This morning, I am going to talk about the deception of professing Christ as fire insurance and as a ticket to heaven; and so, I’m going to begin with a related illustration. In the December 2001 issue of “Reader’s Digest,” the boxer Muhammed Ali was asked during an interview what his faith meant to him; and he replied as follows:
It means a ticket to heaven. One day we’re all going to die, and God’s going to judge us, our good and bad deeds. If the bad outweighs the good, you go to hell; if the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven. I’m thinking about the Judgment Day and how you treat people wherever you go. Help somebody through charity, because when you do, it’s been recorded.
I go to parties, see good-looking girls. I take a box of matches with me. I see a girl I want to flirt with, which is a sin, so I light my matches [and touch my finger]; hell hurts worse than this. Buy a box of matches and carry them with you. Put one on your finger and see how long you can hold it. Just imagine that’s going to be hell. Hell’s hotter, and for eternity.(1)
There are actually people who attend church claiming faith in Jesus Christ simply because they want a ticket to heaven, or because they want their fire insurance; however, they have never truly believed in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. They attend church with the motivation of accumulating points for having done a good deed; like Muhammed Ali, who felt that treating people nice, or turning his eyes away from a pretty girl would win him God’s favor.
We are going to learn this morning from the Bible that our motivation tells all. If we proclaim faith in Jesus Christ, but attend church and do good deeds all in order to “earn” God’s approval, then we’re not truly saved; but rather, we are trying to pay for our own fire insurance. Good works must not be done in an attempt to fill our own faith cup; they must be done because we are loved and forgiven, as good deeds and church attendance should be an overflow of our cup that has already been filled by God’s grace. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19), the Scripture says.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” If you are someone here today who’s trying to gain God’s acceptance through any other means than by grace through faith – whether it be through church attendance, tithing, or even community service – then you are someone who’s trying to earn your own ticket to heaven. This morning, we’re going to come to understand that the Christian walk is so much more than fire insurance; it’s about having a love relationship with God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
We Are Saved to Do God’s Will (Matthew 7:21-23)
21 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. 22 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?” 23 And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
The first thing we read here can be quite troubling: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 21). The first thing we learn is that someone professing, “Lord, Lord,” is not always an indication that the person is a believer; and the reason why is because faith in Jesus Christ is so much more than a verbal claim to be affiliated with His name. Now this is a play on wording; but the hard-hitting question to consider today is this: “Do you really ‘know’ Him, or do you only ‘know of’ Him?”
Let me give you an example. Everyone here knows that Donald Trump is the current president of the United States. If someone were to ask you, “Do you know Donald Trump?” would you respond, “I ‘know’ him,” or “I ‘know of’ him”? If you were being honest, then you would say that you only “know of” him, because you have probably never met the man before in your life. There are many people today claiming to “know” Jesus, talking about His name, who only “know of” Him, for they have never truly met Him in a real and personal way.
Let me ask the question differently: “Do you truly ‘believe’ Him?” Do you really believe that Jesus is who He says He is; or, “Do you only ‘believe in’ Him?” as though He is some fable. There are people who “believe in” Santa Clause, but they wouldn’t trust him with their life.
The evidence of faith in Jesus Christ is a person’s willingness to surrender his or her life completely into God’s hands, trusting in His work of grace alone. Warren Wiersbe says this willingness is demonstrated through one’s full obedience to God’s will; and that the real test of faith is not found in the words we say, such as, “Lord, Lord,” but in how we live our lives each and every day;(2) and he continues to comment,
How easy it is to learn a religious vocabulary, and even memorize Bible verses and religious songs, and yet not obey God’s will. When a person is truly born again, he has the Spirit of God living within; and the Spirit enables him to know and do the Father’s will. God’s love in his heart motivates him to obey God and serve others.(3)
The motivating factor for professing, “Lord, Lord,” and for attending church, and even for serving God and others, should be because we have truly experienced the love of Jesus Christ firsthand; meaning that we “know Him” and “believe Him.”
Unfortunately, performing signs and wonders, and participating in church-related activities, can be done with the wrong motivation of doing “religious works.” This takes place when we have not had our heart genuinely transformed by God’s grace and the power of unconditional love. The apostle Paul said,
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
There are many people who are serving the Lord with the idea of religious works in mind, and the idea of earning their fire insurance or their ticket to heaven. There are individuals who attend church each and every week with this wrong motivation at heart; attending, perhaps, because their parents took them to church when they were a child, and constantly drilled it into their mind that church attendance is what pleases the Lord, never sharing with them the true plan of salvation. C. FitzSimons Allison says,
There is a vague and undefined feeling that . . . heaven might be related to having been in church at least once a week . . . Just to plant ourselves in a pew for an hour once a week is good ‘fire insurance.’ There is much wrong with this thinking, but the big error is the notion that worship is a ticket-punching process that gets us into heaven when we die.(4)
Warren Wiersbe tells us that “words are not a substitute for obedience, and neither are religious works . . . Casting out demons and performing [wonders] can be . . . inspired, but they give no assurance of salvation.”(5) When Wiersbe says that “words” and “works” provide no assurance of salvation, this means that working signs and wonders; or rather, going to church, knowing church language, and even acting and behaving like a Christian does not mean you are saved. The true test of faith is a willingness to follow and serve God in whatever He asks us to do, whether we like it or not.
