Monday, October 28, 2013

Come and Rest

Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest. (Matthew 11:28)

The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is available today for you to come to Him. This is a personal invitation to every laboring and heavy laden sinner. There are two persons in Matthew 11:28 - Ye and Me. The laboring sinner and the precious Savior who beseeches him to come that he may find rest in Jesus' finished work on Calvary's Cross. You must come personally to Jesus for His Rest. His Rest is a free gift, He only gives it away, you can never earn it, no matter how religious you get. Only ungodly wretches can receive His free Rest at the Cross.

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor": this is a personal coming to a personal, living Christ. Come to Christ  Jesus directly, not through any others such as priests, elders, ministers, teachers, sacraments, or ordinances. Simply come yourself to Him.  All my Hope and Confidence is in the Cross.

Self-righteous people think they can help Jesus with their salvation, mainly because they do not truly understand divine justice or the heinousness of their sins against God.  There is a quarrel between you and your Creator - it is your sins against Him. This quarrel can only be ended by you coming to God through a sinless Mediator who paid for your sins with His own blood, the Lord Jesus Christ. *I Timothy 2:5-6* You must trust in Him for yourself. Personal faith and simple trust in Christ alone is absolutely necessary and essential to eternal salvation. All things eternal come from Christ, not your religiousness.  You need Christ's holiness to satisfy the demands of a Holy God.

Jesus says, "Come unto Me", not to anyone else. He doesn't say come hear a sermon about Me, but "Come unto Me." He does not say, "Come to be baptized" or "Come to the sacraments," but "Come unto Me," to My finished work, to My blood, and to My person. No one can come between you and Christ. Come to Christ at once, and without any go-betweens.  Come to Jesus directly, even to Jesus Himself. You must have a Mediator between your sinful soul and the Holy God of Heaven. But you need no mediator between you and Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is the only Mediator between God and sinful men.

Come to Jesus right now just as you are by faith in His atoning blood, without anyone else's help. Don't go to church, or the confessional booth, or the baptismal pool. No, you must go nowhere but to the living Christ. You, as you are, must come to Christ as He is, and He will give you His Rest freely, without any works. It is imperative that you come directly to Christ now. He will give you His free forgiveness, Rest, security, eternal life, peace, and joy.  Run to Him - seek after the Savior as bees seek after honey.

This Rest is not found anywhere else but in Christ's love and blood.  Christ gives Rest to man's entire spiritual being. A guilty conscience troubles us till Jesus speaks 'Rest' to it. Conscience looks back on our past life and cries, "Things are not right. You were wrong here, and wrong there, and wrong altogether, there is no rest for you, you're Guilty!" Conscience keeps records, and writes with a dark pen a gloomy report, which we read and fear. "Tremble," says Conscience, "for you will see this evil record of yours again at the Judgment, and you will be condemned by it."

Men may laugh and say they do not believe it, but in their 'conscience' they believe it. Their conscience is constantly blurting out warnings, cautions, and threatenings.  The conscience is the watch-dog of God in the soul of man, and it will not lie down and stop barking till Christ comes into the heart. Every now and then it begins to howl and growl horribly, and the soul of man cannot rest as he wants to rest.

Jesus also gives His Rest to the mind. Your mind is searching for something real for you to believe and trust. Your mind is tossed about like a lost ship on a stormy sea, like a bird caught out in a windy storm. You must cast your mind down at Jesus' feet, and He will put you in your right mind, so you can rest in Him. Your intellect can only rest in the wisdom of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus also gives Rest to the heart of man. You need a rest for your love and affection. If you love Jesus alone, you will crave no other love, for this will fill your soul to the brim. O love the Lord.  Jesus alone can give Rest to the conscience, mind, and heart of man. He alone can bring complete satisfaction to your spirit.

You can be saved now, and find Rest at once. Christ can give immediate salvation if you will simply trust to Him. As soon as you believe in Jesus Christ alone, your sins are all forgiven freely, and you are safe forever and ever by His love and grace. Whosoever believeth in JESUS is not condemned. Whosoever believeth in Him hath everlasting life. You are saved the moment you believe, and rescued instantly by the power of the Holy Ghost.

If you are laboring in self-efforts and love of sin, and heavy laden with the guilt and shame of your sins, come to Christ right now for Rest. If you are panting under the weight of your sinful misery, have done with empty religion, and cleave to HIM alone, and you shall have Rest in your soul. Your soul will not lay down anywhere but at the Cross, Calvary is the soul's only resting place, your soul refuses to recline anywhere else. If you are tired of your sins and self-righteousness, come on to the Savior. If you are downcast, desponding, and brokenhearted, flee into the arms of the precious Lamb of God.

