guys, this is a really important night. I need you to pray with me tonight. And he goes back and shockingly, he prays the same prayer a second time. Father, please. Please, Father, is there any other way that Jim Tilton and anyone in this room can go to heaven? And the answer comes back, no. He says, thy will be done. He comes back, this time he doesn't wake the disciples up, he sees they're asleep, he goes back and he prays a third time, and the Bible says he's under so much stress, the capillaries near his skin. I've been stressed before, never this stressed. Humanly speaking, he's undone. He has never sinned in his existence, and he's about to take all the sin of all of us on himself to pay for our sin. And he prays a third time. Father, please. Please, Father, is there any other way that Jim can go to heaven? And the answer comes back, no. And every Christian in this room should praise God that he said, thy will be done. It's amazing to me, I don't know about you, Pastor, no one ever came in my office mad at the devil. Who does everyone get mad at? We all get mad at God when things go wrong. You not know how much God loves you? He loves you this much. Seven statements from the cross. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. My favorite is the last one, it is finished. I didn't ask him to die for me, you didn't ask him to die for you, but it matters to God how you feel about Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, the disciples, that were not disciples crucified on either side of Jesus Christ, just another, if I'm just using logic, why I believe Jesus rose from the dead. because the disciples didn't die with them. Those are criminals on either side. The disciples all run away. But you know that all the disciples die terrible deaths, they're beheaded, they're sawn and sundered, they're crucified upside down because they wouldn't deny that Jesus rose from the dead. That doesn't make sense. We all know there's lunatics out there that can get a group to follow them, David Koresh, Jim Jones, fill in the blank. That wasn't the disciples, they all run away. but then they see Jesus. In fact, there's one disciple that wasn't there the first time that Jesus shows up to the disciples. His name is Thomas. If you're a Christian, there's a tagline we put in front of Thomas. What's the word we always put in front of his name? Doubting Thomas. Why? Because the disciples go, you won't believe it. He rose from the dead. You know what Thomas said? Get out of here. No way. I do not believe that. And their next meeting, Thomas is there and Jesus shows up. And remember what Thomas said? Thomas was so sure this didn't happen. Thomas says, unless I put my finger in the nail print and my hand in his side, I am not gonna believe that Jesus rose from the dead. I do not believe that. The next meeting, Jesus shows up. He singles out Thomas. Thomas, you need to come forward. This is my own version of it. I'm good. What he says in the text is, my Lord and my God. Wow, there's another life after this life. And Thomas is one of the individuals that was sawn asunder because he would not disagree that Christ rose from the dead. I'm just telling you logically, humanly speaking, that makes no sense unless there really is a resurrection. And if you saw Jesus after they had killed him and someone said, you either deny that or we kill you, bring it on. I saw him after you killed him. He's doing fantastic. Folks, there's another life after this life and you will go to one of two places. You will go to heaven or you'll go to hell. And I didn't put this in the Bible. The Bible says it is not of works. If you could work your way to heaven, Jesus did not have to die on the cross. The reason he had to die on the cross is you can be 99% good, but that 1% will kill you. And if you came to church this morning saying, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person, that's the wrong answer. Number three, maybe you came this morning and said, well, I think I'm going to heaven because I was baptized as a baby. I know you're gonna find this interesting and I challenge you to study this. You won't read one baby baptism in the entire Bible. That shocks a lot of people. I mean, they're just, if I've had people say, Pastor, that can't be true. And by the way, it'll take you a little bit to read through the whole book. I do it every year. But I can stand here and tell you, it's a good challenge. If you think you're going to heaven because you're baptized as a baby, find one in the Bible, you won't. And again, if you could get to heaven by being baptized as a baby, that's what God would have told Jesus. I have this one, there's another wrong answer. As long as you have a belief, or you're faithful to a church, as long as you're a Lutheran, or a Catholic, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, or if you're just, you really have a strong belief, take your Bible and go over to John 14. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, John chapter 14, verses one to six. Jesus speaking again, it's red print. Bible says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again receiving to myself that where I am there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. And how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Don't miss this last statement. You have a Bible open, what does it say? No one, no one comes to the Father except through me. You're gonna have to walk out of this room this morning either saying, I don't believe the Bible. That preacher up there, yeah, he read a lot of scripture, but I don't believe this book. Are you gonna hopefully say, I've never read this book, I don't know much about this book, but I agree, if God's a good God, he would tell me how to get to heaven. And if he's a good God, how would he do that? He'd write it down. Have you ever had someone take this and show you from a Bible how you can know for sure you're going to heaven? And if you came in this morning saying, well, I think I'm going to heaven because I have a belief or I'm faithful in the church, the Bible's very clear. There's no other way you can get to heaven. You know, a lot of people were on a famous ship called