The True Ruin of the Fallen Heart
The unregenerate heart is in a profound state of delusion and blindness; its heart is sin-diseased to the core. Every soul is naturally dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), content with darkness and depravity. Sin is a deep-seated, fatal disease and curse within you right now. You are in a self-induced sin coma that has blinded you to your eternal peril, and you are horribly content in your lost state. You are a sin zombie until JESUS awakens you from your dead state! You drink down the deadly poison of sin daily, and you are completely indifferent to the eternal condition of your Soul.
The carnal mind fiercely, absurdly, and desperately clings to self-righteousness, and hates for you to bring up serious thoughts of death, judgment, and eternity. The natural man bases his eternal destiny on fickle feelings, empty experiences, and dead works. Moral performance, proud competing and comparison, and looking down on worse sinners; these things are nothing but human conceit. The carnal mind loves its own darkness; it chooses its own delusion and will have none of JESUS. You prefer to love and enjoy your sins rather than trusting and loving Jesus Christ. You try to dodge and evade Jesus Christ, but you cannot hide from the all-seeing God!
The Sheer Absurdity of Self-Righteous Religion
The Law reveals the desperate wickedness of the human heart, and the Gospel rejects any notion of human goodness. Only the Law can convince the morally decent and respectable sinner that he is terminally ill spiritually. Good deeds, moral pledges, and religious behavior can never put away your sins; they are only a sham cure for sin! Religion’s slight healings never reach the dead human heart. Self-righteousness is the natural man’s Deadly Anesthetic for the terminal cancer of sin—a refuge of lies built by the carnal mind, which detests the simplicity of THE CROSS OF CHRIST.
The carnal mind substitutes external religion for personal heart-faith in Christ Jesus. The flesh loves the external appearance of religion—performing ceremonies, but refusing to yield the heart to the Lamb of God. The carnal mind is content to be religious on certain days and at certain places, remaining entirely void of saving Faith, without personal, conscious faith in JESUS. Man-made religion hides Christ behind all kinds of elaborate ceremonies. The carnal mind desires vain pomp and show, outward display, and an endless maze of religious riddles and conjectures. The false gospel of puzzlement leads you further into your dark cave of sin, because you prefer to wander in the luminous haze of unbelief, creating needless complexities.
The Gospel openly exposes how evil human nature eagerly runs to ritualism and baptismal regeneration, because external religion does not require a new heart from the Spirit of God! The quackery of religious formalism and hollow hypocrisy insults God with its empty forms. The carnal mind feeds upon the husks of external religiousness; dry orthodoxy, sound theology, and creeds alone are only silly delusions. The Gospel strips away all academic distractions, complex theology, and religious rituals. Any reliance on ceremonies, sacraments, or moral efforts is sheer mockery and an insult to the Crucified Creator. Self-righteous efforts to help your sin-sickness leave you morally and spiritually worse off than when you started; you try your best and exhaust yourself, but you leave the plague of sin deep within completely untouched! Self-salvation in any way is sheer absurdity and insanity!
The Supernatural Work of the Cross and Regeneration
There is no human potential apart from God: without JESUS you can do NOTHING (John 15:5). Salvation is entirely a divine operation in the heart of man from the finger of God! The heavenly Father must plant you in Christ and give you the living root of Faith. Eternal Life comes not through baptismal waters or religious rites, but by hearing the truth of the Gospel and trusting the Father Who sent Him to save sinners. Religious routines every week do not give inward spiritual LIFE from God.
The Divine work of Resurrection and divine Quickening occurs when the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God is implanted, and the divine nature is imparted (1 Peter 1:23; 2 Peter 1:4). Your sins are blotted out of existence forever, and your Soul is legally acquitted of all charges and set free only by Christ's perfect Righteousness (called Justification), and by an inward miracle within from the Holy Spirit (called Regeneration, Titus 3:5).
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and died as the Sinless Substitute for sinners on THE CROSS. The Incarnate Creator made divine Mercy accessible to sinners. JESUS is able to save any sinner to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25); He saves the very worst of sinners still today, even you with all your sins! All sinners who trust in JESUS are legally cleared, pardoned, and delivered from the holy wrath of God. The Blood of Christ must remove your deep-seated stain of guilt; only GOD'S BLOOD is the infallible remedy for all your sins against God! Only the Atonement can cancel condemnation, and eternally acquit you before the judgment bar of God.
Christ Jesus endured the full penalty for your sins on THE CROSS. The Law can never bring the believer in Christ into condemnation again (Romans 8:1). The Man Christ Jesus can ransom you from the tyranny and power of darkness, translating you into the Kingdom of God, and liberating you from the curse and condemnation of the broken moral Law of God!
What Is True Saving Faith?
