I’ve asked many people in the past, “Do you think you’re going to Heaven?” And I’ve had many people say, “Yes.” I’ve asked them why they think they’re going to heaven. They say, “Because I’m really not that bad of a person.” Just being “not that bad of a person” isn’t going help you. You may not be a bad as Adolph Hitler but you also may not be a good as Mary Poppins. So you fall somewhere in the middle. You’re in trouble!

We need to realize that we’ve all sinned. We’ve all come from Adam, and we all have an old sinful nature. Our good works cannot get us into Heaven. The only way to get to Heaven is through the blood of Jesus.

You see, when God created man, He created Adam and Eve in His image and after His likeness and He said to Adam and Eve, “I give you all of the Earth. This whole Earth belongs to you. You can rule over it. You can have dominion in it. But one thing you need to make sure you do – you need to honor Me by making sure you don’t eat from the one tree in the Garden of Eden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. All these other trees you can eat from, but this one tree I don’t want you to eat from.” They had the greatest life that any person could ever imagine and God said, “Just one thing I want you to do. Honor My word and don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Well, as we all know, they ate from that tree and they sinned against God. And they took on a sinful nature because Satan tempted them to eat from that tree, and they listened to Satan rather than listening to God. And when they listened to Satan, Satan became their lord. Satan became their master and God had to drive them out of the Garden of Eden, and man from that day forward had lost his glory. Man from that day forward had lost his relationship with God and his fellowship with God.

It’s all in the book of Genesis, yet many people think that that’s just a fable or story, but that’s the history of what happened to Adam and Even and what happened to man. Then God said, “All right. Now that I’ve given my authority to Adam and now because Adam obeyed the devil, he’s given his authority over to the devil. Now Satan is the god of the world and now he’s in control of the earth. So all the men and women that were born to Adam and Eve took on a sinful nature, and sin kept increasing and increasing in the world. This is the story of humanity. This is what happened, folks.

Sin continued to increase and God said, “I’m going to destroy the world.” So He destroyed the world with a flood but he saved Noah, his wife and his children because God told Noah how to build an ark. These 8 people survived, and Noah’s sons gave birth to their sons until Abraham came into the earth in Genesis 12.

At that point, God said to Abraham, “I’m going to make a covenant with you, Abraham. You give me what you have and I’ll give you what I have.” He told Abraham He was going to make him a father of nations, and was going to give him dominion back in the earth, but He said, “One thing I need from you, Abraham. I need a way – I need the right to live on the earth. You’re a man and you have the right to live on the earth. I’m God. I don’t have the right to live on the earth because man gave his authority to Satan so I can’t just come back and invade the earth. So Abraham, I need your seed. So I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. If you’ll believe me and if you’ll trust me, I’ll give you a child when your wife is 90 years old – I’ll give you a child and it will be a miracle but that’s going to be my seed and I want you to give me your seed and give me your child when you have that child.”

Abraham says, “Absolutely.” So God gives Abraham riches, blessing, authority and Abraham gives God his seed, called Isaac. And now God has a covenant with Abraham. He has an agreement with Abraham and he says, “Abraham, everything that you have belongs to me now. And everything that I have belongs to you now. Whenever you need something you just ask Me, but I have one right now. I have the ability to get back into the earth.” So He says to Abraham, “Give me your son.” He gives him Isaac. He offers him up. God says, “Now that I know I can trust you, you’ve given me your only son, your only begotten son, Abraham, I’m going to give you my only begotten son and his name shall be called Jesus.” This is the story and this is what happened.

So Abraham’s seed, Isaac, had Jacob. Jacob had the 12 tribes of Israel or Jacob, and one of those sons was Judah. And Judah had sons and Judah’s sons had sons and on and on it went, until a man named Joseph was born into the earth and a woman named Mary was born into the earth – both from the seed of Abraham. And they became the parents of Jesus. But Jesus was conceived in Mary, the virgin, through the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to this earth and John the Baptist describes the gospel in one simple sentence. He says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Do you realize Jesus could never have come into this earth had it not been for God making an agreement with Abraham. They made a blood covenant and Abraham gave God what he had. God gave Abraham what He had, and now Jesus had the right to come into this earth. The Holy Spirit conceives this child inside of the womb of Mary and He is born. He is the son of God, he takes away the sins of the world and he came for this purpose: to take away sin and to destroy the works of the devil.

Every human being that has ever been born on this earth has sin in their life. We’ve all sinned, the Bible says, and fallen short of the glory of God and we’re all doomed to Hell unless we receive the forgiveness of our sins. So Jesus comes into the earth and he doesn’t come into the earth just to heal, just to set free, just to feed the hungry; although he does all those things. He comes into the earth to die on a cross. He stretches out his arms, dies on a cross and his blood is spilled out. Why is it so important that his blood was shed? Because where there is no shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Blood represents a covenant. When we were little kids, we would become blood brothers through pricking our fingers – through the shedding of blood. Well when Jesus’ blood was shed, he said, “I’m going to be your blood brother now. If you’ll put your faith in me,” Jesus said, “I’ll be your blood brother and everything I have can be yours and everything you have can be mine.”

