There's a verse in my Bible that troubles
me.
It is Jeremiah 8 20 which states, the
harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and
we are not saved.
That's a frightening verse, friend, for it means
a person can resist the Spirit of God
only so many times before God stops striving
with you.
That means you've gone so far away from
God that you are too far gone.
A harvest speaks of a bounty to be
enjoyed like salvation.
It refers to a time of reaping, the
crops are ready for picking, but when the
harvest has passed, that means the season is
over as the summer has ended, and the
tragedy here is, and we are not saved.
The ship has sailed, you missed your opportunity,
you're locked out of heaven, and that's the
title of my message today, friends, locked out
of heaven.
Some folks board the wrong ship of salvation,
thinking it is the right one, until it's
too late and the ship sinks.
When it comes time for them to die,
they find out they are locked out of
heaven because they were never subjects of a
regenerated heart to begin with.
There are reasons you're not saved.
Some folks think salvation is baptismal.
Some folks think salvation is decisional.
Some folks think salvation is church membership.
Some folks think salvation is reciting a prayer
like the so-called sinner's prayer.
Some folks think salvation is believing a verse
like John 3.16. Some folks think salvation
is a physical response to an emotional appeal
like walking an aisle or raising your hand
to accept Jesus, but none of these things
are in my Bible.
Jesus never told his hearers to raise their
hand if they wanted him, or to repeat
a prayer to be saved.
All of these gimmicks are of modern evangelism.
Some folks aren't saved because they have never
exercised repentance toward God.
Repentance means that the love of sin dies,
the great danger of a false assurance.
It's like sailing on a doomed ship like
the Titanic.
Believe in all is well when things are
not, but I believe the main reason why
folks aren't saved is that there is a
point of rebellion in their lives, that they
are unwilling to surrender to God.
Their rebellion may head up in a pet
sin or a controlling lust they are unwilling
to part with.
They don't mind confessing their sin from time
to time so long as they can hold
on to it, but true repentance is turning
from your beloved idols and smashing them at
the pierced feet of Christ Jesus.
Your point of rebellion may be like mine,
friend, before God saved me.
I didn't want to surrender to a call
to preach because I love money too much,
and I knew most preachers were poor, and
I didn't want to be a poor preacher
depending on the occasional love gift of a
church or individual, but I finally realized if
I were to have Christ savingly and not
just some form of religion, I had to
throw down my shotgun of rebellion at the
foot of the cross and put all my
trust and faith in a blood-stained savior
from sin.
And if you get saved, friend, it's because
God has placed his finger on your point
of rebellion and showed you that you were
on your way to hell, no matter how
religious you are, and your only hope is
to come to the foot of the cross
and surrender all you are to all he
is, and he is Lord.
He must rule.
He is a sovereign.
The risen Christ must be Lord in every
single area of your life, and if you
try to hold back something from him and
refuse to give it to him, then that's
where your rebellion heads up, and he will
have nothing to do with you until you
get serious with him in regard to true
repentance of that thing that stands between you
and God.
It has to be crushed beneath his nail
-pierced feet.
The rich young ruler had a point of
rebellion that kept him from following Jesus, and
that was his love of money.
Jesus would not accept him on the other
points of keeping God's commands because he knew
they came from a divided heart, and Christ
wanted all his heart, but the young man
would not comply and turned his back on
Jesus and walked away.
I like what Vance Havner said of the
rich young ruler.
He said the rich young ruler was a
good boy, but he wasn't God's boy, and
I submit to you friends that there are
a lot of good boys in church, and
they serve on this committee and in that
capacity, but they are not God's boy.
They've never been saved because of that point
of rebellion in their life that they refuse
to give God unless surrendered to God.
Your point of rebellion will lock you out
of heaven and send you to a devil's
hell.
If you've missed repentance, friend, then you've missed
faith, and repentance is where the love of
sin dies, and you come in complete surrender
to a living Lord.
Those individuals who are traveling to heaven have
been washed in the blood and born from
above.
You must repent immediately before it's too late.