All sinners by nature are in an awful condition; they need saving and are in a very undesirable and wretched state. The self-righteous sinner has fine ideas about himself from his earliest recollection. Despite all that he says in his own favor, he has broken the law of God, and he is a sinner, and as a sinner he is in a terrible position, from which nothing can save you but the hand of Jesus Christ.
It is a grave calamity to be a sinner. You have broken your Maker’s commands. You have neglected God's will, which is holy and just and good. This is a crying evil and shame. You have a heart which does not choose the right, but leans to evil, and is ruining you. You have a mind which does not love God, but cares for itself more than for its Maker. You are in a diseased state of soul. The polluting influence of sin upon the soul is the direst of all mischiefs, the worst of all destructions: Sin is spiritual death. From the defiling and damning presence of sin every sinner needs to be saved. Human nature is evil, and only evil. Christ didn't come into the world to save anybody but sinners.
God hates your sins with a hatred scarcely to be conceived. You have lost the sensitiveness of perfect purity. Whatsoever things are impure, unchaste, untrue, unloving, unrighteous, God loathes with all the infinity of His perfect nature. Sin is obnoxious to the Creator God. “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord.” The very necessity of God's divine nature must delight in everything that is good and pure, and He must abhor everything that is evil. O sinner, what a plight you are in since there is in you and upon you the sins which God cannot endure.
Christ Jesus came to this Earth to save sinners. Christ died for the ungodly - that's you Sir. This is a plain matter of fact. But it is a fact scarcely ever realized: for only the Holy Ghost can reveal this truth to a sinner. Do you want to save yourself? Then you will drown, you will surely drown. Why won't you just give and let Christ save your soul? Believe that He can save you alone. Fall back into His arms of love. You will float then. There is no drowning for the soul that gives itself up to Christ the Lifeguard, and trusts to Him entirely.
Most people think that Christ Jesus came into the world to save respectable people, who if they have done any wrong, it is not very wrong, and they have done their best to make amends and get things square with God. The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, according to them, to save people who do their very best and pay their own way. They do all they can to get right, and keep right, and surely they will be saved - this is how self-righteous men think and talk.
Their deluded theory of self-salvation is very mixed, but it comes down to this: that the Gospel is for good folks. They don't omit Jesus Christ completely from their empty religion - in this worldly gospel, Jesus comes in somewhere or another; but their religion is a kind of mingle-mangle, they partly save themselves and Christ partly saves them, and between the two they end up not being saved at all. Their vain notion is that, though they cannot do quite as much as they ought, so they mention Jesus' name to make their self-righteousness sound better. This is the thought of the bulk of mankind. They do not know after all if they are going to be saved by human merit or divine mercy, whether Christ came to save sinners or the righteous. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners through His atoning blood and divine mercy. Human merit can never save a sinner. It must be either merit or Mercy, it cannot be both. Forsake yourself and look only to the Crucified One for all your Salvation.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Monday, May 26, 2014
The Fear of the LORD is Clean
Be ye kind to one another, be tenderhearted too.
Be kind to one another in everything you do.
Just follow Christ's example, be loving, kind, and true.
Forgiving one another, as God hath forgiven you.
Some folks are so lazy, they just loaf and shirk;
Though it may seem crazy, they're afraid of work.
But if we know Christ, how different we should be.
Christians should be known for working faithfully.
Those who make excuses try to shift the blame,
and if they are lazy, what an awful shame.
If they will not work, they're sure to know defeat,
for the Bible tells us that they should not eat.
Finish the job, finish the job, get it done.
Finish the job, finish the job, then have fun.
When you have a job to do, never quit until you're through,
Finish the job, finish the job, get it done.
Do it now, don't delay,
don't put it off till another day.
Go ahead begin it,
Right this very minute,
You better do it Now.
Take this word of exhortation,
You must fight procrastination,
For it will hurt your reputation,
So you better do it Now.
Make me a servant like you dear Lord;
Living for others each day.
Humble and meek, helping the weak,
Loving in all that I say.
Make a witness like you dear Lord;
Showing the love of the Cross.
Sharing your word till all have heard,
Serving whatever the cost.
Give me Lord a servant's heart,
Here's my life, take every part.
Help me draw so close to You,
That your Love comes shining through.
Give me Lord a servant's heart.
Our God measures man by a standard divine,
for He sees underneath every outward design.
He looks past possessions and costly attire,
For God sees the heart, every thought and desire.
For the eyes of our God are searching to and fro,
We have no secrets that our God does not know.
Our God knows our thoughts, He understands every part,
Man sees the outside, but God sees the heart.
Our God does not judge by how tall we may stand,
or how much we possess, or the rank we command.
His gaze goes far deeper to things that endure,
He honors the man who keeps his heart pure.
Your walk talks, and your talk talks,
but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.
You cannot hide whats inside, its sure to come out;
Your words may whisper, but your actions shout.
Hippo Critter, Hippo Critter,
You say one thing and do the oppositter;
It's a funny life, full of empty glitter,
God's not pleased with a counterfeiter.
A good tree bears a good fruit,
With its healthy branches and its deep root.
We're all are saved to good works, the Master has said,
Our good works shows that our faith's not dead.
Bring forth fruit, bring forth fruit,
LORD, you created me to bring forth fruit.
You are the Vine, I am your branch,
Lord, help me abide in You and bring forth much fruit.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.
God will bless them all both the great and small,
All who fear the LORD.
The fear of the LORD is clean; enduring forever:
the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. *Psalm 19:9*
Be kind to one another in everything you do.
Just follow Christ's example, be loving, kind, and true.
Forgiving one another, as God hath forgiven you.
Some folks are so lazy, they just loaf and shirk;
Though it may seem crazy, they're afraid of work.
But if we know Christ, how different we should be.
Christians should be known for working faithfully.
Those who make excuses try to shift the blame,
and if they are lazy, what an awful shame.
If they will not work, they're sure to know defeat,
for the Bible tells us that they should not eat.
Finish the job, finish the job, get it done.
Finish the job, finish the job, then have fun.
When you have a job to do, never quit until you're through,
Finish the job, finish the job, get it done.
Do it now, don't delay,
don't put it off till another day.
Go ahead begin it,
Right this very minute,
You better do it Now.
Take this word of exhortation,
You must fight procrastination,
For it will hurt your reputation,
So you better do it Now.
Make me a servant like you dear Lord;
Living for others each day.
Humble and meek, helping the weak,
Loving in all that I say.
Make a witness like you dear Lord;
Showing the love of the Cross.
Sharing your word till all have heard,
Serving whatever the cost.
Give me Lord a servant's heart,
Here's my life, take every part.
Help me draw so close to You,
That your Love comes shining through.
Give me Lord a servant's heart.
Our God measures man by a standard divine,
for He sees underneath every outward design.
He looks past possessions and costly attire,
For God sees the heart, every thought and desire.
For the eyes of our God are searching to and fro,
We have no secrets that our God does not know.
Our God knows our thoughts, He understands every part,
Man sees the outside, but God sees the heart.
Our God does not judge by how tall we may stand,
or how much we possess, or the rank we command.
His gaze goes far deeper to things that endure,
He honors the man who keeps his heart pure.
Your walk talks, and your talk talks,
but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.
You cannot hide whats inside, its sure to come out;
Your words may whisper, but your actions shout.
Hippo Critter, Hippo Critter,
You say one thing and do the oppositter;
It's a funny life, full of empty glitter,
God's not pleased with a counterfeiter.
A good tree bears a good fruit,
With its healthy branches and its deep root.
We're all are saved to good works, the Master has said,
Our good works shows that our faith's not dead.
Bring forth fruit, bring forth fruit,
LORD, you created me to bring forth fruit.
You are the Vine, I am your branch,
Lord, help me abide in You and bring forth much fruit.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.
God will bless them all both the great and small,
All who fear the LORD.
The fear of the LORD is clean; enduring forever:
the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. *Psalm 19:9*
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Memorial Day Facts
The U.S. Civil War claimed more lives that any other conflict in U.S. history, which required the establishment of of our nation's first national cemeteries. At the end of the Civil War, mourning families began placing flags and flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers.
The town of Waterloo, NY is where Memorial Day really began. On May 5, 1866, the citizens of Waterloo closed their shops and businesses to decorate the graves of the men killed during the Civil War. General John A. Logan called for a nationwide day of remembrance and started an effort to consolidate all the decoration services into one national holiday, designating May 30th as Decoration Day.
On the first national Decoration Day, May 30, 1868, five thousand war widows, orphans and other mourners gathered at Arlington National Ceremony and place flowers and ribbons on 20,000 graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers. Future U.S. presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and James Garfield also attended the ceremony. By the end of the century, Decoration Day had grown and was renamed Memorial Day.
America interred its first unknown soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on Armistice Day in 1921. On every Memorial Day, this soldier and other unknown soldiers are honored by a wreath-laying ceremony conducted by the President or Vice President. The unknown soldiers are reminders of all those brave Americans who never made it home from war. Memorial Day officially became a federal holiday in 1971, and Congress shifted it from May 30th to the fourth Monday in May.
One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, an auto race which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. It runs on the Sunday preceding the Memorial Day holiday.
On Memorial Day the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day. The half-staff position remembers that more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service of their country. At noon their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.
During one of President Reagan's Memorial Day speeches, he said this, "And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong."
Remember Army 2d Lt Audie Leon Murphy who won the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was born to poor sharecroppers in Kingston, TX. His father was a drunk, and his mother was the pianist at a Baptist church. Their home was an old railroad box car with no electricity or bathroom. At age five, he was working in the fields. He didn't start school until he was nine and quit after the fifth grade. By the age of 16, his mother was dead, and his father had left him. He never had a bicycle or played baseball.
In 1941, he tried to join the Marine Corps, but they turned 5 foot, 5 inch, 112 pound fair-faced boy down, because he was too small. Dejected, he decided to enter the Army who accepted him. They called him "Baby", because he didn't even shave yet. In riflery, he only scored "Marksman," below "Sharpshooter" and "Expert." The Army wanted to make him a clerk, but he forced his was into the infantry and ended up fighting the Germans in Europe.
During WWII in Holtzwihr, France on the cold day of January 26, 1945, a surprise German counterattack threatened to overrun his Company B. As his fellow-soldiers began to drop back, "Baby" Murphy rushed to a knocked-out American tank, manned the .50 caliber machine gun and opened fire on the Germans. He was surrounded by the enemy; the tank he was fighting from was in flames and in danger of exploding any moment. He singlehandedly broke the German attack. Moments after he climbed down from the tank it blew up behind him. For that gallantry he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. He went on to win 36 other medals for gallantry which made him the most decorated soldier in U.S. Army history.
On the top of that disabled tank, he stopped the enemy's advance, he saves the lives of many Americans, he rallied his men, and all of it singlehandedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, “Wait a minute and I’ll let you speak to them.” When asked after the war why he had seized the machine gun and took on an entire company of German infantry, he simply replied, "They were killing my friends."
* Civil War - Approximately 620,000 Americans died. The Union lost almost 365,000 troops and the Confederacy about 260,000. More than half of these deaths were caused by disease.
* World War I - 116,516 Americans died, more than half from disease.
* World War II - 405,399 Americans died.
* Korean War - 36,574 Americans died.
* Vietnam Conflict - 58,220 Americans died. More than 47,000 Americans were killed in action and nearly 11,000 died of other causes.
Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm - 148 U.S. battle deaths and 145 non-battle deaths.
* Operation Iraqi Freedom - 4,422 U.S. service members died.
* Operation New Dawn - 66 U.S. service members died.
* Operation Enduring Freedom - 2,318 U.S. service members have died as of May 12, 2014.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Savior, More Than Life to Me
Savior, more than life to me,
I am clinging, clinging, close to Thee;
Let Thy Precious Blood applied,
Keep me ever, ever near Thy side.
Through this changing world below,
Lead me gently, gently as I go;
Trusting Thee, I cannot stray,
I can never, never lose my way.
Let me love Thee more and more,
Till this fleeting, fleeting life is o’er;
Till my soul is lost in love,
In a brighter, brighter world above.
Chorus:
Every day, every hour,
Let me feel Thy cleansing power;
May Thy tender love to me
Bind me closer, closer, Lord to Thee.
-Ms. Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915)
I am clinging, clinging, close to Thee;
Let Thy Precious Blood applied,
Keep me ever, ever near Thy side.
Through this changing world below,
Lead me gently, gently as I go;
Trusting Thee, I cannot stray,
I can never, never lose my way.
Let me love Thee more and more,
Till this fleeting, fleeting life is o’er;
Till my soul is lost in love,
In a brighter, brighter world above.
Chorus:
Every day, every hour,
Let me feel Thy cleansing power;
May Thy tender love to me
Bind me closer, closer, Lord to Thee.
-Ms. Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915)
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Human Merit vs Christ's Merit 4
Human nature loves human merit. Self-righteous human nature wants to get some credit for its own salvation; it refuses to let Christ save completely and give Him all the glory. Self-righteousness is a damnable thing, and if you are trusting in anything from yourself or your religion to help save you from the damning power of sin, you are presently in imminent danger of eternal damnation. Christ Jesus will have nothing to do with you, as long as you have anything to do with your self-goodness.