Through the blood of Jesus, when blood is shed, it washed away our sin. It washes away our guilt. It washes away all of our condemnation, but we all need his blood and we all need to be saved. You can’t save yourself through your own works. You can’t save yourself by being a good person. You can’t save yourself by trying hard. You need a Savior and his name is Jesus. The Bible says ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible says the wages of sin is death.

As I illustrated earlier, it just takes one sin to be a sinner. The good news about that is – it only takes one act of righteousness for you to now be the righteousness of God. The Bible says in Romans 5 that Jesus’ one act of righteousness makes us all righteous, just like Adam’s one act of sin made us all sinners.

You’re not a sinner because you sinned, you’re a sinner because you are a child of Adam. You’re not righteous because you’ve done everything right. You’re righteous because you now are a child of God. And the only way to become a child of God is not by singing a song, or by going to church. It’s not by coming to the altar. The only way to become a child of God is to be born again.

The only way to become a child of your parents was to be born into this earth. And the only way to become a child of God is to be born again. And when you’re born again that means God takes out your old sinful heart that you got from Adam and He gives you a new, holy heart that you get from Jesus and then you have a new heart and a new beginning. You say, “If I have a new beginning then why do I still have problems?” You have problems because God doesn’t take out your mind. He doesn’t give you a new mind. He takes out your heart and gives you a new heart but you still have the same thinking that you had in the past.

We all were children of the devil, the Bible says, but when we get born again – when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become children of God. When we become children of God, we have a new father. We have a new name. We have a new heart. We have a new beginning and we learn from the Bible how to walk with Him. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. The old things are passed away and all things have become new.”

It’s about the blood of Jesus that washes us from sin and makes us whole all over again. Nothing but the blood can cleanse you. Nothing but the blood can change you. If you realize how precious that blood is – we’re not talking about the blood of an animal. We’re not talking about the blood of a lamb. We’re not talking about the blood of a goat. We’re talking about the blood of God himself. For our sins and our sinfulness God was willing to shed His very own blood. Why do I serve God? Why do I follow Jesus? Because my parents told me to? No. Because it’s easy all the time? No. I serve Him because if somebody would give their very life for me, that’s one thing. But for God to give his very life for me that’s all together another thing. Romans 5 says, “Hardly will a will a good man die for us…” But God died for us – while we were yet sinners. It says would somebody die for a good man? Probably not. But Jesus died for sinful men. He died for us while we were ungodly, while we were sinners, while we were full of darkness, while we were children of the devil, haters of God and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

While we were spitting in the face of Jesus through our attitude and through our actions, Jesus lovingly, still stretched out his arms for you and was nailed to a cross for your forgiveness, for my forgiveness so we could be a part of his family. I want you to think about this for a second. Think very clearly. Think very soberly. What do you put your trust in? When you die, do you know that there is only one reason God will let you into Heaven? And that one reason was because you turned from trusting anything else and put your trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That cross, folks, is not a symbol of the past. That cross is the symbol of your future. It’s on that cross where Jesus’ blood flowed down that tree, flowed down that heavy wood. It’s that blood that was shed that causes you and I to have an opportunity to now go to Heaven.

If you’ve never made Jesus the Lord of your life, never surrendered your life completely to Him and given him open vulnerability and said, “God take out my old heart and give me a new heart and make me born again” – if you’ve never truly made that decision or perhaps you’ve tried to be good and you thought, “If I’m good enough, if I go to church, if I try these things, if I do these things then I’ll be saved,” none of that will save you. Only the blood of Jesus will save you. I want to lead you in this prayer of faith and something miraculous is going to happen in your heart. Pray this out loud:

“Heavenly Father, I invite Jesus Christ into my life as my Lord and as my savior. I believe Jesus died for my sins. His blood was shed so that I could be forgiven and I believe that he has been raised from the dead. I declare Jesus Christ is my Lord from this moment forward. I receive the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus. Take out my old heart, Lord, and give me a new heart, a new spirit, a new life and I will follow you, with your help, by your grace, all the days of my life. In Jesus’ Name.”

Now listen, that’s just the beginning. There’s something that God wants to do now in your life. He wants you to grow. He wants you to move forward. He doesn’t want you to live like you used to live. When we get born again we have a new life. But with that new life, we need a new lifestyle. If you’ve just made Jesus your Lord, contact our ministry, let us know. We want to help you. Read your Bible, talk to God. If you don’t know how, read the Life Solutions on How to Study and Read your Bible, and also read The Lifestyle of the Believer. God has a great plan for your life. He loves you and wants the best for you. You are His child now. You are in the family of God today. Your life will never be the same again!