The Entrance Exam to Heaven

Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. Let's give the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us back for another night here at Capital Community Church, the men's study. Lord, it's just great to be gathering together. I thank you for the men that are here. I thank you for the groups that are listening via live stream, and Lord, we need you so much. Without you, Lord, we have no hope. You're the only hope that the world can turn to, and what a great hope you are. And yet so many men and women refuse to come to you. Instead, they turn away.

They rebel. And we've all done that, Lord. We thank you that you are God who delights in showing mercy, and that what you long to do is cast our sins and our iniquities into the depths of the sea. But the only way that that can apply to each one of us is if we individually confess our sins, turn to you in faith, and receive you into our hearts as Lord and Savior. So, Lord, I pray that tonight, as we look at Mark chapter 4, that you will speak to us, and I pray, Lord, that you will be glorified by what I'm about to say because, Lord, these are the words that you have given me. I say, Lord, I pray that I would decrease, that you might increase, and that these men might see you and not me. That they might hear your word, Lord, that they might penetrate their hearts, and we might all leave here tonight closer to you and more in love with you and more willing to go out there into a dark world and share the light of the gospel that's in us. It's in your name that I pray.

Amen. Hey, guys, one thing I'd like to remind you, if you haven't already registered for this Bible study, then just go to findingpurpose.net there, and that's where you can find the study guides, the sermon notes, the outlines, and the commentary. And finally, there's still a limited number of spots available here if you've got any friends that want to join us.

So just invite them to come. Tonight, I've entitled this message, The Interest Exam to Heaven. Don't you love to take tests? And what I thought I'd do to start off tonight is to share with you a little bit about my academic life. Would you all like to hear that?

No. Well, you're going to hear a little bit. When I attended high school in the 1960s, I was a good student. When I attended seminary in the early 2000s, I was a very good student. But when I attended UNC Chapel Hill in the 1970s, I was a terrible student. I was embarrassed to say much about my college years. However, I'm going to share with you one sad experience. One semester, I came home with a report card that looked like a rainbow.

Do you all know what that is? It's when you get an A, a B, a C, a D, and yes, I got an F. And I want to share with you about that F. By the way, it was the only F I ever received in my life, but it was for an accounting class. You see, my problem with my classes was twofold. First, I rarely went to class, and second, I never opened my textbooks. But I did learn something about textbooks. When you buy them at the beginning of the semester, you pay about $100 a book.

When you turn them back in, you get about $10 a book. And so what I should have done is I should have gone into the textbook business, but I didn't do that. So after cutting most of those accounting classes and not opening the textbook, I thought I would show up to see if I could pass the final exam without studying the night before. And when I got in there, I got my exam, and I quickly looked through it and figured out I didn't have a clue. And so I signed my name and turned it in. Everybody thought I was so smart because I finished so quick.

I walked out. Of course, I flunked that exam. And so tonight, men, I'm going to give you an exam. I want to call it the entrance exam to heaven.

And here's the deal, and I'm very serious now. If you ever want to enter heaven, then you've got to pass this exam. And you don't have to pass it with flying colors, but you do have to pass it.

By the way, this is the most important exam you will ever take in your life. So the question you should be asking is, well, Russ, why are you giving us an exam? Because that's what the Bible says we should do.

Did you know that? 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5 says, Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless you fail the test. And so before we begin this exam, I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Mark chapter 4. And we're going to begin with verse 1. So right here, Mark chapter 4 in verse 1, Mark writes again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables. In his teaching, he said, listen. And so in this story, Jesus is standing by the Sea of Galilee preaching. I've been to the Sea of Galilee once and it's a very beautiful sea.

And most of times it's pretty calm. The crowd that gathered around him was so large, man, that it literally began to push him into the water. So rather than get wet, because he could have walked on water, he actually stepped into a boat and pulled away from shore and he continued to preach.

Here's what I want you to notice. In Mark chapter 4, Jesus changes his method of preaching. He's no longer proclaiming the plain truth of the gospel with simple words like, repent, the kingdom of God is near. Now he begins to speak to the crowds in the form of parables. You need to understand what a parable is. A parable is a story from real life that contains a spiritual truth, usually just one main point.

This word parable means to place one thing beside another in order to compare. And so what Jesus would do is he would take something from everyday life that people were familiar with, like a farmer planting a crop or taking care of a vineyard. And then he would tell a story and he would lay that story down beside some spiritual truth that he wanted everyone to understand, such as the kingdom of God or the condition of a man's heart.

