Four Ways to Miss Heaven

The first guaranteed way to die in your sins is to be completely content with your own ability to please God. Believe that you can be good enough or be moral enough or have good deeds that outweigh on some imaginary scale the weight of your bad deeds. Just be self-righteous. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You hear the gospel, you're convicted of your sin, and you profess faith in Christ, and yet one day you learn the horrible truth that you are not going to heaven. Jesus said that many people who call him Lord will not get into heaven.

How can you make sure that you're not one of them? How can you be sure that doesn't happen to you, that you don't miss out on heaven? John MacArthur answers that crucial question today on Grace to You in a message titled, Four Ways to Miss Heaven. It's part of his series that's taking you through the New Testament beginning to end. Follow along now as John helps you understand critical truths and asks some questions that can help you know your true standing before God. So here's John with today's lesson. I want you to turn in your Bible to the 8th chapter of John...the 8th chapter of John.

We've all heard the expression, he has nobody to blame but himself. That is a biblical expression. It is an expression that the Spirit of God makes a number of times in Scripture with regard to the sinner.

If you perish in your sin, you have no one to blame but yourself. And no passage makes this more poignant or clearer than the 8th chapter of John. John wrote this gospel, he says in chapter 20 verse 31, that you might believe and that believing you might have life in the name of Jesus Christ. He wrote it so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior, and that believing you might have eternal life. But for those who do not believe, John makes it clear again and again that they will die in their sins and they will never go where Jesus is.

Since many people choose this rejection, it's important for us to look at this text and to understand what John is saying here. And as we examine ourselves today, let's start at the bottom line and be sure that we are in the faith and not headed for a death with full culpability of sin and then eternity of punishment. You shall die in your sin, verse 21.

How is it that that happens? Let me give you four ways to guarantee you will die in your sin. I'm going to borrow them from the words of Jesus here. Four ways to guarantee you will die in your sin.

Four ways to guarantee that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is meaningless to you. Number one, be self-righteous. Be self-righteous.

That'll do it. The first guaranteed way to die in your sins is to be completely content with your own ability to please God. Believe that you can be good enough or religious enough or pray enough or go to church enough or be moral enough or have good deeds that outweigh on some imaginary scale the weight of your bad deeds.

Just be self-righteous. Look at verse 22, therefore the Jews were saying, surely He will not kill Himself, will He? Since He says, Where I'm going, you cannot come. What do they mean by this?

What kind of a response was this? Well they twisted Jesus' words to mean He must be going to hell. We're certainly going to heaven. And He must be going to a portion of hell reserved for those who commit suicide. Why did they say that? Well, an orthodox Jew despises suicide.

Always has. According to Josephus, the Jewish historian, the person who committed suicide went to the darkest pit of Hades. That the most heinous crime one could commit was suicide. And the darkest, blackest part of Hades was reserved for someone who killed himself. So mockingly they are saying, well maybe He's going to kill Himself and go down to that black hole in Hades reserved for those who commit suicide, a place we certainly never will go.

So they ridicule Him. So confidently self-righteous they could mock a Savior. So confidently self-righteous they could mock the idea that they could die in their sins.

I warn you, self-righteousness is deadly. It is a guarantee for dying in your sin. If you do not admit your inability to save yourself, if you do not admit that your good works achieve nothing by way of eternal salvation, if you do not admit that your religious activities, your ceremonies and rituals and church attendance and prayers and whatever else produce nothing for you by way of eternal salvation, you will die in your sins. So you can guarantee that you'll die in your sin by just being self-righteous. Just be certain that you're not a sinner. Just be certain that you don't need saving.

Just invent a lifestyle of religion that fits you. Don't admit you need a Savior. Don't pound on your breast and say, God be merciful to me a sinner. Trust your works. Trust your religion.

Trust your rituals. And I'll guarantee you you'll die in your sin. There's a second guilt-edge guaranteed way to die in your sins in verse 23. He was saying to them, you are from below, I am from above. They missed the point.

That really goes with the first point. They had it backwards. They thought they were of above and He was of below.

They had it reversed. Above is heaven, below is hell. You're from below. I'm from above.

You've got it reversed. Then He says this, you are of this world. I am not of this world. And here's the second way to guarantee that you will die in your sins and that is be worldly. Be earthbound.

Another guarantee. Be preoccupied with the world. Live for the world. Live for the temporal system.

