Saturday, April 30, 2016

Something More Than Gold

A certain man of Jericho of whom we read in Luke 19, who lived in days of old, and though he was rich, he still felt his need, of something more than gold.  Oh yes, oh yes, there's something more, something much more than gold:  To know your sins are all freely forgiven, is something more than gold.

This miracle happened on a certain day, when a little man named Zacchaeus was told that Jesus soon would pass by his way with something more than gold.  He was empty inside and sought to see who Jesus was, but He couldn't, so He ran before the crowd, and climbed a sycamore tree above the press, so that he might behold that blessed Savior with power to give him something more than gold.

In Mercy, the Redeemer came along his way and saw him up in the tree; Then calling to him, Jesus said, "Make haste Zacchaeus, come down, for today, I must abide at thy house."  So he made haste, came down, and received Jesus joyfully, and soon Zacchaeus found that the half had not been told; the eternal blessing that Jesus brought to him that day was far better than gold.  For the Son of man had come to seek and save that which was lost.

Immor(t)ality or Immorality?


Come to Jesus!

Come to Christ Jesus today, sinner friend.  If you are poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus is ready, He waits patiently to save you.  He is full of pity, compassion, love and power.  He is able to forgive your sins, He is willing to have mercy on you, doubt Him no more. Come, ye needy and unworthy, come and welcome; freely receive God's so great Salvation at the Cross; ask the Holy Spirit for true belief and real repentance.

Christ Jesus is rich in grace and mercy towards the ungodly.  Salvation is available today only to those who have no money, that is, nothing to offer but their guilt and sins; Come to Jesus Christ now helpless and guilty, and buy His Salvation freely without money and without price. You're caught up in a mess called Sin, and only one Person can save you from it.  Let not your self-righteousness make you linger, all the fitness that Jesus requires is that you feel your need of Him, and this the Spirit of God gives you with His quickening and illumination.

Come, ye weary and heavy laden, lost in your sins and ruined by the fall. If you tarry until you're better, you'll never come to Jesus at all. Not the good, not the righteous, but Sinners Jesus came to call to Repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ agonized in the garden of Gethsemane and sweat great drops of blood especially for you, and on the bloody Tree, behold Him as He dies on account of your sins; Hear Him cry, before He gives up the ghost, "It is Finished!"

Sinner, will not this suffice?  Lo! the Incarnate God, suffering, bleeding, crucified, risen, ascended, and seated at the right hand of God.  You can't hold back the hands of time, and the sand is running through your hourglass awful fast. Believe on the merits of His Atoning Blood; Rely on Him, rely wholly; Let no other vain trust intrude: None but Jesus, none but Jesus, can do helpless sinners any good.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

How 'Bout That

I've found a Friend who is all to me, His free grace and dying love are ever true.  I love to tell how He lifted me from my wretchedness, and what His Mercy can do for you. He preserves my defenseless soul each day; I'm leaning hard on His mighty arm, and I know He'll keep me all the way. 

You see, the Invisible Creator became a visible human being at Bethlehem with God's Blood coursing through His veins; His name was Jesus of Nazareth. The Eternal God came way down out of Eternity and into time to rescue me from my sins and misery. The King of glory became a poor man, so I could be made rich. The Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, made Himself of no reputation and lived a life of poverty, obscurity, and insignificance. He was despised, and was willing to be considered a nobody. How 'bout that. 

God Almighty humbled Himself and became weak for my lost soul's sake. O what a Savior is mine!  He loved me so - even when I didn't care about Him at all. Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not that God was crucified, knowing not that it was for *me* He died on Calvary. The guilt on my conscience had grown heavy, and Divine Justice pronounced me Guilty. But then I heard the Best News a sinner could ever hear - How that Jesus, the dear Son of God, bore my sins, endured their due punishment and full penalty, and laid down His life especially for me. 

Only His Precious Blood could make a vile sinner like me whole, atone for all my sins, and remove my love for sin and fear of death. I was poor and needy and all alone, but He sought me and gave me His Hope and Cheer. He gently knocked on my heart's door, patiently waited, and whispered, "Come unto Me." He lived a sinless life; He died a bloody death; He even became Sin and a Curse, so I could be accepted, forgiven, and blessed.  Now that's a Life you can hang your immortal soul on for Time and Eternity. How 'bout that.

Salvation is not achieved by your attainment; oh no, Salvation is received freely through trusting to Christ's Blood Atonement.  The Forgiveness of Sins comes not by your human merit, it is given frankly through God's Divine Mercy. You don't need a new start, you need a new heart. You don't need to turn over a new leaf, you need to receive a new Life at the Cross.  Salvation is not of your doing, oh no, Salvation is what Christ has already Done on your behalf when is He bore your sins in His own body and suffered the wrath of God on the Cross to pay the death penalty that was due to your sins which you committed against God and those around you.

What do you hope to gain by further delay; there's no one else to save your soul but the Lord Jesus Christ, for He was JEHOVAH manifest in the flesh, and He suffered, bled, and loved you to death. Don't wait too long; sin will only make you hard and worse as you avoid and neglect Jesus. There's nobody Better than Him; He's the very Best of all. You're caught up in a deadly mess called Sin.  You might have the religious crowd you mingle with snowed, but you can't fool God:  He knows what you really are behind the scenes.  You can only get ready to leave this world and enter Eternity safely at the Cross. There's no other Way into Heaven but His Way, that is, *Through - His - Blood* - John 14:6; Colossians 1:14.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Plain and Simple 2

The true and living God came down to the Earth He created; He came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and lived and died for sinners, and then He came back to life after three days. Christ Jesus is alive today and able to save any sinner unto the uttermost who comes unto God by Him. Unconverted men are spiritually curious, spiritually anxious, and spiritually insecure. JEHOVAH JESUS is the God who created the world and all things therein. He designed you down to your DNA.  He conquered Satan, sin, death and the grave. For by Jesus were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible [DNA], whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by HIM, and for HIM: And HE is before all things, and by HIM all things consist. According to Colossians Chapter 1, there is a God who created this world; His name is JESUS CHRIST.