If you are trusting, in any way whatsoever upon anything that you have ever done or hope to do, you are trusting in a lie. Christ will never be friends with a lie. JESUS will never help you do, what He came to do Himself. If you will take Christ's perfect work as it is, a finished work, that's well and good; but if you attempt to add to His work, Christ cannot be yours. In your natural state, you are facing a dreadful Eternity. Think of the value of your soul, think of how dreadful it will be if your soul is lost forever. Think of the extent of Eternity, think of your own frailty, think of your own sins, and what they deserve. Forsake your wicked ways, turn to Jesus Christ and live forever. Leave your doings for Christ's doings. Christ for me, Christ Forever!
If you are trusting, in any way whatsoever upon anything that you have ever done or hope to do, you are trusting in a lie. Christ will never be friends with a lie. JESUS will never help you do, what He came to do Himself. If you will take Christ's perfect work as it is, a finished work, that's well and good; but if you attempt to add to His work, Christ cannot be yours. In your natural state, you are facing a dreadful Eternity. Think of the value of your soul, think of how dreadful it will be if your soul is lost forever. Think of the extent of Eternity, think of your own frailty, think of your own sins, and what they deserve. Forsake your wicked ways, turn to Jesus Christ and live forever. Leave your doings for Christ's doings. Christ for me, Christ Forever!
Abandon your lusts, cast away your sinful pleasures, and worldly vanities. Don't let temporary sinful pleasures lead you into eternal destruction. Sweet sin will bring a bitter death. Leave your sinful pleasures behind, your worldly companions, and your self-righteousness too - poor sinner, look to Jesus bleeding to death on the Cross in your place. Look to, trust to, and love the Lamb of God.
Every unbeliever without Christ is an eternal suicide waiting to happen. He is selfishly destroying his soul's only hope. Transient, unsatisfying carnal pleasures, giddy mirth, silly talk, dirty jokes, folly and the emptiness of the world just leaves you emptier every day. Sin dominates and reigns in your life. Renounce all trust in your good works.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Receive Christ Jesus spiritually into your inner being; take His forgiveness, grace and blessedness as the free gift of God. Stand as a guilty sinner having no merit, and as a rebellious sinner deserving the very reverse of mercy. Receive eternal life from the hand of Christ simply by the free love of God. Focus your eye of faith solely on Christ's Blood Atonement, only plead the merits of Immanuel, and the gate of Mercy will open wide for you. God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth came down from Eternity to this Earth, and He loved and bled for me on Calvary; then He heard my desperate cry for mercy and saved my soul for all Eternity.
Every unbeliever without Christ is an eternal suicide waiting to happen. He is selfishly destroying his soul's only hope. Transient, unsatisfying carnal pleasures, giddy mirth, silly talk, dirty jokes, folly and the emptiness of the world just leaves you emptier every day. Sin dominates and reigns in your life. Renounce all trust in your good works.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Receive Christ Jesus spiritually into your inner being; take His forgiveness, grace and blessedness as the free gift of God. Stand as a guilty sinner having no merit, and as a rebellious sinner deserving the very reverse of mercy. Receive eternal life from the hand of Christ simply by the free love of God. Focus your eye of faith solely on Christ's Blood Atonement, only plead the merits of Immanuel, and the gate of Mercy will open wide for you. God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth came down from Eternity to this Earth, and He loved and bled for me on Calvary; then He heard my desperate cry for mercy and saved my soul for all Eternity.
You cannot mix Christ with the creature, or the Precious Blood with the foul ditch water of your human merit and self-goodness - never, never, never. Our filthy rages can never be stitched to Christ's royal robe of Righteousness. Our falsehood, His truth; our impurity, His absolute holiness can never be one. It must be one or the other, either man's merits absolutely alone, or the unmerited favor of God through Christ Jesus Himself. Men cling their own righteousness with a death grip. You can never be saved by your own morality, honesty, and generosity. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are scriptural ordinances, but they are for believers only. You must be saved and adopted already, or the ordinances will only increase your guilt. Dream not that a water baptism from a particular religious denomination can in any way redeem you from your sins against God, or help land you in heaven. Let Christ alone save your soul. Put your soul in Christ's hands by faith, so that Christ may save you, and then after that, you should do as much as you can out of gratitude to the gracious Savior.
The Blood and Merits of Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, fully satisfy God's Righteousness and Justice, and anything else you try to do is a direct insult to the Son of God's Finished Work. You are nothing, you are utterly lost, you have no merit, you have nothing unless the Lord Jesus Christ makes you acceptable to God. The self-righteous man says, "There must be some merit in all that I do. All my perseverance in my own doings, surely this will count for something when I stand before God." Grace is the very opposite of human merit. Human merit is working, laboring to gain favor with God, but Divine Grace is receiving a Free Gift. Plead and trust only the merits of Jesus. You are vile and full of sin on your very best day. If God has mercy on you, it is wholly because of Christ's sake, for you have no merit whatsoever. A sinner (a law-breaking criminal) can have no merit in the sight of God. The finished work of the Lamb of God is the death-blow to all your works, and carnal trustings. God Almighty will only love you freely for Jesus' sake. Your merits can never write your name in the Lamb's book of life. A moral sinner will burn in the same Hell as an immoral sinner - Ye must be born again.
Sin hates God, you see. Every time you sin, you say, "I do not acknowledge God, forget God, I will do as I please. My body, mind and tongue are my own, and God will not rule over me. I'll live my life the way I want to live it." Every time the human heart wanders after evil, and lusts after the forbidden, it attempts to dethrone God, and to set up evil in His place. The carnal mind says, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice? I will not have this Man to reign over me." Sin is deliberate treason against the authority of God, an assault to His person, an insult to His face. Sin is pure rebellion against your Creator. Presumptuous sin is when a man knows better, and still forsakes the good and follows after evil. Sin boasts, "I will not keep God's law." Human merit is worthless, Christ's Merit is magnificent. Trust to Jesus, that is all. All glory be to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who died for me!
Human Merit vs Christ's Merit 3
All man-made religions try to cover up their Guilt with works (human merit) of some type (penance, indulgences, praying the rosary, baptism, alms giving, doing your best, enduring to the end). All humanists and atheists try to cover up their sins by pretending that they will never be 'guilty' of any sin before any God, because the only 'god' there is is man. Their covering is Darwin's theory of evolution. In Darwin's theory, no sinner is ever personally accountable to any Creator or Judge for anything; no one is guilty at all.
A study of the world's false religious systems will show that no matter how different their doctrine may be, they all have One major tenet/rule in common. One and all they affirm that salvation must be Earned, you have to Pay, that it is by human works, that sinful man must do something or suffer in some way to merit the favor of God. Human merit is a damnable thing. Organized religion believes that you are your own savior, they say, "No one else is going to save you but yourself." This is the foundational belief and undergirding of just about all organized religion on the planet. They say, "You have to help save yourself, you have to live IT." Yeah, you can believe in something or somebody, but you've got to help save yourself. This self-righteous attitude is part of the depraved deception of human nature.
Man thinks he can be his own savior, and that he is qualified and capable of saving himself. This is a very convenient thought, because now you can get rid of God. If you are your own savior, then you don't need God or His Son's blood and righteousness at all. This is a gross insult to God and His Son. Jesus lived IT for me perfectly. A religionist can never tell you exactly what IT is that you must live, and that same religionist has never lived IT a day in his life. Jesus obeyed every jot and tittle of the divine Law every day of His life; the sinful human nature residing within every man could never do that.
A personal, accountable relationship with the living Savior is no longer necessary, because you've applied for the job of redeemer and savior of your immortal soul. Salvation for you is whatever you think it is. You do what you do because you think it is right, God is not in your thoughts at all. You say, "I don't need God, His Son, the Bible, I don't need anything that I can't control, or that may try to control me. I don't want to have anything to do with a God or religion that I can't choose for myself. I've heard all about that Jesus - I don't want him." Some people want to cover all the spiritual bases, go through the motions, but they don't want to be spiritually obligated to the omniscient living Lord Jesus Christ and the omnipresent Holy Ghost. You say, "you know, that's just your interpretation." This is the essence of the sin nature - "I want my own way, and I want to be my own savior." Man doesn't want to have anything to do with a God, that he doesn't choose for himself. The natural man (evil human nature) doesn't want the words of God to have any authority or control over his life.
Now remember this: Do-gooders try to save themselves and end up in the Lake of Fire, because they thought they were too good to need the real Savior. But the No-gooders are the poor and needy that Jesus receives and saves, because they admit they are no good and in desperate need of a Savior. They cry out to the Crucified God for mercy. Seek the Savior, trust Him, call upon Him in truth, or you'll surely perish in your sins.
Religion is a set of man-made moral standards adopted by any group of unsaved men who are seeking to justify themselves and merit the favor of God by their own self-righteous works (Isa 64:6). The sum total of all religions is that you have to DO something yourself to be saved, and you have to DO something yourself to 'stay' saved. And if you think any different, you are either dishonest or a hypocrite - or both. The first thing that any man must be saved from is his religion, and then he must saved from his own deceitful, righteous self. The hardest thing to ever convince a man to do is to let go of self-righteous religion. If you don't believe me, try to get a Mormon or Church of Christ to simply believe on the Lord Jesus without any of their works.
But the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, with its radical concept of salvation by faith alone in God's blood, is set uniquely apart from all other systems. *Romans 5:9; Ephesians 2:8-9* In the Gospel, "works" do no result in salvation, they result from salvation. All men are sinners, sin is a coming short of the glory of God. Sin is a failure to meet the divine and holy standard of God Himself.
Many religious people run to their church as a protective shield, they choose to let 'IT' deal with God for him. All the poor sinner has to do is attend 'IT,' obey 'IT,' and pay 'IT,' and he can ignore all that God says in the Bible. All agnostics hide behind ignorance, pretending that they are innocent, because they didn't see the highway speed limit sign. They hide behind lack of knowledge after being told that they all have knowledge. That isn't all. They also have enough knowledge to know how to get saved, but they refuse to seek and trust the Crucified and Risen Creator.
A study of the world's false religious systems will show that no matter how different their doctrine may be, they all have One major tenet/rule in common. One and all they affirm that salvation must be Earned, you have to Pay, that it is by human works, that sinful man must do something or suffer in some way to merit the favor of God. Human merit is a damnable thing. Organized religion believes that you are your own savior, they say, "No one else is going to save you but yourself." This is the foundational belief and undergirding of just about all organized religion on the planet. They say, "You have to help save yourself, you have to live IT." Yeah, you can believe in something or somebody, but you've got to help save yourself. This self-righteous attitude is part of the depraved deception of human nature.
Man thinks he can be his own savior, and that he is qualified and capable of saving himself. This is a very convenient thought, because now you can get rid of God. If you are your own savior, then you don't need God or His Son's blood and righteousness at all. This is a gross insult to God and His Son. Jesus lived IT for me perfectly. A religionist can never tell you exactly what IT is that you must live, and that same religionist has never lived IT a day in his life. Jesus obeyed every jot and tittle of the divine Law every day of His life; the sinful human nature residing within every man could never do that.
A personal, accountable relationship with the living Savior is no longer necessary, because you've applied for the job of redeemer and savior of your immortal soul. Salvation for you is whatever you think it is. You do what you do because you think it is right, God is not in your thoughts at all. You say, "I don't need God, His Son, the Bible, I don't need anything that I can't control, or that may try to control me. I don't want to have anything to do with a God or religion that I can't choose for myself. I've heard all about that Jesus - I don't want him." Some people want to cover all the spiritual bases, go through the motions, but they don't want to be spiritually obligated to the omniscient living Lord Jesus Christ and the omnipresent Holy Ghost. You say, "you know, that's just your interpretation." This is the essence of the sin nature - "I want my own way, and I want to be my own savior." Man doesn't want to have anything to do with a God, that he doesn't choose for himself. The natural man (evil human nature) doesn't want the words of God to have any authority or control over his life.
Now remember this: Do-gooders try to save themselves and end up in the Lake of Fire, because they thought they were too good to need the real Savior. But the No-gooders are the poor and needy that Jesus receives and saves, because they admit they are no good and in desperate need of a Savior. They cry out to the Crucified God for mercy. Seek the Savior, trust Him, call upon Him in truth, or you'll surely perish in your sins.
Religion is a set of man-made moral standards adopted by any group of unsaved men who are seeking to justify themselves and merit the favor of God by their own self-righteous works (Isa 64:6). The sum total of all religions is that you have to DO something yourself to be saved, and you have to DO something yourself to 'stay' saved. And if you think any different, you are either dishonest or a hypocrite - or both. The first thing that any man must be saved from is his religion, and then he must saved from his own deceitful, righteous self. The hardest thing to ever convince a man to do is to let go of self-righteous religion. If you don't believe me, try to get a Mormon or Church of Christ to simply believe on the Lord Jesus without any of their works.
