I want to encourage each one, especially if you haven’t done so in a while, to just make a check of your salvation. With the presence of COVID, with the things that are happening in our world, especially in Afghanistan, with the amount of violent crime we are seeing in our nation (and even in our city), it is only safe to make certain that you know the Lord as Savior. With everything else that is going on, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus could come today for the saved, and if you are not saved you will be left behind to endure all of the events of the Great Tribulation that are spoken of in the book of Revelation. Of all the needs that humanity has, what is the greatest? If it were education, Jesus would have come as an educator. If it were financial, Jesus would have come as an economist. If it were peace, Jesus would have come as a diplomat. But why did Jesus come? Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Salvation is mankind’s greatest need. Aboard the Titanic the passengers sailed in different accommodations. Some sailed in luxury in first class. Others sailed below in the steerage. But when the final tally came back to the New York office after the tragedy people were put into one of two categories - Saved or Lost. There are only two categories of people in this world - regardless of nationality, ethnic origin, skin color, gender, social standing, wealth or poverty. They are SAVED and LOST. Religious pollster George Barna interviewed thousands of Americans on their beliefs. Sixty-seven per cent of Americans call themselves Christians. But some have estimated that only 35% of Americans have truly been born again . . . have truly shown evidence of being saved. There are so many people who are claiming to be Christians today that are totally biblically illiterate, they are clueless about what real faith is. Radio Bible teacher J. Vernon McGee once estimated that 75% of church members might not be genuinely saved. (Based on our total membership and the number present on any given Sunday, I believe he may be right.) Billy Graham once guessed that about 80% of the people who came forward in his evangelistic crusades already had their names on a church roll. What are you saying? I am saying that people join churches for many different reasons and not always because they have come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. For this reason, true churches may occasionally get lost people who become members. But remember, the first church had a perfect pastor and still had at least one lost member. I want us to note some of the things that the Apostle Paul had to say about Israel in these verses. They had a zeal of God. (That may describe many religious people.) They wanted to be pleasing to Him. They saw the need to establish some form of righteousness. So they set about to do so. But also note: 1) Their zeal of God was “not according to knowledge.” Again, describing many today, and 2) They were ignorant of God’s righteousness. Therefore they set out to establish their own righteousness, and 3)They had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Simply stated, if you are wrong, you are wrong no matter how much zeal you have! Some say, “It doesn’t matter so long as you are sincere.” But you can be sincerely wrong. I can look at a bottle of poison and sincerely believe that if I drink it, it won’t hurt me, but I would be wrong . . . dead wrong in my sincerity. So, what is the importance of 18 inches? How will people miss Heaven by 18 inches? Eighteen inches is (generally) the distance between the head and the heart. Salvation is a matter of the heart (as we shall see) and not merely a matter of the head. Let’s look at some of the ways people will miss Heaven by 18 inches. Of course we know the “fool” (Psalm 14:1) will miss Heaven because of his rejection of God.

I. SOME WILL MISS HEAVEN BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THEY ARE TOO GOOD TO NEED SALVATION.

II. SOME WILL MISS HEAVEN BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THEY ARE “TOO BAD” TO BE SAVED.

III. SOME PEOPLE WILL MISS HEAVEN BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO “RELIGIOUS.”