JESUS is the author of all the unbelievably complex design of this world. The arrangement and order of the universe didn't just happen. God's glory is on display across the skies every day and night. The core of divine truth is that Christ by His word created the entire universe, He came down to earth and became a sinless Jewish man, He died for sinners on Calvary's Cross, He really rose from the dead, and now today He offers salvation freely to you through Himself alone. Jesus Christ is not dead; He is alive today. This grand truth appears foolish to human nature. One day in the future, Jesus is coming to judge the world in Righteousness.

There is coming a day that is going to change the value of all the stuff you hold dear here on earth. Man intuitively understands that there is something beyond this world. Eternal judgment in the Lake of Fire awaits every Christ rejecter. The atheist has heartburn over this truth. Human nature always questions, "Did God the Creator really say what is found in the pages of the Holy Bible? Yea, hath God said?" Jesus Christ is the one who will judge the living and dead. See Matthew 25:46. Heaven is forever, and so is the Lake of Fire. The atheist says, “Don't get all worked up, you can’t know for sure about Hell, Hell is not really what the Bible says it is.” What sins make you go to Hell? Neglecting and rejecting Christ Jesus the Savior, God in human flesh, who bled to save you from the love of sin.

Jesus Himself will soon hold you accountable for your entire life (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Jesus will deliver you to your eternal destiny based on how you valued Him. There is a Hell to shun and a Heaven to win through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. God can see into your heart right now. He can see your many thoughts, He reads your mind, He discerns your intents, He weighs your motives. He created you, He died for you, and He knows the record of every sin you have or ever will commit. 

There is footage recorded about your whole private and public life. Your Maker has caught it all on His divine record. There was a Lamb who voluntarily took the wrath of God on your behalf and was slain for your sins. Will you believe on Him? Jesus is the Forgotten and Unknown God. He is the Son of God, the Creator of all things, the Conqueror of the grave, the coming Judge of all the earth. Believe in Him and be saved forever. The wrath of God was satisfied at Calvary, every human sin was laid on Jesus Christ, including yours. Up from the grave He rose again for you. He is risen indeed.

Men today are incredibly educated, deeply religious, but still horribly idolatrous and superstitious. This generation is inundated with theories concerning our origin. Every person including atheists has his own set of moral standards. He believes certain things are wrong, and certain things are right. Every man makes up his own code of ethics; he is his own god. Many are Critical, some are Curious, and few are Converted by faith in Christ's blood alone. The day of wrath is coming. Come to the Cross of Christ for Shelter.

And That's That

You were born wrong; you're a sinner. Everybody has this problem. And ye must be born again of the Spirit of God (John 3:8). If you're not born again, you will surely die wrong and go to Hell. There's nothing wrong with you that a miracle won't fix. You were born through the sufferings of another (your mother) when you born in the flesh. And you must born again the second time through the sufferings of Another (Jesus Christ). Blood had to be shed to give you physical life, and Blood had to be shed to give you Eternal Life.

The New Birth gives you new Activity (pleasing and serving your Creator), New Appetite (for the Bible, prayer, souls), and New Awareness (of your sins, the devil, the Holy Spirit, Eternity). The guilt of sin brings the need of Atonement. The greatest spiritual want of a sinner is the free pardon of his sin by simple faith in the Blood Atonement of Christ. God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ provided the Atonement by freely and fully giving up Himself to suffer the consequences of human sin. The blood of Jesus Christ is the life of the Gospel. You must Return to God by the way of Calvary's Cross - Behold the Lamb of God!

There is no other way on earth to Heaven but through the shed blood of Jesus Christ - God manifest in the flesh. Men have invented whole religions and theories (darwinian evolution) to prevent coming to Jesus Christ for free salvation, and so they can continue on in their dirty thoughts and godless ways. Human nature would rather try to work its way to heaven and end up going to Hell, than trusting the Man who died for them. For God, even God only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men. The Lord God will render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart He knows. The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of all your thoughts. The Lord searches the heart, He tries the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Your secret sins are in the light of God's countenance. God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. God knows the secrets of the heart. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel. That's what troubles the sinner's conscience. The only way you can avoid hitting the Judgment and suffering eternal damnation for your sins against your Maker is to trust and receive the Sin-Bearer, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, the one Person who paid for your sins, so you wouldn't have to pay for them. Trust in what Jesus did for sinners on the Cross, and in that alone.

Evolution is a pipe dream for grown ups, it was dreamed up to give those folks who love sin some fig leaves to hide behind here on earth. Time is of the essence, your immortal soul is on the line, your days are numbered, and you know not what a day may bring forth. The beginning of wisdom is to Fear God.  If you reject the Way (John 14:6) that God gave you to stay out of Hell, because of your bitter pride and love for immorality, you'll wind up in a Lake of Fire. The Incarnate God's Sinless Blood Atonement is the sinner's Salvation. Simple faith in Christ's Redemptive Finished Work is the only way to get rid of your guilt.

Getting saved from the love of sin will make "sinning" after conversion very complicated. You will grow more and more troubled over sins that never bothered you before. You will begin to feel your slightest sins and your bent to sinning. Make no excuses for your sins. After the New Birth, you will begin to worry about and detest your sinning. The unregenerate sinner worries about everything but his sins and the salvation of his soul. Deal with your sins - You need to clean house. Ask God daily to give you a passion for private and public purity. Bridle your tongue, help and serve those who cannot pay you back, look to other's needs. Humility with your tongue, compassion with your resources, and purity with your life - demonstrate the Gospel of grace. Surrender to the Holy Spirit's control. Ask Jesus Christ to change the way you think everyday. And that's that.

A Little Help 8

The Lord Jesus Christ is my All in All, and I am nobody. My sinful life cost Him His death, and His bloody death is my Life. He took my sins, and died; I take His Righteousness, and live. The world may laugh, but I will win. The ungodly may sneer, but I will sing. Come to Jesus, hide in Him, and then keep there. Never get an inch beyond the Cross. Let this be your motto - you nothing, and Christ everything. Sink lower, and lower, and lower in your own self-esteem; and let Christ's esteem rise higher, and higher, and higher.