The fact of the matter is that many people are sitting in a pew believing they are saved. They attend church to earn God’s favor, thinking this is all that’s required; and when they say, “Lord, Lord,” it’s only because that’s what you are supposed to say in church to appear like a Christian. The real question is this: Will they declare Him as Lord outside the church? Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Jesus said there would be some to whom He would declare, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (v. 23).
Confessing Jesus as Lord is the only thing that will save you, and it must be done with a sincere and genuine faith and trust in Him. Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” It’s not real unless you believe Jesus with all of your heart. If you only have head knowledge about Jesus, then you only “know of” Him; but if you have heart knowledge, then you truly “know” Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Wiersbe comments that “a false profession will last [only] until judgment comes. Sometimes this judgment is in the form of the trials of life . . . Many people have professed Christ, only to deny their faith when life becomes spiritually costly and difficult.”(6) If we are calling Jesus our Lord and we are not fully dedicated to Him and committed to doing God’s will, then it is a false profession; one that we have declared only with the hope of obtaining our fire insurance.
We Are Saved to Live for Him (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
We must understand that God did not save us merely for our own benefit; and He did not save us so we could warm a pew. We have been saved to bring honor and glory to His name through service and obedience to His will. This service is not the kind done with the wrong motivation of gaining our fire insurance; but the kind generated by an overflow of our love relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul said that he did what he did, because “the love of Christ compels us” (v. 14). If you have been truly saved, then you will be “compelled” to live for Jesus instead of yourself.
In verse 14, we read about how “One died for all.” Jesus died for all of us when He was crucified. In Romans chapter six, Paul said, “We have been united together in the likeness of His death . . . knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with” (Romans 6:5-6a). “When Christ died, we died in Him and with Him. Therefore, the old life should have no hold on us today.”(7) Since our old life was crucified and buried with Christ, we are expected to live a brand new life dedicated to the Lord.
Christ lives in us if we are saved, and therefore we are not our own to continue doing as we please. In Galatians 2:20, Paul declared, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” He basically testified, “The life which I presently live in the flesh is now lived totally for Jesus Christ.” The old life should be no more, including living for ourselves; therefore, if people see us acting like a Christian in church, but they can’t see a difference outside the church walls, then we are probably just “fire insurance Christians” having never had a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ.
Verse 15 says, “Those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” Jesus’ death, and our being crucified with Him, is significant in our victory over sin; however, the real power for the believer is found in the resurrection. Jesus rose from the grave to conquer sin and death; and the Bible says that all who believe in Him are overcomers of sin and death as well (Romans 6:5). Therefore, the resurrection enables us to overcome the temptations of sin, and to bear fruit unto God; as bearing fruit is expected of all believers. In Romans 7:4, Paul referred to Jesus Christ as “Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”
The fruit that reveals our faith in Him is a willingness to follow the Lord in all of life. The new life enables us to bear fruit, and be concerned with God’s will instead of our own. If we attend church on Sunday morning and live like the world throughout the week, then there is no evidence of a new life. If all we give to God is our attendance, and we refuse to serve Him in the church or community, then there is no evidence of a new life. When we are prone to run to another church at the first sign of conflict, or we switch to another church because we hear that it’s more entertaining, then there is no evidence of a new life – for those of the new life place God, and His will and desires, first over their own.
Time of Reflection
Back in verse 14, we read that “if One died for all, then all died.” When we hear this verse we may recall Romans 3:23, which says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Verse 14 reminds us that Jesus died on the cross, because all people are destined to die. The Bible teaches that each and every person in the world is a sinner, and that sin leads to spiritual death and eternal separation from God; however, Jesus Christ died for our sins. Jesus stepped in and willingly laid down His own life on the cross, taking our place in death; so that we could be forgiven and live forever with the Lord. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The way we receive the forgiveness of sins, salvation and eternal life, is to repent of our sins, believe in Jesus Christ with all of our heart, and confess Him as Savior and Lord. In John 3:16-17 we read, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” In John 20:31, the apostle stated how the reason why he wrote his gospel was so “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” I invite you this morning to believe and confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; to come and accept God’s free gift of grace and be truly forgiven of your sins; and to receive eternal life.
NOTES
(1) Howard Bingham, “Face to Face with Muhammad Ali,” Reader’s Digest, December 2001; SermonCentral: www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/searchresults.asp?keyword=One Way Ticket To Heaven&category=quotes (accessed June 6, 2012).
(2) Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, New Testament, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1989), p. 31.
(3) Ibid., p. 31.
(4) C. FitzSimons Allison, Fear, Love and Worship (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), p. 18.
(5) Wiersbe, p. 31.
(6) Ibid., p. 31.
(7) Ibid., p. 648.
