“Almost but lost” Acts 26:28-29
Lori was 14 years old when she was baptized at Blue Springs Community Church, a one-room country church only a few miles from her house. A few months later, Lori dropped out of the church. The pastor and his wife visited her several times, but failed to persuade Lori to return to church. Everyone was concerned for her, but no one suspected the real reason for her absence. Lori was pregnant.
About a month before she was expected to deliver, Lori tidied her room, emptied her school locker, and wrote a note to her mother: “You kept asking me if I was OK and I kept telling you I was, but I wasn’t OK.
I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve got too many problems. I am taking the easy way out.” Lori left that day before her mother arrived home from work. She walked to the railroad tracks near her house, knelt between the rails, and folder hands over her little round belly as Amtrak 168 barreled down upon her. The train engineer, a man who had a fourteen-year-old daughter of his own, later said that when he saw Lori, it was too late to stop the train. He watched her cross herself before she died.
Suicide is not a joke and according to the latest statistics I could find, 117 people in America, commit suicide every single day. [American Association of Suicidology]
Yet every day 1000s of Americans commit, what I call, “Eternal suicide.”
In Acts 26, after Paul delivers one of his most powerful messages, king Agrippa said, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian”. “Paul you got close…just not close enough…”
Will you “ALMOST” become a Christian? Will almost get you to heaven?
If I threw a hand grenade and ALMOST hit the center of the middle section of our sanctuary, there would still be a lot of collateral damage simply because, with a hand grenade, you just need to get close. In the game of horseshoes, the object of the game is to get your horseshoes closer than your opponent, to the post.
See in hand grenades and horseshoes, almost is close enough BUT when it comes to your eternity do you want to gamble with being close enough?
Why would somebody do the right things, and live the right life, only to almost make it into Heaven?
It’s like jumping out of an airplane and saying…”I almost wore a parachute. I thought about it. I closely examined all the evidence and believe that wearing a parachute is a good idea. Then I jumped…”
I have a news flash! You WILL NOT almost hit the ground below! I can pretty much guarantee that if you jump from a perfectly good airplane without a parachute you WILL hit the ground VERY HARD.
My heart breaks every time I hear someone say “I think I’m going to heaven.”
I want you to know that you know you are!
And God’s desire is for you to know that you are saved.
1 John 5:12-13, He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Either you’ve got it, or you don’t. You are either saved, or you are NOT. There is no ALMOST.
*I don’t want to know that you are a charter member of the church…
*I don’t want to know that you haven’t missed a Sunday in 40 years…
*I don’t want to know that you’ve been baptized 12 times…
*I don’t want to know that you said a few words one Sunday…
*I don’t want to know that you believe Jesus is God’s Son…
*I don’t want to know that you believe Jesus died on a cross…
*I don’t want to know that you believe Jesus rose from the dead…
*I don’t want to know how many years you’ve been teaching that Sunday school class.
*I don’t to know what school you graduated from and what church you’re the pastor of…
*I don’t want to know that you knelt at some altar when you were a kid…
* I WANT TO KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOU BOWED BROKENHEARTED BEFORE THE THRONE OF GRACE, WHERE MERCY FLOWS. I WANT TO KNOW THAT YOU SOUGHT THE FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS AND HAD THE BLOOD OF JESUS APPLIED TO YOUR LIFE AND THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOU KNOW JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR…
So why are there people who almost make it to heaven?
1. Many people will hear the truth but never actually receive the truth.
King Agrippa heard Paul’s testimony. He heard about Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.
He heard about how Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven.
He heard the truth of the gospel and may have even agreed with that truth but he never received the Truth.
He may have thought, as many do today, that he had plenty of time.
Today many people think “I will get saved someday. Right now I have too much living to do.”
Soon they are so busy they don’t have time for God. They almost became a Christian. They heard the truth, they examined the truth. They agreed with the truth but they never received the Truth.
Then…
2. Many think they are too good not to get in heaven.
Many think that the way to heaven is just to make sure the good outweighs the bad BUT the problem is that we are using worldly scales to weigh our good deeds. When we put our good on God’s scales we can never be good enough…
Romans 3: 10 tells us that there in not a single person who is righteous on their own…
Romans 3: 23 Tells us that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Matthew 7:22-23, Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”
Now that would be awesome information for my portfolio of good deeds.
And Paul himself told King Agrippa that before accepting Christ, he himself was a man of good deeds.
But listen to how Jesus finishes these verses
And I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.
It’s not about doing for Jesus…it’s ALL about KNOWING HIM…
Paul told King Agrippa that he was a very good man but just being good doesn’t cut it.
Hell will be full of “Good people.”
Someone said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions…
And if you’re thinking right now that God would not send a good person to hell; you are right! BUT God will allow you to make that decision for yourself.
Many are trying to build their own road to heaven when Jesus said, “I AM THE WAY, I AM THE TRUTH, I AM THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME”.
It is not what you do for Him, it is what He’s already done for you.
Being good will almost get you to heaven…because…
3. Almost saved is eternally lost.
Many fear being rejected by close friends and family if they surrender to Jesus. So they will join some church and when they are with the saints of God they shout and sings praises to the King. But when they are around their family and friends they cuss and fight. They live for the prince of darkness.
[John 12:42-43 NIV] “42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; LISTEN...43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.” Almost saved.
Jesus said in [Luke 9:26 NIV] “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
Some may feel it’s as easy as saying they believe in God.
Paul even insinuated that the King knew about God, in verse 27 where he asked King Agrippa, “Do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.”
But it is more than just having head knowledge of who Jesus is…there is 18” between heaven and hell…
James 2:19, You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-and tremble.
They know they messed up and there is no hope for them…There is still hope for you!
Believing in God is good but simply believing that God is real will almost get you into heaven.
You not only have to believe. You have to receive.
There is something that scares me to death. I wonder how many people will spend eternity in hell because someone convinced them that they were saved. (the man who told me he prayed and felt his friend got saved)…
I can say that I want my truck vacuumed and cleaned on the inside but until I get the vacuum and do something it will be dirty. You can say “I want Jesus to come into my heart till the cow comes home; but you have to do something. You have to receive Jesus into your heart and no one can do it for you. My friend, until you take that step, you are almost saved and you’ll almost get to heaven.
Do you KNOW or do you THINK you will go to heaven? Let me just say that 99% sure is 100% lost.
Maybe you are here today and you know you are saved and where you are going.
Let me ask you something. Mom, do you love your lost children? Dad do you? Wife do you love your unsaved husband? Husband do you love your lost wife? Child do you know if your parents are saved? Grandma will your grandbabies spend eternity in heaven or hell? Do you know for sure? Do you care?
Elim Bible Church, do you have that desire to reach the lost?
Many of you may have loved ones who have not accepted Christ and you have ALMOST witnessed to them but then you thought that would make them uncomfortable.
If you are saved and if you love them, there should be a burning desire for them to know about Christ and who else has a better relationship with them than you?
Many think that the preacher ought to tell them, because many look at the preacher as a hired gun who gets paid to tell them but that not how it works.
It may mean doing something that you have never done before, like asking them if they KNOW they are saved or are they ALMOST.
Considering ALL Jesus has done for you, isn’t that the LEAST you can do for Him.
If you choose to put off salvation and you die in your sins, you will spend eternity in hell remembering, for the rest of eternity, that you refused the opportunity you had today to be born again.
If you are saved and choose to ignore your family/friends, you will go to heaven BUT if they die in their sins they will spend eternity in hell remembering, for the rest of eternity, that you refused every opportunity you had to tell them how to be more than ALMOST saved.
