Think This Over 1

Take some time to think - stop racing around in this life making no progress.  Think about what God has done for you, and what He is doing right now in your life.  Think about what God is up to in your life in spite of any visible evidence.  Take time to thank God and people, thanking requires thinking, and thinking requires time.  Resist ingratitude by thinking and thanking.  Be quick to say, Thank you.  The greatest and rarest of all virtues today is Gratitude.

If you sense your sinfulness and wretchedness, look now for mercy only through Christ's Atoning Sacrifice.  Christ was crucified for the guilty.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  Great sinners need the Great Savior.  The full Ransom for your sins was paid in full with Jesus' own innocent blood on Calvary.  The guilty need and seek mercy at the Cross, and they only believe in the Merciful Mediator, and the mercy of God is theirs instantly.  Jesus came to save the lost, the ruined, the guilty, the unworthy.  God saves not according to your merit, but according to His mercy in Christ.  Beware - one drop of human merit will taint all your Salvation.  Human endeavor and effort is a dead end.  Jesus is the sinner's only friend in the day of Judgment.  Your works are only filthy rags at their best.  If you have no merits, you can be justified freely by Christ's imputed Righteousness.

Human nature says, "My own merits ought to be good enough."  Don't play the fool with your immortal soul.  Your works are all faulty and defiled with selfishness.  Praise the Great High Priest for His great merit, sweet mercy, and free grace.  Only Christ can clothe us with Righteousness and make us acceptable to God.  The way of free salvation is through the merits of the Mediator's blood.  You must be saved completely by the merits of Another.  We are only made Righteous through what Christ has done for us.  Sin is washed away alone by the Precious Blood of Christ.  Hold up Jesus Christ, put down human ability.  If you are sick of self, you are in harmony with God.

Human nature hates the doctrine of free salvation, for God's Salvation is all of a free gift, and not in the least of human merit.  A guilty man, if he is to be saved at all, he must be saved through the mercy of God.  Only take Jesus' atoning blood with you when approaching the Most High God.  God considers your need, not your merit.  Will you have Salvation freely?  If so, take Him freely.  Freely is the only way to obtain Salvation from Jesus.  But if you will try to earn grace, you and God can never agree.  Human nature stubbornly continues its deadly efforts to save itself and neglects Christ's Perfect and Free Righteousness.

You are always liable to death, and in danger of the wrath to come. You need your sins forgiven, so seek and find mercy through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. You will die soon, death will come to your door, time and circumstances will soon corner you, and you will need the help of the Savior at the Judgment, so quit playing the fool and running such a terrible risk of losing your soul, the risk of the loss of heaven, and the awful risk of going to Hell forever.  There is eternal life in Jesus Christ, whoso putteth their trust in Him is safe.

God says, "There is the Medicine, take Him, drink Him."  Man says, "No! I will make my own medicine, I will make my own way, and compound my own pill."  God says, "I will freely forgive for Jesus' sake."  Man says, "I will try and deserve to be forgiven."  Remember this - you can never deserve God's forgiveness.  Jesus will only love sinners freely.  I am fully and freely forgiven for Jesus' sake. Do not trifle with eternal matters. Salvation must be a Gift.  True faith will cause you to feel your ruin and danger, to confess your guilt, and then to lay hold on eternal life in Christ freely.  Jesus put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself, and nothing else.  You must take away nothing from Christ's Sacrifice, and you must add nothing to it.

Self-righteousness rejects the atoning sacrifice of Calvary; the Cross is a needless thing to the carnal mind.  Sick folks are always visiting the doctor, and contrite needy sinners are always visiting the God of all grace, Jesus Christ. Human nature tries to reach heaven by its own doings.  The Cross was a gross mistake if human merit can suffice.  If your works can help save you, why did Jesus die?  A man who is trying to save himself is in opposition to the Savior.   He that thinks much of the merits of his own good works despises the merits of the finished work of Christ. Your own righteousness flies in the face of Jesus Christ.  The sinner's Savior is the only way to New Jerusalem.  Draw near to Jesus by simple trust in His atoning blood.  It is not your goodness, but Jesus' goodness; not your merits, but His mercy; not human goodness, but divine grace; not the Law, but bleeding Love.  Jesus did it, He did it all, and He must be praised, that is all.