Come at once to the Incarnate God who shed His Precious Blood for you, but remember, come just as you are. Christ does not want your betterness.  Don't try to improve yourself, come to Jesus for improvement. You do not go to a physician when are feeling better. The best time to go to the doctor is when you are feeling as bad as you can be, and the time to come to Jesus is when you are so bad that you cannot be worse.  You had better come just as you are, for He invites you to do so now. Forsake your church membership and church reputation, desert your vain glory and flee from the wrath of God that is to come on your sins. Come empty-handed, bankrupt, undone, ruined, condemned, and you will find rest in the Person of Christ. Remember - Only really bad people (sinners) can be saved.  Jesus said, "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out."

Jesus Christ is God; God manifest in the flesh.  He made the hearts of men, and He alone can make them new. He is able to save you to the uttermost. Why? He was God come to earth as a Man, He took upon Himself our flesh, and He took our grief and sins upon Him.  He went up to the Cross loaded with our sins and guilt, He suffered in our place, to make payment for our guilt.  His most precious blood can wash every sin of yours away forever.  All that believe in Jesus are safe, and safe forever.

This is a simple invitation from Christ. This bidding suits a dying man, an illiterate man, and a guilty man. Are you too good to be saved freely by grace?  Jesus is willing only to save sinners by His grace. Come to Him anyhow: If you can run, come running; if you can walk, come walking; if you can crawl, come crawling; if you can only limp, come limping - come anyhow, so long as you come to Jesus only. You are very ill, a very bad case, go at once to Christ for He has great skill in your Sin's disease. Unless you trust Him completely, He can do nothing for you.  An open heart surgeon must do everything for you, or he will not operate on you.  Now understand - You must helplessly turn yourself over to the hands of the surgeon if you want to live.  Likewise, Jesus must do everything for you in His Salvation, or He will do nothing for you.

Now understand - these are the sweetest words in this verse, "I will give you." That is the Gospel. Christ Jesus does not want you to give Him anything. Come to Jesus, and He says, "I will give you," It is not what you give to God, but what He gives you, will be your Salvation. "I will give you," that is the Gospel in four words. Will you come and take Him and His Rest as a free gift?  The door of mercy is still wide open before you. Jesus wants nothing from you. The Gospel is not what we can give Jesus, but what He gives to you. The emptier you are, the better you can receive the water of life. Christ did not die for perfect people, He died for sinners. Attend to the most important thing - your soul is of more importance than your body, your eternal life is more important than your temporal existence here on earth. The gospel is right, and only it can make you right with your Creator. Trust now to the bleeding Savior - lay hold on Jesus and enter into HIS rest now by simply trusting in His Precious Blood.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Surely

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.

Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.  Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.  Surely every man is vanity.  Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.  Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto Thy name: the upright shall dwell in Thy presence.  Surely the LORD scorneth the scorners: but He giveth grace unto the lowly.  He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.  Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him.  Surely the Lord Jesus Christ hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.  Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word.  He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Simple Gospel Truth 2

Without faith in Christ, you have a growing tendency toward evil.  Sinful thoughts should shock you.  You have a natural tendency towards evil, and you have wickedly and willfully rebelled against God by rejecting Christ and loving your sins.  The tendency of human nature is always downward into darkness.  If you die in your natural state, you will lose your soul.  The tendencies of your animal passions are towards evil.  The tendency of the human heart is to crave sin.

The ladder of self-righteousness and religiousness is way too short to reach Heaven.  Depend simply upon the merit of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.  Religious quacks have their man-made remedies for sin, but they will never work.  Why do you spend all your thoughts on this present life and give none to the world to come?  Sin leads to never-ending misery in the world to come.  There is a world to come:  an eternity of terror for the ungodly, and an eternity of infinite bliss for the righteous.  What will the world to come be to you?  Think seriously of the world to come for you must enter into it sooner or later.

In the Blood and Righteousness of Christ Jesus my salvation is complete.  I trust wholly in the finished work of Jesus Christ.  I have no other hope but Christ Himself.  I owe my new birth entirely to Jesus' bleeding love.  I am pardoned freely by the love and blood of Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh.  Saving faith is an entire reliance upon the Propitiation which God Incarnate accomplished for sinners.  Take the mercy of Jesus freely. Accept the way of Mercy through faith in His Blood.  Genuine faith lays hold on Jesus seeking the benefit of His atoning bloody death on the tree.

You need to ask God for free pardon of sin through the Precious Blood.  Divine Justice and wrath is only appeased by Jesus' infinitely precious Atonement.  Rest in His Precious Blood - there lies eternal safety for your soul from divine justice.  Whosoever cometh to Jesus, He will in no wise cast out.  Ye must be born again by the work of the Spirit, and by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.  At the bottom of your rejection of Jesus Christ is a love for sin and an enmity to your Maker.

The Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ is the only antidote for the deadly spiritual sickness you have within called human sin.  No golden rule, no church, no baptism, no priest, no Pope are required, just a bloody Savior.  The only means of divine grace from Almighty God is the Blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, not from a church, or some religious sacrament or ordinance.  Religionists will tell you that you must come to their church and water to obtain the forgiveness of sins.  Men always want to try Christ and something else. The wrong cure for your sin problem is Jesus Christ and something else.

