Lesson - 08
Doing God’s Will

How then do we make sure that we are among the few who are saved and not among the many who are lost?

Matthew 7:21-23
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

If you believe and call Jesus, "Lord, Lord", you are still lost if you do not do what God says. If we ever hope to go to heaven, we must do the will of God. This is the only way. Not the will of men, but God’s will. Not our own will, but God’s will. Just because we call Jesus our Lord, this will not save us.

Jesus says in the above scripture, that on the day of judgment, that many will be pleading with him, calling him Lord, Lord, and reminding him of the many wonderful works that they had done, but he will say unto them, "I never knew you, depart from Me ye that work iniquity". Why? Why? Because they had not done the will of God. Oh, they thought they had, but they hadn’t. They had done their own will or the will of some other man. This will be the worst thing that will ever be said to an individual, when the Lord on judgment day says to the majority of people, "Depart, I never knew you". There will be no appeal to this decision. There will be no second chance. We have to get it right the first time.

These people in the above scripture seemed to be honest, but they were honestly mistaken. Apparently they were good people, because they had "done many wonderful works". But they had not done the will God. Man generally wants to do things his way and doesn't really care what God thinks.

We learn from the above scripture, that we don't go to heaven by doing the will of men, or by doing what we think is right. The only way we can go to heaven is by doing the will God, and that will is found right in our Bibles. Do we really know what the will of God is so that we can be sure of going to heaven? This is too important a matter to assume that we do or to take someone else’s word for it. Do we really know what the Bible says that God wants us to do to be saved?

What must I do to be saved? This is a very important question. Many people would answer this question in many different ways. The Bible is the only reliable place we can go for our answer, since it is our soul that will be lost if we follow man's advise. Our obedience to Christ is a very serious decision and must not be taken lightly. It must be on the Lord's terms as laid out in the scriptures and not on our terms.

We have already seen in Matthew 7:13-14, 21, only few will be saved, and many will be lost, and only those who do the will of God can go to heaven. We must do all of God's will, so that we can go to heaven. There is no other way. No single condition, that God imposes, can be ignored. God has no non-essential commands. What then is God's will, so that we can go to Heaven and not have to endure eternal punishment forever and ever? We will find the answer in the Bible in the following lessons.