By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

Hebrews 11:24-26, NKJV

Do you have the assurance of salvation through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ? Have you placed yourself, by faith, into His saving hands, and received His saving grace? The only means of salvation is the completed work of Christ. It is through Him, and Him alone, that one can be saved. Jesus said it as plainly as He possibly could when He asserted:

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:6, NKJV

There are not many roads to heaven: only one. Jesus is that road. And yet, there are those who claim to have a relationship with Him, while living in open rebellion to His Word. Think for a moment about the words of the writer to the Hebrews quoted above. He states pointedly that Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Please note carefully that he uses the word ‘pleasures’. The pleasures of sin. Sin is pleasing, enjoyable, fulfilling, satisfying, alluring, engaging, appealing, delightful, gratifying. Until it isn’t! As someone has aptly said: Sin will take you farther than you want to go; keep you longer than you want to stay; cost you more than you want to pay.

But, it is so pleasurable, so desirable, so alluring. And the Bible readily admits that it certainly is – all that and more. But in the end it is so deadly – not just physically deadly, but spiritually, and eternally deadly.

So to my question posed in the title of this post: What on earth will keep you out of heaven? Will you choose an earthly pleasure over an eternal home in heaven? Will you choose a behavior, a lifestyle, a worldly-minded attitude toward life, while rejecting the Bible’s teachings on righteous living. Will you choose the world’s pleasures over the kingdom of heaven? Are the momentary, fleeting, passing, temporary pleasures of this life worth spending eternity in hell, separated from God?

Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we might be saved from eternal torture. And yet there are multitudes who purposely, volitionally, knowingly, reject His offer of eternal pleasure for the passing pleasures of a sinful lifestyle.

God, in His amazing grace, has provided the means and method by which and through which we might be saved. But we must, by faith, turn in repentance from our sin, commit our lives to Jesus as our Savior, turn away from the passing pleasures of this world, and be made new. As the Apostle says, we are to put off the old and replace it with the new. The new is based on the teachings of Scripture. By the grace of God, and through the process of ongoing sanctification, we then become more and more conformed to the image of Christ, and less and less to the mold of the world.

So, what on earth are you allowing to keep you out of heaven? Whatever it is, turn to Jesus Christ by faith, confess your sin, accept His forgiveness, and begin an exciting new life with Him – giving up the passing pleasures of the earth for His eternal blessings of eternity with Him.

Until next time:

Blessings!