But the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, with its radical concept of salvation by faith alone in God's blood, is set uniquely apart from all other systems. *Romans 5:9; Ephesians 2:8-9* In the Gospel, "works" do no result in salvation, they result from salvation. All men are sinners, sin is a coming short of the glory of God. Sin is a failure to meet the divine and holy standard of God Himself.
Many religious people run to their church as a protective shield, they choose to let 'IT' deal with God for him. All the poor sinner has to do is attend 'IT,' obey 'IT,' and pay 'IT,' and he can ignore all that God says in the Bible. All agnostics hide behind ignorance, pretending that they are innocent, because they didn't see the highway speed limit sign. They hide behind lack of knowledge after being told that they all have knowledge. That isn't all. They also have enough knowledge to know how to get saved, but they refuse to seek and trust the Crucified and Risen Creator.
Human Merit vs Christ's Merit 2
Man had sinned, and the Law of God required punishment for our sins, then the sinless Victim came and offered Himself up to divine justice. Jesus, the Word, the eternal Son of God, condescended to Earth to become a human being, a Jewish man. The Lord Jesus Christ was born of a Jewish virgin named Mary. His first cradle was a feeding trough in a cattle shed in Bethlehem. He lived a life of suffering, and at the last He died a bloody death of agony and shame for your human sin. To neglect and forget Christ is the sure way to damnation and the Lake of Fire. The Gospel of Christ is a matter of life and death. Despise Christ, neglect His great salvation, and you will be as damned as sure as you are breathing. You must be granted a free pardon, nothing you do can ever merit the forgiveness of all our sins, not your repentance, confession, baptism or self-endurance.
Your great sin requires great Merit. Your great guilt requires great Blood. Infinite guilt begs for infinite mercy and pardon. Boundless iniquity cries for boundless Grace. All your hopes of self-salvation are delusive. Give up, have done with self, and take Christ freely. Drop into His arms, and Jesus will take you and save you freely. He died to save your soul, He lives to accomplish it. You can't mingle man's works with God's works, you can't mix man's merits with Christ's merits. If you try, the mercy of God will pass you by, and the wrath of God will continue to abide upon you, and eventually will destroy you. Christ freely offers Himself to you only if you will take Him for Nothing. You cannot buy Christ with your good works. You have no merits at all anyway. Your good works are only another form of your sin, another shape of your iniquity. The Gospel is just this - trust Christ's works, and you are saved immediately and irreversibly. Rely on what Jesus did, and you are delivered from the penalty of your sins. Leave off trusting to ceremonies, doctrines, creeds, traditions, forms, efforts, doings -- simply rely on Jesus Himself, and you are Born Again. *John 3:7*
Your sins justly merit eternal damnation, that's all. Trust only in what Jesus did for you. Do not attempt to mix your doings with Christ's finished work. Your very best works are stained with sin and selfishness. Your best performances and obedience must be washed in God's Blood. You must be saved by grace or not at all. Your works can never help Christ. You have a divided hope if you are relying on any of your works. "Jesus only, Jesus only!" is the deathblow to all of man's religious efforts. Jesus must entirely save you, or not at all. Christ will not go shares in your salvation. Christ never went halves with a sinner yet. Your pet sin and favorite lust has made you a darling child of Satan. Your vain boasting is excluded. Evil, Justice, Love, and Forgiveness all converged at Calvary's Cross in the Lamb of God. Jesus bore our evil sins in His own body on the tree, He endured the Justice and Wrath of God we deserved, He loved His enemies, and will now freely forgive all that come to Him for mercy and pardon.
Christ Jesus' mercy must save you - pure mercy, unmixed mercy. Trusting only in Christ will remove all your sin-debts, take away all sins, and save you eternally. Faith is simply trusting in Christ, then seeking to please Christ out of gratitude to Him. Trusting in Christ is too hard for your proud spirit, you are much too proud to be saved freely. Love was crucified by human sin on the Cross. Christianity is intolerant, it doesn't allow a second method of salvation. Christ's Precious Blood is the only way of escape from the Hell you deserve. Trusting in Jesus alone is the narrow path to Paradise, the strait gate that leads to New Jerusalem. If you make a mistake with Christ, it will be eternally fatal. Jesus wants no help from you, let Him do it all, do not bring anything with you to the Cross, or you will be turned away. No soul ever perished trusting in Jesus' blood. Confidently rest your soul on the finished work of Christ. Away with your good works, good thoughts, for they are filthy rags and dung. Trust implicitly on Christ's blood. Don't trust in two things, partly in Christ, and partly in your good works. Jesus doesn't need your assistance, don't intermeddle with your salvation.
The Christian has two eyes, both are wholly fixed on Christ, faith and obedience. The one road to Heaven is faith in Christ Jesus alone. There are two steps to Heaven: out of self, and into Christ. Faith is the constant trusting in the Savior's words, person, and Blood. Simply hold your empty vessel to the place where the water of life flows, and let Jesus freely fill your empty soul with Himself. Faith simply and solely fixed on Christ's Perfect and Finished Blood Atonement takes all your sins away forever. This must be your testimony - "This is my beloved Savior in whom I am well pleased, Worthy is the Lamb." Your best prayers, resolves, reformations, works, or tears can never merit you eternal life. Eternal life is a free gift for the ungodly. Salvation is only due to God's grace, not your works. Cast your guilty soul simply on the merits and blood of Jesus. Christ is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.
Take Jesus at His word and trust to Him. Trust only in what Jesus did for you. Repent of your sins committed against God. The moment your soul trusts Christ, that very moment all your sins are forgiven freely. The wrath of God's justice is only propitiated (appeased) by the bleeding Sufferer on the accursed tree. Man-made religion will damn your soul. Religion can never have anything to do with your Salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, the soldiers plowed His back with bloody furrows, they pricked His precious temples with the crown of thorns. He was mocked and spit upon, He bore Calvary's Cross, despising the shame, He was nailed to the tree naked, hung up in the blazing sun for everyone to gawk and jeer at hatefully. The Son of God was murdered on account of your sins. Jesus yielded Himself up to a gruesome bloody death for you, He descended into the heart of the earth, then three days later, He rose from the dead, ascended up to Heaven, and is now sitting on the right hand of the Father, interceding for those who trust in Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, the soldiers plowed His back with bloody furrows, they pricked His precious temples with the crown of thorns. He was mocked and spit upon, He bore Calvary's Cross, despising the shame, He was nailed to the tree naked, hung up in the blazing sun for everyone to gawk and jeer at hatefully. The Son of God was murdered on account of your sins. Jesus yielded Himself up to a gruesome bloody death for you, He descended into the heart of the earth, then three days later, He rose from the dead, ascended up to Heaven, and is now sitting on the right hand of the Father, interceding for those who trust in Him.
Simple faith in Christ's Precious Blood is the only way of salvation. His blood dropped from Calvary's Cross for your sins. Jesus will receive the biggest of sinners. Your vileness and guilt can only be washed out with God's blood. The wrath of God demands payment for your sins. If you reject Christ, you don't have enough sense to fill the eye of a needle. Lord, show me myself, Lord show me Yourself; Lord reveal my sins to me, and then reveal the Savior. Jesus was lifted up to die in the thick darkness, He was offered up to make an Atonement, and poured out His life's blood for your sake. Depend on Christ for all things, and on self for Nothing. Human merit is rotten and empty to the core. Christ is the meritorious One, not you; trust only to His bloody Atoning Sacrifice for sinners. Trust only in the merit of Him who bled and died on Calvary's tree. Christ was perfectly obedient His entire life on my behalf and has imputed all His merits to my account that I might be exceeding rich, through Him who for my sake became exceedingly poor. *II Corinthians 5:19-21; 8:9*
Without Christ, all have you to stand on are your Demerits which are many. By nature, you can only merit perdition and the Lake of Fire. Human nature attaches merit to its own works and foolishly hopes to win heaven as a reward of its own doings. When a sinner believes in Christ, the merit of His blood takes away his sins, and the merit of His obedience is imputed to him for Righteousness freely without works. As soon as we believe on Christ alone, the works of Christ are our works. God looks upon the believer as though the perfect obedience of Christ has been performed by ourselves. God considers us to be as Righteous as Christ. God looks upon us as though Jesus' life has been our life. God accepts, blesses, praises and rewards us as though all that Jesus did had been done by us. This is Justification.
Human Merit vs Christ's Merit 1
The first birth, human merit, religious rites and ceremonies have no life in them at all. You need to abhor the idea of any human merit helping your soul escape from sin. Plead only the merits of God's Son, trust to His Precious Blood, Believe on His wounds, the bloody sweat and death of the Cross, the resurrection, the ascension and intercession of Christ Jesus. When it comes to your soul's Salvation, human merit and human effort are all useless, pure nonsense. Human merit is a foundation of sand, if you build upon it, you will surely perish. Salvation is the free gift of divine Mercy to guilty sinners, and is never the reward of any human merit. You are not good at all, and you have no merit to please God with, because you're a sinner to the bone marrow, and nothing else. Your whole life is one big continual SIN; you are one big mass of sin.
You've never done one good thing in God's eyes, for you have preferred your imaginary goodness to Christ's goodness. A sinner can't do good. If you can help save yourself, what is the need of Christ's great Sacrifice on Calvary? If human merit can suffice, the Cross of Christ was all in vain. What are you trusting? Human merit or Christ's merits? Man's concocted religions reek of human merit. Salvation cannot be by human merit, it must be by divine Grace alone, for you are at enmity with God in your sins. Come and cast yourself on Jesus, without works, without merits. Trust only the merits of Jesus' agonies, sufferings, and blood. Salvation by human effort is a lie. Your merits can never match up with Christ's Perfect Merits. You are chuck full of de-merit.
All your merits are good for nothing and unprofitable. Come to Jesus Christ, believe in Him, not in yourself. You cannot add anything to the Perfect Merits of Jesus Christ. Salvation is of Christ alone, you have nothing to offer, Christ has Everything you need. Faith in Christ's blood and merits is the only way to New Jerusalem. Christ's sinlessness, agonies, groans, sufferings, merits, blood, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession are essential. Hopeless sinners can never merit salvation. Religion exalts human ability and human merit. You have no merit, no righteousness, no good works. You will damned in hell unless Christ has mercy on you. You deserve God's wrath and you cannot avoid it by any merits or good deeds of your own. You must put your trust solely and entirely in the blood and merits of Jesus Christ. If you are putting your trust in any of your own works or merit - it is all in vain and you are doomed.
There is only one hope for a poor sinner from the divine justice of JEHOVAH, and that is the Lamb of God. Your only salvation is the Blood from Jesus' own heart. The door to Heaven is not wide enough to let your carry any of your self-righteousness with you. The law of God has been broken by us all, you can't offer anything to God to make up a recompense for what you have done. God is so angry with the man who sins, that He will damn that man, unless there is Someone who will be damned for him and suffer that punishment in his place.
Every sin ever committed by you must be punished. God will by no means spare the guilty. Someone has to pay for your sins. Will it be you or a Substitute? Christ Jesus stepped forward to be the Substitute and to be damned and to die in your place. God Almighty became a Jewish man - His name was Jesus of Nazareth. God became a human being, so that He could take the punishment we ought to have endured. Jesus bore the wrath we ought to have borne, He took the guilt we committed as the Scapegoat did in the Old Testament. Now, any sinner that puts his heart trust in Christ's substitutionary work can escape the eternal punishment and death due to his sins. God's justice cannot demand payment twice for the same offense.
The carnal mind of lost man can never understand the Gospel Riddle. Jesus Christ is everything to God, and until Jesus Christ is everything to you, you will die lost and doomed. Plead only the merits of God's Blood. The Incarnate God bled for your sins. God says, "You must please Me." But I cannot please you God, but Jesus Christ can, so I will trust His Blood Atonement to completely please You. The natural man will not humble himself and admit he cannot please God. The Gospel says, "you have to trust Jesus Christ to please God." Faith is pleasing God. Do well and you will be accepted in the Beloved. But I cannot do well. But God says, "My Son did well for you. Trust His Blood and I will accept you." Your chief need is Mercy. Your deepest desire is to be accepted by your Maker. Abel was accepted, he had a smile on his face. Cain was rejected by God, and he had a frown on his face. God smiled on Abel, but was angry with Cain. True hope is only found in the Savior's veins and wounds, the Father's mercy, and the Spirit's power.
The false gospel is half grace and half human goodness. Self-righteousness, pride, presumption, carnal security, hatred of God, contempt of His grace and blood, ignorance of the promises and Christ are only a few reasons why men remain lost in their sins. The Gospel is the free forgiveness of sins through Christ's blood and merits. You can never merit heaven and eternal life. Christ is all meritorious, look only to Him. Look straight to Christ for everything your soul needs in life and death and Eternity. Just look fixedly to the Cross. All the merits you could ever earn yourself are good for nothing. God says, "you must satisfy my Justice."
