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The Bible warns that there will be some good, moral church people who arrive in Heaven and find that the door is shut (Matt. 25:10b). The eternal door of Heaven is permanently closed to them because they were never saved. The Lord presents warnings in the Bible to urge people to “come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil” (2 Tim. 2:26) while there is still time (Heb. 9:27).

Please read this tiny tract, examine the scripture references, and carefully consider your own salvation. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith” (2 Cor.13:5). It is God's will that we “seek [him] while he may be found” (Isa. 55:6).

Imagine this…

One day you are very ill, you shut your eyes and find yourself in Heaven. You are standing outside of a large door. As you look inside, you are surprised to see some people that you know were immoral on earth. And hey, there's that guy that climbed through your window and robbed your house. “Wait,” you think, “could I be in the wrong place?” But they are peaceful. A sweet look of joy is shining on each of their faces. This must be Heaven. But something is very wrong. You’re outside. You’re afraid.

You begin to knock

You try to open the door … it will not open. You knock and yell many times. You plead, “Sir! Sir!” You say, “Open the door for me” (Matt. 25:11-12; Luke 13:25).

Slowly

“One like the Son of Man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash … with eyes like blazing fire” (Rev. 1:13-14) turns and looks at you. He is lovely beyond words the human mind can express. You realize that he is why the people are so peaceful, joyous, and safe.

The Lord Jesus speaks … (Matt. 25:12)

“I tell you the truth, I don't know you.”

“Wait please!” you say. “What do you mean you don't know me? How can you not know me? Don't you remember me? I was in church, I sang the songs, and I took part in the ceremonies. I went to the dinners and ate with the members. Look, I see Janie and Frank in there. Hi everybody!”

He speaks … again

“I don't know you or where you are from. Depart from me …” (Luke 13:27 Matt. 7:23). You say, “I don't understand. I was a good person. Everybody thought so. The other lady that you took in was bad. She slept with guys that she wasn't married to and the man next to her robbed my house one night. I was better than them. I went to church. STOP this, I don't want to hear anymore. My pastor says God is good. I don't believe that God will do this to me!”

You don't have to listen…

But one day after you die, if you arrive in Heaven as you are now, the Bible states that a scene like this will actually unfold (Matt. 25:11).

God is good

(Psa. 100:5) tells us “For the Lord is good; His loving kindness is everlasting.” Because God does love all men and he knew the eternal punishment that we faced because of our lifetime of sin, he sent his only son, the Lord Jesus, who was perfectly innocent, pure and righteous, to earth to save us from the punishment for those sins (John 3:16). Because he does love people, Jesus willingly allowed men to beat him, curse him, and nail him to a cross until he died to be the sacrifice to pay for all sins (1 John 3:5). He gave His life “as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). God is love.

But, God is also JUST (2 Thess. 1:8-9)

There is no sin in Heaven. “For all [people] have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Every “heart is deceitful" and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). God loves people, but he hates sin. Sin is pernicious (subtle, evil, and deadly). Sin destroys human beings and creation. No person without the Savior is fit for Heaven. Because we are unfit, the Lord Jesus paid for and offers to every man the loving gift of forgiveness and salvation. “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). Yet man also has a responsibility in his own salvation. His responsibility is to choose to believe and receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior. “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Those people in heaven are not innocent. The people in Heaven are forgiven and saved. Each person must decide for himself to receive the Savior or to reject him. The Bible says the people who refuse him “will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). The unrighteous man (all of us) becomes righteous when he receives the Savior. “God made him who has no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

The Lord Jesus warned us

“I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did” (Matt. 21:31). The tax collectors (thieves) and prostitutes saw their own guilt and cried out to the Savior. The Lord is warning those who ignore their own guilt. Some people believe that because they have not committed the sins that they think of as BIG (murder, rape, adultery, theft, etc.), that they are one of the “good ones” (good enough for Heaven). However, James 2:10 states “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” Viewed from the eyes of the world, you may look pretty good, but viewed from the reality of God's sinless, perfect holiness, you are unclean. You may cover your sins up better than others, but they are there. We must see ourselves as God sees us, rather than how people see us. God knows that we are all sinners in need of the Savior. A person can hear sermons and know about the Lord but never choose to place their faith in Him. “The message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith” (Heb. 4:2).

“How could this happen? I was in church, I prayed!!”

God called you but, you wanted your own way. You put him off. In your heart, you decided not to “receive” him. “Maybe someday,” you thought. You intended to become serious with the Lord “later.” It was the decision that you made in your heart, for your own life and for all eternity.

You continued in your “lifestyle (ongoing practice) of sin” that the world says is acceptable. The Bible says that “no one born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in him” (1 John 3:9-10).

Maybe you were still attending church, eating at church socials, and living mostly morally. Church became your social group. But being a part of a church does not substitute for a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus (Rom. 2:5). God cannot be deceived (Gal. 6:7). You remained guilty and separated from God (Isa. 59:2).

The Trap of the Devil

When you rejected the Lord, your enemy the Devil closed in and began to deceive you. He began to make you comfortable in your sin. The Bible defines Satan, the Devil, as a liar (John 8:44) and a deceiver (Matt. 24:24). He parades as an Angel of Light (one of the good guys) (1 John 5:18-19). You didn't recognize him. He started making you comfortable in a false security. He helped you fill your life and heart with counterfeits.

Counterfeits?

Things that seem to satisfy but have no real eternal value. It would be like someone giving a cancer patient a sugar pill instead of medicine. In time, of course, the patient dies. Satan's useless things can deceive you and lull you into the false belief that you are alright and have enough religion to get by. It is what the Bible calls the “broad road that leads to destruction” (Matt. 7:13) or “the anything-goes mentality.” These useless things are intended to preoccupy you throughout the end of your life and into eternity without salvation.

“No one is that cruel, and I'm not sick!”

Yes, someone is that cruel. “The Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). He is real and seeks to destroy you. And yes, you are sick. The Bible says that you are sick with a disease much worse that cancer. You are sick with sin. Disease can destroy your earthly body. Sin can destroy you for all eternity.

Common Counterfeits

False religions: “But false prophets … bring in destructive heresies” (2 Pet. 2:1-3). Some churches in the Bible are examples of sources of false teaching and apostasy (1 Tim. 4:1). “All scripture is breathed out of the mouth of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The Bible is the only book that God claims to be his word. If a church rejects God's word, they are rejecting God.

False leaders: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). “Many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John: 4:1).

Religious rituals: Putting your faith in the carrying out of religious ceremonies and rituals, instead of putting your faith in the Lord Jesus, is useless.

False gods: These may be money, success, social position, worldly possessions, fame, or others. “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God” (Luke 18:24). “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Luke 16:13).

Your own goodness: Working in your own strength to be saved by being a “good person” and doing good deeds will never be enough. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5-8).

Membership in a group (family, church, etc.): “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

God wants to open Heaven's door and say: “Welcome home my Child.” You must decide. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already” (John 3:18).

Receive Him (John 1:12-13)

As you read this tract and look up the scriptures, ask the Lord Jesus to touch your heart with his truth and save you from any possibility of being left out of his kingdom.

“If you confess with your mouth that JESUS is LORD and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

Ask God to help you to see the depth of your own personal sinfulness (your need) and for His forgiveness. “God have mercy on me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

Ask God for His grace (unmerited divine assistance) to believe. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Ask God for his grace to receive his son, the Lord Jesus, as your savior. “For whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).

Thank the Lord Jesus for his gracious mercy and love for saving you and bearing your sins on the cross. Copyright © 2021 Janet E. Sullivan

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