Don't let this happen to you

The Sheep & the Goats

Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM



Depart from me you evildoers

Matthew 7:21-22

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’


The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM






These are some of the most frightening passages in the entire Bible. So why does it scare me?

1.) It’s a description of people going to eternal punishment in hell, which is scary all by itself.
2.) Hell is a horrible place, with terror beyond your capability to imagine.
3.) In these verses, it looks like some of the people think they have a right to heaven. It’s tragic that they are so self-decieved.

For the purposes of this scripture, we can break humanity into 3 classes: The Righteous, The Unrighteous, and The Deceived. The Righteous go to heaven, and we’d all agree with that. The God Haters, The Evil, and The Unrighteous are going to hell, and we all understand that. But what scares me is the fate of these Deceived people.



THE DECEIVED

These people were not as bad as you think, in fact, I’ll bet our churches our filled with these people. Look at what they say, “Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name? And in your name drive out demons and perform miracles.”

Jesus doesn’t even argue with them about whether they did these things, so we can assume that for the most part they were telling the truth.

These people would have been studs in most churches. They did the big works. No doubt people knew who they were and respected them for what they did. They looked highly spiritual. In spite of what they did, they were sent to eternal punishment in Hell.



DON’T BE DECEIVED YOURSELF

It’s really pretty simple. Matthew 7:21 says it all, “not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

It’s obvious that one of the things the deceived believed was that their big works were proof that they were right with God. Don’t be deceived yourself. Don’t trust in the fact that you’re a church member, an elder, a good person, used in healings, or whatever – it won’t matter when you get to judgment.




WHAT WILL MATTER AT THE JUDGMENT?

All that’s going to matter is your relationship to God. Are you doing what he tells you to do? I don’t care what Calvinists say, your works will matter. You’ve got to have a changed heart, and you have to bring forth fruit. Don’t think that you’ll get to the judgment and tell the Almighty God that you once prayed a prayer for salvation, but didn’t bother to say, “hi,” to God since then – don’t be fooled, it won’t get you in.

The only way to get to heaven is to humble yourself and repent. You must have a total and complete change of heart and affection. You’ve got to be serving the Lord Your God will all your heart. If you’re serving him with only part of your heart, you’re not serving him at all. You can’t serve two Masters. (Matthew 6:24)

God wants your entire being. Anything less than entire consecration is disobedience to God. Our churches are full of people that think they can live the way they want and still make it to heaven.

The Bible clearly says, “be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) And if you think I’m being too tough on you, look at what Jesus said to the Rich Young Ruler, “if you want to be perfect, go sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and then you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come follow me.” (Matthew 19:21).

Moral perfection doesn’t just come from the sacrifice of Jesus. Forgiveness of sins and sanctification come from the death of Jesus. Moral perfection and holiness also must come from what you do.

If you are a liar, a thief, or dishonest, heaven holds no place for you. If you are sexually immoral, you will not make it into heaven. God is looking for a holy people and a righteous people.



CONCLUSION

If I’m scaring you, it’s because I intend to. I would rather scare you with the truth while you’re still on this side of death, while you can do something about it. It will be too late to change your course when you stand in front of the judgment seat. Here you can change. Now you can repent, and the angels will rejoice.

If you wait until the judgment to completely submit to God, it will be too late. I don’t want myself, my friends, or my readers to hear, “Away from me you evildoers.” What terrible words.



Sincerely,

John Wheeler

Repent and turn to God

The Need for Repentance

(Preface: I say some pretty harsh things about current practices in the Body of Christ. My goal is to say these out of love for the admonishment and edification of the Body. I do not intend to lambaste the church for selfish motives. My motive is to improve knowledge and light in the Body of Christ. JW)





Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
Acts 3:19

CURRENT SITUATION

1.) The American Church is desperately in need of a revival.
2.) This is perhaps the last generation that can call America, a Christian nation.
3.) To a large extent, our current efforts to gain converts to Christianity are failing
4.) 90% of Americans believe there is a God, but we are not an Godly society

HOW DID WE GET IN THIS SITUATION?

1.) Bad Theology
2.) Bad Doctrine
3.) We’ve told the world, “Jesus Loves You.” We’ve done mass media campaigns, and almost everybody in America could parrot the saying, “Jesus Loves You.”
4.) What we haven’t told ourselves and the world to do is REPENT!
5.) When Peter is asked, “What must I do?” Peter answers, “Repent and be baptized.”
6.) We tell people the wrong thing when they’re looking for salvation.
6.a.) We tell them things like, “Let Jesus into your hearts.” This is an instruction to sinners that has almost no scriptural basis, and no logical reason either.
6.b.) We lead them in the sinners prayer. Here is an excerpt:
6.b i. ) Dear Father God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I acknowledge to You that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for my sins and the life that I have lived; I need your forgiveness.
6.b.ii.) The sinners prayer is not Biblical!!!!
6.b.ii.1.) At the end of this article, I’ve included salvation instructions from John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, and Paul. NONE of them used the sinners prayer.
6.b.ii.2.) Every sinner is more than happy to make a blanket admission that they’re a sinner. This worst drunk will happily tell you how bad he is. But admitting that you’re a sinner does not lead to repentance, and does not lead to salvation.
6.b.ii.3.) The sinner’s prayer gives people a false hope.
6.b.ii.4.) The sinner’s prayer is leading to a unconverted and unsaved church.