Keep always at the foot of the Cross. Practice great watchfulness, walk circumspectly, and not as fools. Follow after righteousness and godliness, hate your sins for they killed Jesus Christ. Keep your word even when it is to your personal loss. Act gently to your spouse and children, fairly to your workmates, kindly to your subordinates, faithful to your superiors, uprightly to all. Be grieved when you err. Endeavor to guard your weak points - watch and pray - Watch against temptation, cry daily to God for strength to overcome your sins. Seek after peace of conscience through the blood of Christ, peace with God through communion with the Holy Ghost, and if it be possible, peace with all men.

Don't speak evil of others, don't cut others down. Be swift to hate your sins, and by the grace of God, be strong to repel your iniquities. View the bleeding Savior, and you will hate your sins intensely. Follow Christ practically in daily life. Be meek and merciful. Aim at purity of heart and the fear of the Lord. Keep to self-denial and separation from the world. Follow the narrow way. Use your utmost endeavor to keep yourself disinfected by the grace and blood of God. Keep close to the Savior. Keep up constant communication with the Lord. Follow the crimson way of the Precious Blood, the narrow way of secret pray, self-denial, and communion with the Holy Ghost. Seek the Holy Spirit's guidance and wisdom.

All sinful men must be justified by grace through faith in the Person and Blood of Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh. All the enmity of human nature is against that truth. Men want to be saved by their own morality, and by all sorts of things that they put in the place of salvation by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. Be wise, and cry to God to help you, cry for the Holy Spirit to enable you to lay hold on eternal life, and simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for immediate salvation. Now trust His blood alone (Romans 3:25; 5:9). You cannot save yourself, Christ is the Savior, it is His main business to save sinners. Put your guilty soul into hands of the Crucified and Risen Redeemer. He is the Savior, and He will save all sinners who trust Him. To trust Jesus at once is the wisest thing to do.

Rest in Christ more confidently, love God more earnestly, serve your generation more intensely, live while you live, play not at living, live in real earnest for Jesus Christ Himself. Earnestly cry to God for mercy, grace, and wisdom. Don't gossip and backbite. Look unto Christ, enjoy His presence, rejoice in Him intensely, find God everywhere, trace every blessing and trial to God, look to God for everything, take every care to His throne of Grace, and every petition to His mercy seat. Christ is All. Adorn the Gospel in all parts of your life privately and publicly, love others earnestly. Make it the one object of your life to make other people happy. Delight in God's worship. Seek Christ, and enjoy His eternal life.  Decide for God once and for all, thoroughly and intensely. Be very thorough in giving up your sins.

Let Gospel truth be thoroughly saturated in your being. Follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Get the word of God deep into your soul, meditate on God's promises, get soaked with the Scriptures, and sprinkled with God's Blood. Ask the Lord to make your inward and outward life more pure and true. Let the Lord thoroughly examine your life. Heartily abhor and despair of yourself. Flee to Christ's Precious Blood for mercy and grace.

The Cross is the sole hope of real sinners. Read and hear the words of God attentively, constantly and intensely. Live for God, serve God, and glorify God. Ask sinners to come to Christ's Blood and to be reconciled to God forever through Jesus' finished work. Seek the kingdom of God always by prayer, by earnest faith in Jesus Christ. Always be an earnest pleader and suppliant. Wait intensely, insatiably for God, the living God. Make Jesus your All in All - give up forever self-seeking, forsake all desire to shine, all wishes to be great, all cravings to be rich, live henceforth not unto yourself, but unto Christ Jesus that died for us. Consent to be nothing for Jesus' sake. Just be nothing, and let Christ be everything, that is all.  The Cross Alone!

Plain and Simple 1

The one truth that the unsaved world cannot tolerate today is the fact that when a man dies, if he is not Perfect and Holy within through the Grace and Righteousness of God in Christ, his soul will burn forever and ever in the Lake of Fire. No religion, including darwinism, can take that. No religion on earth teaches that the best you can do will land you on your back in Hell, but the Gospel of the Grace of God found in the pages of The Holy Bible does teach that. All religions except Biblical Christianity teach that you must *DO* something or other, you must earn and pay for your salvation is some way, either in part or altogether. But the Gospel rejects all human efforts and calls it all Dung, and then points the guilty sinner to Calvary to simply rely on Jesus' doing and dying alone. God with us, Christ for us. Faith in His Blood - that's the ticket.

Only the Holy Spirit can convince an atheist of his sinfulness and danger. Only the Holy Spirit can *Reveal* Christ to a sinner. People cannot tolerate what the Bible says about human self-righteousness. Many people ask, "Where is Hell?" Hell is at the end of a Christ-rejecting life. You may think you're all right without Christ's Imputed Righteousness, but you're not. Your soul must be made absolutely righteous in God's sight by the work of the Holy Spirit (Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the *Holy Ghost*). Ye must be born again. When a man is born again, God gives him Christ's Righteousness as a Free Gift. The atheist relies only on human help, humans are the atheist's gods, but the Christian relies on God's divine help. Christians are grateful to God for all God's help and mercies that are given to him.

There's no difference between the Pope and Charles Manson, or Mother Teresa and Jack the Ripper. There's no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Here are some roadblocks on the highway to Hell: The Bible, the Holy Spirit, Calvary's Cross, the witnessing believer, your conscience, prayer, sermons, the creation, and gospel tracts. If you reject Jesus Christ, you will cut your own spiritual throat. Don't wind up Religious, but lost. Every humanist is an egotist. Never put any faith in man or yourself. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.

Most folks today live thoughtless and careless and wind up dying Christ-less and hopeless. Atheistic people think that Darwin is the Authority, not Jesus Christ. The atheist is going to think the way he's been taught, and nobody's going to tell him anything to change his mind. The religionist trusting in his own righteousness is going to believe what he's been taught, and nobody on this earth can convince him of his need of Jesus Christ. You're in deep trouble without Jesus Christ. Religion today doesn't want to upset you; it wants to make you feel good about yourself. Your inward nature is so dark and sinful. Human nature indulges in and delights in sin. It's what you have in you that will take you up or down at death. It's not what you did or didn't do, that takes you to heaven or hell. The Holy Spirit will take you up at death if you are regenerated, you'll go up to the source of what is in you. Only guilty and filthy sinners need His pardoning blood.