Justification by faith alone through the merits of Christ infinitely satisfies God's infinite justice. Human merit is nothing but dross and dung. Rest simply upon the Blood of Jesus Christ. Fix all your hope on nothing less than Jesus Christ's finished Sacrifice on Calvary's Cross. The Gospel is absolutely free, nothing must be done by you in order to receive it. No human merit must be brought to the Cross, only human sin. Free pardon through Precious Blood is the essence of the Gospel Message. Your faith in Christ's blood makes you completely whole and safe. Choose and take Jesus to be all your salvation. God will forgive me through the merit of Christ's blood, and give me a Perfect Righteousness to shield my soul in the Great Judgment Day.
The natural religion of fallen man is salvation by human merit. Human merit wants justice, not mercy. Guilty, empty, meritless sinners seek mercy at the foot of the Cross. Self-righteous sinner, stand back, you insult the Almighty when you bring anything but Christ's Precious Blood to satisfy God's justice. Sinners can never merit anything but punishment, and your repentance can never atone for your sins. Be wise - Stake all your eternal salvation upon the merit of Jesus' sin-atoning blood. Simply rely upon the sin-atoning Savior.
Trust in nothing else but Christ Himself. Relying and depending only on Jesus is real faith. Trust no more in the merits you have done, quit all the hopes you held before. Only trust the merits of the Crucified One. Your best obedience is a damnable sham. Nothing but faith in Christ can answer God's holy demands, by simply pleading what Jesus has done. What was my gain, I count my loss, my former pride, I call my shame, and nail my vain glory to the Cross.
Dear God, accept Christ's sacrifice - I am worthless, but have mercy and accept me through your Son's own merits. Humble faith in Christ, resting in His merits, trusting in His bloody death is the sure way. You cannot make yourself acceptable to God. Your soul's craving appetite, the inward gnawing, the aching void of your poor hungry spirit can only be satisfied by the Crucified God. Only God's grace can relieve and quench your soul's thirst. The world can never fill the aching void in your inmost being. When your natural and mechanical religion has left you empty, when your fleshly excitement is all gone, look away from self, look straight to Calvary, and view the bleeding Lamb of God. Only Christ can speak forgiveness to your soul.
The natural man gravitates to self-salvation in one form or another. Human natures follows after self-salvation either by personal worthiness or by religious repentance, or human resolves. This falsehood is ingrained in human nature, and very, very hard to remove. In some form or other, natural religion, the way of Cain, is the way of every unconverted man. We are so proud that we will not accept Heaven for nothing. We want to help pay our own way, or do something or other, but the one and only plan of salvation is, "Believe on Christ alone and live forever."
Trust, rely, depend, rest, confide only upon the God-man, Christ Jesus the Merciful Mediator. Self-righteousness is the natural religion of every lost man. Christ doesn't want any merit of yours, He gives everything He has away freely to lost sinners. Come to the Cross just as your are, be numbered with the transgressors, come without preparation, without trying to do better, without works, or dispositions. Come now to the foot of the mighty Cross, and trust in God's pardoning Blood and the all-sufficient merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The salvation of any sinner is only and all the mercy of God, and not his human merits. Man is very prone to relying upon his own goodness. The human mind clings to human merit, just as Adam clung to his fig-leaf apron and trembled. Pride and self-will is the inherent sin of man. Give up all your self-righteousness, and rely only on Christ. If you die rejecting Christ, you will enter into Eternity as the enemy of God by wicked works. Delight only in Christ Himself and His Finished Work, not in yourself or your works.
You have no goodness at all, no merits, no righteousness, nothing to bring to God but guilt, nothing to offer for acceptance. You are penniless and bankrupt, poverty-stricken, perishing, guilty, and lost. If you are under the load of guilt, the conviction of sin, believe on Christ now. Your sins deserve damnation, but Christ's merits deserve Salvation. Christ is more powerful than your sins. Christ's Righteousness is greater than your guilt. The Holy Creator is mightier than the unholy creature. You cannot do anything in the flesh to please God, all your works only makes your situation more treacherous. Your self-righteousness can never merit God's love and favor. If you go to Heaven, you must go through what Jesus did FOR YOU. You must accept Mercy as the absolute free gift of Heaven.
Remember now - Human sin and self-righteousness can never deserve anything but punishment. Trust in nothing else but the Bleeding Mediator. Rely simply and entirely upon His mighty Cross-Work. The winds of hell and the wrath of God will never touch you behind the Cross, the guilty sinner's Shield. You are worthless, and God will only accept you through Christ's Perfect Works. Your works are not perfect, every one of them is tainted with some sort of sin, and therefore; all your dead works are totally unacceptable in God's sight. God is ONLY well-pleased with His Son's finished work. I have no other Hope but Christ's shed blood. Hearken, incline your ear, you have no good works in which to trust, no self-righteousness on which to rely, cast all your boasting away. Come to the Suffering Savior at the Cross as a poor, guilty, helpless sinner that deserves Hell. God, have mercy and save my guilty soul for Jesus' sake, or I perish!
You've never done one good thing in God's eyes, for you have preferred your imaginary goodness to Christ's goodness. A sinner can't do good. If you can help save yourself, what is the need of Christ's great Sacrifice on Calvary? If human merit can suffice, the Cross of Christ was all in vain. What are you trusting? Human merit or Christ's merits? Man's concocted religions reek of human merit. Salvation cannot be by human merit, it must be by divine Grace alone, for you are at enmity with God in your sins. Come and cast yourself on Jesus, without works, without merits. Trust only the merits of Jesus' agonies, sufferings, and blood. Salvation by human effort is a lie. Your merits can never match up with Christ's Perfect Merits. You are chuck full of de-merit.
All your merits are good for nothing and unprofitable. Come to Jesus Christ, believe in Him, not in yourself. You cannot add anything to the Perfect Merits of Jesus Christ. Salvation is of Christ alone, you have nothing to offer, Christ has Everything you need. Faith in Christ's blood and merits is the only way to New Jerusalem. Christ's sinlessness, agonies, groans, sufferings, merits, blood, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession are essential. Hopeless sinners can never merit salvation. Religion exalts human ability and human merit. You have no merit, no righteousness, no good works. You will damned in hell unless Christ has mercy on you. You deserve God's wrath and you cannot avoid it by any merits or good deeds of your own. You must put your trust solely and entirely in the blood and merits of Jesus Christ. If you are putting your trust in any of your own works or merit - it is all in vain and you are doomed.
There is only one hope for a poor sinner from the divine justice of JEHOVAH, and that is the Lamb of God. Your only salvation is the Blood from Jesus' own heart. The door to Heaven is not wide enough to let your carry any of your self-righteousness with you. The law of God has been broken by us all, you can't offer anything to God to make up a recompense for what you have done. God is so angry with the man who sins, that He will damn that man, unless there is Someone who will be damned for him and suffer that punishment in his place.
Every sin ever committed by you must be punished. God will by no means spare the guilty. Someone has to pay for your sins. Will it be you or a Substitute? Christ Jesus stepped forward to be the Substitute and to be damned and to die in your place. God Almighty became a Jewish man - His name was Jesus of Nazareth. God became a human being, so that He could take the punishment we ought to have endured. Jesus bore the wrath we ought to have borne, He took the guilt we committed as the Scapegoat did in the Old Testament. Now, any sinner that puts his heart trust in Christ's substitutionary work can escape the eternal punishment and death due to his sins. God's justice cannot demand payment twice for the same offense.
The carnal mind of lost man can never understand the Gospel Riddle. Jesus Christ is everything to God, and until Jesus Christ is everything to you, you will die lost and doomed. Plead only the merits of God's Blood. The Incarnate God bled for your sins. God says, "You must please Me." But I cannot please you God, but Jesus Christ can, so I will trust His Blood Atonement to completely please You. The natural man will not humble himself and admit he cannot please God. The Gospel says, "you have to trust Jesus Christ to please God." Faith is pleasing God. Do well and you will be accepted in the Beloved. But I cannot do well. But God says, "My Son did well for you. Trust His Blood and I will accept you." Your chief need is Mercy. Your deepest desire is to be accepted by your Maker. Abel was accepted, he had a smile on his face. Cain was rejected by God, and he had a frown on his face. God smiled on Abel, but was angry with Cain. True hope is only found in the Savior's veins and wounds, the Father's mercy, and the Spirit's power.
The false gospel is half grace and half human goodness. Self-righteousness, pride, presumption, carnal security, hatred of God, contempt of His grace and blood, ignorance of the promises and Christ are only a few reasons why men remain lost in their sins. The Gospel is the free forgiveness of sins through Christ's blood and merits. You can never merit heaven and eternal life. Christ is all meritorious, look only to Him. Look straight to Christ for everything your soul needs in life and death and Eternity. Just look fixedly to the Cross. All the merits you could ever earn yourself are good for nothing. God says, "you must satisfy my Justice."
Justification by faith alone through the merits of Christ infinitely satisfies God's infinite justice. Human merit is nothing but dross and dung. Rest simply upon the Blood of Jesus Christ. Fix all your hope on nothing less than Jesus Christ's finished Sacrifice on Calvary's Cross. The Gospel is absolutely free, nothing must be done by you in order to receive it. No human merit must be brought to the Cross, only human sin. Free pardon through Precious Blood is the essence of the Gospel Message. Your faith in Christ's blood makes you completely whole and safe. Choose and take Jesus to be all your salvation. God will forgive me through the merit of Christ's blood, and give me a Perfect Righteousness to shield my soul in the Great Judgment Day.
The natural religion of fallen man is salvation by human merit. Human merit wants justice, not mercy. Guilty, empty, meritless sinners seek mercy at the foot of the Cross. Self-righteous sinner, stand back, you insult the Almighty when you bring anything but Christ's Precious Blood to satisfy God's justice. Sinners can never merit anything but punishment, and your repentance can never atone for your sins. Be wise - Stake all your eternal salvation upon the merit of Jesus' sin-atoning blood. Simply rely upon the sin-atoning Savior.
Trust in nothing else but Christ Himself. Relying and depending only on Jesus is real faith. Trust no more in the merits you have done, quit all the hopes you held before. Only trust the merits of the Crucified One. Your best obedience is a damnable sham. Nothing but faith in Christ can answer God's holy demands, by simply pleading what Jesus has done. What was my gain, I count my loss, my former pride, I call my shame, and nail my vain glory to the Cross.
Dear God, accept Christ's sacrifice - I am worthless, but have mercy and accept me through your Son's own merits. Humble faith in Christ, resting in His merits, trusting in His bloody death is the sure way. You cannot make yourself acceptable to God. Your soul's craving appetite, the inward gnawing, the aching void of your poor hungry spirit can only be satisfied by the Crucified God. Only God's grace can relieve and quench your soul's thirst. The world can never fill the aching void in your inmost being. When your natural and mechanical religion has left you empty, when your fleshly excitement is all gone, look away from self, look straight to Calvary, and view the bleeding Lamb of God. Only Christ can speak forgiveness to your soul.
The natural man gravitates to self-salvation in one form or another. Human natures follows after self-salvation either by personal worthiness or by religious repentance, or human resolves. This falsehood is ingrained in human nature, and very, very hard to remove. In some form or other, natural religion, the way of Cain, is the way of every unconverted man. We are so proud that we will not accept Heaven for nothing. We want to help pay our own way, or do something or other, but the one and only plan of salvation is, "Believe on Christ alone and live forever."
Trust, rely, depend, rest, confide only upon the God-man, Christ Jesus the Merciful Mediator. Self-righteousness is the natural religion of every lost man. Christ doesn't want any merit of yours, He gives everything He has away freely to lost sinners. Come to the Cross just as your are, be numbered with the transgressors, come without preparation, without trying to do better, without works, or dispositions. Come now to the foot of the mighty Cross, and trust in God's pardoning Blood and the all-sufficient merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The salvation of any sinner is only and all the mercy of God, and not his human merits. Man is very prone to relying upon his own goodness. The human mind clings to human merit, just as Adam clung to his fig-leaf apron and trembled. Pride and self-will is the inherent sin of man. Give up all your self-righteousness, and rely only on Christ. If you die rejecting Christ, you will enter into Eternity as the enemy of God by wicked works. Delight only in Christ Himself and His Finished Work, not in yourself or your works.
You have no goodness at all, no merits, no righteousness, nothing to bring to God but guilt, nothing to offer for acceptance. You are penniless and bankrupt, poverty-stricken, perishing, guilty, and lost. If you are under the load of guilt, the conviction of sin, believe on Christ now. Your sins deserve damnation, but Christ's merits deserve Salvation. Christ is more powerful than your sins. Christ's Righteousness is greater than your guilt. The Holy Creator is mightier than the unholy creature. You cannot do anything in the flesh to please God, all your works only makes your situation more treacherous. Your self-righteousness can never merit God's love and favor. If you go to Heaven, you must go through what Jesus did FOR YOU. You must accept Mercy as the absolute free gift of Heaven.
Remember now - Human sin and self-righteousness can never deserve anything but punishment. Trust in nothing else but the Bleeding Mediator. Rely simply and entirely upon His mighty Cross-Work. The winds of hell and the wrath of God will never touch you behind the Cross, the guilty sinner's Shield. You are worthless, and God will only accept you through Christ's Perfect Works. Your works are not perfect, every one of them is tainted with some sort of sin, and therefore; all your dead works are totally unacceptable in God's sight. God is ONLY well-pleased with His Son's finished work. I have no other Hope but Christ's shed blood. Hearken, incline your ear, you have no good works in which to trust, no self-righteousness on which to rely, cast all your boasting away. Come to the Suffering Savior at the Cross as a poor, guilty, helpless sinner that deserves Hell. God, have mercy and save my guilty soul for Jesus' sake, or I perish!