Religionists try to treat the symptoms of sin, because they don't know the cure.  The cause of your miserable condition is sin.  You must deal with your sins through the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you know you're a sinner, there's only one thing to do - look to Jesus and live.  Look to Jesus with the eyes of a sinner, and you will find Him instantly.  There has to be a personal, individual trusting to Jesus Himself.  Stop putting off the only remedy for your sins.  The best time to trust to Jesus' Blood is right this minute.  The only way to escape the damnation of Hell is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, trust with all your heart to God Incarnate's Precious Blood.  The only way you can come to Jesus Christ is through simple faith in His Precious Blood.

You prefer yourself to God, and sin to Christ - that is your root problem.  By nature you are full of everything that is evil, you are condemned, guilty of eternal death.  Uncleanness is your tendency to continue to sin.  The more you love Jesus, the more you will hate your sins.  Trust Jesus, and you will no longer trust in yourself.  Look to the Lamb of God; Behold His Precious Blood.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  I am resting only on His finished work; His Precious Blood is my only confidence.

On Calvary's Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ endured the wrath that was due on account of your transgressions against your Maker.  Look now to Jesus' atoning blood for the life of God.  Christ died for the ungodly.  It is your badness, not your goodness, that makes you eligible for the Savior's free mercy.  God manifest in the flesh came into the world to save sinners.  Have no more confidence in your goodness than in your badness.  If you rely on what you do that you think is good, you will be as surely lost as if you were depending on your sins.

Come now to the Savior guilty and heavy laden, trusting only to Jesus' atoning sacrifice.  The only way to end your self-righteous fretting and doing is to sit down content with Jesus' doing and dying for sinners.  You can only be fully satisfied by His Righteousness and Blood.  It is so simple and sweet for the poor in spirit to sit down and rest at Jesus' feet.  You have nothing to hide from God, for He already knows your guilt, but He wants you to know it.  Acknowledge the evil of your sins to God; be very frank, sincere, and explicit in your confession of sins.  Strip yourself of all excuses, make no alibis. Acknowledge the evil of your sins.  God be merciful to me for the sake of the Precious Blood alone

You must be spiritually quickened by the Holy Spirit's operation and forgiven freely by the power of His Precious Blood.  The great Gospel medicine for human sin is the Precious Blood.  Nothing you can do can add to the sinless merit of God Incarnate's Atoning Blood. You're no good at all; Rest now entirely on the merit of Christ Jesus.

The sprinkling of Christ's Blood Atonement kills the love of sin and sinful habits.  Mercy of God, receive me; Precious Blood cleanse me; Holy Spirit purify me, create me anew by your power.  Jesus, lover of my soul, teach my soul to sincerely love you.  My soul is saved eternally by the blood and merits of Another.  Self-righteous men hate the very idea of being saved freely by the merits of Another, because they feel indignant at being insulted by being disregarded when it comes to real merit and righteousness.

Your enmity and rebellion to God is waxing worse, and it will worsen into everlasting rebellion if you wind up in Hell Fire.  If you think there is something in outward religion that produces salvation, and you resolve to be your own savior, you will eventually die in your sins.  By nature, you are alienated from the life of God.  There is no goodness whatsoever in man by nature, there must be a divine work of the Holy Spirit within us in order for us to regenerated and reconciled to God.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Calvary's Pardoning Blood


God's Divine Law requires absolute perfect obedience, which you have not rendered, and never will render. You have broken God's Law, humble yourself and take your right place as a guilty sinner condemned by God's Law. What the Law requires, the Gospel gives to sinners. *Romans 10:4* Plead Guilty before God. Give Jesus Christ the right and highest place. The Lord Jesus Christ must be Everything, and you must be nothing. Mark this - Man's evil heart will not receive the choicest Gift of Heaven, Jesus Christ, for the natural man loves his sin, and prefers himself to Jesus Christ. *John 3:19-20* The rejection of Christ proves the deep depravity of human nature. Sin is loathsome, abominable, and Hell-deserving.

You have already sinned, so you are condemned already.  Sin is like toothpaste: once its out of the tube, there's no getting it back in. Once you've sinned, there's you nothing you can do about it, but plead Guilty, and then plead for Mercy through the Atoning Blood of Jesus Christ. Doing your best in the future will never remove or cancel your past sins. All religious moralists are enemies of the Cross. Only in Christ can we meet the requirements of the Law.

Human nature makes much of man and nothing of God.  Men think they are somebody, and that they can merit something of God, but this is delusion. Think and make much of the pardoning blood of Jesus, make everything of Jesus, for Christ is All.  God will only be merciful to you, because of the great Atoning Blood of the Lamb of God. Simply trust Jesus as a little child trusts to its mother and has no fear. Simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the way of Salvation. Confide in the bleeding Substitute for guilty men. Only trust to what Christ has done for us, and what the Holy Spirit works in us.