All you have to do go to Heaven without trusting Jesus Christ is to be Perfect. Just live a sinless life, don't ever make any mistakes, that's the way to heaven without Jesus Christ. But God has a situation worked out now, that if you will simply trust His Son you can meet His righteous requirements, so you don't have spend Eternity in the Lake of Fire, where we all belong. God is a pure Spirit and a consuming fire. God must reveal Himself to you, or you will never find Him. God reveals Himself at the Cross of Christ in the Blood of Jesus Christ. View the wounded wonderful Savior; Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

You have a soul in you that will never cease to exist. One day your soul will leave your body, and your sins must be paid for by Someone. The Bible says that you don't have to go to Hell. Christ died for the ungodly, that's us! Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ hath everlasting life. Come unto Jesus' feet, and He will give you rest. If you do the very best you can and follow your conscience, you wind up in hell. Human nature abhors the Gospel, because human nature is self-righteous and loves sin. You don't have to die in your sins and go to Hell. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Simple faith in the Precious Blood and Righteousness of Jesus Christ freely justifies the needy sinner on the spot. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, especially you. Trust in Christ alone for mercy and the free forgiveness of sins just now. Christ Himself is all a guilty sinner needs. Believe in the Crucified and Risen God who justifies the ungodly. Only the grace of God will lead a man to abhor and quit his sinning.

The Bible is so, your sins are real, your conscience alarms you, Hell exists, and God manifest in the flesh shed His Blood on Calvary's Cross for the ungodly. You need to throw darwin and his monkey fable overboard now, and by faith come directly to Jesus Christ as a guilty sinner, and from the heart, ask Him to best way you know how, to save your soul from the love of sin and hell fire. Fill in the blank: If I were to die tonight, I would wake up in He______.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

The Cross Alone! 3

Here's straight talk over the plate waist high, so you can't miss it.  The crux of the matter is the crucifixion of God manifest in the flesh for sinners. The crucial part of the Gospel is the very Blood of God's dear Son.  The Cross Alone, Only His Blood, That is All!  The most important truth of the Scriptures for a miserable wretch life yourself is the Precious Blood of God manifest in the flesh.  The essential point of the Scriptures is that God the great Creator so loved sinners like us, that He was willing to become a Jewish man, so that He could live the sinless life you could not live, and then bleed and die to pay for the sins you committed against Him, in order that you could have free eternal life by simply believing and trusting to what He did for you on the Cross.  That's as good as it gets.

The Atonement was offered for human sin by the Son of God Himself upon Mount Calvary.  The "Cross" is the short term for the atoning blood Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who offered up Himself, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.  God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing our trespasses unto us.  Christ Jesus took my sins, and bore them in His own body on the tree, and He was punished in my place.  The claims of divine justice were met by the bloody death of the Precious Redeemer.  Jesus actually suffered on account of my sins to vindicate divine vengeance by enduring the punishment that is due to my sins.

Whosever believeth on Jesus is not condemned.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.  The Creator descended from heaven's glory and was made a Jewish man, and suffered in human form with God's sinless blood to take away human guilt, He took upon Himself the form of a servant, and offered Himself as a Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and now whosoever can come and Rest in what Christ had done on our behalf.  The bleeding Savior, the sinner looking to Him alone, the sinless Christ dying, so the dying sinner may live.

The Judge of all the Earth, the offended One, gave up His only begotten Son, so His justice would not be violated, and so His mercy might be given freely to the ungodly.  The only begotten Son died, that the offenders of His law might be forgiven and live.  The offended One dies, that the offenders might go free.  Herein is Love, not that we loved God, but that God first loved us.  The atoning blood of Jesus really takes away sins.  He really laid down His life to redeem me from my iniquities.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, He suffered the wrath due to their sins.  Believe on Jesus, that is, Trust Him; Trust to His Blood with all your heart, cast away your self-righteousness, rely upon His merits, Rest in His Righteousness, and you are saved on the spot.  Close to the Cross, draw nigh to the Savior.  Find Shelter in the Atonement, the Cross, the Blood of the The Lamb of God.  Keep to the Cross, stick to the Blood, stay in the Bible, lose your love for the world, always be lifting up Jesus Christ, tell of His bleeding love for sinners, Glory in the Cross!

Fix your mind and heart on the Cross for a while; this is the Best mental therapy you'll ever receive, and it's all Free on top of that.  So let's get to the point - Life's simple when your straight; life's complicated when you're crooked.  You can't con a man unless he is crooked.  Deceitful Darwinists con crooked sin-loving folks everyday.  Slick religionists con superstitious, self-righteous souls everyday.  The self-esteem of human nature is directly opposite of the Scriptures where we are told to esteem Christ highly and to deny self completely.  The chief object of Scripture is to glorify and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, and put down man.  Man's gospel divides the work and glory of Salvation between Christ and sinful man.  Religion exalts man, the Gospel exalts the Lamb of God slain for sinners.  Man would never have invented a gospel which would lay him low, and give Christ all the glory and praise.  Now understand - The very first inward teaching and operation of the Holy Spirit will reveal God's anger towards you as a sinner, and then the Spirit will reveal your enmity towards God.

If you are trusting to your own righteousness in any fashion, you are in grave danger.  Human nature has an affinity for sin; you are on a collision course with Divine Justice.  Prepare to meet thy God; hasten to the Cross for Shelter.  The faith which saves the soul, concerns itself only with Christ Jesus.  The person of Jesus is faith's real treasure.  Genuine faith lays hold on Jesus as the Sin-Bearer.  Christ Jesus was not just some good man, or great example to follow, or a wonderful teacher of moral principles.  Oh no, the Jesus of the Bible was virgin born of Mary, He lived a sinless life; He was accused of sin all of His life, but in Him was no sin at all. He was made to be Sin for us, who knew no sin, when He died on the Cross.