Saturday, May 17, 2014
A Thirsty Sparrow
One day a man was walking along a trail by the Columbia River, and he saw a tiny little sparrow land on the very edge of the river. The roar of the mighty Columbia was almost deafening, he could feel its spray, and it was wide and deep and flowing fast. He could see the white water as the river raced swiftly over huge boulders many yards from the shoreline. The man paused on the trail, and he watched this little sparrow. The tiny bird cocked its head, and then dipped its beak in the water just once, and satisfied it flew away.
This sparrow sipping from the Columbia River is a picture of the grace of God. We have no idea of how deep and mighty and powerful the resource of God’s grace really is. We are like this little sparrow taking a little sip of a mighty river much more vast than we could ever understand. God’s grace is much greater than our needs.
It is our soul’s needs that drives us to the river of God. I may never comprehend how vast and mighty God’s grace really is, but I’m glad I know where to go to for help, especially when I’m thirsty. When I’m feeling weak, when I feel like I just can’t go on, I have days like that, plenty of them, and I'm sure you do too.
God allows us to feel the pain of our weaknesses. It is the pain of these weaknesses that deepens our dependence on Christ Jesus for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean, and the harder we lean, the stronger we grow in Christ. While our bodies waste away, we must live with our thorn cheerfully. We must be patient, kind, free in heart, and we must love to help and encourage others.
Just as the sparrow dipped its little beak into the mighty Columbia and was satisfied, I know where to go when I feel the pain of weakness. It is has nothing to do with my willpower or human stamina. I am so weak and helpless, but I know where to go to for help. Christ Jesus does more than just satisfy me, more than just help me live with my thorn, He draws me closer to His side through His marvelous grace. The purpose of His grace is that slowly but surely we come to understand how vast and mighty our God truely is to the ‘weary’ soul who comes to Him at the Cross.
If you are feeling the pain of your weakness today, come to the Cross and lean entirely on Jesus, drink from the living water, because the harder you lean on Him, the stronger you will discover Him to be, and you like the little sparrow will be satisfied. Always remember - the weaker we feel, the harder we must lean on the Lord Jesus Christ.
A Royal Invitation
So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
God says, “He that hath no money, come.” You go to a restaurant for a meal, and you pay for it. You go to a hotel for a bed, and you pay for it. But the Lord says if you don’t have money, come to the Bloody Cross and look to the Bleeding Lamb of God. God invites anybody and everybody that is in NEED. To the one who is flat broke and down and out, come on; Jesus Christ will give you free whatever you need. Come without money and without price. (See Isaiah 55:1-7) Perhaps life has not been good to you. You can never get satisfied in this world. You’ve tried it all; and all has turned out bad, life has turned sour.
Many people try marriage, but love flees away. Oh, the bitterness and heartache when love is gone! Love may have fled from you, and now life isn’t worth living. Many get drunk or high to drown it all, to numb their heart-pain, they try to forget it all but they can’t. Some days, you may wish you were dead. You have nothing to live for. But remember – God’s Gospel Message is full of love and able to heal broken hearts. Unemployment, sickness, poverty, distress, divorce, home trouble, and heart trouble – all of these are God’s opportunity to save sinners. Most people only find the Savior after losing everything. But it’s better to lose everything here on earth, than to lose your own soul and go to Hell without God. You may be dissatisfied, you may have lost your friends, family, money, or health, but the Lord Jesus Christ is still calling to you, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” If you are tired of eating out of the world’s garbage can, and drinking this world’s ditch-water, the Bleeding Savior is waiting at the Cross to save you from eternal death.
You may be dissatisfied today, deceived, or disillusioned; well, I have good news for you. You can have peace of heart and the forgiveness of sins freely, you can have the bread life that will satisfy you soul’s longing. Just come on to Jesus and trust Him with your soul. Get on your knees right now and tell God all about it; tell Him you want forgiveness and peace through the blood of His precious Son. Sin never satisfies, but the Lord Jesus always does.
If your soul is hungry and restless, God has a remedy for those who have tried the world and found their soul still wanting, God has a message for those who have drunk from the sweet cup of sinful pleasure and found bitter dregs at the bottom. For those who have tried Satan’s way and found the way of the transgressor to be hard and thorny, come on to Calvary’s Cross and get what your soul needs. You can’t buy or earn eternal life and the forgiveness of sin – it is the free gift of God, and nothing is freer than a gift. All you who are nobodies, nothings, and sinful failures may come to the Cross now for free forgiveness.
God has been seeking you for a long time, now it is time for you to seek Him. One of the main sins that sends people to Hell is that they won’t hear. You sin against God and your own soul when you fail to listen to God’s Gospel Message. You will go to Hell unless you turn your ear and heart toward God. God is calling, and pleading for you to turn and find Him while you can. Most Americans today are Gospel-hardened. They have heard they Message of the Cross so long that it doesn’t move them at all anymore. Listen, you had better listen closely. If you don’t want to burn in torment and be forever away from God, take heed right now to the Gospel. I beg you, turn your ear toward God. God’s still, small voice is calling to you now. If you fail to hear Him, then your ear isn’t turned toward God. A wicked heart will not hear God. Dull ears always turn away from the truth.
The Lord Jesus Christ is calling you today, so listen closely. Oh sinner, listen diligently. Souls are lost forever who will not listen to God. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Those who seek God find Him. Don’t blame God if you go to Hell. It is not God’s move, it’s not God’s turn. He hasn’t wronged you. You’ve went against Him, ignored Him, and went headlong into sin intentionally. You wouldn’t listen when He called to you. It is your move now. Seek God, and you will find Him. If you don’t seek God, you will go to that place of torment called Hell and be there forever and ever.
God will give you a FREE PARDON if you will forsake YOUR WAY. God has some terms we don’t like to meet. God says, “Let the wicked forsake HIS WAY.” You have gone your own way, and it is has been filled with misery and destruction. (Romans 3:16)You are wicked enough to go to Hell. You have broken God’s law – one sin is all it takes to be a sinner. You may be an educated sinner, a religious sinner, a well-dressed sinner, but you are still a wicked sinner in the sight of God. You may be moral in your own eyes, but you are still wicked in God’s holy eyes. You are rotten with sin, and you’re self-condemned. Your own way is taking you farther and farther away from God. (See Proverbs 16:25; Isaiah 53:6)
YOUR WAY has always brought you trouble. Sin always complicates life. It has brought you a guilty conscience, remorse, guilt, and a wasted life. Your way will result in ruin on down the road. YOUR WAY leads to Hell – it is the broad way. To be saved, you must turn your back on your own way and turn your ear and heart toward the Cross and look only to the Bleeding Savior. No one can be saved from sin without a heart-turning to God. (See Luke 13:3; II Peter 3:9; Acts 17:30)
To repent means to turn from unbelief to faith in Christ alone. Faith is to take God at His word and trust Him to save your soul. Bible faith is to trust Christ alone right now. True repentance is a gift, it comes from God, not yourself. Repentance means to quit your way, abandon your self-righteousness, and forsake your foolishness. Repenting is to stop trusting in your way, and trust God’s way. God’s way is the Lord Jesus Christ. You must forsake your own thoughts. Your thoughts are backward, wrong, and sinful. You think, “Well, I haven’t done anything that bad, or, I’m a pretty good person, or, I’m a church member, or, I live up to my obligations, or, I take good care of my family, or, I don’t do harm to anybody and I try to treat my neighbor right, or, I have stopped my bad habits of the past, or, I do the best I know how to do, or, I try to live up to the Golden Rule, or, I have been baptized.” These are all thoughts from a carnal mind in rebellion against the Gospel of Christ.
Just give up your way, your own thoughts about salvation. None of these vain imaginations will get you saved. You will not be saved your way. If you are saved from your sin, you will have to be saved God’s way. Turn your back on your way and take God’s way – the Bleeding Substitute. If you seek God, that is, turn your ear toward God, forsake your own way, take God at His word concerning His Son, cry out to God, lay down your love for sin, give up all your plans to save yourself, and trust Christ Jesus alone – the door is always open when you come to God a lost, hell-deserving sinner. It takes a nobody to be a somebody, it takes a nothing to be something. It takes somebody going down to go up. God only saves nobodies that need forgiveness and mercy. It takes a nobody to get saved by the grace of God. No one ever becomes righteous in the sight of God, until they truly see how unrighteous they really are when compared to God’s righteousness. It takes a nobody to be a somebody, and until you become a NOTHING, you can never be anything in the sight of God. (See Galatians 6:3)
God can be found right now, He is not far off. You need to bury your pride and religious nonsense, God is near, He can be found right now. The Holy Spirit is knocking at your heart’s door. Satan will tell you, “Anytime will do,” or “Some other time,” or “You have plenty of time.” But that isn’t true. There will come a time when you can’t find God. Your heart will be too hardened, or you’ll be too busy, or you may die suddenly, and be forever lost.
There is a time when it is too late to find God. There will come a time when God cannot be found. So seek Him now while He CAN be found. If you reach out toward God, He’ll reach out to you. God will have mercy on your soul if you cry out to Him now. See Romans 10:13. Anybody who calls on God through Jesus Christ for mercy can get mercy immediately. While God is near, call on Him. Tell the Lord you are a sinner who needs mercy. Just cry out, and God will hear you. You can ask for mercy and get mercy this moment. You can ask for forgiveness and get forgiveness right now. God in Heaven hears the cry of sinners who need forgiveness and mercy.
Your soul is immortal and of infinite worth. Your soul will still be living on when the sun grows cold. Throughout eternity, your soul will be somewhere – in Heaven or in Hell. There’s no such thing as purgatory or reincarnation – those are the Devil’s lies. One soul is worth more than everything else on the planet – more than all the money, all the banks, all the railroads, stocks, homes, music, schools, bonds, jewels, and lands. Your soul is worth more than all the sinful pleasure. Your soul is worth more than everything else in this world put together. There is a Hell and Christ-rejecting sinners die and go there.
You are as full of sin as an egg is full of egg. You have broken God’s holy law by sinning in thought, word, and deed. If you wished to be saved by the law, you must obey its commands entirely, perfectly, and continuously. But you can never do that, because you sin every day. The Law is written in the Ten Commandments, it is not enough for you just to learn or memorize the commandments, you must keep them perfectly for your entire existence on earth. If you are to be saved by the commandments, you must do them all flawlessly, that is clear from scripture. The law demands perfect obedience your entire life. Whatever God has commanded, you must do, whatever He forbids, you must avoid, only by this type of sinless obedience can you live forever. You may often talk about doing your best, but God demands absolute perfect and entire obedience. If you have broken the law just once, it’s all over for you, you are guilty of breaking the law and you are condemned to die an eternal death – the wages is eternal death in the lake of fire. One single fault takes away the possibility of you ever being justified by your own works. No man on earth, except for Jesus Christ Himself, has ever kept the law perfectly.
Sinners cannot keep the law, we have already broken it in a thousand pieces, the precious vase has been fractured, and to boast of keeping the entire law is complete nonsense. You have broken the pure and spotless law many times in the past. If you are hoping to be saved by your works, you are hopelessly lost. If you were to saved by the law, you would have to have begun your life without sin, continued without sin, and then you would have to die in an absolute sinless state in order to have eternal life by your own works. That is impossible and out of the question. There could not be one sinful thought, word, or deed all the days of your life. If you sinned only once, you’re a lost sinner. You can only dream of having perfect, life-long obedience to the law. You were rebellious to your parents in your childhood, and wayward in your youth, and in your early adulthood, you were filled with lust, and all kinds of evil led you astray from God. The hope of salvation by works is only a black and miserable despair. The only way of salvation by works is by keeping the law in its entirely from your birth till death.
The Law says, “Do and live!” but the Gospel says, “Believe and live.” Under the law, it is “Do and thou shalt live; if you leave ANYTHING undone, you must die.” The Gospel says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and whosoever trusts in Christ alone shall never perish, but have everlasting life.” Simply place your trust in Christ alone and your sins are freely forgiven immediately, and you are saved forever. This simple believing, or trusting in Christ, is the essence of the Gospel. If you break the law, you are truly condemned and lost; but you can be equally sure, that by not believing on Christ you are condemned already. No breaker of law can go unpunished, and no rejecter of Christ can be saved.
There are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts”, in the Gospel, it is clearly “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever believeth in Christ hath everlasting life.” The Gospel of God is so very simple, it is as plain as it gets, its easy as the ABCs of your childhood. You don’t have to become religious, educated, or be trained. No, you must confess yourself to a ‘real’ self-condemned sinner; trust in the sinner’s Savior, and you are saved completely, freely, immediately, and forever. Religion and its cults all kick at this truth. They hate it because they refuse to give God all the glory for saving them. Salvation lies only in reliance upon the work of Jesus that He finished for you. Do not try to weave your own robe of righteousness or dig up your own gold. Christ offers you His garment and gold freely. Christ gives it to you, because you cannot deserve it or earn it. You must take it freely and be rich forever, or try to do your best, endure to the end, and then perish forever in your own self-righteous and worthless rags.
