Churches of Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 20th century
I’m not boasting when I say that I believe with all my heart that if I
should fall dead in the midst of this sentence, I would spend eternity
in heaven. That’s not because I’m so good; it’s certainly not because I
have never sinned. But I _can_ say this: if there is a single sin
against me of which I have not repented, I do not know it. If I did know
it, I would repent of it before I finished this statement. I wouldn’t
wait till time for my evening prayer. The time to repent of a sin is
just as soon as you become aware of it, right then and there. That’s
what you have to do in order to be walking in the light. Never allow an
unforgiven sin to hang over you for one minute for you might die during
that minute, and have to spend eternity in torment.
God doesn’t expect his children to go through life having so many ups
and downs, thinking one minute they’re on their way to glory and the
next minute on their way to hell. It isn’t necessary to be like that.
God doesn’t want you to be. He wants you to be full of joy. If you will
read this verse, meditate upon it, and conform to the conditions stated,
it will certainly help you to be full of joy.
I’m emphasizing the fact that you can go to heaven if you want to. I’d
like to read one more Scripture and then we close. This is found in II
Peter, chapter one, verse 5-10, “And beside this, giving all diligence;
add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge
temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and
to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if
these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath
forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather,
brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.” Do you
notice that word “sure”? “Give diligence to make your calling and
election _sure_”; it didn’t say to make it likely, or to make it
probable, but to make it _certain_. It requires diligence, but if you
will give the proper diligence, you can make your calling and election
certain. “For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an
entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
A man who does these things will not barely slip in by the skin of the
teeth, but for him the gates will stand wide ajar. He will receive an
abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior,
inherit eternally a mansion which Jesus has gone to prepare for those
who love him, for those who walk in the light, for those who do the best
they can.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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