But here's the problem. Because the people were blind to the simple truth of the gospel, he began to speak to them in the form of parables. And the reason he did this, I think, was part of God's grace. He was trying to tease their minds to stimulate them to believe.

He was always trying to get them to believe whatever it took. So if they couldn't handle the plain truth, then he would preach through a parable. Now, look at verse three.

Again, I want you to picture Jesus standing in the boat. And what he was probably doing, he was looking out over the Sea of Galilee. He probably saw a farm right beside all of them planting his crop. And so Jesus said, A farmer went out to sow a seed.

As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seeds fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still other seeds fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop.

Some multiplying 30, some 60, and some 100 times. And then, guys, Jesus said something very interesting. Here's what he said. He who has ears to hear, let him what?

Hear. Think about that. You see, the seed in this parable is symbolic of the Word of God. And as the seed goes forth into the world through preachers and evangelists, and even when you're at home reading your Bible, the seed lands on different types of soils. The different soil conditions point to different conditions of a man's heart.

So I want you to think about that. What kind of soil condition is your heart? You see, the seed that fell along the path, the seed that fell on rocky places and shallow soil refers to the hearts and minds of unbelievers.

When it comes to matters of the heart, unbelievers have varying degrees of spiritual blindness and varying degrees of hardness of their hearts. The only soil that is productive in this parable is called the good soil. It represents the man who hears the Word of God and does what? Believes it.

Do you have good soil? When you hear the Word of God, do you believe it or do you doubt it? Look at verse 10. When Jesus was done, the twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to who?

To you. Those on the outside, everything is set in parables so that they may be ever seen but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding. Otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven. You see, that's really the desire of God. He wants men to hear the truth and turn and believe it.

Someone once said all God really wants is to be believed. So let's begin that exam. Don't you love taking exams? Well, here's the first question. I call it the discernment question. And here's how the question is posed. Do you have spiritual understanding?

Yes or no? In other words, can you discern the spiritual meaning of the truths containing God's Word? And by the way, this is one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself. So what does it mean to have spiritual understanding? Well, it simply means that you're able to hear the truths of Scripture and then you understand their spiritual meaning. And the only way that you can understand spiritual truth is if it has been revealed to you. God has to reveal it to you. And the one who reveals spiritual truth to you is who? The Holy Spirit. Did you say that, Jeff? The Holy Spirit. Jeff is always listening.

That's why he sits on the front row. And the only way you can experience this spiritual revelation is if the Spirit of God lives in you. Does the Spirit of God live in you?

Paul writes in Romans 8 and 9, You, however, he's talking about believers, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. I don't care how many times you've been to church. I don't care how many times you've been baptized. I don't care how many times you've said the Lord's Prayer of the Apostles' Creed.

I don't care how many times you've heard your minister say we're all God's children. The only way that you belong to God and the only way that you will ever see Heaven is if the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is also referred to as the Spirit of Jesus. If he lives in you, does the Spirit of God live in you?

And how can you know? Well, one key indication is spiritual understanding. You actually understand spiritual matters. Paul explains it like this in 1 Corinthians 2 where he writes, God has revealed it, and the it is referring back to God's wisdom or the spiritual truth. So what Paul is saying, but God has revealed spiritual truth to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We, again, as believers, have not received the Spirit of the world, thank goodness, but the Spirit who is from God so that we may understand what God has freely given us. He has freely given us his word.

Remember Jesus said, I'm going away, and I'll send another one to you, the Comforter who is the Spirit of truth, and he will guide you into all truth. This is what we speak, not in words taught as by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. Now listen carefully to verse 14.

Again, this is 1 Corinthians 2. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. See, God's wisdom is a secret wisdom that is hidden from the natural man, the non-believer.

He's the man without the Spirit. And so this is why Jesus spoke to those who were on the outside in parables. You see, those outside the family of God do not have ears to hear. Unbelievers are spiritually blind because they are not indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You see, they try to understand spiritual matters with their minds, but that's impossible. This is why Paul writes early in 1 Corinthians 2 that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived. You see, you cannot understand spiritual realities with your physical ears, your physical eyes, or your natural mind.

It's like trying to understand Morse code when you've never been trained in it. You see, God is Spirit, and he's designed as a manner that we can only understand his language through his indwelling Holy Spirit. This is why it is necessary to be born again. And I will say it again, you must be born again. By the way, there are ministers right here in Raleigh who will tell you that you do not have to be born again.

