Am I going to heaven? - Part 2

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven . Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ - Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23 (LSB)

And when the Lord said these words, He was not speaking to irreligious people; he was speaking to fastidiously religious people. He was speaking to people who were religious to the max, I suppose we could say. They were obsessed with religion. In fact, they couldn’t divorce their social life, their civil life, their economic life, their family life, or their national life from their religion. It permeated everything in Israel. These are the most religious people; these people are as religious as you can get. But they have no relationship to God and no relationship to Christ. They are religious but lost. They are on the wrong road. To borrow the words of Paul, they have a form of godliness without the reality of it. They are self-deceived. We have that today, as I said. It is everywhere, everywhere, people who in some way or another are connected to the idea of God and even Jesus, but utterly devoid of any divine life, any knowledge of God, any salvation at all. We have multitudes of deceived souls within churches who are on some kind of Jesus trip, thinking all is well. And the words of our Lord in this text really are the best words to deal with this deception. - John MacArthur

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? - 2 Corinthians 13:5 (NASB)

But if anybody says to me, “I’m not sure I’m a Christian,” my immediate response is, “The reason you may feel you’re not a Christian is because you’re not a Christian.” It’s much more important to demand an honest self-examination than it is to ride across somebody’s doubts. If you doubt your salvation, there’s a reason you doubt your salvation. It may not be a legitimate one, but it may be a legitimate one. You may have every right reason to doubt that you’re on the way to heaven. You may have every right reason to doubt that you’re a believer. And until I can see a pattern in your life and make a good guess that this is unnecessary doubt, and that you’re succumbing to temptation not to trust God who has saved you – and even then I can’t be certain – I’m going to question the fact that if you doubt, maybe you have reason to doubt.
But that’s not popular. In fact, the words that I’m saying right now to you are words that would be rejected soundly in many, many, quote-unquote, “Christian churches.” “What? You are calling into question people’s salvation? Who do you think you are?”
Well, I’m only endeavoring to make certain that the words of Jesus in Matthew 7 are brought to bear upon this generation, that people are living under a massive illusion about their relationship to God, and there are many, many in that category. This is not my message, this is the message of the Great Shepherd. I’m only His under-shepherd, passing the message on. - John MacArthur

“What our blessed Lord wants above all is ourselves, what Scripture calls our hearts. He wants the inner man, the heart, He wants our submission. He does not want merely our profession, our zeal, our fervor, our works, or anything else. He wants us. God does not want our offerings. He does not want our sacrifices, He wants our obedience. He wants us. It is possible for a man to say the right things, to be very busy and active, to achieve apparently wonderful results, and yet not to give himself to the Lord. And that is, finally, the greatest insult we can offer to God. What could be a greater insult than to say, ‘Lord, Lord,’ fervently to be busy and active, and yet to withhold true allegiance and submission from Him to insist upon retaining control of our own lives, and to allow our own opinions and arguments rather than those of Scripture to control what we do and how we do it. This is the greatest insult of all to the Lord.” - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Is obedience to God and His Word my primary objective in this life?

“The gospel does not offer to the sinner what the sinner wants naturally.” - John Piper

When you’re looking for people who are deceived, look for people who are seeking feelings, blessings, experiences, healings, angels, whatever, that are only interested in the byproducts of the faith, not in Christ. They’re not consumed with the glory and the honor and the wonder and the beauty and the magnificence of Christ. They’re not consumed with honoring Him, loving Him, serving Him, obeying Him, submitting to Him, exalting Him, proclaiming Him, worshiping Him, confessing Him. They’re only there for the byproducts of that which is attached to Him: “Give me blessing. Give me spiritual experience. Give me a spiritual high. Give me good feelings. Give me healing. Give me prosperity.” - John MacArthur

You call me the "Way" and walk me not.
You call me the "Life" and live me not.
You call me "Master" and obey me not.
If I condemn thee, blame me not.
You call me "Bread" and eat me not.
You call me "Truth" and believe me not.
You call me "Lord" and serve me not.
If I condemn thee, blame me not. -Geoffrey O'hara

Be Encouraged to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith.

-Jeffrey Thornton