Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Message of Mercy

Here’s the ‘Message of Mercy’ that’s music in the sinner’s ears. Time is flying by, life is short, death is near, and Eternity is close at hand for you. Your life is very frail and could end any day. You have sinned; and your sins deserve God’s divine justice and recompense. The wrath of God abides on you rich now, because of your secret and public sins, and your rejection of Christ. God sees the sins of your youth as though they were committed yesterday. God sees your thought-life and imaginations. Your root problem is that you love sin. Everything you've every thought, said, or done has been done in the eye sight of God. Nothing is hidden from the eyes of God. The test of your character is how you treat people you don't need and that can't help or repay you. Jesus didn't need us, and we couldn't help or repay Him, but He still sought us and had Mercy on us, for His love and goodness' sake.

Every time you sin, you harden your heart a little more. And the harder your heart becomes, the more difficult it is for God to reach you and for you to respond to God. But God has provided a great Remedy for your sin. It is high time for you to make the wisest decision a sinner can make – TRUST the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Your good works are good-for-nothing and meaningless to God; you cannot help save yourself. All have sinned, there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good, and sinneth not. You are a sinner by birth, by nature, by practice, and by choice. You have no hope of forgiveness apart the bloody death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God cannot overlook your sin. If God ceased to judge sin, He would cease to be holy and just. God cannot let one sin of yours go unpunished. Your sin will either be pardoned by Christ, or punished in Hell, but it will never be overlooked by your holy Creator.

Now, there is nothing freer than a gift, and truly, there is nothing freer than the free gift of God, eternal life. *Romans 6:23* God the Father GAVE His Son to die for poor sinners like you. The eternal God, who made all things, was not willing that any should perish; therefore, He gave His Son to ransom you from sin's curse. God provided a Sinless Blood Sacrifice in Jesus of Nazareth to take away your guilt, and, to do this. God gave His Son to live and die here on this earth. God gave us Himself by becoming a Jewish man and then bearing our sins and dying for our sins. Repent of your sinfulness and renounce your self-righteousness, place and fix all your trust in the person of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, and His blood that was shed for ungodly sinners, especially you.

God is holy, man is sinful, Christ alone lived a sinless life, and then He became Sin, that is, He bore our sins in His own body on the Tree, He died for sinners and suffered the wrath of God for us all. Jesus died the death for sin that we deserved. Jesus was buried and raised again from the dead victorious over sin, death, hell, and the grave. He is ascended into heaven and is coming again to judge the quick and the dead. God now commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel of Christ. Submit to Christ's righteousness, fix all your confidence on His precious blood Atonement for sinful wretches. Trust Christ, not yourself. After Jesus saves your soul, love and follow Him in gratitude.

The Gospel is life changing, God honoring, Christ centered. The broad way leads to destruction in hell, and the narrow way, the way of the Cross, leads to eternal life. See Acts 4:12; John 14:6; I Timothy 2:5-6. Receive Christ, receive the Spirit of God within your body. Renounce your works and sinful ways, flee to the Lamb of God who died upon the Cross for you, find Shelter under Christ's blood from the coming wrath of God.

JEHOVAH GOD was manifested in human flesh. The Creator who had never been seen by the eye of man was veiled in human flesh. Jesus was God and Man in one person. He was the gift of Grace, the gift of Love, the gift of God’s own Self. The eternal Son of God came to earth to suffer as a Sinless Substitute, so that miserable wretches like us might not perish. God Incarnate bled and died for your sins to save you from the wrath to come. God gave His Son; the Son gave Himself to die; and by an act of faith; if you will TRUST HIM, Christ is your Savior forever.

The greatest proof of Jesus’ condescending love is when He came down from the Throne of Glory to the Cross of Calvary. “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20) Jesus obeyed the Law of God perfectly and was without sin; He was absolutely pure in thought, word, and deed. He descended from Heaven to the manger of Bethlehem – then He stooped even further to bear your sins in His own body on the Cross. Christ Jesus, out of mighty love, came here to earth, lived, labored, and died, giving His whole life away, so that ungodly sinners might be saved freely through Him. He did not come to gain anything for Himself, but out of pure love, He suffered the wrath of God for you. He endured untold anguish even unto death on Calvary’s Cross for your redemption. Remember this – Jesus bled for your sins!

God so loved the world that He gave His Son, who yielded His life an Atonement for sin, and opened the Life Gate that all guilty sinners may go in. Behold, the Son of God did all this for your soul! After JESUS died for you, He was buried, and then He rose from the dead. Then He ascended, and is now seated at the right hand of God. He is alive right now, and He still gives Himself to those that TRUST HIM. Through faith in His Precious Blood, Jesus can save you from all the guilt of your sin, all the power of your sin, and all the penalty of your sin. This is the best news that lost sinners have ever heard. Jesus is the Great Savior for great sinners. HE is the only answer to your misery and fear of death. You're going to die and meet your Maker; you're not ready. You have no merit; there is not an atom of goodness in you - you deserve eternal death for your sins against God. You are spiritually bankrupt - you have nothing to offer God.

But God is ready to pardon you; He is willing to save you now, if you will but trust His Son. Christ died for ungodly and guilty sinners, not good people. Good people that are self-righteous and trust in themselves end up in Hell. Simply TRUST CHRIST (rely and rest entirely on what Jesus did for you) and your sins shall be pardoned. You will be saved in an instant – when you call upon Jesus’ name. Humble yourself and send out a ‘distress call’ from your soul to Heaven, and God will save you by His grace.

If you reject Christ, there is no hope for you, and if you neglect HIM, you will deliberately and willfully commit spiritual suicide. Believe the Gospel and live; if you refuse HIM, you will be damned. Only TRUST JESUS, fall down at His feet in repentance, confess your sins, and ask Him to deliver you. Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while HE IS NEAR.

When Christ Jesus died on Calvary's Cross, He died as a substitutionary sacrifice for sinners, "offering up" our sins for judgment and punishment by a holy God, and He simultaneously "offered up" Himself as the one who would submit to that judgment and bear that punishment for us. Jesus was able to do this because He was both the infinite Creator and the one sinless man, who needed not to offer a sacrifice for His own sins. He was willing to do this because He loved us and wanted to save us by His grace. Jesus suffered and bled and died for your sins, so He could save you from the wrath of God and eternal death.

The matchless doctrine of Christ's substitutionary blood Sacrifice is central to the Gospel of Salvation, and therefore precious to the saint. But its central importance also means that it is grossly offensive to the natural man. Many acclaim Jesus as a great martyr or moral teacher, but deny either His deity or His humanity, and certainly deny the universal efficacy of His shed blood in substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of a lost world. Nevertheless, Jesus did bear our sins, and He did completely settle our account with God. In both Hebrews 7:27 and 9:28, the word "once". Jesus did have to die once--but only once--as our sin-bearing Substitute.

Salvation is now Free to you, but it cost God’s Son His blood. Salvation is the free gift of God’s Grace, but you must seek it, you must call upon God for it. Do it at once! This is the ‘Message of Mercy’ - God’s Free salvation is only offered to lost and guilty sinners through God's Blood shed by Jesus Christ Himself. Whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus hath everlasting life. Trust Christ Now! Trust Him wholly and fully. Repent, that is, leave your sins and your dark master behind, flee to Christ, leave all other trusts, leave your self-righteousness, quit it all! Simply Rely upon Christ’s shed blood to save your soul from the wrath of God. God be merciful to me a sinner for Jesus’ sake! *Soli Autem Crucis - The Cross Alone*