Where will you spend eternity?
What if you died tonight? What will happen to you? Maybe the events of the world have you thinking about that lately. Maybe you’ve entered the time of your life where this question becomes more pressing. Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness and would like to know where you will go when you die. We can find the answer to this question in the Bible which is God’s Word! In the Bible, God gave us a message of hope. This message is called…
The Gospel
The word gospel means good news! We could use more of that today, couldn’t we? The best and most important message you need to hear is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone in the whole world needs this message! And all will respond to this message either by accepting it or rejecting it. The results have eternal ramifications! Please read the following completely & carefully for your eternal destiny depends on it!
We will begin with explaining who God is, and we will begin with the fact that…
God is Holy
Psalm 99:9 (NKJV) —Exalt the Lord our God, And worship at His holy hill; For the Lord our God is holy.
Revelation 4:8 (NKJV) —The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
The Bible declares that God is holy which means that He is unblemished, faultless, and morally pure. He doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn’t do anything wrong. He is perfect!
The Bible also declares that…
God is Righteous
Psalm 119:142 (NKJV) —Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.
This means that God’s nature only leads Him to do what is right. He sets the standard of righteousness. He gave a set of rules called the ten commandments to show us that we are not like God. Have you kept them perfectly? God has never made a mistake, have you?
God is righteous and also…
God is Just
Deuteronomy 32:4 (NKJV) —He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
This means that He is fair. God treats everyone the same. One thing I have learned over the years is that life can be very unfair! Teachers grade on a curve, criminals are released without doing the time they should, and some get more than they deserve while others get less. But God only judges fairly. Perfectly! What that means is that God looks at your life and compares it to His righteousness. Have you kept all the commandments perfectly? If you stood before God, who knows all your thoughts, words, and deeds, would He find you without fault?
God is different from you because…
You are Sinful
Ecclesiastes 7:20 (NKJV) —For there is not a just man on earth who does good And does not sin.
Ezekiel 18:20 (NKJV) —The soul who sins shall die….
Romans 3:10–11 (NKJV) —As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
Romans 3:23 (NKJV) —for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
To sin means to miss the mark. God has shown us His standard in the ten commandments. The Bible says, there is none who measure up to God’s righteous standard. God requires 100% obedience 100% of the time. Can you say that you have kept these standards perfectly over your lifetime?
James 2:10 (NKJV) —For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
Imperfect man cannot be with a perfect God in heaven. God must punish sin. If you are truthful with yourself, you would admit that you have sinned against God. Therefore…
You Deserve Death
Romans 6:23a (NKJV) —For the wages of sin is death,…
We know what wages are. They are something you earn for something you have done. A worker expects to get paid for the work they have done.
Because you have sinned against God, you earn death. Death, in the Bible, means separation. A Holy God cannot let sin into heaven. The Bible states that, because of sin, mankind deserves separation from God forever in a place called hell.
Revelation 20:14–15 (NKJV) —Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
From the very moment that man sinned, he tried to make things right and so we see…
Man’s solution
Genesis 3:7 (NKJV) —Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Mankind’s attempts to cover their sin or to have their good outweigh their bad is futile for even the good that they do is unacceptable to God.
Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) —But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
This verse is saying that our absolute best (our righteousness) is worthless, the opposite of what man’s religious thinking says.
God knew your problem and planned the only solution to that problem. And so, the Bible declares…
God’s Solution
John 3:16 (NKJV) —For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
You see, God loved the world! He wants a relationship with mankind, that is why He created people. God wants a relationship with you! God offers His plan of salvation from a hell you deserve to a heaven you don’t deserve.
That is why God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to take the punishment that you deserved. God the Father poured out His wrath on His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for all of your sins when He died on the cross. He then was buried and rose again the third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures. His death was the satisfactory payment for all the sins of the entire world!
Romans 5:8 (NKJV) —But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (NKJV) —For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
1 John 2:2 (NKJV) —And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Christ died in your place so that you could be rescued from the hell you deserve.
When Christ died for you, the sin debt penalty was paid in full!
John 19:30 (NKJV) —So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
God offers you eternal life through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for all sin.
But you must accept this free gift. How do you do this?
Man’s Response
There are two responses to this offer.
#1 Accept this by faith and be saved from the hell you deserve to the heaven you don’t.
John 5:24 (NKJV) —“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Romans 6:23 (NKJV) —For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 1:16 (NKJV) —For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV) —For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
In order to be saved, you must trust that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was sufficient as He paid the penalty for your sins! There is nothing left for you do, because your penalty was paid in full by Christ on the cross.
John 14:6 (NKJV) —Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Titus 3:5 (NKJV) —not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
#2 Reject this and spend eternity in hell.
John 3:17–18 (NKJV) —For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:36 (NKJV) —He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
What is Your Response???
Time is running out!
You must make this decision to trust Christ before you die. Do not delay, tomorrow is not guaranteed.
Accept by faith that Christ died, was buried, and rose again resulting in full payment for your sins so that you may be saved before it is too late!