Gospel Thoughts 6

Religionists today smooth down the dreadful scriptural truths, and keep judgment and damnation out of sight; they eloquently speak out their philosophical dissertations and social issues, but never mention the desperate wickedness of man or our need for Christ's atoning blood and forgiveness.  Today's religious politicians silence the warnings and freeness of the Gospel, and never help sinners prepare for the Judgment to come. They pat folks on the back, and tell them they will be all right if they keep on sincerely doing their best.  But men today in their own thoughts, know they are not all right within. You may think you are all right in the sight of God, as you are all right in the sight of men. God's eyes have been on your thoughts and behavior all of your days.  You may have never broken the laws of the land and been locked up in the county jail; but you have committed the worst sin of them all; you have rejected Christ and pushed Him back from your heart's affections.

Your mind is so sinful; impure things stick to your memory more than the pure. You easily yield to vile impulses, impure thoughts, evil inclinations, selfish propensities and bad habits. The power of evil habits keep you from coming to Christ.  If you are given to drunkenness or laziness, and disgracing your family, and ruining your mind, soul, and body, repent toward God and look to Christ Jesus today. It is hard to give up sin, when you've loved it for years.  Only one Being can get you out of your bad habits and that is the Holy Ghost.  Religion says that if you don't join us and stay faithful to us, you will go to Hell.  Religion say if you have enough self-improvement and self-righteousness, you don't have to worry about all your sins at the Judgment.  Religion helps men to enjoy living a lie while they continue to enjoy their sins.  Stop walking in rebellion and loving your sins, turn to God and trust to Jesus Christ now.

Human nature wants to fit in, be popular, please man, make a buck, make a name for itself, fears ridicule, and longs for human applause. Dollars cannot give you peace, and religion cannot protect you from the wrath to come.  Human nature rebelliously says, "I will do as I please, nobody's going to tell me how to live my life." This world will cheat you, lie about you, misinterpret you, and bad mouth you; never trust this world.  Sin says, "you can have what you want, you can get away with it, you won't get caught, take a chance." Sin makes you cranky, mean, greedy, miserable, waspish, dissatisfied, overbearing, and full of guilt, regret and dread.

What is so attractive about your sins that you are willing to go to Hell over them?  What has such a grip on you (friend, family, lust) that it will lead you to neglect and reject Christ and lose your immortal soul?  What is a soul?  Where is your soul bound?  What is Eternity?  Are you ready for the grave, Judgment Day, and Eternity?  Only the Gospel can haul you out of your sins, and start you heavenward. Take Jesus to be your Savior for time and Eternity.

Salvation is by grace through faith in the atoning blood of God manifest in the flesh.  *Matthew 11:28* You probably keep all of your important documents and valuables in a fire-proof safe in your home, but is your soul safe and in a fire-proof condition?  Self-righteousness says, "I will become a Christian one day, when I get rid of my bad habits." Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.    Believe on Jesus and live, if you refuse, you will perish.

Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.  All men are sinners; no sinner can help save himself. Only Jesus can rescue lost men from the danger and damnation of their sins, and they are only saved by grace through faith in Jesus' atoning blood.  The Lord Jesus Christ saves a sinner the very moment that sinner trusts to Jesus alone.  If you believe that message, you'll be going God's way.

Substitution is the way of Salvation.  During the American Civil War, every day, some man would go off to war to save another one from going; the substitute took the hardships, the wounds, and sometimes death for another.  This is the doctrine of Substitution - Christ bore our sins, He took our wounds, wept our sorrows, and died our death.

All your doings in order to help win your salvation, apart from the finished work of Jesus Christ, will only help damn you.  Stop trying to save yourself through religious ceremonies.  Sense your sinfulness and holiness of God, and your distance from Him.  You have been trying to do good, so you will feel good about yourself, and think that you are better than most.  Your self-denial has excited new cravings after different evils and made you even more proud.  The evil of your inward nature when stamped out in one place, only broke out in another part of your life.  After all your self-efforts, you are nothing bettered.

Repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ - Renounce your sins, leave them behind, break it off with this world, avoid bad companions, get a divorce from your foolishness. Trust the shed blood of Jesus Christ to save you from Hell.  God promised you eternal life, Jesus paid for your sins, the Holy Spirit deals with you about your sins, the Holy Spirit gives you a true sense of the evil of your sin and guilt, He reveals the dreadful consequences of sin and your lost and ruined condition before God, and that you're on the verge of infinite and eternal disaster.  The Holy Spirit gives you an understanding that every sin you commit is directly against a holy, good, kind, loving, merciful, forgiving God who became a Jewish man in order to bleed and die for your sins. God has given you opportunities to be saved from your sins.

Faith is a spiritual act of the soul trusting upon Christ Jesus; Faith is looking out to Jesus for His immediate and irreversible Salvation; laying hold and leaning on Him alone, trusting implicitly in Jesus for grace, mercy, forgiveness of sins, Righteousness, Eternal Life, and peace with God.  Believe with all your heart that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that you are one of them.  But as many as received Jesus Christ, to them God gives the power to become the sons of God.

The world calls sin a bad habit, a sickness, a mistake or sowing your wild oats, but the Gospel calls sin transgression, filth, the abominable thing which God hates.  You have a sinful nature within you that is the source of all your vile thoughts, filthy speech, and selfish deeds. When a man chooses to turn from evil practices, his old acquaintances and worldly companions will repulse and shun him, and his own evil nature nature will start to trouble him.  His old inclinations and merciless habits will pester and hound him day and night.  Only Christ can hold a soul up from moral gravitation. You need to join Christ first, and then worry about joining a church later.  Never mind about the non-essentials of religion, take Christ Jesus Himself now; care for your soul, give your soul over to Jesus, or you will lose it.

You can only conquer your evil habits by the help and grace of God. The rigmarole of religion will distract you from the Cross every time.  Go directly to the Lamb of God, cry out for help, look and live.  Hold up your soul's wounds to Jesus; He is the Great Compassionate Physician, confess your sins straight to Him, ask Him to heal your sin-wounded soul.  Wherever you are hurting inside, hold that up to Jesus; you don't need some fancy prayer.  The Gospel first shows a man his sins, and then the Gospel takes his sins away.  If you're a lost soul without forgiveness, if you're not careful, your sins are going to damn you, and the devil's going to steal your soul.

There is only this alternative: keep your sins and perish, or trust the blood of Jesus Christ and live forever. The only path to Heaven goes by Calvary.  The best way you know how, as a sinner, ask God's Son to save your guilty soul.  Religion cannot deliver the goods.  Commit your soul to Jesus Christ, your good works won't do the job, you need the New Birth, that is, you need to be regenerated spiritually within by the Holy Ghost.  The Gospel is not mere whim or chance, it's life or death, Heaven or Hell.

If you trust to the blood of Jesus Christ, you can be absolutely certain your sins are forgiven. Every sin you've ever committed and ever will commit is already known by God, and those sins have already been paid for by Christ Jesus, the ever-living Lamb of God.  Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.  Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. When a needy soul comes to Jesus, there is healing for all his wounds, pardon for all his guilt, and comfort for all his troubles. All sinners may come to the Cross, whosoever will, the man Christ Jesus receive sinners still. Implore now God's divine aid and mercy through Christ's Precious Blood.