The Password To Heaven

1st John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Are you sure you're going to Heaven when you die? Or are you willing to chance your eternal soul and possibly end up in Hell fire?? Why not make sure of the matter today, while there is still time? The Good News is: You can KNOW that you're going to Heaven! The Bible clearly states in our text verse that God wants us to KNOW, and have the matter settled.

There can be no misery greater than living life wondering if someday you will lift up your eyes in Hell! The Bible so wonderfully makes salvation clear! It is a gift given of God, that cannot be earned in any way of our own doing. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Titus 3:5, “Jesus Christ made this wonderful, free salvation possible.” John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Do you see what the verse says? It is simply BELIEF, or rather FAITH, TRUST, in Jesus Christ that saves. I am so thankful for these following verses that tell of man who sincerely wanted to be saved, and was told how: Acts 16:29-31, “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Christ came to this earth, God in the flesh, a perfect man who never committed sin. He sacrificed His life of the cross of Calvary, shed His blood, as PAYMENT for our sin.

You see, our sin separates us from a perfect and Holy God. We have no way to approach God in and of ourselves, for He is HOLY, righteous, perfect, and pure. He cannot tolerate sin. So Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world, that we might be reconciled (bought back and redeemed) to God. We can come to the Father through Jesus Christ His Son! John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

You may ask, well what must I believe, more specifically, about Jesus Christ to be eternally saved? I'm glad you asked my fine non-feathered friend! You are saved by BELIEVING the Good News of the Gospel—Christ's death, burial, and resurrection! When you accept this beautiful truth—that Christ loves you and died for YOUR sins, and arose from the grave FOR YOU, TO SAVE YOU FROM HELL; and you simply say, “yes” to Jesus (BELIEVING upon the Lord) in child-like simplicity, offering nothing of yourself or self-righteousness to God, but clinging only to CHRIST'S MERIT and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS—YOU WILL BE SAVED!!!

1st Corinthians 15:1-4 says, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; BY WHICH ALSO YE ARE SAVED, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Would you be willing to put your whole-hearted faith in Jesus to make it to Heaven, instead of trusting yourself and your own way? If you dear reader will simply trust what God has promised to every sinner in His inspired Word, “TO SAVE THEM THAT BELIEVE” (1st Corinthians 1:21), you will be immediately and forever born-again.

Getting saved is easy, free and simple. Christ has already made the full payment for our sins, by His sacrifice on the cross 2,000 years ago. Hallelujah, praise God! God needed to make His plan of salvation for mankind very plain and simple, because there are a lot of base, unlearned and educable slow people in the world. God has made His plan of salvation so simple, that even a young child like Timothy in the Bible, can understand it. 2nd Timothy 3:15, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” I have heard testimonies from believers who were saved at the tender age of 5 and 6 years old. Amen! Pastor Steven Anderson was saved at the age of 6. Praise God!

The password to Heaven dear reader is childlike FAITH. Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Again and again in the inspired Word of God we are taught that the way to Heaven is simply by FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST!!!

Yet, we hear so many corrupt preachers today adding to and embellishing the Gospel of free grace, perverting the truth. The Apostle Paul rebuked the churches of Galatia for this very same sin in Galatians 1:6-8, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Pastor Curtis Hutson said it well:

“But we've so muddied the Gospel, that when men want to make a decision to trust Christ, we've made it so complicated that they can't make a simple decision to 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' We'll say, 'If you don't do this' or 'You don't do that' or 'You haven't done that,' you're not saved'; but the truth of the matter is that when asked in the Bible, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?,' one clear simple answer was given to him — 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'” — Pastor Curtis Hutson, “Things That Are Different Are Not The Same” (preached at Southwide Baptist Fellowship on October 3, 1994)

The false teaching of "Lordship Salvation" is not the SAME as: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31). Things that are different are not the same. Oh, how the Devil is a beautiful liar! I recently visited the downtown popular First Baptist Church of Pensacola, Florida. Their senior pastor is Dave Snyder. I have met him and I love the guy. Pastor Snyder always makes me feel loved and welcomed in their church as a single divorced man. I love and respect Pastor Snyder for that. However, I felt like crying recently, as I sat in their traditional morning service, and he falsely told hundreds of impressionable people that the way to Heaven is to repent of your sins, and become a Christ follower, surrendering all to Christ as the Lord and the Master of your life. Folks, that is not the Gospel of free grace!

Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) gets repentance and the Gospel 100% correct:

“Faith and repentance are the same; they are not two separate decisions. One cannot trust Christ as Savior without repenting or changing his mind. The very fact that he trusts Christ for salvation shows that he has changed his mind regarding sin, salvation, and God.” —Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995)

But wait, didn't Evangelist John R. Rice (1895-1980) teach that you must “repent from sin with all your heart” to be saved? Yes he did! Yet, Dr. Rice clearly didn't believe that a person must attempt to reduce their amount of sinning to be saved, as evidenced by this helpful quote from him:

There are those hyper-dispensationalists who think that John the Baptist preached a different Gospel from Christ when he commanded repentance (Matt. 3:2). But it is the same repentance Jesus commanded in Matthew 4:17, in Luke 13:3 and 5, and the same repentance that Paul preached in Athens that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30 31). Repentance is not a different plan of salvation from having faith: it is part of the same plan of salvation. Or rather repentance is simply another way of describing or looking at the plan of salvation. One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ. A change of mind toward sin is necessarily involved in saving faith. [emphasis added]

SOURCE: Evangelist John R. Rice, “Acts: Filled With The Spirit,” pp. 251-252; Sword Of The Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; ©1963

Amen and amen! I fully agree! Clearly, John R. Rice believed that the way you “turn from sin” is by trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior. This is one step, not two, to be saved. That is NOT what the Lordship Salvation crowd are heretically preaching today! I keep hearing these false preachers teaching that you must turn away from your sins first, and then secondly believe the Gospel. That is a false gospel of partial faith in Christ plus works!

You don't repent AND believe, as Dr. Tom Ferrell falsely preached; you repent TO believe as Dr. John R. Rice rightly taught. RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!! Our words matter. How we present the Gospel really does matter. Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” The password to Heaven is FAITH.

You don't have to stop one sin to be saved. Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21), which is justification; but after we get saved, then Christ's Holy Spirit works to change us, which is sanctification. God desires to turn us away from sin as His adopted children, but this will depend on whether we CHOOSE to yield, submit and obey the Word of God in our daily life. That is why we as believers are exhorted in Romans 12:1 to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Notice that it is not our mandatory service; but rather, our reasonable service. Also, notice that we are talking about SERVICE here, and not SALVATION. Amen.

I hope these Bible teachings in this blog have been edifying for you friend. The following sermon is by Pastor Peter Ruckman (1921-2016), the title of which I chose for the title of this blog today: “The Password To Heaven”...

The Password To Heaven (Pastor Peter Ruckman)