Christ Jesus came from Heaven down to earth to save you from your sins. The Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, came down to earth and left the glories of Heaven. He was born of a virgin in a stable. He descended into a carpenter’s shop, and even lower than that, He was despised and rejected of men His entire life. He was the Lord of heaven and earth, yet they called Him Beelzebub, a bastard, a drunkard and winebibber. He went even lower still when He went to Gethsemane and prayed Himself into a bloody sweat, and then to Pilate’s hall, where they falsely accused Him, and then to the awful Cross where He became Sin and bore the wrath of God, they nailed Him there in His nakedness, He hung there in agony and shame, they mocked and jeered at Him, He died in a fever and in thirst, till He finally cried out, “It is finished!” He descended lower into the grave for three days, where He dwelt among the dead. He descended into the lower parts of the earth.
The saving work is done, done by Christ alone. Look to Him and salvation is yours freely. Your salvation rests completely in Jesus, so rest in Jesus. Throw your soul upon Him now, just like a baby throw into upon its mother’s breast. Have done with every other confidence. Be nothing, do nothing, only Trust Christ’s Precious Blood to save your sinful soul.
Lovingkindness
* Lovingkindness (Psa 42:8) -- This is the compound word the Holy Ghost uses to describe the tender mercy and free favor of JEHOVAH in Christ Jesus. Lovingkindness is an Old Testament word, but God uses both of these words in Titus 3:4, watch it, "But after that the 'kindness' and 'love' of God our Saviour toward man appeared." Jesus came from Heaven and appeared in human flesh - He is the lovingkindness of God to sinful man. Christ Jesus is loving and kindness all together in One Perfect Man. The Lord in tender mercy commands His lovingkindness toward us; He first enlightens our mind about our sinful heart, then He opens our eyes to see the bleeding Savior, removes our spiritual ignorance; and shows His grace to our heart. Then after we trust in Jesus, God revives our gratitude, and renews our confidence in Christ from day to day. God sends the sweet constraints of grace to our lives, they are mighty but gentle, they only can control our conduct daily.
This is the message of God's lovingkindness from God's Book. Life is dear, but God's lovingkindness is dearer because it gives us eternal life. The infinite God has been infinitely offended by our infinite sin. It is inevitable: we must enter eternity and come face to face with our Maker. Our sin carries an eternal, infinite penalty, and our sin can only be taken away by an infinite and sinless blood atonement through the life and death of the eternal Christ. But God could not put away sin until He had laid His punishment upon the Righteous One who stood in the sinner’s place.
God is so loving that He gave us His Son; but He is so just that He slew His Son on our behalf. “The Lord hath laid on Christ the iniquity of us all,” and because He was oppressed and He was afflicted in the place of guilty sinners; therefore, does God most freely forgive the sin of those sinners that trust in Christ alone. Christ took human sin upon Himself and suffered and shed His own blood in the sinner’s place, so we would have 'nothing, nothing, nothing' to do but to just accept what Christ has done, and to trust our souls wholly with Him. The sinner that is not saved by such a divine plan as this deserves to perish in his sins; and so he must. You cannot earn salvation, it is of God's mercy, not our merit.
You have broken God’s law. You are guilty of sinning against God, from your childhood to this very day. God's law finds you guilty, condemned, and worthy of eternal death. You rebellion against God's law and the rejection of God's Son has brought upon you the wrath of God and made you guilt in the very worst sense. God is infinitely just and He must punish you; His eternal justice demands it. Nothing will content God's justice but a perfect righteousness and a sinless propitiation. You are condemned by God Himself of a capital offense; but Jesus as man’s Substitute, has endured the capital penalty, and has died in the sinner’s place.
In infinite love and tender mercy, the Lord Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, came into the world to provide a way by which, without dishonor to God’s justice, your sins may be forgiven by pure mercy. God's way is Substitution. Christ stood and died in the sinner’s place, He was punished with the sinner’s punishment, and bore the wrath of God for sinners. Now, whosoever trusts Him, and puts their faith solely on Him is saved by God's free and divine grace. Here's the most beautiful thing you'll ever hear. A crucified Savior was slain in your place, the God of heaven and earth became a man and bled for your sins on Calvary's Cross so that you could live with Him forever.
It is extremely dangerous to put 'things' before your soul. Many are trusting in religious 'things', and not in the person and work of Christ. Your soul's salvation is of the utmost priority. Remember - Christ only receives 'real' sinners. God became a man and suffered in your place, and that same God promised that whosoever believeth in His Son shall not perish, but have 'everlasting' life. Everlasting means to last and endure forever, everlasting is eternal, existing and continuing without end, immortality, continuing indefinitely, endless. That's a long, long time.
Illustration: There was a man condemned to die. He was a poor wretch being led away to death and then at the end of his final walk, he was coming up the gallows' stairs, and someone whispers to him, “What would you give for a substitute now? What would you give for someone to come and bear your punishment of death?” He rolled his eyes at the foolishness of such a thought. He responded, “A substitute!” I could not buy one for the whole world. Who would be a substitute for a rebel like me, to swing on that noose into eternity in front of this howling crowd?”
But suppose — and we are only supposing what has actually occurred — suppose this man faced not only the gallows and the death-drop, but hell fire before him, and it were said to him, “You must burn in that pit forever unless you find a Substitute,” would not that be a precious Substitute to him? Now, listen, that is just your position. Hell is before us if we have not a substitute.
But remember the lovingkindness of God in human flesh stepped forward and stood in our place -- Jesus said, “Father, I will bear the sinner's punishment, pour the sinner's hell on me, Father let me drink damnation dry for these poor wretches;” and He did it at Calvary; He endured all the pains and wrath of God, He suffered in the rebel’s place; and now, through simple child-like trust in Christ the Substitute, we are pardoned, cleared, and free. Hallelujah, Christ can now save ruined sinners from their lost estate.
“Fling out the banner! Let it float,
Skyward and seaward, high and wide;
Our glory only in the Cross,
Our only hope, the Crucified.”
Redemption by Substitution is the Gospel. Christ stands in your place and is punished for your sins. He was the Sufferer because of your sins: and then, you are set in Christ’s place, you are rewarded because of His Righteousness, accepted in the Beloved because of His acceptableness with God. This is God's salvation; a salvation which satisfies the conscience of man as well as the justice of God. This salvation is offered to you without money and without price; but it cost the Redeemer nothing less than Himself. Behold, in Christ the perfect Ransom from sin is paid in full, and Christ bids you go free. Jesus died in the sinner’s place and bore in the sinner’s place what was due to the law of God on account of man’s transgression. Tell this message out among all the nations that God bled for man's sin on Calvary, and now all that trust in Jesus alone can go free.
Bottom line: God's lovingkindness (His bleeding love) is better than life. May the Lord Jesus Christ alone be exalted.
This is the message of God's lovingkindness from God's Book. Life is dear, but God's lovingkindness is dearer because it gives us eternal life. The infinite God has been infinitely offended by our infinite sin. It is inevitable: we must enter eternity and come face to face with our Maker. Our sin carries an eternal, infinite penalty, and our sin can only be taken away by an infinite and sinless blood atonement through the life and death of the eternal Christ. But God could not put away sin until He had laid His punishment upon the Righteous One who stood in the sinner’s place.
God is so loving that He gave us His Son; but He is so just that He slew His Son on our behalf. “The Lord hath laid on Christ the iniquity of us all,” and because He was oppressed and He was afflicted in the place of guilty sinners; therefore, does God most freely forgive the sin of those sinners that trust in Christ alone. Christ took human sin upon Himself and suffered and shed His own blood in the sinner’s place, so we would have 'nothing, nothing, nothing' to do but to just accept what Christ has done, and to trust our souls wholly with Him. The sinner that is not saved by such a divine plan as this deserves to perish in his sins; and so he must. You cannot earn salvation, it is of God's mercy, not our merit.
You have broken God’s law. You are guilty of sinning against God, from your childhood to this very day. God's law finds you guilty, condemned, and worthy of eternal death. You rebellion against God's law and the rejection of God's Son has brought upon you the wrath of God and made you guilt in the very worst sense. God is infinitely just and He must punish you; His eternal justice demands it. Nothing will content God's justice but a perfect righteousness and a sinless propitiation. You are condemned by God Himself of a capital offense; but Jesus as man’s Substitute, has endured the capital penalty, and has died in the sinner’s place.
In infinite love and tender mercy, the Lord Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, came into the world to provide a way by which, without dishonor to God’s justice, your sins may be forgiven by pure mercy. God's way is Substitution. Christ stood and died in the sinner’s place, He was punished with the sinner’s punishment, and bore the wrath of God for sinners. Now, whosoever trusts Him, and puts their faith solely on Him is saved by God's free and divine grace. Here's the most beautiful thing you'll ever hear. A crucified Savior was slain in your place, the God of heaven and earth became a man and bled for your sins on Calvary's Cross so that you could live with Him forever.
It is extremely dangerous to put 'things' before your soul. Many are trusting in religious 'things', and not in the person and work of Christ. Your soul's salvation is of the utmost priority. Remember - Christ only receives 'real' sinners. God became a man and suffered in your place, and that same God promised that whosoever believeth in His Son shall not perish, but have 'everlasting' life. Everlasting means to last and endure forever, everlasting is eternal, existing and continuing without end, immortality, continuing indefinitely, endless. That's a long, long time.
Illustration: There was a man condemned to die. He was a poor wretch being led away to death and then at the end of his final walk, he was coming up the gallows' stairs, and someone whispers to him, “What would you give for a substitute now? What would you give for someone to come and bear your punishment of death?” He rolled his eyes at the foolishness of such a thought. He responded, “A substitute!” I could not buy one for the whole world. Who would be a substitute for a rebel like me, to swing on that noose into eternity in front of this howling crowd?”
But suppose — and we are only supposing what has actually occurred — suppose this man faced not only the gallows and the death-drop, but hell fire before him, and it were said to him, “You must burn in that pit forever unless you find a Substitute,” would not that be a precious Substitute to him? Now, listen, that is just your position. Hell is before us if we have not a substitute.
But remember the lovingkindness of God in human flesh stepped forward and stood in our place -- Jesus said, “Father, I will bear the sinner's punishment, pour the sinner's hell on me, Father let me drink damnation dry for these poor wretches;” and He did it at Calvary; He endured all the pains and wrath of God, He suffered in the rebel’s place; and now, through simple child-like trust in Christ the Substitute, we are pardoned, cleared, and free. Hallelujah, Christ can now save ruined sinners from their lost estate.
“Fling out the banner! Let it float,
Skyward and seaward, high and wide;
Our glory only in the Cross,
Our only hope, the Crucified.”
Redemption by Substitution is the Gospel. Christ stands in your place and is punished for your sins. He was the Sufferer because of your sins: and then, you are set in Christ’s place, you are rewarded because of His Righteousness, accepted in the Beloved because of His acceptableness with God. This is God's salvation; a salvation which satisfies the conscience of man as well as the justice of God. This salvation is offered to you without money and without price; but it cost the Redeemer nothing less than Himself. Behold, in Christ the perfect Ransom from sin is paid in full, and Christ bids you go free. Jesus died in the sinner’s place and bore in the sinner’s place what was due to the law of God on account of man’s transgression. Tell this message out among all the nations that God bled for man's sin on Calvary, and now all that trust in Jesus alone can go free.
Bottom line: God's lovingkindness (His bleeding love) is better than life. May the Lord Jesus Christ alone be exalted.
Grace and Gratitude
God's grace should always bring more gratitude in our lives. God is So good to us. The more thankful you are for God's love and mercy to you through Christ Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, the less you will sin against God. Only grace and gratitude can control our inward sin nature. Genuine gratitude to God Himself who loved me, and gave Himself for me on the cross of Calvary.
Law
* External compliance
* Points out our failures
* System of rules for earning God's favor without trusting, loving, or communing with God.
* Majors on the minors, strain at gnats-swallow camels, always exaggerate the non-essential stuff in life.
* Interested in what people do, use people
* Rules, rules, rules
* Get what you deserve
* Eliminates wisdom, don't have to pray, just keep the rules
* Conformity outwardly (work of the flesh)
* Make you find great comfort in the fact that other people do the same things you do, or do not do
* Religious peer pressure - this is the ultimate form of peer pressure - legalism - do what they do, don't do what they don't do, gives a false sense of spirituality
* Fruit - fear and guilt
Grace
* Internal character
* Empowers us to obey
* Interested in who people are, love people
* Relationship with Christ is preeminent
* Don't get what we deserve
* Need wisdom from above, and must pray for guidance and help
* Transformed internally (by the power of God the Holy Ghost)
* Fruit - communion, fellowship and gratitude
Grace -
Some Guidelines for Grace
* If the scriptures warn against it, do not play around with it.
* If the scriptures forbid it, do not try to justify it.
