If you're alive and breathing right now, remember God (Christ Jesus) and thank Him for His mercy towards you; if all your bills are paid this morning, remember the poor that are down and out; if your soul is saved from sin and hell today, remember the lost that are struggling hard with sin; if you're free and on the street, remember the imprisoned behind bars; if you have a nice home to live in, remember the homeless out in the elements; if you have plenty of food in your pantry, think of the hungry in your area; if you have a loving mom and dad, remember those children that don't; if you have plenty of friends and family around you; remember the lonely; if you're in good health, remember the sick and shut-ins; if you're married and enjoying your spouse, remember a widow who is all alone; if you're young and full of energy, remember the elderly who are sickly. If you're living in America and enjoying freedoms they don't have in Syria or China, remember the US military who are serving and fighting right now so you can enjoy those freedoms.
There is always someone to remember besides you. If you think about someone else, you will probably care about them, and you if care about them, you are more apt to actually go do something for them that will help them in a practical way. Christ Jesus was always on the move helping someone. Are you really like Jesus? Put your Salvation and Christianity in shoe leather. First, be Thoughtful, then be CARE-ful, and especially Helpful. This is real spiritual fruit. Let us not love in word only, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. The people whose main mission in life is making themselves happy and comfortable are the most miserable folks on the face of the earth. Think, care and help someone except yourself today, and Joy will surely follow.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto *Me*."
Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Five Bleeding Wounds
God was manifest in the flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and suffered and bled to atone for human sin. *I Timothy 3:16* The Almighty God that created and sustains everything left His highest throne in glory and stooped to the manger of Bethlehem. The Highest stooped to be the lowest, the Greatest took His place among the least. The Lord of glory became a Jewish peasant. The King of Heaven became a poor man. *II Corinthians 8:9* He grew from boyhood up to manhood, He came forth into the world to preach and suffer for your sins! The Eternal God condescended to Earth, He was here in the form of man; God in human flesh walked the face of this Earth and lived in obscurity, poverty, humility and purity. The man Christ Jesus lived a sinless life of perfect virtue and of total self-denying love. He came into the world to seek and save lost sinners from the wrath of God and the love of sin. He was all His life afflicted, despised, and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. His enemies were many; His friends were few, and those few friends were faithless and fickle. Jesus was at last betrayed and delivered over into the hands of wicked men that hated Him without a cause.
The Lord Jesus was arrested while in the act of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane; see Him in the garden praying, He sweat great drops of blood especially for you! The great multitude with swords and staves and Judas came and seized Him in the garden as though He had been a thief, and they took Him away to the high priest and then to Pilate’s judgment hall. He was arraigned before both the religious and civil courts. He endured mockery, shame, and the cruel crowning of thorns in Pilate’s judgment hall for your sins.
The Lord of glory was set upon a mock throne in scorn by the Roman soldiers, given a reed for a scepter, robed in purple in mockery and shame, and then stripped naked and tied to a whipping post and scourged in cruelty. His shoulders and back ran with blood! The stripes due to your sins were laid upon Christ's back. The cruel soldiers spit upon Him and plucked out His beard and hair. Jesus suffered the punishment that your sins deserve. He was declared innocent by Pontius Pilate, yet Pilate still delivered Jesus to the mob’s will and had Him led away to be crucified. See in Christ your sins being punished.
Then at the very end, Christ was hounded through Jerusalem’s streets; the path to Calvary’s Cross was sprinkled with the Blood of God. *Acts 20:28* He was brought to Golgotha’s hill; they flung Him down upon His back upon the Cross, and drove the cruel nails through His blessed hands and feet; then they lifted up the Cross and dashed it into its socket in the earth and all His bones were dislocated. He hangs there in agony as the blazing sun burns Him. His cruel wounds increase His fever.
The Christ of God became Sin, and God the Father forsakes Him. He cries out, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” While He hangs there in conflict with sin and Satan, His heart is broken, and His limbs are dislocated. Heaven forsakes Him; the sun is veiled in darkness. Mankind forsakes Him, for “His disciples forsook Him and fled.” He looks everywhere, and there is none to help; He casts His eye around, and there is no man that would share His sorrow. Your sins made Jesus bleed. Where Christ is loved, sin is hated.
On and on, Christ hangs there on the Cross for six hours, steadily determined to drink the last dreg of the cup of the wrath of Almighty God for you. He hung there in agony and blood. His face is full of anguish. Consider the tortured Sinless Savior. Your sins were all gathered together in one mighty load and placed upon the shoulders of the great Sin-Bearer. The sin load of the whole world was laid on Christ *I John 2:2*; it bruised Him sore and crushed Him down. On the bloody tree behold Him in His death struggles! The Friend of Sinners is suffering there for you.