the Titanic that was billed as the what? Unsinkable ship. Did that belief keep it afloat? You can have a strong belief and still be really wrong. And you've gotta know for sure, you've got to have the right answer. And it's way more important than a million dollars this morning. How about this one? I'll do it later. Maybe you came this morning and you say, man, I really am not sure if I were to die, go to heaven, but I don't really know that I wanna change my lifestyle at all. I don't really wanna, by the way, Let me just say this about lifestyle. There's a lot of weird beliefs out there about Christians, but one of them is that Christians don't have fun. And my response to that is we get to have so much fun and remember how much fun we had. That's pretty awesome. And so, I wanna challenge you, still super abundant, yes, it's not wrong to go hunting, it's not wrong to go shopping, it's not wrong to go snowmobiling, skiing, fill in the blank. Small list that God says don't do these things. And the small list that God says not to do, it's because he loves you and they're for your benefit. And Satan says, if you don't do that small list, you're not having fun. Remember, as we started this morning, he is a liar and a murderer. You do not have to get drunk to have fun. You don't have to cheat on your spouse to have fun. I wanna challenge you, if you obey God, the Bible says, I came to give you life and life more abundantly. God wants you to have a great life. And yet some of the people walk out of a service like this and say, you know what, I don't disagree, I'm just gonna do it later. Well, what does the Bible say about that? Look in Hebrews chapter three. In Hebrews chapter three, look what he says in verse 13. But exhort one another daily while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, for you have become partakers of Christ. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said today, if you'll hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. I want to challenge you, I got saved when I was 19. My parents got saved when I was five, became Christians, that's what I mean by the term saved, knowing for sure you're saved from hell, saved to heaven. You know for sure you're going to heaven. And so I grew up in church, but I was a mess on the inside. I look great on the outside, but I was a mess on the inside. And I heard a message on repentance, and it's coming back to that third point. I believe there was a God, and I believe he died and rose again. I just wasn't willing to let him be in charge of my life. And I walked out of that service, and I knew I was not going to heaven. But I knew what I would have to change. And I walked out of that service and said, no way. I went to bed that night and thought, are you gonna go to hell for these things? And I said yes. I wake up the next morning, are you gonna go to hell for these things? Yes. Next night, are you gonna go to hell for these things? Yes. On the third day, late in the afternoon, I finally broke and I said no. I went off by a rock, I knelt down, and I gave my life to Christ. And I said, God, I know I'm a sinner. I believe you died and rose again, and I'm done doing it my way. I'll do it every, I had no idea he'd ask me to be a pastor, but I didn't care. I knew as I got up from that prayer that every sin I've ever done and every sin I'll ever do has been forgiven by Jesus Christ. And I knew that I would wake up in heaven the minute after I die. What's that worth to you this morning? Should be worth everything, and I would encourage you, don't put it off. You don't know how long you're gonna live. I work with college students. We've had college students die. We had people die in a car accident. You don't get to pick the time. And I would challenge you, if God's working in your heart this morning, then make an appointment. Maybe you came and say, you know what, I don't have time right now, but make an appointment this week and say, you know what, I've got to have someone show this to me. I wanna know for sure that when I die, I go to heaven. I've heard this wrong answer. It's not worth it. It costs too much to be a Christian. Look over in Matthew 16. You're right here in Matthew 7. Just go back a few chapters. Matthew 16, verse 24. Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit is 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? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to their works. I wanna encourage you this morning, there's nothing that, whatever you could do in this life, going back to that one inch, there's nothing you can do in one inch that would be worth all eternity in hell. We talk a lot about heaven, but hell is a real place. It is a place of torment. The Bible describes it. In fact, Jesus speaks more about it than anyone in scripture. It's a real place. It's as real as heaven, and you just think heaven is a place of eternal bliss and everything great. Think of the best day of your life never ending. That's heaven. But hell is far worse than the worst day of your life. The Bible describes it as a place of eternal torment, of fire. of screaming and wailing. You ever hear someone scream in pain? You ever have a colicky baby that doesn't stop screaming? That's hell. The screaming never stops. It's not worth it. The Bible says there's nothing worth going to hell for. And the last wrong answer is I've always believed. I've met people who tell me that. The Bible describes becoming a Christian like getting married. You know what's amazing about a marriage? Five minutes before your fiance's and five minutes later, you can be a husband and wife. And you go, how'd that happen? It was a commitment. Even if you don't use a preacher, you know you still have to use a justice of the peace to be legally married in America. And if you went to see a justice of the peace, you know what he's still gonna make you do? The I do's. You still have to make a vow. And you still have to say, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, do you so swear? Even a justice of the peace is gonna ask you that. And it's after you say yes, yes, I swear, I am committing to this person, it's after that that a justice of the peace can say, you're