*MORE LIGHT 8*

SALVATION (The Gospel of The Grace of God)

The Ruin and Frailty of Fallen Man

Man is not sufficient to do the job. Empires go up, and then they come down; man isn’t here for long. Poor, puny man doesn’t have enough sense to trust God! Sluggards don’t like to work, and when you're without God, you are a failure. You think you’re so smart, but a man without Jesus Christ is a complete failure. If you are not properly related to God through Jesus Christ, you cannot succeed in God's Sight and will profit nothing.

A profane and impure man will tell filthy jokes. Listen to a man talk off-guard—words will reveal his character! You can’t depend on people; beware of man. If your word is no good, you’re no good. Dependability is the greatest ability, and a man’s word is his word. There's a bankruptcy of character in America; the Truth has fallen in the streets!

God knows your motives; He knows your thoughts and intents. You can’t get away from God, and you can’t get your thoughts away from Him: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). You usually end up doing what you think. It’s so easy to deceive yourself and sell yourself on a vain idea. Human achievements are vain. You’ll never understand the whole vocabulary of God: "Canst thou by searching find out God?" (Job 11:7). You can’t absolutely know anyone in this world, and you can’t even know your own self. But God inhabits Eternity; God knows everything in the universe, and God sees all the thoughts of your heart.

This is the truth, that every atheist will have to learn the hard way: you'll never win the Sin game! God keeps His word, and He will not fail to punish your Sin: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). Sin always brings punishment with it. "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18)—pride goeth before eternal destruction, and a haughty spirit before a damning fall off into hell!

The False Refuge of External Religion

Money and influence runs churches today—an ecclesiastical machine that takes over the conscience! Most churches are so busy putting on a program, that they don’t have time to pray or do personal work/soul winning. They put the emphasis on other things beside Jesus Christ; Christ doesn’t have the preeminence, and Jesus is crowded out. Church membership is kept merely for respectability and community connections. High-browed PhDs and spectacular, wonderful, attractive ritualism hide God! You can hide God behind religion and selfish ambition; you can get your show so big you won’t see God—looking at the buildings, and not THE CROSS!

Watch out for religious pious talk! People say, "The Lord is leading me," or "I’m doing this for the glory of God," to escape from something that was too much of a routine or to indulge in conditions they created, that God didn’t approve. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh (Matthew 12:34). Don’t slander God!

We are good in the sight of God only when we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, not our own righteousness. You can’t do right until God makes you RIGHT! You must get back to God, or go on to eternal ruin. Do you know God? Is He your Father? Are you converted and born again by the Holy Ghost? Poor, miserable heathen—you need a God you can’t hide from or get away from!

The Finished Work of God Incarnate

Remember what the Son of God endured on THE CROSS for all your Salvation! Man had sinned, and man must make reparation to the broken divine law. God would not accept an angel or a prophet as a Substitute. The Law of God has been broken, and God’s justice must be vindicated!

Jesus was God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). He descended to the manger of Bethlehem as a little Jewish baby; He nestled in a virgin woman’s bosom. The incarnate God, the Eternal One, dwelt among dying men, veiled in mortal flesh, that He may save men from their sins. This is the greatest fact ever sounded in human ears! He came from the Sunlight of Glory—where they do not need the light of the sun—to visit us sinners who sat in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death.

Jesus was so poor, that He didn't have anywhere to lay His head at night. He was so despised, that even His own received Him not, but hid, as it were, their faces from Him. Reviled, with human depravity running wild, mean men spat on Him, humiliated Him, and nailed Him to a Cross! He left the throne of Heaven for the Cross of Calvary; He left the adoration of angels for the mockery of barbarians and religionists. He endured death itself in the most cruel circumstances of shame and pain—scourging and crucifixion! Surely it is the SIN of sins if you Reject the Savior Who made such a stoop in order to save you!

The Call to Personal Faith

Jesus will never turn a deaf ear to a sinner’s cry. The Bible shines like a lamp in the darkness of this age; the Bible is a book of promises and warnings. You have the Gospel, and the Gospel saves by the power of God!

Come now to the Cross; fling yourself down at JESUS' feet! He is willing to receive the vilest sinner living today—even you: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17). "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).

We come as poor, weak, frail, sinful people dealing with an Almighty God, crying: "Have mercy on us!" Look up, trust God, and yield yourself to JESUS. We are not worthy of anything, but we Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ!

DISCIPLESHIP (The Walk of Absolute Surrender)

Standing Firm in a Hostile World

Happy shalt thou be! It’s wonderful to be a Christian! Live a Christian life sensibly—with decency and consistency. But take a stand for the Right! Show off Jesus Christ, not yourself!

If you go along with God, it’s the only way. Trust God first, and then do the best you can to please Him out of gratitude for His love toward you. A wise heart will keep your mouth shut! Humility is the garment that all real Christians wear.

