Good News SEPTEMBER 2023

CONTENTS
Passport To
Heaven
Coming Soon
THE GOOD NEWS
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 3
No one can enter Heaven
— God’s holy and eternal
dwelling place — unless they
are prepared.
Because
God
is holy and
hates all
sin, He cannot
accept
anyone into Heaven who is defiled
by sin. Each of us should
carefully evaluate ourselves
against God’s requirement for
entering Heaven.
God’s commandments
paint a picture of what He requires.
These commandments
include things like not lying,
not stealing, not being jealous,
and not using God’s name as a
swear word. When we look at
these commandments and
honestly evaluate ourselves,
we must admit we have failed
to perfectly meet God’s righteous
standard.
Each
one of us is
guilty before
God.
His word,
the Bible,
makes it
clear that every single person
is a sinner: “all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of
God” (Romans 3:23). None of
us have the sinless requirement
needed to enter Heaven.
Paying the price — Many
people are convinced they can
earn a place in Heaven by doing
good things like going to
church, reading the Bible,
praying, and helping others.

P A G E 2
“None of
our good
works can
erase the
guilt of sin…
Salvation is
a gift”
T H E
G O O D
N E W S
The problem is that
none of our good works can
erase the guilt of our sin.
God’s word teaches that
“whoever keeps the whole
law and yet stumbles at just
one point is guilty of breaking
all of it” (James 2:10).
Just one sin is enough to
make us guilty.
If you want to be prepared
for Heaven, you need
to have your sins forgiven.
Because God loves us, He
has — at great expense —
provided the way. Our salvation
was paid for through the
suffering and death of Jesus
Christ on the cross. God sent
Him to die in our place, receiving
the punishment for
our sin. “God so loved the
world that He gave His one
and only Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish
but have eternal
life” (John 3:16).
Do you want a passport
to Heaven? — First, you must
recognise that your sinfulness
makes you unfit for
Heaven. Next, you need to
realize that you cannot earn
God’s forgiveness. Finally,
you have to depend fully upon
Jesus’ sacrifice as payment
for your sins.
You will receive your
passport to Heaven when
you place your trust in Jesus
Christ as Lord and Saviour. “If
you declare with your
mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and
believe in your heart that
God raised Him from the
dead, you will be
saved” (Romans
10:9). Salvation is a gift. “By
grace you have been saved,
through faith — and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift
of God — not by works, so
that no one can
boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Accept the free gift of
salvation God offers you
through His Son. “Believe in
the Lord Jesus, and you will
be saved” (Acts 16:31). You
can ask God to give you this
salvation right now. All who
turn to Him in sincere faith
will be saved!

What’s coming soon? — The
Doomsday Clock is a symbolic
warning about how close the world
stands to “midnight”, or global catastrophe.
Over the years, the
clock has inched closer to midnight
as turmoil around the world has
increased at an alarming rate. To
many, it seems that significant,
foreboding events are at hand.
The Bible tells us that “there
will be terrible times in the last
days” (2 Timothy 3:1). Jesus prophesied
that as the end times draw
near, “nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be famines and
earthquakes in various places”
(Matthew 24:7). The events we
see in the news every day indicate
that the greatest event of all time
is soon to take place.
Not what, but who — Jesus is
coming soon! At any moment, we
could witness the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ to this world. He
has been here before. He was born
as a baby and lived a perfect, sinless
life of love and goodness — a
life never before lived or known
among men. Men rewarded Him
for it by crucifying Him and hanging
Him between two criminals.
Then, three days after His death,
He triumphantly rose from the
dead. After encouraging His followers,
Jesus ascended to heaven.
As His disciples watched, an
angel announced: “Jesus, who has
been taken from you into heaven,
will come back in the same
way” (Acts 1:11). First, He will descend
from heaven to meet every
true believer. They “will be caught
up together…in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And so we will
be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians
4:17). Secondly, Christ
will return to the earth itself — in
power, judgement, and glory — accompanied
by the hosts of heaven.
“Look, He is coming with the
clouds…and all peoples on earth
will mourn because of
Him” (Revelation 1:7).
P A G E 3
T H E
G O O D
N E W S

What happens then? — If you are
not a believer in Jesus Christ, you will
be left behind to face the terrible
judgements of God upon this Christrejecting
world. The effect will be terrible,
as the Bible foretells that people
from every walk of life will cry out “to
the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us
and hide us from…the wrath of the
Lamb! For the great day of their wrath
has come, and who can withstand
it?’” (Revelation 6:16-17).
The great and small, rich and
poor, weak and powerful — all who
have not bowed their knees to Jesus
the Saviour now — will bow them to
Jesus the Judge at the final Great White
Throne judgement. “Anyone whose
names was not found written in the
Book of Life was thrown into the lake of
fire” (Revelation 20:15).
Will you be ready? — Dear reader,
are you ready for the coming of Jesus
Christ? Have you turned to God in repentance,
and are you washed from
your sins through faith in Jesus Christ?
Or are you still rejecting Him and sealing
your doom?
Now is the time to recognise your
need of Him and put your trust in the
sinless Son of God who died for your
sins and rose again to be your Saviour.
Bow the knee to Jesus today. Tomorrow
may be too late.
“Flee from the coming
wrath” (Matthew 3:7) and enjoy the
presence of God for all eternity. Your
opportunity is now. “Now is the time of
God’s favour, now is the day of salvation”
(2 Corinthians 6:2).
“Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life, but whoever rejects the
Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains
on them” (John 3:36).
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