5 False Hopes of Heaven

We live in a day of deception and ignorance. We're told by ministers that salvation is one thing, when it is quite another. That gaining entry to heaven is an easy thing, and available anytime anybody wants it.

That you can just walk to heaven's gate, if I may so speak, and show them your free ticket to heaven, and they will let you in. And that free ticket comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes. That it is a relatively easy matter to gain entry into heaven.

But without conversion, friend, you will miss heaven, because you have missed Christ altogether. You must be born again, or perish in a hypocrite's hell. In the book of Ezekiel, in chapter 36 and verse 26, we read, A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.

And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. We live in a day of ignorance to spiritual truths, because few know what conversion really is. Conversion begins with a renewed heart, through regeneration.

Without conversion, your Christian testimony is in vain. It makes no difference if you walked an aisle ten or twenty years ago to accept Jesus. If you are unsanctified, you are unconverted.

If you are unconverted, it matters little if you've been a faithful church member, for you've never been justified in God's sight and are yet in your sins. If you've never experienced a work of grace upon the heart through the new birth, then your whole life of religion has been an empty casket of dead works. Your hope of heaven is a ship without a sail, adrift on an ocean of unbelief.

A hanging on to a false hope of heaven is like clinging to a rope of sand, which will dissolve at any moment. A false hope of heaven is like a hole in the wall. There's nothing there.

Well, I'm going to list today, friends, five false hopes of heaven, in an effort to awaken some of you out of your false sense of carnal security. And these five false hopes of heaven rest upon five false foundations of regeneration. Allow me to explain.

Number one. First, there is the foundation of baptismal regeneration. You perform a rite and you get to go to heaven.

Whether it's infant baptism or adult baptism, whether it's baptism by immersion or sprinkling, you are then regenerated and have entry to heaven. Baptism is your free ticket to heaven. But that's a lie from the pit of hell, and there are millions of baptized people in hell at this hour.

To have a hope of heaven based on your being baptized is a false foundation that will be broken up one day. False hope number two. The second false foundation is decisional regeneration.

Here, your free ticket to heaven is based on a decision you made. You decided to make yourself a Christian and this is your hope of heaven. Making a decision is not conversion.

You can make a decision to become a Muslim. You can make a decision to become a Buddhist. You can make a decision to become a Mormon.

You can make a decision to become a Baptist. But you cannot base heaven on your decision to become a Christian friend. You must be born again, and this is an act that God performs in the heart through converting grace.

There is a multitude of deceived church members in hell right now, screaming and hollering that they shouldn't be there because they made a decision for Jesus. False hope number three. The third false foundation is religious regeneration.

That by the very nature of you becoming a member of a certain religion will gain you entry into heaven. That all you have to do to go to heaven is to become a Muslim, or become a Mormon, or become a Catholic, or become a Baptist. That your religion will regenerate you, and your church membership will save you.

This false hope of heaven sits upon the rotten plank boards of religion. False hope number four. The fourth false hope of heaven rests upon the false foundation of physical regeneration.

That's what you do in life by good deeds. Gains you a free ticket to heaven. That you've done enough good works to merit heaven.

That God opens heaven's gate when you step upon a heavenly scale that weighs the bad against the good in your life. And if the good outweighs the bad, then welcome to heaven, friend. Welcome in, good person.

But the rotten plank of this foundation is that good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there. But those whose sins have been washed in the blood of Christ, false hope number five.

The fifth false hope of heaven rests upon the faulty foundation of believism, regeneration. All you have to do to be saved is to believe. Believe John 3.16 to be true when you're saved.

I've heard pastors tell people that. Believe Jesus died for you when you're saved. I've heard pastors say that.

Walk this aisle, friend, and say yes to Jesus, and you're saved. I've heard pastors say that. Come get your free ticket to heaven.

The only believed gospel declares that repentance is not necessary for salvation. But God in his word declares that only those who confess and forsake their sins shall find mercy. I witnessed in horror a whole room full of religious people agree to what the pastor was telling them, what salvation was, which was nothing but a lie.

For to tell people all they have to do to be saved is to accept Jesus is a lie. My Bible says, for God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And Jesus said, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

And they all accepted Jesus by raising their hands. They were victims of easy-believism. Most folks today who join the church only want a God who won't get in the way of their daily living.

They divide Christ by halves and take him as Savior and do not take him as Lord. Unconverted church members miss heaven and feel hell. Now this is a very serious matter, friends, for no one sees the kingdom of God without being born again.

Biblical regeneration is a supernatural act of God that the Spirit of God wroughts in the heart by converting grace. Jonah 1.9 declares, salvation is of the Lord. Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

You must become new creatures through converting grace, or you are yet dead in sin and heading for perdition. Because God is a just judge who must punish sin, to think God will save you without conversion is to rest upon your belief of a false hope that God will not do as he says in damning you to the miseries of hell. But this is to hope against God's word and God abhors this hope of yours to have a hope of heaven based on what Christ has done on the cross in redemption without being a subject of regeneration is foolish and dangerous.

Christ never died to save impenitent and unconverted sinners. He won't carry unregenerate sinners to heaven no matter what foundation they're on. Jesus said, except ye be converted, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

You must be born again, friends, by work of grace upon the heart performed by God in the new birth or you will not see heaven. Because your free ticket you hold in your hand is a fake, the hope you have is false. To hope to see the kingdom of God without being born again is futile.

Two vital questions must be answered. What has Christ done for you Listen, friend, don't be deceived. You must have the application of the spirit in regeneration or you have no saving interest in the benefits of redemption.

Without conversion, you stand at heaven's gate in your own merits holding a fake ticket and hanging on to a false hope by resting upon the wrong foundation. You must be born again, repent, and get to Christ before it's too late. Let us pray.