Faith in Jesus' Precious Blood always leads to a secret mourning for sin, a humble faith in Jesus' finished work, a genuine change of life, a secret communion with the Holy Ghost, an earnest attempt to live a changed life for Jesus' sake, a realization of our nothingness in the sight of God, private effectual prayer, a sincere desire for the Scriptures, an inward conflict with sins, a love for preaching and teaching of the Bible, an eager desire for more grace, and a simple childlike love to Jesus. 

The Gospel is just this: God has mercy upon the guilty and undeserving, not to those that do their best. Pardon for the guilty by faith in His Blood; acceptance for a sinner by a Righteousness that is not his own. Dwell on this thought - Jesus who was God over all, blessed for ever *Romans 9:5*, the Maker of the worlds *Hebrews 1:2*, gave Himself to bleed and die for unworthy rebels like you and me. JEHOVAH made the sinless soul of His dear Son an offering for human sin, so that the guilty might by freely cleared by Grace alone. Pardoning mercy and cleansing grace is intended only for the guilty and polluted. A sinner can only come to God by way of the Atonement. Jesus Himself is the Atonement. *Romans 5:11*

I shall always plead the Atonement made by God's Pardoning Blood. The Sin-Bearer suffered so bitterly to make an Atonement for my sins. The sacrificial bloody death of the Son of God for sinners is my only claim to God's mercy. The Satisfaction made by Christ was for my sins. Precious Blood, eternal redemption, matchless atonement, substitutionary sacrifice. Him hath God raised from the dead. Persuade guilty men to come to the Savior, tell them of the great mercy of God, the preciousness of Jesus' Blood, and the power of the great Atoning Sacrifice of Calvary to take away human guilt.

Christ took the sinner's place, bore the sinner's sin, suffered in the sinner's place, and vindicated the divine justice of God. My sins against God must be punished, and they were punished in Christ's bloody death on Calvary.  Jesus is the only hope of guilty men. Accept for yourself the great Atonement by an act of personal faith. Keep to the Gospel of the Grace of God. The Savior lived here on Earth a life of holy obedience, and then He died, the Just for the unjust, to bring to me God. Salvation is not of human merit, for there is no such thing. Pardoning mercy, renewing grace. Rely on the power of pardoning blood of JEHOVAH JESUS. Trust to the Substitute for guilty rebels.

If you want to get rid of your guilt and sin, God's only way of forgiving sinners is by laying your sins on Jesus the great Sin-Bearer. Think of sins forgiven, Righteousness imputed, and divine nature imparted. The Offended one dies to set the offender free.  Sin necessitates punishment and death. Jesus' pardoning blood is our one theme. Come to the Cross and enjoy the sweetness of Jesus' pardoning grace. The sin-pardoning God is Christ Jesus. Trust only to Calvary's Pardoning Blood. Make Jesus' Blood and Righteousness your only plea.

Whosoever believeth in Jesus shall be immediately forgiven, immediately renewed in heart by the Holy Spirit, and made a new creature in Christ. Christ died, He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost. It was for sins and sinners that Jesus died on Calvary's tree. He His own self bare our sins in His body on the tree. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Jesus put away my sins by making full Atonement to divine justice.  Jesus was punished in my place, and so ended my debts to God. God cannot punish the sinner for whom Christ was punished. God cannot exact the same debt twice, first of the Substitute, and then of the sinner. Substitutionary Sacrifice is the finest of the wheat. A real Atonement is the best food for my soul. Jesus' sacrificial death was for me. I rely only upon the pardoning blood of Calvary. The Atonement is my clear way to Glory.  Salvation by works exalts man; Salvation by Christ's finished work exalts the Lamb of God.

The greatest source of Faith is the contemplation of the Cross of Christ. The Atonement by the Blood of Jesus is the heart of Christian truth. Trust to Christ's pardoning blood, rest in His Righteousness. Deal honestly with God, confess your sins to Him. Accept His work upon the Cross as the Atonement for your sins, His Righteousness as your acceptance before God. Look to the tree of doom where Jesus suffered.  Jesus was taken to the tree, our sins were laid on Him, He died for His enemies. He was made to be Sin for us, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Him. Jesus offered the one and only Atonement for human sin with His own pardoning Blood. There is no other Sin-Bearer, no other Atonement, no other Satisfaction.

The definition of the Atonement - He His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. I believe in the Atonement Himself. The Atonement saves from despair and from the love of evil. If you reject the Atonement, you will die in your sins and perish forever in the lake of fire. You don't have a soul; you are a Soul.  You have a body, and will soon have to exit that body and go out into Eternity.  Salvation by faith in His Blood. Free Pardon by Precious Blood. There is salvation, salvation by a glorious Savior, unto holiness, by redemption, a perfect salvation provide to us by Jesus Himself. Salvation by grace implies that men are guilty. Salvation by Substitution of the Incarnate God. This is as plain as the nose on your face. Good morals cannot save you. Salvation is only by faith in the pardoning blood of Jesus.