Live for the ideologies of this world system. What does He mean when He says, you are of this world? World is a very important word in John's gospel, used repeatedly. And it's used with several different meanings. Sometimes it refers to people. Sometimes it refers to ideologies.

Here it has to do with those ideologies which engulf the minds of people, of course. But when He's talking about this world, He's talking about the invisible spiritual system that dominates the world. It is a system of evil. Satan is the god of this age, the prince of this world. He is the one who has orchestrated a system of belief, a system of morality, a system of religion, a system of ideologies, a system of behavior, a system of materialism and all of that that is opposed to God.

It's like 2 Corinthians 10. It's every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. It's the whole cosmos, the whole invisible spiritual system of evil. We use the word world in that way. We talk about the world of politics, the world of business, the world of medicine, the world of sports. What we mean by that is the environment or the sphere in which those things dominate.

And there is a world in which we live as human beings. It is the organized system of satanic lies and deception raised up against the knowledge of God, Satan's system opposing Christ. And in Luke 16 8, Jesus calls all the unbelievers children of the system.

They buy into the ideology somewhere. The system is hostile to God. It's hostile to Christ. It is dominated by materialism.

That is to say, a preoccupation with that which passes away. It is dominated by humanism, the worship of man and the elevation of man's mind even to the place where he can redeem himself. It's dominated by sex, by physical fulfillment and pleasure, by carnal ambition, by pride, by greed, by self-pleasure, by self-desire. Its opinions are wrong. Its aims are selfish. Its pleasures are sinful. Its influence is demoralizing. Its politics are corrupt.

Its honors are empty. Its smiles are fake. Its love is fickle, etc., etc. That's the world system. It is a lot of philosophies and psychologies and religions and ideologies that make up unregenerate, ungodly, unbiblical thinking. And it is a world that will be destroyed.

The world and all that is in it will pass away, John said. And that's why he said in 1 John 2 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For anyone who loves the world can't love the Father. Where there is the love of the world, the love of the Father doesn't exist. Jesus points out here this great contrast. He says to them in verse 23, you are of this world.

I am not of this world. We have two competing ideologies, two competing systems of thought. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And friendship with the world, James 4 4 says, is enmity with God. These Jewish leaders, though they would say they were religious and that they were spiritual, were genuinely caught up and trapped in the satanic system of evil by which He rules the world.

Sinful, selfish, earthbound souls who lived out a system controlled by the prince of this world and were separated from God and from Christ by an infinite gulf. For a man to die in his sin, all he needs to do is just be earthbound. Just believe the lies of Satan that are in the system. Just love the system and all that is in it and that will guarantee you will die in your sins. Sometimes the gospel penetrates that kind of mind and heart a little while, like in the parable of Matthew 13, but because of the love of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, it dies.

There must be a breach and a break. Jesus is not of this world. He said to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. First John says the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. We believers don't.

We've made that distinction. James says we are even to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, uninfluenced from its satanic ideologies. There's a third way and this is the crux of the passage that you can guarantee to die in your sins. First of all, to be self-righteous and think you don't need a Savior, you can save yourself or make some contribution to saving yourself, any contribution.

Secondly, by being earthbound and that is being enamored with the world system and unwilling to let it go. And thirdly, verse 24, I said therefore to you that you shall die in your sins for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins. Here's the third guaranteed way to be certain you will die in your sin, be unbelieving. Be self-righteous, be earthbound and be unbelieving.

That's really all it takes. Be unbelieving. The only way to escape hell is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And John again quoting his thesis in chapter 20 verse 31, these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing you might have life through His name. No one has to die in his sins or her sins. But the one who persists in rejection will die in sin through unbelief.

Now what do we have to believe? Well, he says it right here, unless you believe that I am He. What he's saying here is the name of God. Unless you believe that I am God, that I am the One sent from God, the great I am Himself. He uses really what is the Hebrew tetragrammaton, the name of God, the I am that I am. Unless you believe that I am, what does I am mean? It means all that He is.

Unless you believe fully the truth about me, that's what he's saying. How does one become a Christian? By believing the truth about Jesus Christ.

This is the son question and this is the big issue. Here we are still debating this issue. I am astounded at this. I'm continually astounded to realize that people within the large, broad category of evangelicalism are trying to still sort out what it takes to be a Christian.

It's astonishing to me. The question being asked, what must someone believe in order to genuinely be saved? There really needs to be no muddy water in regard to that. It is crystal clear in Scripture. I can sum it up very simply by what Jesus said here. You must believe that I am He.