Human nature doesn't miss Salvation, because it is too hard to understand, but because Salvation is too free and too easy! The Gospel requires absolutely no human merit, no superficial ability, complex religion, or human works. The Gospel strips away every human add-on: never place any confidence in sacraments, ordinances, rites, baptism, moral reform, or church membership.
Is yours mere belief or saving Faith? Mere agreement to a set of doctrines and historical facts will not save the Soul. Not just a superficial, intellectual assent to Bible doctrines and facts, but vital, living trust in the Person of Christ Jesus is required! Flowers don't grow without roots; they must have an underlying source of life from their roots. Faith is the deep, hidden root in Christ!
Saving Faith is an active, desperate, personal movement of the Soul stepping off the dark sinking ship of Sin and onto the Ship of Salvation, abandoning all self-reliance to trust simply and entirely in the Blood and Righteousness of the Son of God. Saving Faith is the heart's reliance upon the living Savior. Lean the entire weight of your Soul upon Christ, coming to Him for Rest, and resting only on Him. Restful leaning upon the Person and Atonement of Emmanuel (God with us) is required. Faith puts down an immovable anchorage in JESUS' words!
The sole ground of eternal certainty is found only in Christ's words. Certainty about your eternal destiny cannot be built on feelings, human reason, traditions, or emotional experience. Accept Christ's infallible promise as absolute truth! Look out of yourself to God Incarnate, who bled to death in the sinner's place. The object of Faith must be JESUS only: simply take JESUS at His Word. Feelings will deceive you; doings will damn you!
The Urgent Call to Receive JESUS Now
Stop trying to save yourself! Stop doubting the Savior's veracity and ability to save souls! Come away from the deadly quackery of formalist religion. You must be driven to total self-despair before you'll ever stop trying to manufacture counterfeit righteousness and trust in Christ's Atonement alone. You must be driven to absolute despair and come to your wit's end by the Spirit of God's operations, abandoning feelings and self-efforts, and cry out to God for Mercy to be instantly and freely saved!
The sinner must be justified in the sight of God by Faith in JESUS' BLOOD. You must receive all your Salvation as a bankrupt beggar receives a free handout. FAITH is an absolute reception, abandoning self-salvation completely. Abandon all trust in your doings, feelings, religious ceremonies, and ordinances. Have nothing to do with saving yourself! Jesus Christ is the sinner's Savior: leave your lost Soul wholly in His hands, so that He may save you freely. Don't wait until you feel better or worthy before coming to Christ Jesus! JESUS doesn't save the self-improved sinner.
The Door to heaven is not complicated to find. The path is clear, the door is open, the call is urgent, the command is simple: Trust JESUS, not yourself! The Gospel strips away the sinner's comfortable, superficial religious delusion and drives him to seek the only cure for his sins down in the dust at THE CROSS before he enters Eternity.
Will you simply take JESUS CHRIST at His Word and be saved by simple, childlike Faith, or will you stubbornly reject His infallible promise and die in your sins? The very moment you trust in JESUS, your Soul is justified from all sins (Acts 13:39); your judgment is passed, and your Soul's eternal Safety is forever secure! Cast away all hesitation, stop walking willingly into eternal darkness under the blinding power of Satan, and embrace JESUS alone by simple, childlike Faith in GOD'S BLOOD. Believe on JESUS now and LIVE eternally!
Renouncing the World and the Flesh
Abandon your cherished iniquities and self-righteousness! Seek the sin-crucifying Grace of God. The flesh actively resists and avoids the crucifying grace of God, for human nature recoils at the shame and reproach of THE CROSS. But you must completely let go of everything else and lay hold only on Christ, or you will perish in your sins!
The carnal mind loves hard, mechanical activity, but not the heart's resting on Christ Jesus. The flesh loves to boast in its own performances, but true discipleship requires a total renunciation of self-effort. To trust Christ alone means to abandon trust in feelings, cease from all self-confidence, and acknowledge that you are spiritually bankrupt.
Living in Total Reliance on JESUS
Salvation is a present possession the moment the Soul believes on Christ, but the walk of the believer is a daily, continual reliance upon Him. Do not look back to your own works or attempt to maintain your standing before God through fleshly energy. "ETERNAL" Salvation—Justification and the Forgiveness of sins—is available ONLY through personal faith in GOD'S BLOOD shed by EMMANUEL on THE CROSS. Your Eternal destiny hangs in the balance now. If you reject Christ, there will be eternal consequences for you. Neglecting Christ, Delaying receiving Him, or rejecting the Gospel is a very dangerous spiritual gamble.
Keep your eyes fixed entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Saving Faith accepts JESUS for what God the Father has ordained and declared Him to be: the Divine Atonement for all human sin, and the absolute Lord of the believer's life. Trust Him, rely upon Him, and rest your Soul upon His promise and His Blood every day of your earthly journey!