now husband and wife. And it's after you commit to Christ that someone can say, yes, you're now going to heaven. Love brings you there. Why do people wanna get married? They love each other, but they're willing to make a commitment, and they don't care who's around. They love that person so much, they say, I wanna spend the rest of my life with that person. What's the moment when you became a Christian? No one has always believed. And I don't think you have to say May 14th at three o'clock. I meet lots of married people who forget their wedding anniversary, right? But if you went to that married person and say, do you remember anything about your wedding? They go, yeah, I remember. If you asked me, I'd say, yeah, my wife was there, Joan, she was there, I remember that. I remember the pastor who married us, Pastor Smale. I remember some things about the moment. And can you do that this morning? Can you say, I remember the moment? I might remember May 14th at three o'clock, but I'll never forget the moment. When I understood I was a sinner, I believed Jesus died and rose again, and I gave my life to Christ. Take your Bible as we finish. Go over to Romans, chapter five, verse eight. So if you're sitting here and say, okay, I see that I maybe came in with some wrong answers. I agree, I have to have the right answer to go to heaven, just like you'd have to have the right answer to win a million dollars. Here in Romans 5, 8, the Bible says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Look in chapter six, verse 23. Wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know what a wage is. If you worked all week this week and you didn't get paid, you get ticked off. That's happened to me once in my career. Worked for a construction company, they went out of business and I didn't get paid. That's painful. Say, hey, I worked, I deserve, I deserve a wage. And the Bible says the wage of sin, what we deserve is death and hell. But the Bible says the gift. If I had this watch, it's a man's watch, so I'll just pick on a man. If I was gonna give this watch to you, I inscribed your name on the back of it, and I said, hey, I want you to have that, and you said, hey, that's great, Pastor Jim, I'll give you 100 bucks for it. Is it a gift anymore? No. Say, hey, Pastor Jim, I'll shovel your snow all winter. By the way, I'd make that deal, all right? But you say, I'll shovel your snow all winter. Is that a gift anymore? No. But if you say, hey, that's really nice, Pastor Jim, thank you so much, and you walk out of this service and you still leave it up here, it's still not yours, right? The only thing you can do for a gift is take it. And the Bible says what our sin deserves is death and hell, but Jesus died on the cross to give you this amazing gift. but you have to take it. Go over to Romans 10, verses nine and 10, and we're done. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's a Bible term, it means saved from hell and saved to heaven. So there has to come a point in your life where you say, not only do I believe there is a God, I want him to be my God. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Verse 10, for with the heart, one believes in the righteousness. That's a $10 word we don't use very much anymore, it just means doing right. You know, I've been married, I've been married over 33 years. I wish I could tell you I've been the perfect husband, except my wife's sitting here today, I can't say that. I've been a jerk at times, but you know what? We're still married. But when I've been a jerk, our relationship is struggling, right? I need to make that right. And the reason that I want to have a good relationship is because I love that woman on the front row. And if you see the two of us together, you say, could you beat her up? Especially now that I hear you have a former sheriff here. But if you put the two of us side by side and say, could you beat her up? I'm big enough to do it. But if you said, Jim, could you beat up Joan? You know what I would tell you? Absolutely not. Couldn't do it. Why? Because I love her. Could you go out and do any sin you ever wanna do and still go to heaven? You could, but you know why you won't? Because you love God. And if you love God, you're gonna say, I wanna please him. And if you really mean it, when you become a Christian, you're gonna say, you know what? I want to have a relationship with God. Because if you really believe in verse 10, the heart believes into righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made into salvation. That's the I do's. And you gotta say that out loud with your mouth. Lord, I know that you died on the cross. I believe you rose again, and I'm done doing it my way. Look what he says in verse 11. The scripture says, whosoever believes in him will not be put to shame. There's no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. If I come back to my very first question, do you know for sure If you were to die, you'd go to heaven. Do you? And if you don't, would you be willing to make an appointment today to let someone take a Bible at your convenience and show you from a Bible how you can know for sure if you were to die, go to heaven? By the way, there's no pressure. If we pressured you to do it, it wouldn't count. Just like getting married, that's a personal choice. Becoming a Christian is a personal choice. But would you just let someone take a Bible and answer your questions and let you know for sure it's the most important thing you'll ever do? Nothing is worth going to hell for. But I wanna challenge you, not only did you get heaven, but you get the relationship with God right now. And that makes all the difference. I'm gonna ask you to bow your head and close your eyes. No one's gonna embarrass you, no one's gonna come to your seat. I promise you no one's going to call out your name. But if you're here on the left side of the building, your right, my left, and if you're here this morning and say, Dr. Jim, I'm not sure if I were to die, go to heaven. I'd just like you to just look up at me, make eye contact, and look back down. Just look up at me. I'm going to just take a minute. I see that. Anyone else? Just working my way back. Just