Lesson 9
Doing God’s Will
The Bible must be our only authority in
religion if we want to please God and go to heaven. People must give
up all the various false doctrines that propagate the many different kinds
of denominations and go back to only the Bible. There were
no denominations in the New Testament times and there would be none today
if only the Bible was taught and practiced. There would be only the
Lord's one true church, the church of Christ.
How then do we make sure that we are among the few
who are saved and not among the many who are lost? Jesus says in Matthew
7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in
Your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you, depart from
Me, you who practice lawlessness". If you believe and call Jesus,
"Lord, Lord", you are still lost if you do not do what God
says. If we are not obeying God we are practicing lawlessness.
If we ever hope to go to heaven, we
must do the will of the Father. This is the only way. Not the will of
men, but God’s will. Not our own will, but God’s will. Just because we
call Jesus our Lord, this will not save us.
Jesus says in the above scripture, that on the day of
judgment, that many will be pleading with him, calling him Lord,
Lord, and reminding him of the many wonderful works that they had done in
His name,
but He will say unto them, "I never knew you, depart from Me you who
practice lawlessness". Why? Why? Because they had not done the
will of the Father in heaven. Oh, they thought they had, but they hadn’t.
They had done their own will or the will of some other man. This will be
the worst thing that will ever be said to an individual, when the Lord on
judgment day says to the majority of people, "Depart, I never knew you". There will be no
appeal to this decision. There will be no second chance. We have to get it
right the first time.
These people in the above scripture seemed to be
honest, but they were honestly mistaken as the majority of people are today. Apparently they were good people,
because they had "done many wonderful works". But they had not
done the will of the Father which is in heaven. Man generally wants to do
things his way and he doesn't really care what God thinks. We cannot
obey God without doing what God says to do, when God says to do it, how
God says to do it, and for the reason God says to do it. Nothing is
more important than pleasing God by doing His will so that we can go to
Heaven.
We learn from the above scripture, that we don't go to
Heaven by doing
the will of men, or by doing what we think is right. The only way
we can go to Heaven is by doing the will of the Father, and that will is
found right in our Bibles. Do we really know what the will of the Father
is so that we can be sure of going to Heaven? This is too important a
matter to assume that we do or to take someone else’s word for it. Do we
really know what the Bible says that God wants us to do in order to be saved?
What must I do to be saved? This is a very important question. Many
people would answer this question in many different ways. The many
different denominations give many different and conflicting answers. Only God's way
is correct. The Bible is the
only reliable source we can go to for our answer, since it is our soul that
will be lost if we follow man's advise.
Our obedience to Christ is a very serious decision and must not be taken
lightly. It must be on the Lord's terms as laid out in the
scriptures and not on our terms.
We have already seen in Matthew 7:13-14, 21, only few will be saved,
and many will be lost, and only those who do the will of the Father can go
to heaven. We read in 1 John 2:4, "He who says,
I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him." "A liar" is pretty
strong language. A person is lying to himself and everyone else who
says he knows and loves God, but does not keep God's commandments.
We know that a liar cannot go to Heaven.
We must do all of God's will, so that we can go to
Heaven.
There is no other way. No single condition, that God imposes, can be
ignored. God has no non-essential commands. When we don't
obey a command of God, we have just broken it. Many people think
that God will save them, no matter if they fellow God's specific
instructions on what they must do to be saved or not. What then is God's
will, so that we can go to Heaven and not have to endure eternal
punishment forever and ever? We will find the answer in the Bible in the
following lessons.
Questions Lesson 9
Doing God's Will
(click on the button of the answer of your
choice)
1) (Matthew 7:21) How do we go to heaven?
By doing our will.
By doing man's will.
By doing God's will.
2)
All
who call Jesus their Lord will be saved.
3) (Matthew 7:21) Those who call Jesus, Lord, Lord
Will all go to heaven.
Many of which will not go to heaven.
Will all be pleasing to the Lord.
4)
On
Judgment Day many will be vainly pleading with Jesus to be saved.
5) (Matthew 7:23) What is the worse thing one can hear on
Judgment Day?
Welcome to heaven.
That heaven has no more room.
Depart, I never knew you.
6)
If we haven't done the will of God, we will
not go to heaven even if we have done many good works.
7) (1 John 2:4) If I say I know and love God, but I do not keep
His commandments,
I am telling the truth.
I am a liar.
God will overlook it.
8)
One is telling the truth if he says he loves and knows God but does not keep
His commandments.
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