The Lord Jesus Christ died as your Substitute; He bore all your sins in His own body and suffered the deadly consequences due to your sins in your place; He was delivered up for your offenses against God.  No one ever loved anyone like Jesus loved you when He was dying on Calvary's Cross.  God the Father laid all your sins upon His only begotten Son; the Father smote the Son as if He were not only a sinner, but as if He were all the sinners in the whole world rolled into One.  Jesus died especially for your sins. Look now to the Cross - for there lies your only hope of eternal life. Take Jesus Christ as your Substitute dying in your place.  Give yourself up altogether to the Savior, renounce your own righteousness, submit yourself to the Righteousness of God.  God's Righteousness is a living Person, and Christ is better than any human righteousness. Grasp this simple truth of the Gospel.

Men refuse to believe that Christ will forgive them freely of pure grace.  Human nature listens closely and studies diligently the falsehoods that this world offers.  Human nature is a rebellious, discontented thing.  Human nature is as bad as it can be.  Human nature says, "Take Christ something, try to impress Him, make yourself better, and He will accept you."  But that is all wrong - only take your emptiness and sinfulness to Christ; that is all He wants from you; take all your sins to the Cross, and He will wash them away freely.  God will only love you freely for Jesus' sake.  Dost thou not fear God?  Call upon the name of the Lord; cry out to Him for mercy; God be merciful to me a sinner for Jesus' sake.  Trust and cling to Christ Jesus as a drowning man would cling and trust to a life-buoy.

Believe on God Incarnate, the bleeding Lamb of God.  Here's the simplest of all matters - Believing on Christ Crucified, accepting His finished work, being nothing, letting Jesus be Everything, doing nothing but trusting to what Jesus has already done.  Have done with your Self, repent of your love for sin, deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, quit your meanness, turn from your selfishness to Christ.  Flee to Jesus now for refuge from the wrath to come; Come quickly to the Cross where there is Safety.  The true path to Safety is towards the Cross; ask Jesus Himself to cleanse you with His Blood, and renew you within with His Spirit.

Receive the Gospel personally as it is revealed to your soul by the Spirit of the Lord.  The Spirit's light breaks into your heart, and reveals your lost and undone state, your guiltiness before God, and how you are under the present curse and condemnation of a broken Law.  The Holy Spirit produces a thirst in your soul, a conviction of personal guilt, fearfulness, shame, and the dread of death.  The Spirit of God will show you the exceeding sinfulness of your sins.  You can only obtain peace with God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The great Atoning Sacrifice who bore our sins in His own body on the tree of Calvary.  Come now and stand at the foot of the Cross by faith, behold Jesus' dear face, and gaze at His wounds and stripes that He took for your sins.  Jesus smarted for your offenses.

Trust in nothing but God Incarnate's Atoning Blood.  Redemption by Substitution is the message of the Gospel.  Men make their gospel as children make toys.  They are only pleased with it for a moment, then they tear it apart, and then attempt to make it some other way.  Man's gospel is as changeable as the weather.  Nothing can be more comical than a religionist trying to tell someone how to get to heaven by their own works.  The Gospel is opposed to human pride and self-righteousness.  The Gospel never exalts man.  If you come to the Cross with any of your doings, the door will be shut in your face.  It is ingrained in human nature for it to try to save itself.  You could no more help Jesus Christ with your salvation, than you could help Jesus keep the sun shining outside today.

The Gospel doesn't give sin any place.  Sin is a not a mistake; sin is a crime against your Maker.  The wages of sin is eternal death, and you can only have eternal life as the free gift of God.  The Gospel always brings with it a sorrow for sin, a hatred towards sin, and an avoidance of sin.  Ye must be born again, and without the new birth of the Holy Spirit you will be lost eternally.  The Gospel offers no excuse or cloak for sin, but it condemns sin utterly.  There is no pardon for human sin except through Christ's great Blood Atonement.  The Gospel will not let you harbor your favorite sins; the Gospel comes after a man's sins.  That's why men don't like to hear the Gospel.  Men that love sin do not take to the Gospel.  Christ died for our sins, and we must die to sin, or we will die eternally.

You need to turn your body, soul, and spirit over to the Lord Jesus Christ - Hook, line, and sinker; lock, stock, and barrel. We must first sense the evil of sin, and then we will prize the priceless Sacrifice of the Lamb of God.  Men did not invent the Gospel. Human nature wants a cultured, polished, dignified religion that exalts human merit.  Adoption by the Father, Atonement by the Son, and Regeneration by the Spirit.  The Gospel of the Grace of God is distasteful in the mouth of the self-righteous man.

We must not hide the offense of the Cross.  The Gospel always offends Christ's enemies - sin-loving men and women.  Gospel truth can only be received by Faith.  The best of men are only men at their best.  Foul words, loose looks, filthy deeds, vile thoughts, and unclean lusts are within the heart of every man.  The Blood of Jesus can wash it all away.  The atheist and religionist are dead set on ruining and damning their own souls.  Unregenerate man measures God by himself.

Only prize and praise the Blood of Jesus.  When a man is really thirsty, it will not take him long to drink when he has the water in his hand.  The Water of Life is right here before you, take Him and drink now.  When a man is hungry, it doesn't take him long to eat when the hot bread is in front of him on the table.  The self-made man always worships his creator (himself), and the self-saved man always glorifies and adores his savior (himself).

The Holy Scriptures do not contain one flattering word about human nature.  The Holy Scriptures are never complimentary to unregenerate human nature.  You can search the Bible through and through, and you will never find any good thing said about man.  Man is bad to the bone marrow.  Faith in His Blood - this is your soul's only Safety.  Place all your trust in nothing else but the Atoning Blood of God manifest in the flesh - Christ Jesus Himself.  Sit down and think for a minute, understand your ingratitude, selfishness and love for sin.  The more you sense the evil of your sins, the more you will be thankful and rejoice that Christ Jesus came into the world to put away sin by the bloody Sacrifice of Himself on the Cross.

Salvation is altogether a free gift of God. Look completely out of yourself, look away from your doings, and trust to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sinners, and He now lives forever, and lives to save guilty men and women freely.  Trust only to His bloody death to bring your soul the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  Yield your guilty soul to the Lamb of God.  The Blood Atonement of Emmanuel is still full of power and able to save to the uttermost.  Whatever you may be trusting to, put it all away immediately and come to Christ for everything you need.  You can only be accepted by God for Jesus' sake.  Trust to Jesus now and live.