Substitution is the heart, life, and soul of the Gospel. Salvation by human merit is delusion. I am a sinner saved by Blood, all glory be to Him who died for me. Mercy seeks after the guilty. All men are guilty before God, dead in sin. To believe is to trust Jesus, His suffering, His Atonement, trusting to Him for Salvation. Let the pardoning Incarnate God save you from the wrath to come and the love of sin. Go directly to Jesus Himself at once. Let Jesus save you, that is all.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Columbus Day Facts


People in America have celebrated Columbus Day since the colonial days.  Christopher Columbus was born in Italy in 1451.  He first learned to sail when he was 14.  Christopher Columbus was a brave navigator who landed on an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492.  Columbus did not set out to prove that the world was round; his quest was to discover a lucrative western sea route to Asia where there are abundant silk, tea and spices.  The Greek mathematician, Pythagorus, had already proved that the earth was round; and later Aristotle also proved that Earth was round, for the Earth could be seen as round during the lunar eclipse.   

On August 3, 1492, Columbus left Spain with 87 men aboard three vessels. The three ships on his voyage were called the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Pinta, Spanish for “the painted one” or “prostitute.” The Santa Clara, meanwhile, was nicknamed the Nina in honor of its owner, Juan Nino. The Santa Maria was called by its official name, its nickname was La Gallega, after the province of Galicia in which it was built.

The main reason for his voyage was due to the critical sea lane at Constantinople being overtaken and controlled by the Turks, and a new route to Asia had to be discovered.  At this time in history, most trade between Asia and European countries had to be done over land.  Columbus was not the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Norse Viking Leif Eriksson did that around 1000 A.D., when he landed on Newfoundland.  The Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.

Columbus left Spain on a southwestern course in August 1492.  He stopped in the Canary Islands on his way across the Atlantic. He used celestial navigation using the stars and sun to chart his course. He used a quadrant to measure the distance of the sun or a star above the horizon.  He also carried with him an almanac with 30 years of lunar predictions. His voyage made landfall in the Caribbean after 29 days at sea. When Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean, he believed it to be Asia--his intended destination.

The Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia; he was intending to chart a western sea route to China and India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia; but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas and landed on an in the Bahamas. He called the island San Salvador. I am sure that island was a sight for sore eyes.  

Columbus' flagship was the Santa Maria, but Nina was his favorite ship because it was of the latest design.  The Santa Maria was shipwrecked on December 24, 1492 off the coast of Haiti, and Columbus returned to Spain aboard the Nina. He left 40 of his crewmembers in La Navidad to start the first European settlement.  When Columbus returned there in 1493, none of his crew were still alive.  

Columbus returned to the Americas three more times in the following decade. His other voyages took him to places such as the Caribbean islands, South America and Central America.  Portugal, France and England actually refused to fund his voyage.  He was financially backed solely by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It took Columbus six years to convince them of his venture.

Columbus’ governance of Hispaniola was often brutal and tyrannical. Native islanders who didn’t collect enough gold could have their hands cut off, and rebel Spanish colonists were executed at the gallows. Colonists complained to the Spanish monarchy about mismanagement, and a royal commissioner dispatched to Hispaniola arrested Columbus in August 1500 and brought him back to Spain in chains. Although Columbus was stripped of his governorship, King Ferdinand not only granted the explorer his freedom but subsidized a fourth voyage.  Columbus took his last trip to the Caribbean in 1504.  He returned to Spain at age 53 in poor health and nearly blind.  He died in Spain on May 20, 1506 at the age of 55. 

Following Columbus' death in 1506, he was buried in Valladolid, Spain, and then his remains were moved to Seville. At the request of his daughter-in-law, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were shipped across the Atlantic to Hispaniola and interred in a Santo Domingo cathedral.  When the French captured the island in 1795, the Spanish dug up remains thought to be those of Columbus and moved them to Cuba before returning them to Seville after the Spanish-American War in 1898. 

However, a box with human remains and the explorer’s name was discovered inside the Santo Domingo cathedral in 1877. Did the Spaniards exhume the wrong body? DNA testing in 2006 found evidence that at least some of the remains in Seville are those of Columbus. The Dominican Republic has refused to let the other remains be tested. It could be possible that, aptly, pieces of Columbus are both in the New World and the Old World.

Though Columbus did not really discover the New World--millions of people already lived there--his voyages did mark the beginning of centuries of trans-Atlantic exploration and colonization.  Columbus achieve the monumental task of joining the two hemispheres doubling the size of the habitable planet, and establishing trade between the continents. 

The first Columbus Day celebration took place in 1792, when New York's Columbian Order–better known as Tammany Hall–held an event to commemorate the historic landing's 300th anniversary. Taking pride in Columbus' birthplace and faith, Italian and Catholic communities in various parts of the country began organizing annual religious ceremonies and parades in his honor. 

In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage with patriotic festivities, writing, "On that day let the people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life."