I know, I've talked to one. You see, God's wisdom is beyond human logic. Salvation by way of the cross makes no sense to the world. You see, in man's wisdom, he believes we should be able to earn our way to heaven by being good. The fact that a murderer can confess his sins on his deathbed and receive total forgiveness makes no sense to unbelievers.

But that's exactly what C.A. Dillon did years ago. I wish he was still here with us, but he's in heaven, and he does not want to come back. He led a man on death row to Christ, and he watched that man be executed. But when that man was executed, guess what happened to him? He did the same thing the men on the cross did.

He was with Jesus in paradise. There are probably more people being saved in prison than there are in church. This is why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1.18, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

See, what we're talking about in here to the majority of the world is just foolishness. But God was pleased with the preaching that was foolish to save those who believe. You see, when Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, he was nothing more than a religious man with a dead spirit. And this is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, I tell you the truth. Would Jesus ever lie?

No. Why was he saying, I tell you the truth? He is the truth, and often it's because what he's getting ready to say has something to do with salvation, and he really wants you to listen. So he said, Nicodemus, I tell you the truth. Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

When you see that 2 plus 2 equals 4, that means you understand it, right? And so what he was trying to tell Nicodemus is, unless Nicodemus, you are born again, you will never understand anything about the kingdom of God. And not only that, if you're not born again, you will never enter the kingdom of God. Fortunately, we know that Nicodemus became a believer. You see, once a man believes, he's indwelt by the spirit of God. And when the Holy Spirit lives in a man's heart, he lifts the veil from that man's spiritual eyes and begins to give him spiritual understanding.

This is what happened to Augustine. After Augustine became a believer, he came to understand that spiritual understanding follows true belief. And this is why he later said, understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe so that you may understand. So let me ask you again, do you have spiritual understanding? If not, Jesus is the only one who can lift the veil from your eyes and give you spiritual sight. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3 16, but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. All you have to do is turn to Jesus, man, and he begins to lift the veil, and you begin to see and understand spiritual truth. Here's the second question. I call it the witness question.

This is going to convict everybody in here. Do you share your faith with others? How about this? Have you ever shared your faith in Jesus with someone else?

Yes or no? Look at verses 21 through 23. Jesus said to them, and he was talking to his disciples, do you bring a lamp into a house to put it in a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand, for whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. And here goes again, if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. See, Jesus is the light of the world. In John 14, excuse me, John 14 verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through who?

Me, Jesus. True Christians, as we have established, are those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, true believers have the light of the world and the truth living in them. And the last thing that believers should do is keep this light and this truth to themselves. Jesus is to be revealed, not concealed. If you were cured of cancer, how many people would you tell?

Everyone. Well, you've been cured of something greater than cancer if you're in Christ. So why do you keep that to yourself? Don't be like the friend of a man who died and went to hell. When he got to hell, he remembered that his Christian friend, his best friend on earth was still alive, and that friend had never shared the truth with him. And so he wrote him a letter from hell, and here's what he said.

My friend, I stand in the judgment now and feel that you're to blame somehow. On earth I walk with you day by day, but never did you point the way. You knew the Lord in truth and glory, but never did you tell the story. My knowledge then was very dim. You could have led me to Him, that we lived together on the earth.

You never told me of the second birth. And now I stand this day condemned because you failed to mention Him. You taught me many things, that's true. I called you friend and trusted you. But I learn now that it's too late, you could have kept me from this fate. We walked by day and talked by night, and yet you showed me not the light. You let me live and love and die.

You knew I'd never live on high. Yes, I called you friend in life and trusted you through joy and strife. And yet on coming to this end, I can no longer call you my friend.

I had a friend of mine years ago who I heard kind of taking a detour. And he was a good friend of mine in college and I never really shared. I never shared the truth with anybody in college to tell you the truth.

Let alone one of my closest friends. So when I heard he'd taken this detour, I sent him a copy of this poem. I pinned a letter to him about nine pages long and shared my testimony with him.

And at the end of that letter I said, now you can call me your friend. Martin Luther said, if he has faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays himself.

He breaks out. He confesses and shares the gospel with people at the risk of life itself. So I'll ask you again, have you ever shared your faith in Jesus with someone else? If not, why not? Here's the third question. I call it the hunger question. Do you hunger for more light and more truth from God's Word?