Christ is for me, and I trust Him, I will confess Him, for He is my Best Friend, my Lord, my God, my Savior, and my All in All.  God has a Righteousness (Christ Jesus), and your wisest course is to submit to Him.  If you try to set up your own righteousness in opposition to Christ's Righteousness, you will only increase your sin and guilt.  You will be ruined by your own righteousness, as surely as by your own unrighteousness.  Trust Christ's most perfect obedience to the Law, and His bloody sin-atoning death.

Behold - God Himself came down here among men, Jesus was Incarnate Virtue robed in pure Love.  But men didn't love Jesus; they gave Him no homage.  The only words the world gave Jesus was "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!"  The world hates purity, virtue and perfection; evil human nature cannot endure absolute purity and righteousness.  Our native instincts are all wrong, our backs are turned against the Light, we insanely run away into the thick darkness of sin.  The crime of crimes is willfully rejecting Jesus Christ.  The most horrible crime is your hatred of Jesus Christ.  Come to Christ now as a miserable sinner and take Him to be your whole Righteousness.

Now hear this - Acts 4:12; Acts 13:38-39; Acts 16:31; Acts 20:21.  If you want to be saved from the love of sin, you must come to Christ.  There is no other way of Salvation under heaven but by coming to Christ.  Go and do whatever else you will, but you will be disappointed and lost until you come to the Cross.  To come to Christ, means to leave all other confidences you have, to leave your love for sin, to forsake your own righteousness.  To come to anybody is to leave everybody else.  To come to Christ is leave every other hope, every other trust.  Never trust yourself or your own works.  Never trust a priest, or Mary, or any of the saints, and never trust the Pope.  Never trust your soul with anyone but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  Come away now from every other reliance, and trust to Christ Crucified, for He is the Savior of sinners.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto!

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

The Only Cure For Human Guilt

The Almighty Creator God still saves sinners even today in 2016. Sometimes we don’t believe that. We bank our happiness on other things that man has invented or dreamed up. But God Almighty says to us, “I’m better than you think I am, and you’re much worse than you think you are; come now, let us reason together, saith the LORD.” Our friends and family disappoint us. Our own good intentions let us down. Sooner or later our very bodies will give out on us. We must look beyond ourselves and stake everything on Christ Jesus Himself, who alone saves guilty sinners from the wrath to come. The Gospel is very good news for bad people like us. But how can a holy God love sinners who deserve His wrath?

The greatest miracle of the Gospel is right in the center of it. In Romans 4:5, Paul says that God “justifies the ungodly.” That’s a real problem. When God justifies the ungodly, He upsets the whole moral order of the universe, doesn’t He? Everyone knows that God punishes bad people and rewards good people, right? It’s His job, but the Gospel disagrees. The Gospel says, “God justifies the ungodly.” What does that mean? It means that God declares guilty people innocent freely. It means God treats bad people as if they were good people. This goes beyond human reason, this takes a divine miracle. It doesn’t matter if you’re a conservative or a liberal person. However you may define virtue and vice, you have a sense of right and wrong – this is called conscience. You form judgments. You expect God to. But how can God justify the ungodly?

Justification is a real good thing God does for sinners. Every one of us is ungodly, and we know it. Good people (self-righteous folks) always go to Hell, and Bad people (sinners) in need of the Savior go to Heaven. Do-gooders who trust in themselves wind up in the lake of fire, and no-gooders can go to Heaven through Jesus Christ's finished work. We’ve all failed to be the people we ought to be. We all regret something we have done in the past. A deep uneasiness about ourselves is why we live in denial. When we discover self-excusing evasion in our politicians, we demand an honest reckoning for their wrongdoing. But do we require the same unsparing justice on ourselves? Cover-up is the self-righteous strategy of every guilty conscience. We always try to blame others. A troubled conscience lies behind our finger-pointing and self-justification. We try to reassure ourselves, we try to shift the blame to others. Our problems are always someone else’s fault. Parents blame their children, husbands blame their wives, and so on. We pass the buck because we can’t bear our guilt. We so desperately want for someone to bear our guilt for us. We dump on others without realizing what’s happening in our thoughts. Our real problem is moral guilt before God. Guilt is the perilous stuff that weighs upon every human heart. Our guilt is intolerable, unbearable. Our guilt feels like a ton of bricks on our heart at times. If we reject Christ, we'll have to answer to God for what we have done all by ourselves, we’ll be condemned and crushed before Him by our human guilt. Only the Blood of Jesus Christ can rid you of your guilty past.

Every sinner always tries to hide and cover up his sins. We lie about it, we cover it up, we try to run away, we change the subject, we shred the documents, we clear the history on the web browser, we delete the emails, we destroy the evidence, and we get angry and say, "How could you even think I would do something like that?" We are like the little child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, we just smile and hope that mommy won't notice. Every one of us has wanted a second chance after some failure. Every one of us understands that. We’ve all been trapped in consequences we didn’t intend, but we did set them in motion. Every one of us looks back at something in our past and agonizes, “If only I could relive that moment. If I could only trade in my past record for a better one!”

Dark is the stain of sin and guilt that we cannot hide, what can avail to wash it away? Look to Calvary's Cross! there is flowing a crimson tide - whiter than snow you may be today. God's grace will pardon and cleanse within - His grace is greater than all our sins. God's mercy exceeds our sin and our guilt, look to Calvary now, there where the Blood of God was spilt. Man tries to medicate his conscience with earthly antidotes for human misery such as entertainment, romance, overwork, and self-achievement. What will make our unbearable guilt go away? Who can bear it for us? God became a man and bore our sins in His own body; Jesus took our place.