Columbus Day became a federal holiday in America in 1937.  In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday, largely as a result of persistent lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, an influential Catholic fraternal benefits organization. Originally observed every October 12, it was fixed to the second Monday in October in 1971.

In many parts of the United States, Columbus Day has evolved into a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Local groups host parades and street fairs featuring colorful costumes, music and Italian food. In cities and towns that use the day to honor indigenous peoples, activities include pow-wows, traditional dance and lessons about Native American culture.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

All is Done!

Every man has sinned against his Maker; and God's divine justice demands an infinite penalty for sin.  The soul that sinneth, it shall die.  God is true and holy; the guilty sinner must pay for his sins; God's holiness demands a payment.  Because of our sins, we are all deserving of, and liable to the second death, eternal death, the wrath of God.  Punishment is the just result of offending a good and holy God.  So Christ Jesus, God in human form, offered Himself up as the Lamb of God to bear the full penalty which the sinner ought to bear; Jesus fulfilled and honored the Law which we had broken and dishonored.  He volunteered to be our Substitute, Sin-Bearer, Mediator, and Daysman.  At the Cross, God compounded in one awful mass all the sins of mankind and laid them on Christ's shoulders.

The Holy Spirit much teach you the evil of your sins against God, sin's horrible penalty, and sin's desperate character.  You should hate and avoid sin as you would a venomous snake or spider.  God is angry with the wicked every day, and He will by no means clear the guilty by human merit; for our God is a consuming fire.  The wicked Christ rejecter shall be turned into Hell.  The wrath of God presently abides on every Christ rejecter. *John 3:36*

You have broken the divine Law and incurred the terrible penalty of the wrath of God.  There is guilt in your sins which justly merits punishment from God. You have sinned against your Maker, and your sins must be punished.  You must find a Substitute through whom your sins can be paid for and put away from the sight of God.  Men remain in their lost state due to ignorance of self, sin, condemnation, punishment, and the Savior's person and blood.

The way of Cain is self-righteousness and human merit.  Cain preferred his own way of self-sacrifice, not an innocent blood sacrifice.  Carnal boasting, self-conceit, vain glory, and hatred of the Bloody Cross is the religionist's way.  I deserve to perish on account of my sins and go to Hell, but Christ was condemned and died in my place.  I was in debt, but Christ paid it for me in full with His own innocent Blood - All is Done!  You cannot get your soul to Heaven by working, no more than you could make it across the Atlantic on an air mattress.  When Jesus cried, "It is Finished!" on the Cross, all of Salvation's work was Done once and for all.  If you try to add to Christ's finished work, you are offending God in the greatest way.

The plan of Salvation by works in any way is an impossibility.  Your ruin fits you for Christ's Remedy. Physicians are for the sick, robes are for the naked, cleansing is for the filthy, forgiveness is for the guilty, and mercy is for the miserable.  The fact is I am guilty and have nothing to plead but God's Mercy through Jesus' Blood.  Humbly stoop to drink of the water of life.  Humbly take God's plain directions to the Cross.  Christ is my All in All; He is all I desire on Earth, and He is all I need for Heaven.  If your sins are not punished in Christ for you, your sins must be punished in you.  If you die in your natural state without faith in Christ, divine vengeance must punish you forever.  Jesus says, "I suffered for this sinner, I was punished with this sinner's punishment, and therefore for my Blood's sake, let this sinner can go free."

Christ Jesus was made to be Sin for us, God looks on Jesus as being my Sin; Jesus bore my sins' punishment.  Christ was punished for me, and suffered all my sins' penalty.  He took my guilt and suffered in my place.  Jesus was made a Curse for me, that is, all my sins were imputed to Him, and He answered to divine justice for them.  Divine Justice found my sins on Jesus; He was charged for my sins and was cursed (condemned) because of them.

My sins deserved God's divine wrath, and that wrath spent itself on Jesus' spirit, soul and body.  The black clouds of divine vengeance emptied themselves on Jesus that dark day at Calvary.  God the Father had no pity on Jesus for He was bearing my sins; God smote Jesus and laid upon HIm the punishment my iniquities deserved.  God treated Christ harshly became He became Sin.  The great sin-debt is paid and cancelled for Jesus' sake alone, full Atonement has been made on my behalf, and all my sins are freely forgiven. Jesus' bloody death on Calvary's tree was the Atonement to divine justice.

Submit in faith to the Blood Atonement of the Son of God.  There is nothing for you to do; only accept in simple faith the Atonement made once for all on Calvary's Cross by God manifest in the flesh.  Cease from your deadly doings, fall down at the foot of the Cross; cease from your own righteousness. Forsake all hope of Salvation by your own self-righteousness.  Christ only died for the ungodly.  You need God's Free Grace and Mercy Divine found only in Christ Jesus.  True Faith lays hold on the Precious Promises and Blood of Christ.  None but Jesus can save your guilty soul.  Trust to Jesus; repose in His Atonement; confide in His finished work; fly to His Atoning Sacrifice for refuge and safety.  Come now under the shadow of the Cross, and find eternal refuge from God's vengeance on sin.