Jesus was unpopular, and you’ll be unpopular. Take your place of reproach without the camp, and exalt Christ! The world hates people that are going God’s way. You can’t move for God without friction! Always persuade sinners to repent and receive Jesus Christ. Any man who is out-and-out for Jesus Christ will be misunderstood, lied about, slandered, and persecuted. The amount of persecution you get will depend upon the value of your testimony and the impact of your influence! You’ll get shot at by the devil’s fiery darts.

If you don’t have any resistance, you’re not out-and-out for God! Stand up with a holy boldness while you are under attack! Wicked tongues will set traps for you. But God is for you, and the devil is against you. Keep going God’s way—don’t stop! Let me make this plain: all your trouble comes from above; the devil is not in hell yet! He is the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), and you need Divine Protection from God above.

Faithful Perseverance and Daily Fellowship

Do the job at hand; don’t leave it unfinished! Do your life job for the glory of God. Don’t play with sin, and don’t get near the devil’s traps! If you keep reaching for the devil’s bait, you’re going to get caught.

Tap the divine resources of God! Look up to God—you can match wits with the devil and his crowd when you lean on the Lord! "Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my Salvation: my God will hear me" (Micah 7:7). Wisdom comes from God. Hold on to God, trust Him, and be faithful to JESUS. Don’t waver or faint; God’s grace is sufficient! Keep in direct contact with God through the Mediator!

Prayer moves God! Men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Pray to God! "He that feareth God shall come forth of them all" (Ecclesiastes 7:18).

Keep your eyes on Calvary, live in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, don’t get discouraged, and walk humbly in the presence of God. Lord God, I want Your will in my life! Go through with God! The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23). You’ll get where God sends you if you are going God’s way faithfully and sincerely. Be faithful to the Gospel which has been entrusted to you!

Keep faithful and true to the Lord Jesus in the good times and the bad times! God, keep us faithful to You!

*MORE LIGHT 7*

SALVATION (The Gospel of The Grace of God)

The True Condition of Man

You belong to a fallen race. Every man is a sinner. Every man is minus God; without God, he has no desire for God. Man naturally doesn’t want God; he wants to get away from God, and he wants his own way. Human nature is extremely dangerous because it wants to trust human merit.

A nice man in his natural state doesn’t have God naturally. You get God supernaturally; ye must be born again. There’s something wrong with man—it’s called Sin. Man doesn’t want to give God His proper place, and everybody has a handicap due to Sin. The Bible tells men how bad they are, but they don’t like to be told that; they think they are Somebody. Moral and decent men have trouble confessing they are ungodly and that they can’t help save themselves.

The man that doesn’t recognize and acknowledge God is a fool. In the book of Proverbs, the Bible says the plowing of the wicked is Sin (Proverbs 21:4). The wicked man works hard plowing God’s dirt, breathing God’s air, and enjoying God’s blessings, but he never recognizes God. To not recognize your Creator is a sin! A fool only makes provision for time, but not for Eternity. You make provision for this world, but not for the world to come, and that makes you an unspeakable fool.

A fool tries to satisfy his immortal soul with temporal, material things. Your soul can’t be satisfied with money, houses, cars, fine food, and clothes—it just won’t work! Your soul can’t feed on worldly possessions. Man longs for something in his soul; he is an immortal being who has a hunger in his heart for something that will last forever.

Think of a little girl whose momma died: she wanted her momma, and a flower, a book, or candy wouldn't satisfy her heart. Her heart could only be satisfied by her momma. Your heart wants God! Your heart doesn’t want a good time, money, or stuff. Give your heart what it wants! That crying in your soul only God can hush, and that longing in your heart only Christ can satisfy. You have a heart hunger that only God knows about, and God knows Who you need: The Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s no tragedy as tragic as combining high mentality with low morality. Religious facts can’t save your soul. You can have a capacity for knowledge and still be immoral. Hitler had brains and a dynamic personality, but he was still a killer. If you don’t have enough sense to get right with God Almighty and prepare for Eternity, you’re not a wise man. Don’t play the fool! Smart alecks play the fool with their soul.

The Reality of Judgment and Hell

There are two emergencies: time and Eternity. You need to make provision for both. Make preparations to meet God or you’ll die a fool.

You can’t beat the game of Sin. Men start out drinking, but then they get a DUI, kill someone, or end up with delirium tremens or cirrhosis of the liver. Sin will put you in a jam! The wages of sin is death—eternal death (Romans 6:23). All the torments and tortures of hell await the man who loves sin and rejects Jesus Christ.

Hell is going to be pretty bad for most Americans; a man that walks away from luxury and comfort, and then has to cry for a drop of water with a parched tongue in the fires of Hell will be a miserable man! There won’t be any liquor in Hell—it takes water to make liquor! You can’t take this world’s possessions with you out into Eternity.

