Locked Out of Heaven

There's a verse in my Bible that troubles me. It is Jeremiah 8 20 which states, the harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. That's a frightening verse, friend, for it means a person can resist the Spirit of God only so many times before God stops striving with you.

That means you've gone so far away from God that you are too far gone. A harvest speaks of a bounty to be enjoyed like salvation. It refers to a time of reaping, the crops are ready for picking, but when the harvest has passed, that means the season is over as the summer has ended, and the tragedy here is, and we are not saved.

The ship has sailed, you missed your opportunity, you're locked out of heaven, and that's the title of my message today, friends, locked out of heaven. Some folks board the wrong ship of salvation, thinking it is the right one, until it's too late and the ship sinks. When it comes time for them to die, they find out they are locked out of heaven because they were never subjects of a regenerated heart to begin with.

There are reasons you're not saved. Some folks think salvation is baptismal. Some folks think salvation is decisional.

Some folks think salvation is church membership. Some folks think salvation is reciting a prayer like the so-called sinner's prayer. Some folks think salvation is believing a verse like John 3.16. Some folks think salvation is a physical response to an emotional appeal like walking an aisle or raising your hand to accept Jesus, but none of these things are in my Bible.

Jesus never told his hearers to raise their hand if they wanted him, or to repeat a prayer to be saved. All of these gimmicks are of modern evangelism. Some folks aren't saved because they have never exercised repentance toward God.

Repentance means that the love of sin dies, the great danger of a false assurance. It's like sailing on a doomed ship like the Titanic. Believe in all is well when things are not, but I believe the main reason why folks aren't saved is that there is a point of rebellion in their lives, that they are unwilling to surrender to God.

Their rebellion may head up in a pet sin or a controlling lust they are unwilling to part with. They don't mind confessing their sin from time to time so long as they can hold on to it, but true repentance is turning from your beloved idols and smashing them at the pierced feet of Christ Jesus. Your point of rebellion may be like mine, friend, before God saved me.

I didn't want to surrender to a call to preach because I love money too much, and I knew most preachers were poor, and I didn't want to be a poor preacher depending on the occasional love gift of a church or individual, but I finally realized if I were to have Christ savingly and not just some form of religion, I had to throw down my shotgun of rebellion at the foot of the cross and put all my trust and faith in a blood-stained savior from sin. And if you get saved, friend, it's because God has placed his finger on your point of rebellion and showed you that you were on your way to hell, no matter how religious you are, and your only hope is to come to the foot of the cross and surrender all you are to all he is, and he is Lord. He must rule.

He is a sovereign. The risen Christ must be Lord in every single area of your life, and if you try to hold back something from him and refuse to give it to him, then that's where your rebellion heads up, and he will have nothing to do with you until you get serious with him in regard to true repentance of that thing that stands between you and God. It has to be crushed beneath his nail-pierced feet.

The rich young ruler had a point of rebellion that kept him from following Jesus, and that was his love of money. Jesus would not accept him on the other points of keeping God's commands because he knew they came from a divided heart, and Christ wanted all his heart, but the young man would not comply and turned his back on Jesus and walked away. I like what Vance Havner said of the rich young ruler.

He said the rich young ruler was a good boy, but he wasn't God's boy, and I submit to you friends that there are a lot of good boys in church, and they serve on this committee and in that capacity, but they are not God's boy. They've never been saved because of that point of rebellion in their life that they refuse to give God unless surrendered to God. Your point of rebellion will lock you out of heaven and send you to a devil's hell.

If you've missed repentance, friend, then you've missed faith, and repentance is where the love of sin dies, and you come in complete surrender to a living Lord. Those individuals who are traveling to heaven have been washed in the blood and born from above. You must repent immediately before it's too late.