Reconciliation by Precious Blood; Justification by Free Righteousness.  The Substitution of Christ in the place of the guilty sinners is the Gospel Way.  Christ was treated as if He were sinner, and then the transgressor is treated as if he were the Righteous One.  Substitution is a change of persons.  Christ becomes Sin for the sinner; Jesus stands in the sinner's place; He was numbered with the transgressors; the sinner becomes Righteous; he stand in Christ's place, and is numbered with the Righteous.

Christ Jesus had no sin of His own, but He took upon Himself my sins, guilt and curse, and was punished on account of my sins.  I have absolutely no righteousness of my own, but I have freely received and taken Christ's Righteousness.  I am rewarded and rescued for Jesus' sake, and stand safe and sound before God as though I had never sinned.  My sins all are gone now through Jesus' blood.   All is Done!  Jesus finished my Salvation when He bled, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead on the third day.  The Atonement satisfied man's understanding, quietens His conscience, melts his heart, and changes his inward nature.  Christ has made a perfect Atonement for the ungodly.  All is Done!

Divine justice cannot touch the soul that is trusting only to the Precious Blood. In simple faith rest on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  God wants nothing from you but your sins, for that is all you have.  Jesus kept the Law for us and satisfied the demands of divine justice.  Saved by blood through the rich, free grace of God.  Free pardon is now available to the guilty, and everlasting acceptance to the lost through Jesus' merits and blood.  God will only clear the guilty for Jesus' sake.  Be mindful of God's omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence.  Repair to Calvary for divine Aid.  The littlest and the biggest sinners must all be saved by Blood.  Free Salvation by the simple act of faith in Christ's Precious Blood.

God is Holy and He must be Just; He must punish human sin, so He exacted my sins' penalty on Jesus. God is gracious; He will pardon whosoever believes in Jesus.  You have sinned all your life; you are guilty in the sight of God.  Your own conscience acknowledges that the Law condemns you. Trustful faith in Jesus' Atoning Blood is vital.  Self-righteousness damns, but Christ's Righteousness justifies and saves.  Whosoever believes on Jesus is guiltless, not condemned, and can never be punished.  There are no more frowns from an avenging God for the soul that is implicitly trusting to Jesus' Blood.  I cast my soul completely upon the Atoning Sacrifice of Christ; I trust in Him alone to save my soul.  The best you can by the grace of God, live a pure private and public life, glorying only in the Atonement of Christ, and drawing from the power of the Spirit.  All is Done!

Friday, October 11, 2013

Simple Gospel Truth 1

Bible prophecy concerning the Messiah promised that He would be both God and man.  He was born as a child, but yet also called the Mighty God.  *Isaiah 9:6*  Christ Jesus was a descendent of King David.  He was both man and God miraculously joined together in one person - Jesus of Nazareth.   Israel's religious leaders were proud and greedy, and therefore blind to the prophecy concerning the Messiah.  Infinite deity and earthly humanity were both manifested in Christ Jesus.  Jesus was worshipped by man here on earth.  Jesus is equal to God and the Holy Spirit.  *I Timothy 2:5-6* God became a Jewish man, so He could become the Savior of sinful men.  The Word put on human flesh in order to save sinners. *John 1:14*

We are made righteous through Christ's obedience.  God became a human being, so He could die for our sins.  Sin's penalty is eternal death.  God the Father could not die, but Jesus, God manifest in the flesh as a Jewish man, could suffer the penalty for our sins.  Jesus became the Mediator between God and men.  In order to be a go between, it is necessary to be equal to both parties in the mediation.  The only one who could bring a holy God and sinful man back together had to be equal to both.  Only one person in the history of the universe has done this, His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, God Incarnate.  Jesus never sinned; He had the Righteousness that was acceptable to a holy God in the mediation.  Jesus as our Great High Priest offered up Himself on the Cross as our sinless Atoning Sacrifice.  Jesus revealed God to blinded sinful man.  God revealed Himself to man through the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  *Hebrews 1:1-3*

God is Just; He punished human sin in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  God is merciful, He accepts every sinner that trusts to the Precious Blood for Jesus' sake.  Make an inventory now of your past sins; go over that dark list of iniquities from your childhood until now.  God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Your sins should humble you.  Human nature kicks at moral boundaries. Men by nature are infatuated with the love of sin.  What you do when you are all alone; that is what you really are.  You do what you do, because you are what you are.  What your mind dwells on in secret is what you really desire and love?  Man intellectually resists that he is sinful.  By nature, every man's inclination is toward evil. Has the Holy Spirit ever showed you what is in your heart?