When we try to shift blame to one another, we create a mess. But there is redemption and spiritual release from sin’s bondage and guilt in God’s blood shed on Calvary’s Cross. God justifies ungodly sinners only through Christ’s FINISHED work on the Cross. God accepts unacceptable sinners at Golgotha. JEHOVAH desires to save undesirable wretches. God honors shameful people; God adopts the beggars and outcasts into His family. God treats fools as princes and harlots as princesses as Jesus steps into our place at the Cross and bears our real moral sin-guilt far away upon Himself. That’s how God our Judge becomes God our Justifier. You need God Himself to forgive you, and only the Lamb of God can bear away a sinner’s guilt. God Almighty wants to glorify His Son by washing your sins away with Christ’s sin-pardoning blood. The only barrier that is keeping you from Christ is when you cling to your guilt by clinging to your human goodness (self-righteousness). Faith in the shed blood of Christ (Romans 3:23-25) is God’s way of release for guilty people – and there is no other.

Every one of us needs a Scapegoat. Jesus Christ was willing to be the Scapegoat for all of us sinners. In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ says to us, “I am that willing Scapegoat for your guilt. Up on the Cross, I was crushed under your unbearable sin and guilt. I took all your guilt, because I love guilty sinners. If you’ll trust Me, here’s the deal: All my innocence and purity will be yours, and all your guilt and shame will be Mine forever. Deal or no deal? Will you continue to try and cope with your guilt by your own devices? Trust Me now, and I will wash your sins away with My precious blood and bear your guilt away with My infinite mercy.”

Christ Jesus really was a man of sorrows, but they weren’t His own sorrows. He didn’t deserve them. They were our sorrows. This is the love of God which passeth knowledge, this is the unspeakable gift of God. Jesus substituted Himself for us at the Cross. God has done what we’d have no right to do – God has shifted all the blame to Jesus Christ for our sins as He died for guilty sinners. God pointed His holy finger at Jesus Christ on the Cross and said, “You must pay for the world’s sin!” God passed the buck to Jesus and laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Jesus bled for your sins. This is what the Bible calls imputation, from the Latin verb *imputare*, which means “to charge (to someone’s account).” Guilt must be paid for; it can’t be swept under the rug. When you are wronged or injured – even in a fender-bender – the injured party demands justice, someone has to answer for the damage done, it’s someone’s fault, either you or the other person. The damage and cost don’t just go away. If it’s going to be put right, someone has to pay the cost. And so it is with God. There’s no way He can turn a blind eye to our evil that has damaged His holiness. We have all sinned against God’s holy law.

God is holy and strictly just; He must punish all sin. How can God confront your sin problem? How is the damage to God paid for? Out of infinite love and divine mercy for us, God becomes a Man and charges our infinite sin-debt to Himself, a Sinless Substitute. This is the love of God: Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, put Himself in the place of sinners. The unbearable weight of our sin and guilt was charged to His account, He suffered for it, He sank under it, He endured all the wrath of God for us. For God hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. Christ died for the ungodly.  

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. "Faith in His Blood" is the nucleus of the Gospel (Romans 3:25). Your soul is sinful-filthy-guilty, your heart is obscene, and your nature is foul. Repent towards God, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, that is, trust to Christ alone for He is the all-sufficient Lamb. Only the atoning work of Immanuel reconciles sinners to God. You have not an atom of righteousness to boast of - Ye must be born again. Salvation is all a gift - let no man boast, for Jesus came to save the lost. God's mercy can never be earned, and His grace can't be deserved. God will only forgive you for Jesus' sake - put all your confidence in Christ's ability, not yours. Come to Christ now at Calvary's Cross by faith in His soul-cleansing blood, and exchange your sin for His righteousness *freely*. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.

*His Own Blood*

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink *His Blood*, ye have no life in you (John 6:53). Being justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in *His Blood*, to declare His Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His Righteousness: that God might be just, and the Justifier of the sinner which believeth in Jesus (Romans 3:24-26). Much more then, being now justified by *His Blood*, we shall be saved from wrath through Him (Romans 5:9). Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through *His Blood*, even the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with *His Own Blood* (Acts 20:28). Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by *His Own Blood* Christ entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:12-14) Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with *His Own Blood*, suffered without the gate (Hebrews 13:12). And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in *His Own Blood*, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:5-6).

Every sinner must be saved by Blood, God's Blood, Romans 3:23-25.

The Best News

The average 'weekday' newspaper circulation in America is around 56 million, and the Sunday circulation is around 60 million. It takes 500,000 trees each week just to make all the Sunday papers in America, and around 2.5 million trees to make all of America's newspapers for one week. In an average lifetime, an American reads around 5,000 newspapers. But in all of these millions of newspapers, you will never hear this Good News. Please read on.

The Bible says all men, by nature and practice, are sinners. The sinner's own sins bring guilt and fear to his conscience and soul; consequently, he seeks to establish his own self-righteousness in an attempt to save and prepare himself to meet God at death. This attempt is fatal and futile. All man's conceits about his past righteousnesses must by completed torn down. Men flatter themselves that all is well with them, because they have been baptized, or have come to communion, or have done some other outward religious ceremony. There are millions of souls who are resting upon mere self-goodness and ceremonies. Some base their confidence on the fact that they have never indulged in the grosser sins, they confess to have done their best to be honest. They have tried to be good mothers and wives, dads and husbands, and have been charitable to their neighbors. But these self-righteous rags must be stripped off their sinful souls before they can be really saved by the grace of God.

No man can put on the robe of Christ's righteousness until he has taken off his own natural self-righteous rags. Christ will never just play a part in your salvation - He must do it all or nothing. He must be your Savior alone without any help from you at all. Christ Jesus lived a sinless life 2,000 years ago without your help, He suffered on the Cross alone, and He rose again the third day without any of your good works. You must be saved by Him alone, resting on Him entirely, and counting your self-righteousness to be dung and and filthy rags, or else you can never be really saved at all. Self-goodness must come down in the dust, and Christ's goodness must be exalted. Self-righteousness must be forsaken completely, and you must make room for the righteousness of Jesus (His perfect holiness) alone; otherwise, true salvation can never be yours. You may think highly of yourself now, you may say, "I've never killed anyone, I've never committed a crime, I've never committed adultery." You think that God will overlook all of your other secret sins, but He won't. Remember - the worst sin you can be guilty of is the rejection of the Son of God.