WHAT WE SHOULD BE TELLING POTENTIAL CONVERTS

1.) Tell them to Repent
2.) Give your heart to God
3.) Peter implies that Repentance and turning to God happens before forgiveness of sins


WHAT IS REPENTANCE

1.) Repentance is a act of the will
2.) A complete change of Heart
3.) A total change of Affection
4.) It is every person’s Duty
5.) Every sinner can repent. To say that can’t is to call God unfair for telling them to do it.
6.) Repentance is giving up everything that stands between you and God
7.) Sin is selfishness. Repentance is turning from selfishness to benevolence.
8.) Repentance implies a disgust for all sins
9.) Repentance implies a confession for sins and restitution where possible
10.) Repentance includes a change of opinion about the nature and the punishment for sin. Look at the Rich Man and Lazarus, Abraham does not show any sympathy for The Rich Man in hell. Instead his actions imply that Abraham believes that he is getting his just reward for his actions on earth.
11.) Repentance is ALWAYS accompanied by an outside change in behavior


WHAT’S NOT REPENTANCE

1.) Repentance is not remorse or grief for sin. Hell is full of remorseful sinners. (Note: The Rich Man and Lazarus)
2.) Repentance can take as long or short as it needs to. The thief on the cross repented immediately.


YOU MUST REPENT TO COME TO GOD

1.) It is your duty to change your heart
2.) You must give up every sin
3.) You must give your entire heart to God, to His work, to His Kingdom, to His Will, and to His fellowship.
a. It’s hard to imagine that we’ve given God-haters any salvation hope. People that don’t pray, don’t read God’s word, and don’t fellowship with God are not God’s people.
4.) You must change from sinfulness to Holiness, as it says, “be ye holy as I am holy.”
5.) You must change your idea of sin and its desirability. You must loathe sin, and abstain from it.
6.) You must realize that sin deserves eternal punishment
7.) With true repentance the disposition to sin is gone


HOW DO I KNOW IF I NEED TO REPENT?

Examine yourself. John the Baptist said, “produce fruits in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:8) Jesus said, “By your fruit, you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:16) The prophet Malachi says that we weary God by saying all who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord. (Malachi 2:17)


Examine your life. Take inventory of your sins in the following categories;

1.) Sins of Omission
These are things you should have done, but didn’t.
a.) Ingratitude to God
b.) Lack of Love for God
c.) Lack of Bible Reading
d.) Lack of a prayer life
e.) Unbelief
f.) Unconcerned about Souls
g.) Neglect of Family Duties
h.) Neglect of Social Duties
i.) Lack of Discipline

2.) Sins of Commision
a.) Lust
b.) Porn
c.) Greed
d.) Pride
e.) Envy
f.) Critical Spirit
g.) Slander
h.) Disrespect
i.) Lying
j.) Cheating
k.) Hypocrisy
l.) Robbing God
m.) Anger

WHAT IF I NEED TO REPENT?

Understand that God already knows that you need to change your heart and give up your sins. The entire Bible is all about God’s love for you. He created you just the way that he wants you with all the skills, talents and abilities that he wants you to have. God desires fellowship with you so much that he sent his Son to die for you.

So if need to repent, do it now. God is waiting to forgive you. He wants to forgive you.

WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT REPENTANCE

John the Baptist
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Matthew 3:1

Jesus
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Mark 1:15

The Apostle Paul
First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.
Acts 26:20

Jesus to the Church at Ephesus
Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Revelation 2:5

Jesus to the Church at Pergumum
Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Revelation 2:16

Jesus speaking about the Prophetess Jezreal to the Church at Thyatira
I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.
Rev 2:21-22

Jesus speaking to the Church at Sardis
Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
Revelation 3:3

Jesus speaking to the Church at Laodicea
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
Revelation 3:19










Humbly submitted,

John Wheeler





All scripture quotes come from:
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM

Why this Blog?

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and un-prayed for."-Charles Spurgeon



Mark 16:15

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD



Before Jesus returned to heaven, he told his disciples to, "Go into all the world and preach the good news." My heart has always been filled with a passion to share the gospel, not for my own glory or reward, but for the glory of God.

The bible says, "from that day Jesus began to preach, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near," (Matthew 4:17) and I plan to spend the rest of my life doing the same thing.

If you are are servant of the Living God already, then I hope that you learn something here. If however you are an unbeliever, my goal is prove to you that it is your duty to repent, be converted, and serve God with your entire heart, soul, and being.

I cannot go on any longer watching people ignore the goodness and mercy of The Lord God Almighty. There's no doubt that I am my brother's keeper - I have a solemn charge to work for the conversion of myself, my family, my friends, and my community. For me to sit idly by and watch people pretend there is no God; no eternity; no final judgement; and that there is no reward, and no punishment for the way they live their life, would be a blatant deriliction of my duty.

I could not keep a clean conscience before God if, knowing the truth, I didn't try to share it with you.

So I started this blog as a way to share the gospel with my beloved people of South Hill/Puyallup/Graham Washington. My desire is that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. (Matthew 8:32)

Yours Truly,

John Wheeler