Will Everyone Enter The Kingdom Of Heaven ?

[Pastor Dr. Michael M Sherrod]

In Matthew

7:21 Jesus says. ‘’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 . ‘’ Christ made it clear that merely acknowledging Him as Lord and Master- saying ‘’ Lord , Lord ‘’-is not sufficient . To inherit the Kingdom , we must do something . We must do the will of the Father , as He clearly stated . Our conviction that He is our Savior must be more then just a warm , comforting thought or intellectual concept . Jesus warns that simply calling on His name or recognizing Him as ‘’Lord’’ is not enough .At one point a wealthy young man asked Jesus how he could receive eternal life . ‘’ Good Teacher , what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? ‘’ the man asked ( Matthew 19:16 ) . Christ’s reply , in verse 17, Jesus responded . ‘’If you want to enter into life , keep the commandments .’’ Jesus didn’t answer that nothing is required other then believing in Him . He told the young man that he must obey the commandments of God to receive the gift of eternal life . Jesus gave another condition for God’s gift of eternal life in ( Mark 16:16 ) ‘’He who believes and is baptized will be saved : but he who does not believe will be condemned .’’ Water baptism-by full immersion-is a symbolic act representing the death of our old self and the beginning of a new life of serving God and striving to avoid sin ( Romans 6:1-23 ) .Baptism is also followed by the laying on hands by God’s ministry, which allows us to receive God’s Holy Spirit and truly belong to Him( Act 8:17; Romans 8:9 ). Unless we surrender our lives to God through baptism and the laying on of hands to receive His Spirit as instructed , we fail to meet His requirements for receiving His gift of  salvation. In ( Matthew 10:22 ) . Jesus listed another condition we must meet to receive  God’s gift of salvation: ‘’He who endures to the end will be saved .’’ We can lose out on salvation if we fail to endure to the end ( Hebrews 2:13:6:4-8: 10:26-31 ) . Once we have committed ourselves to obeying God and surrendering ourselves to Him , we must stay the course to the end and not look back ( Luke  9:62 1 Corinthians