Did They Go to Heaven?
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
From: Martin M Overfield
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000
Did They Go to Heaven?
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
There was a lady of charismatic persuasion who had lived a
wicked life. Not that she was a "low life", but she was indeed a
sinful woman. She had been active in her church for a time and
used her miraculous, God-given gift to play the piano. In her
later years, she would get into spats with her two adult daughters,
and they would not speak for months at a time. She was definitely
not right with God.
Finally, she died. At the funeral, a charismatic preacher kept
raving that he knew that she had gone to Heaven. As the lady's
grandson listened to the "message", he realized that the preacher's
only "proof" that his grandmother had made it was that "she used to
play the piano in church years ago. Did she go to Heaven?
Met by a young man out "knocking on doors", another lady acted
like he didn't know what he was talking about. You see, the young
man was asking her about her relationship with God. The lady's
husband spoke up in her defense, "Why, she's been teaching Sunday
school for forty years." His strong implication was that if anyone
was going to Heaven she was. If she died a moment later, did she
go to Heaven?
In both of these incidents we see that someone considered the
doing of a religious work as proof that a person would certainly go
to Heaven, and that they were in no danger of being lost in Hell.
Ultimately, we are compelled to leave them with God, the
infallible and just Judge. But, as long as such people are on this
side of eternity, someone needs to faithfully tell them "Strait is
the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14)
A person may be very religious indeed and still not go to
Heaven. He may: preach, teach, do missionary work, testify, pay
tithes, pray -- or go through the form of prayer -- for hours,
attend all the church services faithfully, etc. and still miss
Heaven.
It is not how much good we do that will cause us to enter into
Heaven, but it is a right relationship with God, out of which will
flow a perfect obedience to His will. No man can truly do the will
of God, unless he knows God personally. Stated differently, we can
only truly do the will of the Father, when we have become his
children by being born again, by a spiritual, supernatural birth.
We are saved by faith alone. The results of such a salvation
experience involve our living according to the will of God. If you
are found doing the will of God, when you die or the Rapture takes
place, then Jesus will certainly say, "Well done, thou good and
faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will
make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy
lord." (Matthew 25:21).
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of
the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but
he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (I John 2:16,17)
Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield
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