Only Those Who Have Living Faith Will Enter Heaven
(New Life Church Sermon, May 31, 2026)

https://youtube.com/live/SgJvKV6fCL4

Luke 6:46 says, "Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?"

Although the Bible says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, we must understand this verse correctly. It is not enough to simply call out "Lord, Lord" with our lips. Calling on the name of the Lord means following and obeying His word.

However, because many churches do not teach according to the Bible, countless believers are living a formalistic Christian life and heading to hell. To truly call on the name of Jesus is to live according to His word. There are too many believers who habitually praise the name of Jesus without believing in their hearts.

How do we distinguish between true faith and false faith? It is simple. If you practice the Lord's word, it is true faith; if you do not, it is false faith. Why do you call me "Lord, Lord" and yet not do what I say?

Strive to obey, and whenever you fall short, repent. Whether or not you have gifts or abilities, or much or little knowledge, does not matter. When the heart is changed, the life naturally follows the Lord's word.

The primary obedience is to repent of sin. Once you have repented, you must dedicate your body and mind not to commit the same sin again. You must cling to the help of the Holy Spirit. You cannot go to heaven with one foot in the church and the other in the world.

Because you are neither cold nor hot, the Lord will spit you out. Even after believing in Jesus and receiving the Bible, we are still inadequate. We must acknowledge this and strive to stand on the Lord's side at all times. Whenever greed and pride sprout, you must immediately cut them off in the name of Jesus.

If you live lukewarmly, believing in human doctrines, you will perish. You must stay alert until you enter heaven. Possess a living faith. A faith that moves and practices is the faith that enters heaven. It is a dead faith to just attend church and do nothing to establish the Lord's kingdom.

Yield yourself and lower your pride to achieve peace with your neighbor. What kind of answer will someone who is blocked by sin receive? Those who do not repent but perform prophecies or exercise gifts are all fake and belong to Satan.

Those who communicate with the Lord receive His grace and salvation. Communication with the Lord is repentance and obedience. Obey one by one; your scope of obedience will expand. Aim to become like the full stature of Christ. You enter heaven while advancing in faith.

James 2:17 says, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

If there are no works, it is a dead faith. The dead do not move. A dead faith does not obey the word and does not repent of sin. It only moves to fulfill the desires of the flesh. Those who attend church but prioritize worldly affairs in their lives are living as slaves to Satan. Slaves to Satan go to hell, the kingdom of Satan, and servants of God go to heaven, the kingdom of God.

James 1:22 says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

God's way is the path that saves humanity. To only hear the word of salvation and not act upon it is to depart from God's way. Do the word. This means obeying the Lord's command.

You must not serve any other god but God, forgive your neighbor's faults, forsake evil thoughts, and do good. The entire Bible teaches God's way. The core of this way is to forsake idols and live to fulfill the kingdom and righteousness of God.

However, humans with a sinful nature cannot fully achieve this. That is why we must always repent and be forgiven of our shortcomings through the blood of Jesus. God's way is the method of serving God and the method of saving humanity.

Do not just know it as knowledge; practice what you know. Those who do God's way live, and those who do not, die. This means if you repent, you live, and if you do not repent, you die. Those who truly repent are those who obey with all their might.

John 14:15 says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Those who love Jesus cherish His commandments. Keeping Jesus' commandments is the proof that you love Him. Is it really loving Jesus to create and follow human doctrines—which say we can be saved even if we live according to our own thoughts because we dislike forgiving others and doing good? Absolutely not.

Forsaking the Bible to follow human doctrines is loving Satan and sin. Living according to the commandment of love is keeping the way of life. False theologians created human doctrines to live as they please. Human doctrines defy the will of God.

Those who keep God's commandments are those who love God, and as a result, they enter the kingdom of God. It is a contradiction to say you love Jesus while not keeping His commandments.

John 15:10 says, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love."

Jesus is God Himself who took on human flesh. The fact that God took on human flesh means He voluntarily placed Himself under the control of the environment. Jesus' body was just like ours—thirsty, hungry, cold, hot, and weary.