Remission is a free pardon, freely given, acting immediately, abiding forever, no fear of guilt can ever be laid to the charge of the forgiven soul.  This is the great secret, the heavenly news, the Gospel of Salvation, that through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ human sin is justly put away.  Salvation comes not from human merit or efforts.  The way of Cain is self-salvation by human merit and religious ceremonies.  To believe in yourself is pure idolatry.  Human nature is self-confidence, works, and outward ceremonies all the way.  True trust in Christ is an entire reliance upon His finished work on Calvary's tree.  Have done with all other trust but Jesus Himself.  Rest the whole weight of your soul's needs upon Him.

Think of your sin and sinfulness, looking back at your past, your present and future, and then look to Jesus only for free forgiveness.  "Jesus only"  -- this is the lifeboat you must float to gloryland on.  Human works can never save a guilty sinner.  Salvation by works makes much of man, and makes nothing of Christ.  Nothing you can do can ever reverse the condemnation and curse which your sins have passed upon you.  You are naturally no good.  As long as you are self-righteous, God cannot deal with you in mercy and favor.  Divine mercy and human merit can no more blend than oil and water.  Bread and water are ours by simply eating and drinking, and Christ is ours by simply receiving Him by faith.  Simple childlike faith accepts Jesus as He is found in the Bible.  Faith says, "Here is Jesus, I believe in Him, I take Him, I receive Him as my own, and He is mine at once and forever.

Full Pardon and sure and free Justification through faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Believe in His Precious Blood now, believe in the merits of His Great Sacrifice of Calvary.  My one hope of righteousness in this life, and happiness in the life to come, is only found in the life, death, and resurrection, in the person and merit, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him for yourself.  Trust to Jesus because of what He is (God manifest in the flesh), and what He has done (bled to death to atone for human sin), and what He is doing now (ever liveth to make intercession for those come to God through Him).  Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.  Salvation cannot be of human merit, for there is no such thing. We have plenty of demerit, but we have no merit.

Your own merit is out of the question.  Boasted self-merit shuts you out from true Righteousness.  The Cross is the death of your self-righteousness.  Plead the merit of His Precious Blood in earnest prayer.  You must look out of yourself to Another.  Human merit or Christ's Atonement;  human speculation or divine revelation.  Cleansing from the power and guilt of your sins is needed immediately.  Receive at once the merits of the Savior.  Out with your knowledge, good resolves, and self-sufficiency.  You have no good works worth mentioning.

The less you value your own righteousness, the more you will seek after Christ's true holiness.  The less you think of your own ability, the more ardently you will follow after the Lord Jesus Christ.  Sincerely lay aside all hope of salvation by your own merits.  The less a man thinks of himself, the more he will think of Christ. You have no natural goodness.  Show your gratitude daily for being saved freely by grace through the Righteousness of Christ.  Christ must save you, or you are lost to all Eternity.  Jesus can save you, so submit yourself to Him.  O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee.

Make a clean break with your sins, unload your past, lay bare the present at the throne of grace.  Beg Jesus to be your Mediator and Advocate.  Trust to His Blood, not your works.  Simply let Jesus' blood wash your soul whiter as snow.  Leave your desperate case in the Great Advocate's hands.  To conceal sin is to damn your soul.  Confess your sins and you will find mercy with God.  The safest thing to do is to place yourself among the guilty down at the foot of the Cross.  If you have no merit and are full of sin, you can come straightway to Christ for His mercy and free forgiveness.

Admire the measureless merits of the Lord Jesus Christ; resting on His power, relying on His grace.  The terrible discovery of the evil of your sin and the utter despair of self will drive you to cast yourself on the merit and mercy of the Savior.  Adore His mercy, trust His blood, magnify His love, accept His grace, yield to the Holy Spirit's leading, renewing and working. Be you dead, let Jesus be your life, be you the beggar, let Jesus be your riches.  Be you sick, let the Lamb of God be your health.  Be you lost, let the Good Shepherd be your Savior.  Stand still, be still, and know that Jesus is the the just God and Savior who saves sinners.