If you live to sin, you are lost for sure.  Your daily sins fly in the face of the thrice-holy God of the universe.  The non-loving of God and the rejection of Christ are the root sins that damn a man.  Sin always results in misery and guilt.  Sin promises pleasure and an escape, but it always results in misery and bondage. There is nothing spiritually good whatsoever in human nature.  By nature, every man and woman is utterly lost in their sins.

Nothing can kill your love for sinning but Jesus' Precious Blood.  The only true Remedy for a sin-loving heart is Jesus' most Precious Blood.  Your so-called good works are just as sinful as your bad works if you are trusting to those good works to help save you from the wrath to come.  Nothing but the Blood of Jesus can do helpless sinners any good.  No man can be saved by his own doings, for all men are sinners.  Be wise - ask the great Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous, to take your case and arbitrate for you before the throne of God.

Without Jesus Christ as your Substitute, your damnation is just and inevitable. Depend upon the Blood and Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall see God's face in Eternity with acceptance.  I am nothing; and there is nothing in me whatsoever to inherit Eternal Life, for I have no goodness of my own.  You have nothing else to trust to but Jesus' finished work.  The only way that sin can be removed from your guilty soul is by God's Blood that flowed from Jesus' veins on Calvary's tree.

Have you ever trusted to Jesus' Blood with all your heart?  Do you have a sincere interest and trust in the Atoning Blood of God manifest in the flesh?  Why do you personally believe you are saved from the wrath to come?  Do you have a daily battle inwardly with temptation and sin?  Are you really and truly resting in the Precious Blood of Jesus for all your Salvation?  Are you glorying in Another's Righteousness which is not your own?

Personally submit yourself to Jesus.  If you slight and neglect the blood of Jesus, your soul shall be damned for sure.  Come by faith to the foot of the Cross and trust alone in the merit of Jesus' Blood.  Only Jesus can rescue from the enslaving power of your sins.  You are condemned already in the sight of God, for you have intentionally slighted and neglected the Son of God.

JEHOVAH'S Salvation is only found at the Cross.  The free forgiveness of sins is through the Atoning Blood; God's divine pardon is to be had for nothing through simply trusting to Christ Jesus.  No merits of yours are needed; there is no need for you to bring your self-goodness; come to the Cross just as you are -- an undone, bankrupt sinner, simply trusting to Jesus alone.  The only way of entering into Eternal Life is through the Door, the only Door, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

The Lord Jesus Christ stood in the place of sinful men, and bore for them the wrath and terror of the Law's curse and fully satisfied Divine Justice for us.  Jesus took my sins upon Himself, and then He suffered the punishment due to all my sins. The only remedy for the deadly disease called Sin which rages within you is the Incarnate God's own Blood.  Again, the only way of escape from the enslaving power of your iniquities is through the Precious Blood, the working of the Holy Spirit, and God's divine grace.  There's hope for the vilest at the Cross.  If you can take pleasure in the sin which cost Jesus His life, you are condemned already.  Heartily accept Christ's Blood Atonement at once.

You must forsake your love for sins and merely depend upon the Blood and Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your transgressions. Bible Repentance is hating and forsaking sins. Just be nothing, and let Jesus be everything.  Stop setting up your self-righteousness in opposition to the merit, blood and righteousness of the Great Sin-Bearer and Mediator.  You must place precious Faith in the Precious Promises and Precious Blood of the Precious Savior.  Take your sins directly to Christ's Cross.

All confidence except in the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus Christ is delusion.  Your sins deserve the wrath of God, but Jesus took that wrath for you.  The Atoning Sacrifice, the Precious Blood, will make you whiter than snow within through the Righteousness of the Lamb of God.  The only Remedy for human sin is the bleeding sinless Substitute, suffering and dying in your place, believed on and received into your heart.  Come directly to the Cross, just as you are, and depend upon the Blood and Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am a sinner for sure; Christ died in the sinner's place; I trust wholly to Him; and I am saved.  Humble yourself down at the feet of Jesus, seek His mercy, trust to His Precious Blood.  Confide alone in the power and merit of the Atoning Blood of God Incarnate.  The only safe and sure way to come to God is through faith in the Person and Blood of Jesus of Nazareth, God in human flesh.   Evil human nature disregards God, rejects Christ, loves sin, and neglects the Bible.  Eternal Salvation is procured by the Blood of Christ alone, not human self-righteousness.  Sincerely ask God for mercy through faith in the Precious Blood of His Son.  Faith in the crucified and risen Savior is key.

Let Jesus rule your daily thought life, speech, and actions.  Christ must be lifted up in your life, and His Precious Blood should be your daily theme.  Extol the Precious Blood of God Incarnate.  Tell sinners about the Precious Blood, that is the main thing they need to hear about.  Ability without humility is disability.  Be always pointing sinners to Calvary's Lamb.  Make Jesus very high in your esteem.  Care less and less for man's esteem.  Self-esteem is the opposite of Christ's esteem.  Lift high the banner of the Savior's bleeding love.  Always tell out the Good News of free Salvation through childlike faith in Jesus' finished Cross-work.