“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weigheth the spirits. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. Therefore to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness! Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than for him. Be not deceived! Let no man deceive himself! Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction: wide is the gate and many there be that go in thereat.” Judas was a lost, healing evangelist. Simon was a lost man who had “believed and was baptized.” Cornelius was a devout, praying, vision-seeing Roman and he was lost! The rich young ruler was better than any man you know (Luke 18) and he was lost. Nicodemus was very religious and needed to be born again. Are YOU fooled, too?
What a man calls “Living a good life,” God calls “a refuge of lies.” Man’s view of his nature is positive, but Jesus said, “If ye being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more…etc.” Jesus recognized that human nature was basically evil and needed to be regenerated, not exercised, educated, cultured, or pampered. This means that if Jesus was right, there is nothing you can do or have done or will do that can stand the righteous revelation of a Holy God dealing with your sins at the Judgment. Like Adam’s fig leaf, the straw house of your religious “self-righteousness” will blow away like the chaff in the wind. “Sincerity” is one of the many roads to hell, where it does not recognize and honor the truth: “Every man at his best state is altogether vanity.”
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand! “All other ground” means churches, religions, lodges, creeds, sacraments, “faiths,” beliefs, ideologies, education, science, philosophy, mankind, the future, the past, the present, and everything and everybody connected with it. The LORD Jesus Christ is the “Rock,” the Stumbling Stone, the Rock of Offence, the Stone which the builders rejected: and God hath made Him “The Head of the Corner.” He is, unto us who believe, “A Precious Stone.” We are moved, He is not. Our feelings change, His finished work cannot. Our faith falters, His prayers avail forever. Our works waver, His one, effectual, Finished sacrifice pays the demands of the Law, meets the demands of a Holy God for perfection, and enables Him to clasp God in one hand and sinful man in the other hand. Five bleeding wounds He bears, received on Calvary: they pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me, “Forgive him, oh forgive, they cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die.” He is my Propitiation and Atonement. He is the Substitute, Scapegoat, Advocate, Mediator, Rock, Fortress, Anchor, and Strong Tower for those who have asked Him. Is He yours? Why isn’t He? Do you have anything/anyone better than Him [Jesus].
You cannot hide behind a hypocrite unless they are a bigger kind of hypocrite than you are. You would do better to spend a lifetime in a church with a few of them, being saved yourself, than spend an eternity in Hell with them as one of them. “ So then everyone of us shall give account of himself to God.” You alibis for rejecting Christ and clinging to some “Religion” are only proof that you yourself are somewhat of a hypocrite. Why do you profess to be “trying” when God said, “to him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”? Why do you talk about “doing the best you can” when you have not received God’s Son, and that is by far the best thing you can do? Are you not a little inconsistent yourself? You say, “Well, I have my own ideas.” “Let God be true and every man a liar, that the whole world may become guilty before god and every mouth stopped. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the Judgment of God?”
First John 5:12 has two parts to it. When you receive God’s son, you pass from death to life (Jn 5:24); you become a “new creature in Christ,” born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but born of God. You are adopted into the family of His Dear Son. You are translated from the Kingdom of Darkness in the Kingdom of Light; turned from the power of Satan to the power of God. “Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.” In Him you have remission of sins and redemption, justification and forgiveness. Whereas you were “alone in the world without hope and without God,” an alien from Israel and the covenant promises of God, you now become “accepted in the beloved,” one of His own, flesh of His flesh, and you are supernaturally placed in His body, seated with Him in heavenly places. Furthermore, you are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise unto the Day of Redemption, being cut loose from the flesh (inside), by the circumcision not made with hands; you are “BORN AGAIN.” Has this ever happened to YOU? Where? When?
God deals differently with His children than with a lost man. As a son of God you will be chastened and whipped when you sin against your Father, but you will never be left nor forsaken. He has promised grace sufficient for every task and a way out for every temptation, plus the supply of “every need” according to His “riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” In Heaven you have a reserved inheritance “that fadeth not away.” At the Judgment Seat of Christ Christians will be rewarded for the service rendered to Him AFTER salvation (which was wholly free and by grace). He says: “He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ.” He is able to keep you from falling and present you “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Your whole body, soul, and spirit will be preserved blameless unto His Coming, for God hath predestinated you to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
“Behold, I stand at the door [your heart] and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me!” Because I called and you refused, I knocked and no man answered, therefore will I laugh when your calamity cometh. I will mock when your fear cometh upon you. Why will ye die? “As I live, “ saith the LORD, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he turn form his wicked way and live.” The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. “All day long I have stretched forth my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people.” Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart. He that ears to hear, let him hear, for there is no “other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” ARE YOU SAVED? Have you heard His voice? Did you let Him come into your heart? Are you certain? Why not make certain right now?