* If the scriptures do not say anything about it, do not assume it is right or wrong.
* If the scriptures are truly silent about it, do not try to use them to prove your point.
* If the scriptures encourage it, do not try to ignore it.
* If the scriptures teach it, do not try to live without it.
Law
* External compliance
* Points out our failures
* System of rules for earning God's favor without trusting, loving, or communing with God.
* Majors on the minors, strain at gnats-swallow camels, always exaggerate the non-essential stuff in life.
* Interested in what people do, use people
* Rules, rules, rules
* Get what you deserve
* Eliminates wisdom, don't have to pray, just keep the rules
* Conformity outwardly (work of the flesh)
* Make you find great comfort in the fact that other people do the same things you do, or do not do
* Religious peer pressure - this is the ultimate form of peer pressure - legalism - do what they do, don't do what they don't do, gives a false sense of spirituality
* Fruit - fear and guilt
Grace
* Internal character
* Empowers us to obey
* Interested in who people are, love people
* Relationship with Christ is preeminent
* Don't get what we deserve
* Need wisdom from above, and must pray for guidance and help
* Transformed internally (by the power of God the Holy Ghost)
* Fruit - communion, fellowship and gratitude
Grace -
Some Guidelines for Grace
* If the scriptures warn against it, do not play around with it.
* If the scriptures forbid it, do not try to justify it.
* If the scriptures do not say anything about it, do not assume it is right or wrong.
* If the scriptures are truly silent about it, do not try to use them to prove your point.
* If the scriptures encourage it, do not try to ignore it.
* If the scriptures teach it, do not try to live without it.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
First Pure 7
If you wait too late in your life, you will not be able to build any character and integrity into your behavior and habits. There are certain things that you need to do in life, if you are ever going to do them at all. Life is kind of like the four seasons - you have the springtime of youth, the summertime of adult manhood, the fall of middle-age, and the winter of old age. The leaves begin to fall, the frost comes, the ground get hard and frozen, and then its tough to get anything accomplished. *Ecclesiastes 12:1* If a man lives long enough, the days of affliction will come to every man.
When you're young, form right and clean habits in thought, word, and deed, and they will stick with you throughout your life. It is good for a man to bear the yoke of Christ in his youth. *Matthew 11:28* The time to form a child's habits is in the high chair, not in the electric chair. Give them the Bible early, or they may wind up getting a Bible later in prison. It's easier to build the boy than mend the man. As the twig is bent, so the tree grows. After 30, the tree is normally fixed and bent a certain way, either towards good or evil. If you get a taste for evil, it will be hard to get rid of it later in life. Each victory over a sin now makes it easier later, and each defeat over a sin now makes it harder later. Sin always complicates life. Pretty soon it will be too late. Make hay while the sun shines.
You need to trust the Lord Jesus Christ Himself with your soul, and simply ask Him to forgive all your sins as soon as you can in life, because sin will only make your heart harder and harder the longer you neglect and reject Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh. Do thy diligence, to come to the Cross before you grow calloused in sinful habits. Blessed is the man who realizes his sinfulness, who knows he deserves hell, who bows low at the feet of Jesus under the burden of his sins, who is humbled by his guilt and rejoices only in the Atonement that takes away sins forever; the man who loathes himself for being such a sinner against such a kind and merciful Savior, and yet hopes in God's mercy through Jesus' finished work.
The earlier you get saved from your sins the better. If you love Jesus sincerely, you will hate your sins for sure. You need to be concerned about your soul's safety; trust to Jesus' Precious Blood right now. If you are consciously guilty of your sins, believingly look to Christ alone, and fix your hope only on Him. Ask God for light and faith and repentance to believe on Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to make you upset over your sins; ask the Spirit of God to take away your sins with Jesus' Atoning Blood, and your love for sinning. God help you to come to Jesus while you can.
Jesus may come back anytime, with all diligence keep your heart clean, keep thyself pure for Jesus' sake. Amend character; form integrity; put down selfish impulses; train your appetites, desires, affections, passions and longings. Lustful and wandering eyes must be brought under control; looking down your nose at other folks and thinking you're better than them must be resisted early. Small decisions early in life can affect you until you die (entertaining a habit, beginning a wrong relationship or friendship). If you tend to get discouraged and offended easy, you better kick that early too.
Seek wisdom from God above to make the right decisions daily. Exercise your memory early, make your mind memorize God's words and good songs and hymns that lift up Jesus. The fallen, carnal mind forgets the right things, and remembers the bad (worldly songs, dirty jokes, filthy web sites). Cultivate the habit of prayer early in life; exercise yourself unto godliness; always be afraid of yourself, and be fearful of beginning your day without prayer and God's help. Renounce self-confidence, always remember to lean hard on the LORD. Be afraid of sinning against God and hurting Him. Let the very appearance of evil be obnoxious and terrify you. Go out at night, look up at the stars, and realize little you are, and how it is a sure enough miracle that God has visited someone like you in mercy.
Learn how to say No to evil companions. Say No to your own depraved propensities and unclean impulses. Say No to evil thoughts and rude words. Always speak well of others, or just be quiet. If you don't make your body do the right things and to resist the bad things, there will come a time when you will be unable to your control your members (hands, feet, tongue, eyes, ears). Let the one aim of your life be to do those things which please God. Learn to fear God always, live so as to please God, learn to do well, make Jesus smile with your daily private and public behavior. *Psalm 34:11* Fear God, and hope in His mercy. *Psalm 147:11* When sin tempts you, quickly ask Jesus for more strength to do right, deny yourself, and put off the old man. Be instant in prayer.
We all need rest, for rest is what gives us strength to go on another day. Each night while you are resting on your bed, your body is rejuvenating itself and gaining strength for the coming day. Please make sure your soul gets sufficient rest in Jesus, and during that time, He will give your soul His strength to obey and go on down the road for Him. Remember, good rest gives us needed strength to go on for Jesus. No rest, no strength. Little rest always results in someone fainting in the way. *Matthew 11:28; Isaiah 30:15; Philippians 4:13*
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you control your carnal appetites and sensual temptations, or they will begin to control you. The habits you form when you're young will stick with you. Show kindness to your mom and dad and other loved ones and friends before its too late. Train your children early and earnestly, correct and discipline them while you can. A kid doesn't have any rights; the parents are always right. Be thankful for good health (physical and mental) while you still have it. If you're in good health right now, you have plenty to be thankful for. Get concerned over your spiritual condition.
If you're feeling good, don't worry, you'll get over it. You better thank God while you can. The time to show friendship, love and affection is early in life. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. If you have a good father and mother, you should tell them you appreciate their love through the years. The time to say and do the nice things are now. You need to apologize, forgive and make restitution to those you have offended and hurt. Grow in grace; get good at forgiving and forgetting. Pray for those who have hurt you. Give your resources and time to the Lord's work while you have the faculties, times, strength and money to give.
Read and study the Bible while you can, not everyone has a Bible. You need to witness to the unconverted around you now while you have the opportunity; some of the people that you associate with now may move away where you can never talk to them again. One day you won't have the chance you have now to influence, persuade and lead others to the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to witness to lost souls while you can still do it freely, because in some countries you can be jailed for telling sinners the Gospel of Christ. Start early in life with Jesus and live to glorify Him each day.
First Pure 6
Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him (Ecc 8:12).
The righteous have a holy, humble, affectionate, and obedient fear of God. The eye of God is upon those that fear Him, and His heart is towards them. It goes well with them that fear God at death and at the Judgment. Their fear of God is hearty and sincere, not in show only, but in reality, in the sight of God. They have a sense of God's omniscience and omnipresence before them. The fear of God is when you dread sinning against a loving God, and the fear of the Lord constrains us to be obedient to the Lord's commands, trying to please Him. The fear of the Lord is the fear and avoidance of committing sins, because those sins slew the Savior. Our hunger is for purity, not for vice. We fear offending our loving heavenly Father. The fear of the Lord makes us hate the thing of the flesh we once loved, and love the things of the Lord we once hated. Your darling Sin is now your worst enemy. Our master-motive should be to please God. Power in prayer and purity in life go together.
The fear of God is not before the rebel sinner's eyes, nor in his heart, he goes on in sin without any fear of his Maker. He boldly and openly commits sin, and instead of being shameful for it, or repenting of it, he glories in his shame. He bids defiance to God, and desires not the knowledge of God, and refuses to obey Him.
Always remember, regard, reverence, and respect the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Every sin you commit offends and grieves God; and if you fear God, you will want to depart from the evil you are committing that is offending your good and gracious Maker. To respect and obey, admiration and awe, esteem His words and will, fear to grieve God's heart, deferential to God's will, sensing His presence, allegiance to Christ's cause, dreading anything that would vex or displease the Lord, avoiding things that will grieve the Spirit of God, obedience, self-denial, temperance, hating evil, departing from evil, and abstaining from the appearance of evil.
Don't disappoint, ignore, insult, neglect, or slight the Lord. Remember God is always watching and listening, Care about what God thinks. Lord direct my heart. Don't insult, offend, or demean the Lord. Faith is pleasing the Lord. Integrity, moral purity, telling the truth, upright ethical behavior at home, church, on the job, in private and public. Fear God - to cower before the King of Heaven, hold God in high esteem, to take God seriously, to honor who He is, to obey what God says, have respect and reverence for God not taking God lightly. Believe in God, worship God, love God, be kept back from evil by the thought of God, moved to good by the sincere desire to please God.
The world treats God's word flippantly, and heeds His commands casually.
When suffering, trouble, and pain comes then we dust off the Bible, we get reacquainted with God. Don't take God for granted. Reverence God now.
Lost men experiment with sin, they think they deserve a little sin, they think they will get away with sin, they have connections, things get swept under the rug.
We must be real, righteous, reverent, resistant to self and sin, integrity and honesty, reverence toward God and His things, parenting with godly purpose. We are not immune to trouble, or exempt from storms of life. Care for souls, love for Christ, private prayer, secret fellowship with Christ, comfort and communion of the Holy Ghost.
A religious moral man tries not do wrong in act, but a God-fearing man hates the thought of doing wrong; the religious man does not swear, but a Christian man adores the Lord; a moral man doesn't want to commit outward sin, but a man who love purity strives not to commit inward sin. The fear of the Lord is walking with God, not the thought of God merely, or reading about God, or talking about God, but actually walking practically with God and pleasing the Lord in your daily life in private and public.
A fear which a child has lest it should grieve its parent. Trust to God as your Father, Provider, and Friend. The spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit of God bears witness with your spirit that you are born of God.
The righteous have a holy, humble, affectionate, and obedient fear of God. The eye of God is upon those that fear Him, and His heart is towards them. It goes well with them that fear God at death and at the Judgment. Their fear of God is hearty and sincere, not in show only, but in reality, in the sight of God. They have a sense of God's omniscience and omnipresence before them. The fear of God is when you dread sinning against a loving God, and the fear of the Lord constrains us to be obedient to the Lord's commands, trying to please Him. The fear of the Lord is the fear and avoidance of committing sins, because those sins slew the Savior. Our hunger is for purity, not for vice. We fear offending our loving heavenly Father. The fear of the Lord makes us hate the thing of the flesh we once loved, and love the things of the Lord we once hated. Your darling Sin is now your worst enemy. Our master-motive should be to please God. Power in prayer and purity in life go together.
The fear of God is not before the rebel sinner's eyes, nor in his heart, he goes on in sin without any fear of his Maker. He boldly and openly commits sin, and instead of being shameful for it, or repenting of it, he glories in his shame. He bids defiance to God, and desires not the knowledge of God, and refuses to obey Him.
Always remember, regard, reverence, and respect the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Every sin you commit offends and grieves God; and if you fear God, you will want to depart from the evil you are committing that is offending your good and gracious Maker. To respect and obey, admiration and awe, esteem His words and will, fear to grieve God's heart, deferential to God's will, sensing His presence, allegiance to Christ's cause, dreading anything that would vex or displease the Lord, avoiding things that will grieve the Spirit of God, obedience, self-denial, temperance, hating evil, departing from evil, and abstaining from the appearance of evil.
Don't disappoint, ignore, insult, neglect, or slight the Lord. Remember God is always watching and listening, Care about what God thinks. Lord direct my heart. Don't insult, offend, or demean the Lord. Faith is pleasing the Lord. Integrity, moral purity, telling the truth, upright ethical behavior at home, church, on the job, in private and public. Fear God - to cower before the King of Heaven, hold God in high esteem, to take God seriously, to honor who He is, to obey what God says, have respect and reverence for God not taking God lightly. Believe in God, worship God, love God, be kept back from evil by the thought of God, moved to good by the sincere desire to please God.
The world treats God's word flippantly, and heeds His commands casually.
When suffering, trouble, and pain comes then we dust off the Bible, we get reacquainted with God. Don't take God for granted. Reverence God now.
Lost men experiment with sin, they think they deserve a little sin, they think they will get away with sin, they have connections, things get swept under the rug.
We must be real, righteous, reverent, resistant to self and sin, integrity and honesty, reverence toward God and His things, parenting with godly purpose. We are not immune to trouble, or exempt from storms of life. Care for souls, love for Christ, private prayer, secret fellowship with Christ, comfort and communion of the Holy Ghost.