What does that mean? You must believe that Christ is who He is. Well, what does that encompass? I'll give you what I call the drive train of gospel truth, the absolute necessities of gospel truth.

Here's where they start. If you're going to believe the truth about Christ, here's what it includes. First of all, you have to believe in an eternal Trinity because Christ said He was one with the Father and that He was eternal and before Abraham was ever created He existed. So you must believe that He is part of an eternal Trinity. Anything less than a Trinity makes Christ something other than who He is.

So the heart of evangelical faith, the heart of gospel truth is Trinitarian, that God is three persons and yet one. To say anything other than that is to misconstrue who He is and He says you must believe that I am who I am. So you start with believing the Trinity. Those who deny the Trinity don't understand who Jesus Christ is.

They do not believe that He is who He is. Secondly, you must then believe that He is incarnate in human form, that this member of the Trinity entered into human history in time and space in a human body. You must believe then in the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ and that encompasses the virgin birth which is God's definition of how this incarnation took place so that the Christ could be born into this world sinless. And so you must believe that He is God, that He is eternal, that He is a member of the eternal Trinity, that He was incarnated into the world through the virgin Mary. Then you must believe in His sinless life because that's true of Him as well, that He lived a sinless life.

He couldn't be born like normal people were born or He wouldn't be the God-man and He could not have a sin in His life or a weakness in His life or a failure in His life or He would not have fulfilled all righteousness which righteousness is imputed to those who believe in Him. So you must believe in a Trinity. You must believe that the eternal Trinity, that Jesus Christ, a member of the Trinity, was incarnated, born of the virgin Mary, came into the world and lived a sinless life which in fulfilling perfect righteousness became the righteousness that can be imputed to those who believe. And then you must believe that He died on the cross as a sufficient substitutionary sacrifice and atonement for sin and that He died there and paid the penalty for the sins of all who would ever believe because that's indeed who He is, the Lamb of God. You must believe that His death satisfied God completely and that full atonement was made and that that's why God raised Him from the dead the third day and then took Him and seated Him at His right hand where He sits as Lord. He gave Him a name above every name which is the name Lord.

He sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for His own and ruling and someday will come again and establish His kingdom on earth and bring eternal glory to His own beloved redeemed people. That's the heart of Christian faith. Take anything out of that and you've got some other Jesus. And Paul said, if anybody preaches any different Jesus, let him be anathema, any different gospel, any different message. Paul told the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians, I don't want you to be removed from the simplicity of devotion that you have toward Christ. If somebody preaches another Christ, they do not preach the truth.

How do we have any difficulty understanding that this is the Christ whom we must believe? This is the truth and this is what Christians believe. If you don't believe that, you're not a Christian. You say, well, what about people who believe in God? They're not Christians. They will die in their sins. Well, what about people that believe all of that about Jesus but also believe that they have to do some works, get baptized or do some ceremonies or keep some laws in order to add to their salvation? They won't get to heaven either. They'll die in their sins and go eternally to hell.

Why? Because they will not recognize that Christ alone and Christ completely is the sacrifice for sin to which nothing can be added. It is by grace through faith alone.

And any attempt to add anything to it negates it. Grace is no more grace. Anything you try to do to earn any part of your salvation misunderstands the sacrifice of Christ. And any misunderstanding of the meaning of Christ and His sacrifice is something less than the gospel.

Believe it, Christianity or Christendom as such is full of people who have a lot of information about what I've just said regarding the gospel but who do not have that total trust in Jesus Christ alone, being who He is and being the only and the complete sacrifice for sin, therefore trusting in nothing of their own efforts or works. Sad to say, many, many who name the name of Christ and say, Lord, Lord, we did this, we did that, are not known to Him and will die in their sins and where He has gone, they will never come. So Jesus says to them, unless you believe in verse 24, unless you believe that I am who I am, you shall die without your sins being forgiven and you will therefore eternally pay the penalty. There is one final guaranteed way that you can die in your sins and they exhibit this obviously. Be self-righteous, be earthbound or be unbelieving.

Fourthly, be willfully ignorant or obstinately ignorant. Verse 25, this is so amazing. So they were saying to Him, who are You? This is absolutely unbelievable that they would say that after all they had seen, after all He had done, after all they had heard. Jesus said to them, what have I been saying to you from the beginning?