You must give up all self-confidence in your own resolutions, willpower, vows, and selfish endeavors to help save yourself, for the future, and come to rest the future where you rest your past sins, on Christ, and Christ alone. You confess that you have slipped and sinned in the past, but now you 'think' you can stand upright and do good enough to keep yourself safe from the wrath of God in the future, but this is only your self-sufficiency at work. When a sinner truly comes to know himself by the help of the Holy Spirit, he will flee immediately from his shack of self-righteousness into the eternal fortress of Christ's righteousness. You will never quit a single evil passion without the power of Blood of Christ and the Holy Ghost. Sin is only put away forever by the blood of the Great Sacrifice.

This is the Best News that a tongue ever had to tell. God was manifest in the flesh 2,000 years ago, and He was born into the world as a Jewish baby. God only became a man one time in history - His name was Jesus of Nazareth. He lived a sinless life, and went about doing good. He was betrayed and led away to judgment and crucifixion. Crowds did not greet Jesus the day He was crucified, not one friend received Him, not a kind word from men did He hear. A howling mob took Him and mocked and beat Him. The Lamb of God did all this for you. He was offered bitter gall, despised, and forsaken by all men. For this cause Christ came to seek and save sinners. He had no place to call His home, He only owned the clothes on His back, and men gambled for them at the foot of the Cross. He bore your sin's shame, and suffered the wrath of God for you. He was spit upon and crowned with thorns. He came into this world to save sinners, because they were lost. He died upon Calvary's Cross voluntarily, He did all this for you. Christ Jesus' trial came and He was condemned to die, they cried out , "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" He was led away, and stripped naked. Through the gates of Jerusalem, He was led out to Calvary's hill to be nailed and die in your place. He did all this for you.

Christ Jesus was the most God-forsaken person that ever lived. Christ became SIN while hanging on the Cross that day and was made a curse for you. Your sins mutilated His body and drained His life's blood from His veins. Jesus received the stripes and nailed that were due to you. It was you personally that Jesus died upon the cruel Cross, He died in agony and shame. You really ought to have died there that day for your sins, but Jesus took your place. The cursing crowd that day around the Cross watched Him as His blood dripped from His brow, hands, and feet. God heaped up all of your sins in one great, crushing load and dropped it upon Jesus. Christ was the recipient of the wrath of God on the Cross; He took the full brunt for you sin. There is a mirror hanging on the Cross, come up close and see yourself in it, your sins and selfishness caused what happened to Jesus on the Cross.

It is hard for a self-righteous person to give up two things: all glorying and trust in past goodness, and all hope in any future goodness, from himself. It is the hardest thing for a self-righteous sinner to be a pauper and a beggar. Human nature is pitted against Christ's Righteousness. Men are ashamed to beg God for mercy. He refuses to come and knock at Mercy's door and ask for a hand-out, but only as a begging sinner can you come to God. You may think that you are good and excellent in a thousand ways, but remember, you MUST still come, just as the publican came, with this cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner." These are God's terms, and He receive you on no other. Please do not be proud and kick at God's ways, but simply submit to Christ's righteousness and dying love, let your sinful vanity and wicked pride be demeaned and confess that Jesus Christ is all in all to you for your salvation. By simple trust in Christ alone, God freely puts away your sins forever in a moment's time.

It is the sinful tendency in human nature to always try and find something to rest upon in ourselves, but there is no place to rest in us. Men trust in their imaginary goodness, and are very proud of it, and forget that Christ Himself is the only Person a sinner can trust in for salvation. Jesus must be all your GLORY and CONFIDENCE. Jesus Himself must be ENOUGH for you, or you must die and perish in your sins.

The reliance of a really saved soul is upon the Person, work, and righteousness of Jesus Christ Only. You must rest your soul's salvation alone upon Jesus. Lean your soul's whole weight upon God's Son. Christ's Cross is the only pillar of strength that a sin-sick sinner can lean upon - Christ will not fail you, He is all sufficient to redeem your soul from sin. Christ is the bleeding Sin-Bearer that paid all the debt of your sin upon Calvary's Cross. He is able to save you to the uttermost if you come to God through Him alone.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, died on the Cross of Calvary, bearing upon Himself all of your sins, and He made a full atonement, so that your sins could be forgiven freely by His rich mercy and bleeding love. Christ paid all your sin debt, you can go free. He was punished for every one of your sins, you can be acquitted. God cannot punish the same sin twice; if He punishes Christ for your sins, He will not punish you. But you must turn from your sins and selfish pride and place your entire trust in Christ alone. Rest on Him alone. Don't count your soul safe until you hang your soul on Christ.

Just like you would hang your coat upon a peg or nail, hang your soul's eternal safety on Christ's divine grace and love. Only Christ Jesus can hold your soul up at death. Depend only upon Him and you are saved freely, immediately, and forever. Rest on nothing less than Christ Himself, nor rest on anything more. The strength and security of Christ's will keep you safe. Simply hang your all upon the FINISHED WORK of Jesus Christ. You have nothing to glory in except Him, cast everything else aside, and rest as a helpless sinner upon Him. Rely entirely, solely, rest in Jesus Himself.

There is nothing whatsoever for you to DO of yourself, but simply to come by faith, just as you are, resting wholly upon HIM, to be saved from your sins. What is to save you is already done, Christ has done it all. The robe you must wear to enter Heaven is woven already; you don't have to sew one stitch of it to cover your sins. The fountain of blood you are to wash in is filled to brim; all you must do is simply step in naked and trust the Blood of Christ to cleanse you. Trust Christ, step into the fountain of blood, rely on Christ, depend on Christ, and salvation is DONE, and you are saved. When you trust Christ, you are safe now, safe all your life, safe at death, and safe in Heaven forever.

If you want to be saved from sin, death, and hell, you must rest alone upon the works of Jesus, not your past or future works at all. No matter how many black skeletons are rattling in your closet from your past sins, Jesus can erase them all with His blood. They are erased forever, what God does, He does forever. God forgives and forgets all your sins because of Christ's precious blood. This is Good News. However guilty you may be, simply believe this Gospel truth: Christ is able to save you, go and cast yourself on Him, rest on His finished work. If you simply and implicitly trust in Jesus' blood alone, He will be all your glory, defense and confidence.