Yes or no? Look at verses 24 and 25. Jesus said, consider carefully what you hear.

With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and even more. Whoever has will be given more. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. What Jesus meant by these words is this. He meant that we are to earnestly contemplate and carefully consider how we respond when we hear God's Word and when we read his written Word.

So guys, when you come here on Tuesday night, you need to think carefully about how you're listening. So how do you respond when you hear the Word of God? First, do you believe it?

Second, do you want more of it? Do you truly love the Word of God and believe all that is written in the Bible? Jesus is saying that if you believe one truth, more truth will be revealed to you. It's like breadcrumbs. All that breadcrumb that will lead you to heaven. You'll receive more and more. You'll go deeper and deeper. Your faith will grow stronger and stronger. I don't say this pridefully, but I'm going to tell you something. I can't get enough of this. I love it. I love reading it. But for the one who rejects the truth, even the little that he has will be of no value to him.

It goes in one ear and now the other. You see, your eternal destiny and mine is at stake. And how we respond to God's Word carries eternal consequences. So take heed, listen carefully and ask Jesus' men to give you ears to hear.

And he will. He will always answer that prayer. Here's the fourth and final question. I call it the fellowship question. Have you ever had real fellowship with Jesus? Look at verses 33 and 34. With many similar parables, Jesus spoke the Word to them as much as they could understand.

He did not say anything. Again, he's talking to the crowds without using a parable. When he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. Don't you love that? Notice that Jesus was alone with his own disciples who belonged to him.

No one from the outside was included. See, this is one of the great privileges of belonging to the family of God. We're not born children of God. You become part of God's family, according to John 1-12.

When you believe in Him and receive Him into your heart by faith, then and only then do you become a child of God. And then you're included in conversations with Jesus. We get to have fellowship with Jesus. It explains everything to us. So what does it mean to have fellowship with Jesus?

I'll tell you what it means to me. When I read the Bible, I nearly always sense that He is speaking to me as if He is in the room with me. I remember when I was about 13 or 14, my mother gave me a J.B. Phillips paraphrase of the New Testament, which I loved. And I didn't read it every night, but I read it a lot of nights when I was in my teenage years. And when I was in my bedroom, and there's a picture of Jesus over my bed, and I was reading that, I felt like He was right there speaking to me.

Guess what? He was right there speaking to me. When I pray, I sense that God is listening to my prayers.

I know He is. I hear the voice of His Spirit whispering to me, Do this. Don't do that. Turn this way. Don't turn that way. Isaiah 29, 13 goes something like this. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way.

Walk in it. See, the Holy Spirit right there reminded me of what it said because I couldn't remember it at first. See, the greatest privilege any human being can ever have is to know God intimately and walk with Him through life, listening to His voice as He guides him through the journey of life. Jesus compares His fellowship to the fellowship that exists between a shepherd and a sheep. And of course, we all know that Jesus was what? The good shepherd. In John chapter 10, He's describing this intimate fellowship. John writes, The watchman opens the gate for the shepherd, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. When he's brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

Listen, this is the most important question of the four, I believe. Have you experienced real fellowship with Jesus? Guys, do you feel like you know Him, like we know each other?

It's the same thing. You just can't see Him, but I know that I know Him. And I can't describe that. I mean, I can only describe that to you, but you have to experience it for yourself. This is why if you don't know Him, it's really dangerous to die.

I mean, it's very dangerous to die because Jesus says in Matthew 7, 13 and 14, I think that's the right verse, I think Matthew 7, 21 through 23, that many will stand before Him one day and say, Lord, Lord, didn't you see all we were doing? And He'll say what? Depart from me because I never what?

Knew you. Here's my final word on the subject. I can't tell you whether or not you have had fellowship with Jesus.

Only you can answer that for yourself. All I know is this, true believers, those who are inside the family of God, hear His voice. They follow Jesus and they truly understand what it means to have fellowship with God. So, men, examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you?

Unless you fail the test. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray for every man in here that they won't fail this test. If they're not sure that they know you, Lord, that right now they would receive you into their heart by faith. And, Lord, I pray for every person listening tonight that your word has penetrated their minds and hearts and that you will lift the veil from their eyes and their ears so that they can see and hear and understand your word and have fellowship with you because that's what you long to do, have fellowship with each one of us. We love you, Lord, and we look forward to the day when you will return. Father Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local Triangle men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net.