look up at me until we make eye contact and look back down. Okay, right hand side. I see that. Anyone else? Just look up at me and then look back down and say, Dr. Jim, I'm not sure if I were to die, go to heaven. I see that. Anyone else? All right, overflow section. Say, Dr. Jim, I'm not sure if I were to die, I'd go to heaven. Just look up at me and then look back down. I see that. Anyone else? I see that. I'm gonna ask you, for those of you that looked up, in just a minute I'm gonna have Pastor Rich come and he'll close the service. But I would encourage you, come talk to him. Come make an appointment and just say, you know what? I'd like to sit down. I need to know for sure that when I die, I'm going to heaven. He'd be happy to make an appointment. And we'll love to take a Bible without pressure. It wouldn't count if we pressured you. But without pressure, it'd be our greatest privilege to answer your questions and share that from the Bible. For those that looked at Dr. Tillotson, not knowing if he died, you go to heaven. For others in this room, you might have been here for the first time, you might have been coming for weeks, months, maybe even years. Do you believe in God? Just believing in him doesn't work. You think you've been doing great works and wonderful works? That doesn't work. Have you been baptized? Doesn't work. Have you been coming to church or other churches? It doesn't work. Thinking that you've always believed? Doesn't work. The Bible says behold now, now, now is the accepted time. Behold now. Now, now is the day of salvation, the day. The last objection was that I've always believed. No one has always believed. You may think you have, but the Bible makes it very clear there has to be a time, a day, when you place your faith and trust in Christ. May I suggest that today is the day, if you've not, pinpointed when you placed your faith and trust in Christ, may I invite you right now to receive the free gift of eternal life by placing your faith and trust in Christ. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, today, this day, is the day of salvation. While our heads are bowed, Christians praying, very quickly, let me just reiterate what Dr. Tillotson stated in the gospel, the gospel is simple. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. He stated because we've sinned, what we got, what we deserved, the wages of our sin are what we deserve, what I deserve because of our sin is death, eternal separation from God, Romans 6.23. But he made it so clear that the free gift of eternal life is through what? It's through believing on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 15, three and four. And now, the invitation is to you. Dr. Tillotson gave two of the best verses in the Bible when it comes to understanding how to go to heaven, Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine. The Bible said, for by grace, grace is God's unmerited gift, we don't deserve it. For by grace, God's free unmerited gift are we saved, saved from sin, saved from the penalty of sin. For by grace are we saved through faith, by faith, and it's not of ourselves, it's not of our good works. For by grace are you saved, it's through faith, it's not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of our works, lest any person should boast. There's some of you right now, you've been struggling. I'm not sure the day or the time when I trusted Christ. How about making it today so there's no doubt about when that occurred. For some of you, this may be the first time you've heard something like this and the gospel's open to you. I don't know if we're going to live through the next hour, the next day. I can't wait. You can't wait. I'm inviting you right now Don't put it off. We're on the verge of a potential third world war. We don't know if we have tomorrow. I don't know if you'll make it home without a car accident and you lose your life. Today is the day. Are you ready? Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. How about today? How about today? While your head's bowed, your eyes are closed, I want to invite you to place your faith and trust in Christ right now. I'm not putting it off another minute. Right now. You've heard it twice now, the gospel in this service. God's got you here for a reason. Are you ready to place your faith and trust in Jesus and make sure that when you breathe your last, that you too will be in heaven? You say, what do I need to do? Believe on what Jesus did. It's by faith and faith alone. Receive that free gift. Right there we are. I'm going to say a prayer in just a moment. The prayer is not what will take you to heaven. It's your faith that will take you to heaven. We're going to say a prayer of thanksgiving and If right now you understand you're a sinner, you understand you don't deserve to go to heaven, you believe that Jesus Christ, God's son, came down from heaven, died on the cross for your sins, and this very moment you're ready to receive that free gift of eternal life by placing your faith and trust in him, would you receive it by faith? Take it right now. Grasp onto it. Grab that free gift. It's yours right now. Did you do it? Did you place your faith in Christ? and I wanna invite you to pray a prayer of thanksgiving. Again, the prayer's not what takes you to heaven, it's your faith that you just placed in Christ that will, but it'll help document this day as the day when you placed your faith and trust in Christ. You might wanna pray silently, something like this. You can just repeat after me if it helps. Dear God, I know this morning that I'm a sinner, and I know that because I've sinned, I don't deserve to go to heaven. But I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ, God's very son, came down from heaven, died on the cross for my sins, was buried, and three days later rose from the dead, proving that he was God indeed. And this morning I'm receiving that free gift of eternal life, and I place my faith in what Jesus alone could do for me. Thank you for saving me and promising to take me to heaven when I die. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you look at me, please? Inside your bulletin this morning, there's a little card.