Simple Reliance 3

You are a guilty sinner deserving eternal punishment from God your Maker.  You have no righteousness of your own to commend yourself before God - simply lost and ruined, with nothing to offer.  There is no hope for any sinner being saved until he knows he is guilty, and merely takes his place before Christ Jesus as a sinner.  You can't add your rusty penny of works to Christ's solid gold finished work; you can't add your filthy rags to Christ's Robe of Righteousness. If you try to bring your own doings to the Cross to help justify yourself, there is no hope for you.  If you try to mix your doings and good behavior with the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus Christ, you will wind up damned. It's not what you do for Jesus; it's what He has already done for you.

Human nature thinks that virtuous or religious people such as Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa will go to Heaven while still rejecting Christ.  When self-righteous human nature thinks of a child molester being forgiven freely of his sins, that is offensive and repulsive, because human nature thinks it is better than most folks.  Christ Jesus is the Savior and the Judge of all the Earth.  The great white throne judgment can only be eluded by trusting to the Mediator, the man Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh.  Incarnate Grace took your place on Calvary's Cross and paid for every sin you commit every day you live with His own life.  Every one of us shall give account of himself to God.  You are accountable to God and liable for the punishment due to your sins against the one who loved you enough to die for you.  Evil human nature shrinks at the thought of the coming Judgment of God.

God in human flesh laid down His life to rescue you from the danger and love of sin.  If you are heavy-hearted and troubled at the thought of dying, come now to Jesus by simple reliance on His atoning blood, His finished work on Calvary's Cross.  Hell is not the popular view today, but Hell is still Biblical truth which does not change with the times.  Ye must be born again; spiritually made alive by the power of the Holy Ghost.

If the Gospel is too hard for you to understand, it is only because you refuse to let go of your sins. The Holy Ghost must first open the heart of a man, so he will attend to the truths of the Gospel, that is, to listen intently, to hearken diligently, and to catch every word. Without the working of the Holy Spirit, no man will ever desire to understand the Gospel and receive Jesus Christ in truth.  Christ died for the ungodly, and He is able to save any sinner to the uttermost that comes unto God by Him.  Jesus took the sins of the whole world upon Himself, and became the Substitute for all human guilt.  Jesus was the perfect, sinless Blood Sacrifice for human transgressions.  You can't add the Monopoly money of your doings to the infinite price that Jesus paid for human sin at Calvary.  Your money is no good at the Cross, for Salvation is absolutely free.  You cannot improve upon what Jesus has already finished on Calvary's Cross.  Is Christ's finished atoning work on Calvary's tree your only hope of Heaven?

The Gospel is much too simple for sin-lovers to understand; too plain for them to believe and trust.  The Gospel will not allow you to pander to your lusts. Human pride despises the Gospel's way of free eternal life.  You have sinned against a holy God, the Love and Blood of Christ, the Law, the Gospel, and your conscience. Your sins lie heavy on your soul, and the wrath of God (the sentence of condemnation) abides on you.  *Matthew 11:28; John 3:36*  Look now to Jesus' for atoning Substitution and perfect Righteousness.  The Bible makes it very plain: if anybody wants to be saved from sin, they can be; if you don't want to be saved, you can go to Hell; it's up to you.

Don't let indecision and procrastination keep you from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.  The mercy of God, the love and blood of Christ, the wooing of the Spirit, the simplicity of the Gospel, the tender invitation to the Cross; all these are pleading with you to be saved.  By an act of faith and personable trust, fix your heart reliance on the Precious Blood of the Incarnate God.  Sinners like beggars cannot be choosers; there is only one true and living Savior - His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Believe in Jesus, not yourself; trust to His Precious Blood, not your works.

You need an eternal salvation from the Precious Savior, through His finished work, by His divine power.  Salvation is not losable, nor is it based upon your good behavior.  Free salvation from Jesus means irreversible pardon, permanent acceptance in the Beloved, immediate forgiveness, and eternal adoption into God's family. If you are depending upon your doings in part, you are still in your sins, and condemned before God. The best evidence that you have the Holy Spirit is your dependence upon Christ Jesus Himself, as a little child depends upon its mother.  The Lord Jesus Christ is my sole reliance, and on Him alone do I depend.

On the Cross, right before Jesus died, He cried out, "It is finished!" Jesus finished the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah's first coming.  He also finished my sins' penalty and payment; He cancelled the guilt of my rebellion against God.  Jesus bore my sins in His own body on the tree; God the Father laid my iniquities on Jesus.  The record of my sins was laid to Christ's account, and now they are no longer on my soul.  I am now forgiven, my sins are gone forever, for Jesus paid for every sin I will ever commit with His own blood.  The sentence of eternal condemnation is no longer hanging over my soul - Hallelujah for the Cross!

The Gospel of Christ is the essence of simplicity. Always remember - You're dead wrong, and Jesus is absolutely right. Stop walking heedlessly toward Eternity, and continuing on in vain presumption. Your sins will cost you your soul, if you die in them.  Forsake evil, cling to the Savior.  "No surrender" is the stubborn sinner's motto.  Proud men will boast and question the Bible until the coffin lid closes over them: their motto is, "While I live, I'll crow."