When He was crucified, Jesus' body suffered immensely, and that suffering was a substitute for the suffering of humanity. Jesus loved us like this. We must forgive and love one another while looking at the Lord's love.

To love your neighbor, you must forsake your pride and sacrifice yourself. When we sacrifice for our neighbors, peace and harmony are achieved in the world through us. Where the commandments of Jesus are kept, the kingdom of God is established.

1 John 2:3–4 says, "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Those who keep Jesus' commandment to forgive neighbors and do good know Jesus. To say you know Jesus but not keep His commandments is not to know Him as Savior. Such a confession becomes fake.

Declaring someone saved by having them say a sinner's prayer right after entering the church is false. One must truly believe in and confess Jesus as Savior with their heart. Once you have truly confessed Him, you begin the training of living according to the Lord's word. Only when you live a life of repentance and obedience until death, and the Lord judges you to have faith on the last day, will you enter heaven.

Titus 1:16 says, "They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."

They praise and give glory to the Lord with their mouths, but if their actions do not keep His commandments and do not repent, they are denying Jesus Christ as Savior. Their confession is detestable because their lives do not obey the Lord and they forsake all good works.

Those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29).

Hebrews 10:26–27 says, "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries."

When one who has understood the word of God deliberately sins and does not repent, they cannot be saved. A fearful judgment awaits them. Strive to obey. Even then, we fall short often, so repent each time. Those who throw away the Bible, believe in human doctrines, and live as they please face a furious fire of judgment.

Galatians 5:19–21 says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

The works of the flesh are evident: committing sexual immorality, idolatry, sorcery, and fighting according to selfish greed. If you do these things and do not repent, you cannot go to heaven. Do not create factions or divisions within the church. Do not get drunk. Such acts lead to destruction.

There are various factions within large churches that harbor animosity toward one another; this is opposing the Lord's word. How can those who oppose the word of God go to heaven?

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

The unrighteous cannot go to heaven. Homosexuality is unrighteous. Do not steal. Do not swindle. Swindling is using a high position to extort from those weaker than oneself. The actions of the Samsung Electronics labor union are swindling.

Revelation 3:1–2 says, "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.’"

Having a reputation for being alive but being dead means appearing to believe in God but not actually believing. They attend church but do not obey the Lord's word and do not repent. It looks like they are living the Christian life, but there is no sincere obedience and repentance. The Lord cannot find anything complete in them.

Revelation 22:14–15 says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."

Everyone who practices falsehood is outside the heavenly Jerusalem. This means hell. The greatest falsehood is human doctrine. It is distorting the Bible instead of believing it as it is. The Bible says, "Repent and obey, then you will go to heaven." Human doctrine says, "You don't need to do that; once you confess the Lord, you are going to heaven." Those who speak such lies cannot go to heaven. Pastors and believers who teach easy human doctrines to grow their churches and increase the number of members will all go to hell.

Matthew 3:8–10 says, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. This means if you have repented of a sin, strive not to repeat it. Do not boast about being a descendant of Abraham. The axe is laid to the root of the tree. This means do not boast about attending church; believers who do not obey the Lord's word and do not repent will all face God's judgment. You are not saved by confessing Jesus just once. You must obey Jesus' words. You must repent of all sins.

Luke 13:24–25 says, "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’"

Strive to enter through the narrow door means strive to obey. Many people attend church to go to heaven, but there will be many who cannot. Why? Because they believe in human doctrines and abandon a life of repentance and obedience. When the Lord returns, the wheat believers will be caught up, and the chaff believers will be left behind in the world. They will cry out in agony, "Lord, I also believed in Jesus, so take me to heaven!" But the Lord will say, "I do not know you."

Revelation 13:26–27 says, "Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’"

The Lord speaks to those believers who could not enter heaven. "Depart from me, all you workers of evil!" Believers who did not keep the commandment of love will be abandoned by the Lord on the last day. They attended church their whole lives but did not obey or repent, and thus they go to hell.