A religious moral man tries not do wrong in act, but a God-fearing man hates the thought of doing wrong; the religious man does not swear, but a Christian man adores the Lord; a moral man doesn't want to commit outward sin, but a man who love purity strives not to commit inward sin. The fear of the Lord is walking with God, not the thought of God merely, or reading about God, or talking about God, but actually walking practically with God and pleasing the Lord in your daily life in private and public.
A fear which a child has lest it should grieve its parent. Trust to God as your Father, Provider, and Friend. The spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit of God bears witness with your spirit that you are born of God.
FIrst Pure 5
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. In the Bible, when you consider, honor, regard, respect, and love God, and loathe and flee from sin, you are becoming wise. Sin is contrary to the holy nature and pure will of God, and sin is very bad in its effects and consequences. The way of transgressors is hard. Put your trust and confidence in God, not man.
The genuine fruit and result of the fear of the Lord is when you are careful not to commit a sin which grieves the heart of God. Integrity is doing right when only God is watching. Abstain from all appearance of evil - flee youthful lusts - keep thyself pure. It is an awful thing to be enslaved to any lust or sin. Sin reigns and has great power over every lost atheist; sin causes them to do and think and say that which is evil; and hinders them from the right thing.
A wise man is one who senses God's goodness towards him, and then shuns and avoids everything that may lead him to sin. Sin is the opposite of the grace and fear of God. When you forget God and mess around with sin, you're a fool. The fear of God (the desire to please God out of grateful love) comes from the grace of God; it is purely a gift to a sinner. God sees you and knows you, nothing passes by His eye; He sees everything you think and do all the time. This truth is terribly frightening to the atheist (Proverbs 15:3).
Our society today is populated with a bumper crop of failures. In America, fools are more organized and educated than ever before. The country is filled to the brim with educated moral failures. Why? Because when some things change, some things never change - that is - knowledge may advance, but the fatal condition of the human heart does not. There are 3,000 books published in the world every day; the world is ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of The Truth (II Timothy 3:7; John 14:6; John 17:17). You can graduate at the top of your class, and still FAIL in life. You're going to need more than an IQ or a college degree at the White Throne Judgment.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fool's mind is closed to God, his conscience is seared by the hot iron of Sin, and his heart is fully devoted to Self. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are HID in Jesus Christ Himself. You must come to *HIM* for true wisdom and knowledge. A fool is someone who is UNABLE to make the right decision for the right reason at the right time in the right spirit for the right result - the glory of God. Fools don't believe God exists or desire a right relationship with Him. The Christ-rejecting fool grows older, but not wiser. The Fear of God springs from the Grace of God and is increased by fuller sense of God's goodness and results in true humility and true worship both private and public, internal and external. The Fear of God leads a man to eschew evil, to depart from, loathe and detest his own sins. The Fear of God hates every thing that is contrary to the nature and will of God. The Fear of God abstains from the appearance of evil, and shuns and avoids those thoughts, things, or people that may lead him to sin. The goodness, love, grace and fear of God all meld together in the Christian's life.
EVERY DAY in American 1,000 unwed teenage girls become mothers; 1,100 teenage girls have abortions; 4,219 teenagers contract an STD; 1,000 teens take their first drink; 500 teenagers take their first fix; 2,200 teens drop out of school; six of them commit suicide. The atheist says they just need better education, job opportunities, or social programs. But these things are only more expensive Kleenex-es for man's deadly moral pneumonias. The only answer is the divine infusion of wisdom from God through the Scriptures into the mind and heart of every man and woman. Prudence is to think critically, to deepen your thinking, don't be simple and gullible and just go along with the godless crowd. Seek and Seize wise counsel.
The fear of God means to have a joyful delight in the word of God (Psa 112:1; 119:103). The fear of the Lord is a passionate desire to apply the word of God to your everyday life (Psalm 128:1; Proverbs 14:2). The fear of the Almighty is to place your full confidence in His precious promises (Psa 147:11). Constantly expose yourself to the reading, study, preaching, and teaching of the word of God. Integrity is very scarce today, because there is no true fear of the Lord - that is, departure from public and private evil. The fear of the Lord is a right relationship with the written word (John 17:17) and the living Word (John 1:1).
The fear of Lord (a wise and clean walk) is also cultivated by prayer and by eagerly following after the Lord's way and will. Wise counsel also instills the fear of the Lord in us. The fear of the living God (Jesus Christ) is the true prescription for a successful life. True wisdom comes from the ONLY WISE God (Romans 16:27; Jude 1:25; I Timothy 1:17). The holy Scriptures are able to make you wise (II Timothy 3:15). A wise person is not the smartest person who knows the most about the Scriptures, but the wise man is one who trembles and is the most submissive to the Scriptures.
Learn from the mistakes of others and avoid them. Wisdom is discernment from right and wrong, and to behave wisely - live right, treat people right, and deal with fairness. Live wisely, die safely - a person is not wise because he knows everything, but because he longs to learn more at the feet of Jesus Christ; a person is not considered wise because they know what to say, but because they know how to listen; a person is not considered wise because he has all the answers, but because he obeys all that he knows from the Scriptures. You don't just need to know more, you need to know God and obey Him more and more.
The fool is arrogantly unaccountable, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. The fool has all the answers he needs in Darwin and Marx, and they are unaccountable. The fool is unruly and unteachable, he will not regard reproof, he just won't learn, he can't imagine himself being mistaken. A fool repeats his folly, his problem is not mental, it is spiritual. The fool is also uncontainable. He denies the existence of God, so his foolishness will not depart from him. The fools is hardened by his own sin and rebellion and becomes hopeless. The fear of the LORD JESUS CHRIST is the beginning (that is - the first, best, pith, root, foundation) of wisdom. The foundation of all true knowledge is a true relationship of awe, respect, intimacy, and worship of the faithful and true Creator God. The only way to get ready for life and death is a real relationship with the Creator God who died for your sins.
God sees everything, He knows everything, He lives everywhere. Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, was born of a Jewish virgin in a small town called Bethlehem Judah. He worked as a carpenter, but He never owned a home. He was misunderstood by His family, and hated by His enemies. He walks on water, and controls the weather. He was condemned to death without a fair trial, bore all human sin, crucified for sinners, and then was raised from the dead by the power of God. His Salvation from sin is free for the asking. You were hand-made by the Creator in your mother's womb. The eye of God has always been upon you from your mother's womb even until now.
You have sinned against God's divine Law secretly and openly, and you must suffer the consequences of all your sins, unless you find the *Sinless Substitute* to suffer and die in your place, and endure the wrath due to all your sins. Sin is deadly, hell is real, death is inevitable, your days are numbered. Sin has deceived you, and brought you into a desperate situation, and now your soul is in extreme danger and exposed to the wrath of God, and you will surely be doomed without the Crucified and Risen Savior. Sin always leads to misery, and the Spirit of God always leads you to mercy in Christ's Blood. Come to Christ's Blood now, and be rescued from your sin's danger immediately.
The genuine fruit and result of the fear of the Lord is when you are careful not to commit a sin which grieves the heart of God. Integrity is doing right when only God is watching. Abstain from all appearance of evil - flee youthful lusts - keep thyself pure. It is an awful thing to be enslaved to any lust or sin. Sin reigns and has great power over every lost atheist; sin causes them to do and think and say that which is evil; and hinders them from the right thing.
A wise man is one who senses God's goodness towards him, and then shuns and avoids everything that may lead him to sin. Sin is the opposite of the grace and fear of God. When you forget God and mess around with sin, you're a fool. The fear of God (the desire to please God out of grateful love) comes from the grace of God; it is purely a gift to a sinner. God sees you and knows you, nothing passes by His eye; He sees everything you think and do all the time. This truth is terribly frightening to the atheist (Proverbs 15:3).
Our society today is populated with a bumper crop of failures. In America, fools are more organized and educated than ever before. The country is filled to the brim with educated moral failures. Why? Because when some things change, some things never change - that is - knowledge may advance, but the fatal condition of the human heart does not. There are 3,000 books published in the world every day; the world is ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of The Truth (II Timothy 3:7; John 14:6; John 17:17). You can graduate at the top of your class, and still FAIL in life. You're going to need more than an IQ or a college degree at the White Throne Judgment.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fool's mind is closed to God, his conscience is seared by the hot iron of Sin, and his heart is fully devoted to Self. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are HID in Jesus Christ Himself. You must come to *HIM* for true wisdom and knowledge. A fool is someone who is UNABLE to make the right decision for the right reason at the right time in the right spirit for the right result - the glory of God. Fools don't believe God exists or desire a right relationship with Him. The Christ-rejecting fool grows older, but not wiser. The Fear of God springs from the Grace of God and is increased by fuller sense of God's goodness and results in true humility and true worship both private and public, internal and external. The Fear of God leads a man to eschew evil, to depart from, loathe and detest his own sins. The Fear of God hates every thing that is contrary to the nature and will of God. The Fear of God abstains from the appearance of evil, and shuns and avoids those thoughts, things, or people that may lead him to sin. The goodness, love, grace and fear of God all meld together in the Christian's life.
EVERY DAY in American 1,000 unwed teenage girls become mothers; 1,100 teenage girls have abortions; 4,219 teenagers contract an STD; 1,000 teens take their first drink; 500 teenagers take their first fix; 2,200 teens drop out of school; six of them commit suicide. The atheist says they just need better education, job opportunities, or social programs. But these things are only more expensive Kleenex-es for man's deadly moral pneumonias. The only answer is the divine infusion of wisdom from God through the Scriptures into the mind and heart of every man and woman. Prudence is to think critically, to deepen your thinking, don't be simple and gullible and just go along with the godless crowd. Seek and Seize wise counsel.
The fear of God means to have a joyful delight in the word of God (Psa 112:1; 119:103). The fear of the Lord is a passionate desire to apply the word of God to your everyday life (Psalm 128:1; Proverbs 14:2). The fear of the Almighty is to place your full confidence in His precious promises (Psa 147:11). Constantly expose yourself to the reading, study, preaching, and teaching of the word of God. Integrity is very scarce today, because there is no true fear of the Lord - that is, departure from public and private evil. The fear of the Lord is a right relationship with the written word (John 17:17) and the living Word (John 1:1).
The fear of Lord (a wise and clean walk) is also cultivated by prayer and by eagerly following after the Lord's way and will. Wise counsel also instills the fear of the Lord in us. The fear of the living God (Jesus Christ) is the true prescription for a successful life. True wisdom comes from the ONLY WISE God (Romans 16:27; Jude 1:25; I Timothy 1:17). The holy Scriptures are able to make you wise (II Timothy 3:15). A wise person is not the smartest person who knows the most about the Scriptures, but the wise man is one who trembles and is the most submissive to the Scriptures.
Learn from the mistakes of others and avoid them. Wisdom is discernment from right and wrong, and to behave wisely - live right, treat people right, and deal with fairness. Live wisely, die safely - a person is not wise because he knows everything, but because he longs to learn more at the feet of Jesus Christ; a person is not considered wise because they know what to say, but because they know how to listen; a person is not considered wise because he has all the answers, but because he obeys all that he knows from the Scriptures. You don't just need to know more, you need to know God and obey Him more and more.
The fool is arrogantly unaccountable, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. The fool has all the answers he needs in Darwin and Marx, and they are unaccountable. The fool is unruly and unteachable, he will not regard reproof, he just won't learn, he can't imagine himself being mistaken. A fool repeats his folly, his problem is not mental, it is spiritual. The fool is also uncontainable. He denies the existence of God, so his foolishness will not depart from him. The fools is hardened by his own sin and rebellion and becomes hopeless. The fear of the LORD JESUS CHRIST is the beginning (that is - the first, best, pith, root, foundation) of wisdom. The foundation of all true knowledge is a true relationship of awe, respect, intimacy, and worship of the faithful and true Creator God. The only way to get ready for life and death is a real relationship with the Creator God who died for your sins.
God sees everything, He knows everything, He lives everywhere. Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, was born of a Jewish virgin in a small town called Bethlehem Judah. He worked as a carpenter, but He never owned a home. He was misunderstood by His family, and hated by His enemies. He walks on water, and controls the weather. He was condemned to death without a fair trial, bore all human sin, crucified for sinners, and then was raised from the dead by the power of God. His Salvation from sin is free for the asking. You were hand-made by the Creator in your mother's womb. The eye of God has always been upon you from your mother's womb even until now.
You have sinned against God's divine Law secretly and openly, and you must suffer the consequences of all your sins, unless you find the *Sinless Substitute* to suffer and die in your place, and endure the wrath due to all your sins. Sin is deadly, hell is real, death is inevitable, your days are numbered. Sin has deceived you, and brought you into a desperate situation, and now your soul is in extreme danger and exposed to the wrath of God, and you will surely be doomed without the Crucified and Risen Savior. Sin always leads to misery, and the Spirit of God always leads you to mercy in Christ's Blood. Come to Christ's Blood now, and be rescued from your sin's danger immediately.
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