Without Christ as your Savior, the LORD will remember your iniquity (idolatry, trust in self, distrust of God); He will visit (punish) your sins; He will uncover (expose) your secret places.  A self-righteous man's hope comes from what he does in some way or another, but not in the finished cross-work of Jesus Christ alone.  Your unbelief is the spear that stabbed the Savior's heart.  It would be in your best interests today to trust your sinful soul with Jesus Christ. Jesus puts away sins wherever there is a simple heart trust in Him.

Think much of Jesus.  You must reject all your human goodness and all reliance upon what you can do.  Self-righteous, superstitious human nature always kicks against free and eternal salvation by grace through faith in Jesus' atoning blood.  Simple reliance upon the Son of God is the one essential for Eternal Life. Just as a man when he get so sick that he will finally seek out and accept medical help, likewise a man must be brought to understand by the help of the Holy Spirit, that he is so poor spiritually that he must accept the Charity of Heaven down at the Cross.

The God of the Holy Bible will only meet with a sinner through faith in His Son's Precious Blood.  The self-righteous murmur at the Gospel and try to avoid it, but the contrite and penitent man, that is conscious of his guilt, approaches Jesus for mercy. Mercy cannot be earned. Go directly to the Cross flat on your face as a guilty sinner seeking cleansing and forgiveness. Simple reliance upon the Lamb of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.  Think much of Eternity, and less of this world.  Think more of your soul, and less of your body.

Loathe yourself, and by Faith flee to the atoning blood.  Sure reliance upon the Incarnate God's atoning blood is the Gospel way.  True faith hangs upon Christ Himself as a hat on a nail.  Faith is to look to the Great Substitute for free pardon, abundant mercy, eternal life, and Heaven.  The gift of Repentance is simply a consciousness of sins and guilt, and the loathing and forsaking of sins.  Go directly to the source of Life, go to Jesus, pray to Him more, call upon His name believingly.  The record of my guilt was transferred to Christ Jesus when we was nailed to the Cross, and He cancelled my all guilt with His sinless blood Atonement.

Are you willing to be saved from loving the sin which enthralls you every day, saved from delighting in  sin and finding pleasure in the ungodliness which now controls you, saved from the evil passions which rule over you?  Have done with all reliance upon human merit and wisdom; yield to Jesus at once. I have ceased from relying on myself; I am leaning hard upon Jesus, the Friend of sinners.  Jesus offered Himself as a sinless blood Sacrifice for my sins, and He rose from the dead the third day according to the Scriptures.

Faith is a personal act of reliance upon Christ's Atoning Sacrifice.  Reliance upon "Thus saith the Lord" is the safe way.  To believe is to trust, and whosever trusts in the atoning blood is saved on the spot. Recline and rest your weary soul on what Jesus has done, and you are saved now. Reliance upon His Atonement brings you instant eternal life. The hideous patchwork of some works from you, and then some works from Jesus can never be accepted by God.  Divine justice, Atoning Blood, Work of the Holy Spirit, Regeneration, New Birth, Substitution, human ruin, Propitiation, New Nature, Free Forgiveness, Eternal Life, human inability, Free Grace.  The Blood of Jesus is the only antidote for human sin.

Personal faith in the living God who was crucified for sinners.  Go directly to Jesus in whom the mercy and kindness of God is treasured up.  Divine mercy comes to a sinful man only through the atoning Sacrifice of the Mediator.  The Atoning Sacrifice, justification by Faith, imputed Righteousness, union with Christ, acceptance in the Beloved, the second coming of Christ. Come under the Shelter of the Cross; there is room enough for you.  Only the Blood of God's Son can save you from divine vengeance.  Only His divine blood can shield you from divine wrath.  The very moment your trust is placed on the finished atoning work of Jesus, you are saved immediately and eternally.  If you depend in part upon the Righteousness of Christ, and in part upon your own righteousness, you are lost right now.

Pardoning grace, bleeding love, and forgiving mercy is only found in Jesus' wounds and stripes. Trust to the mercy and blood of the gracious Redeemer.  The sinless Substitute was punished for my sins and endured the wrath due to me.  Receive Christ Jesus now into your inmost soul. O God, forgive me for Christ died for my sins. Salvation full, free, and finished can be yours through faith in Jesus' atoning blood.  Religion gives you a creed, but no Cross; rules, but not the Blood; ceremonies, but no Crucified Savior God.

Let others trust their feelings and works, I will trust only in Jesus and His sprinkled blood.  I trust not in my doings at all; I rely on Jesus only.  Come to Jesus with your sins, cares, and needs; trust in Him on the spot, cry to Him for mercy.  God's way of saving sinners is by His grace, not by your doings; by the blood of Jesus, not by your efforts.  Your reconciliation to God and the security of your soul must be made through Jesus' atoning blood.

Keep to the Cross, the Atonement, the Lamb of God, the Incarnate God who bled and died for sinners.  Behold the Lamb of God and His Atoning Blood. Christ is All. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!  When you truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, prove the sincerity of your love and gratitude for Him dying for you, and live to glorify Him.  Give God worship, thanksgiving, glory, blessing, honor, praise, and gratitude because of what Jesus has done for you. By all means save some.