Talk about thick. I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world. He says, I've been speaking and speaking and what I've been speaking is the very Word of God. And to show you how thick they were, verse 27, they didn't realize He had been speaking to them about the Father. Even though He said that over and over again, I and the Father are one.

I don't speak of My own self. What the Father shows Me, I speak. All of that He had been saying, all up to chapter 8. They'd heard it all.

They heard who He was many, many times. They saw ample evidence of it, but sin produces unbelief and unbelief produces obstinate ignorance. So they refused to know because they loved their sin. You want to die in your sin? Be self-righteous. Be earthbound. Be unbelieving.

Be obstinately and willfully ignorant. And you will die in your sin. Jesus says in verse 29, He should have known He who sent Me is with Me. He's not left Me alone. I always do the things pleasing to Him. You should have seen God in Me. You should have known, you should have heard, but you didn't.

It ends on a good note. Verse 30, as He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. That would be my prayer, that as I have spoken these things to you, as I have reiterated these words of Jesus, that many would come to believe in Him. Want to die in your sins? Just continue in your course.

Just believe you're good enough the way you are. Just carry on with your love affair with human ideologies. Just refuse to believe the great truths concerning Christ. Love your sins so much that you choose the darkness and are willfully ignorant. But to do this, you're going to have to stumble over the cross.

That's right. You're going to have to heartlessly, irreverently trample Christ's blood because you know the gospel. So you're going to have to stumble across the cross.

Inconceivable, really. Why will you die when you can live? Why will you not be like those many who believed and didn't want to die in their sin? Why will you not accept an atonement for your sin? That's the all-encompassing question. And the answer is you're self-righteous.

You're good enough the way you are. You love the world too much. You refuse to believe, or you love your sin and you cherish the darkness and the ignorance that comes with it. In any case, the price is eternal. You're listening to Grace to You with the teaching of John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson is part of a collection of landmark sermons by John from over 50 years of Bible teaching ministry.

It's titled, The New Testament Beginning to End. Now, John, since we're on the topic of heaven, I want to let you hear a related question that we received on our Q&A line. It speaks to a concern that I'm sure many of our listeners have, particularly those who are parents. So let's hear the question, and then John, you can respond.

Hi John, my name is Catherine. My question is about whether miscarried babies go to heaven. I've had a few miscarriages and lost babies from seven weeks to two months, and is there any hope that I'll see them in heaven? Thank you.

Well thank you very much, Catherine, and the answer to that is absolutely yes. They are persons at conception. They are created in the image of God at the point of their conception, so they at that point are eternal. They're going to live forever, and I'm convinced the Scripture is abundantly clear that they go right into the presence of the Lord, and you will see them again in heaven. Now, to kind of give you some substantiation for those comments, I want to encourage you about a book that I wrote called Safe in the Arms of God. I wrote this book because I was in a conference one time, and the question was asked, do babies that die in the womb or after they're born go to heaven?

And I went across the panel, and I didn't think people had a good answer, and I said, of course they go to heaven, and then that was raised as an issue of how do you know that, why do you say that. So as a result of that, I went back and wrote the book Safe in the Arms of God. It gives detailed attention to everything the Bible says that weighs on that answer, and it'll offer you the comfort I know that you're looking for. We too, Patricia and I, experienced a miscarriage, a significant miscarriage at one point in our life, and confident that that little one is in the presence of the Lord, and we will meet that little one when we get to heaven.

It's very strong and stronger all the time as I study Scripture. I think parents need the comfort and the encouragement to know that, and I think God has promised that in Scripture. So I would encourage you, get a copy of Safe in the Arms of God, and it'll fill in, I think, all the answers that you need. Right, and friend, you will be encouraged and comforted by this book as you see what the Bible teaches about God's care for children who die. To pick up Safe in the Arms of God, get in touch today. To order, call toll-free 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org.

The title again, Safe in the Arms of God. Get a copy for yourself, and maybe one for someone you know who has lost a child, when you call 800-55-GRACE or shop online at gty.org. In this reminder, Grace To You is here each day because of friends like you who are finding practical, spiritual nourishment from our Bible teaching programs, and who want to see others strengthened as well. Drop us a note and express your support today. Our address here is Grace To You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Or you can express your support online at gty.org or when you call us at 800-55-GRACE. And a special thanks if you are a Grace Partner. Now for John MacArthur and the entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to watch Grace To You television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378, or check our website to see if it airs in your area. And join us tomorrow when John continues his look at the New Testament beginning to end with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.