Most men are pretty sure there is a God and a Heaven, but they don’t want to believe there is a Hell. That’s human nature. But everybody is not going to the same place when they die! The world wants to get rid of any thought or mention of God, because they want to keep their sins and enjoy their darkness. But you need some spiritual common sense about your soul: don’t live the life and die the death of a FOOL!

The Only Way of Salvation

Line upon line, precept upon precept—tell them the same simple truths over and over. Whatever the Bible says is so! The Bible is the Word of God. The devil hates the Bible!

Ecclesiastical religious bosses were the enemies of Jesus, and they still are today. They talk very pious and have a lot of rules, selling themselves and their religion with no life in it. External religion only brings confusion and exhaustion; outward religion bewilders and disturbs folks. Hollywood religion, making the headlines, is just glamorous religious entertainment.

Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh—He was God Incarnate, born of a Jewish virgin. He came into the world to seek and save sinners. He died on Calvary’s Cross to keep men and women from perishing in the lake of fire, and He rose from the dead! Jesus is the only Savior for guilty men.

Jesus Christ is Good, but my goodness wouldn’t ever take me to heaven. You can’t dress up nice enough to get into God’s house! God doesn't look on your religious garb; God looketh on the heart. You can’t forgive yourself; you’ll only make excuses for your sins. You are naturally lost, but Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus wants to save you; you can have Him, just take Him, and He’ll take you! Jesus provided the Savior, now you must provide the sinner.

Unless you believe that Jesus Christ is God, you shall die in your sins (John 8:24). That’s clear, isn’t it? That’s as clear as day! The man that wants to know the TRUTH won’t have any trouble about it. Keep it clear! The road to Heaven is well marked: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12). "Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we MUST be saved" (Acts 4:12).

Seek Mercy from God through the PRECIOUS BLOOD of Jesus Christ! You need faith, repentance, wisdom, grace, and mercy from God. You’re saved freely by Brace through faith in the atoning Blood of Jesus Christ. If you simply trust Jesus Christ, and you don’t trust yourself at all, you are saved! A wise man will trust Jesus Christ, not himself.

The best way I know how, I trust Jesus right now to be my Savior: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

DISCIPLESHIP (The Walk of Absolute Surrender)

Learning and Obeying the Lord

Learning of JESUS is the best education a Soul can receive. Sit at His feet and be trained by Him. The man that learns to yield, trust, and obey God is the smartest man alive!

The wisdom of this world says you don’t need God, that you can save yourself, make something out of yourself, and take control of your future. But you must be all out for Jesus, or you can’t learn the will of God. The will of God must be the supreme thing in your life: "Thy will be done." When your eye is single to the will of God, life will be more understandable.

Anyone or anything that would stop me from doing the will of God, we should hate it. Be intolerant of things that hinder the will of God! Human nature has no divinity in it at all, and human nature wants to do what it is inclined to do. The love of money and the love of principle tug at you, staggering you from one side to the other. But we’re going to do right, let it cost what it may—just don’t be ugly or mean about it!

The two biggest words ever tied together are two little words: Do Right. If you don’t know if you ought to do something, don’t do it! Don’t take any chances. Just let that settle it, and give God the benefit of the doubt. If something is convenient and attractive, always be leery of it. Don't act until you do know: pray over it and check into it.

You may not be all you could have been in the past, but you can be all God wants you to be from now on. There’s no stain on any page of tomorrow!

Following Christ

How do you stand in the sight of God? If you’re not for Jesus Christ, you are against Him! If you go with Jesus Christ, you are going to cross the grain of your age. Christianity is never popular, though surface religion is sometimes popular. People are easy and soft today; there’s no fight in Christianity today, resulting in spiritual weaklings with no character who chase ambitions, pleasure, and position.

There’s no glamour in carrying a cross—you’ve got to have some backbone! The disciples are always a small remnant. Discipleship will cost you all you have. You can’t go with the crowd and just drift along, going with the flow of this world.

It doesn’t cost you anything to go to Heaven, but it will cost you something to stand for Jesus Christ and the Bible in the world! You’ll probably be lied about, misrepresented, and slandered, and they may say you hate people. Be all out for Jesus Christ and the Gospel!

Persistent Prayer

Men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1). Prayer moves God! "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jeremiah 33:3).

Call on God sincerely! "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). Knock and see if anyone is home! Knock hard, loud, and long in Jesus’ name. Knock fervently, honestly, heartily, and humbly—not just with these "now I lay me down to sleep" prayers.

Recognize God—look up and tell Him that He’s good to you, and that you love Him and appreciate all He has done for you! The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, just like a mother’s eyes over the cradle where her baby is lying. Trust Him, obey Him, and walk with Him every day.