Behold the Crucified Redeemer! See Him dying in agony too great to be imagined, much less to be described! God was in Christ as He died upon the accursed tree. *II Corinthians 5:19* He endured the vinegar, the nails, and the spear all alone. *Hebrews 7:27* His heart was bursting with agony under the load of sin. Hear the cries of Jesus from the Cross: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do! -- My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me! -- I thirst!” At last He cries — “It is finished!” and He gave up the ghost. Jesus didn't say "I am finished." He cried "It is finished!" The punishment due to my sins fell on Christ, He finished the Atonement for to my sins. *Romans 5:10*
Behold His torn and broken body being taken down from the Cross and then laid in the silent tomb! But three days later He burst the bonds of darkness and tore the bars of death away, rising from the dead, and then forty days later He ascended up on high and sat down at the right hand of God. Dear friend, the Savior is set before you now, plainly manifested: See His five bleeding wounds, His pierced side, the bloody stripes, the accursed Cross, and His passionate love for rebellious sinners. *Hebrews 9:14*
Be honest: You’ve been a selfish sinner your whole life against God's laws as well as His love; you’ve been a rebel against the five wounds of Jesus and the Ten Commandments of God. Look to Jesus’ five wounds flowing with God’s blood. *Colossians 1:14-16* Only look there sinner! In Christ’s five bleeding wounds is the sin-melting power which is not to be found anywhere else in this world. Only His wounds can quiet your conscience and melt your sin-hardened heart. Christ's divine blood is the only antidote for the venom of sin flowing through your soul.
You cannot truly believe that Christ suffered for your sins, and then continue on in your sinful and lustful habits. Fix your blind eyes on the Lamb of God bearing your sins in His own body on the tree. If you look to Him in faith, you will live forever. Whoever you may be, though you may be the worst sinner this side of hell, yet Jesus is mighty to save the worst of the worst. The blood of God can save the most devilish sinner alive. Where sin is bitter, Christ is sweet, only then.
Look to Jesus’ wounds, look there now and live. Play not the fool with your immortal soul, look to the dying Savior, and gaze upon His bleeding wounds, pierced side, mangled body, and marred face. His face all soaked with bloody sweat. His five bleeding wounds are the founts of eternal pardon. You need God’s pardon by blood and free redeeming grace. Free grace flows from Christ’s hands, rich mercy streams from His feet, dying love pours from His pierced side. Look steadily and intently upon Him with all your heart. Look fixedly on the Sin-Bearing Lamb of God. Only His sin-atoning death can put away your sin’s guilt. View the Bleeding Savior and hate your sins.
Give yourself up to Christ Jesus Himself. Rely upon Him alone for eternal salvation. Fix your faith only on Christ's shed blood. One sight of the five wounds of Christ and your sins are covered and your iniquities are put away forever. Come and view the flowing of Christ’s soul-redeeming blood. Behold how He loved you! Faith in His five wounds is the only thing that will kill your sins and lustful, unclean habits. His five wounds are still pleading for your soul. Only the love of a dying Savior and His bleeding wounds can save a real sinner. Christ died for the ungodly, not the good and respectable.
Poor sinner, delay no longer. The sands of time are sinking; you're not getting any younger. Please let Christ Jesus have mercy on your sinful soul before it is everlasting too late. Come now to the foot of the Cross, look up to His five bleeding wounds flowing for your sins, see the fountains of pardoning grace. You’re not asked to do anything or to be anything, or to feel anything, but you’re simply asked to look away from your sin and self to what Christ has done, and you shall have eternal life as a free gift. Turn and look you to Christ and live, believe on Him and thou shalt be saved, you shall never perish trusting only in His Blood, Jesus Christ the living Substitute is still able and willing to save the vilest of the vile.
Look to Jesus now alone for free and full salvation. Trust your soul in the living Savior's hands, and you are saved. The moment you trust Jesus Christ you’re saved and your sins are gone; you’re saved on the spot, saved for all Eternity. Turn from and forsake your self-righteousness and that deadly love you have for your sins, and simply Trust in the Crucified and Risen Creator! Plead His Pardoning Blood and Justifying Grace! Ask God for His Free Mercy and Royal Pardon By Precious Blood.
*Soli Autem Crucis*
*The Cross Alone*
A Real Good Lawyer
One of the first things prudent people do when they get in trouble with the law is to hire a real good lawyer. Now, we sinners are in very big trouble with God's eternal law. We desperately need a spotless and holy Lawyer to plead our case before the holy Judge of all the earth. We are all so bankrupt spiritually; we have nothing to pay the legal fees for this perfect Lawyer, so Jesus freely defends us in His mercy and grace. We have all sinned against God's Ten Commandments. Our souls are weighed down by a great burden of sin; we sense our guilt; we are fearful of death, and dread the judgment to come. We long for the burden of our guilt to be taken away.
Our human morality, religion, and self-goodness can never rid us of our sin burden. The righteous requirements of God's law and the threat of God's judgment and wrath trouble us day after day. Remember - God is the great and terrible judge of all our sin. We are all guilty sinners before a holy God. God may seem distant to you today, it is your sin against God that causes that distant feeling. God's holiness is a terror and dread to lost sinners. We all need a merciful Lawyer to stand in the gap between God, and us sinners, between heaven and earth. We need a Heavenly Attorney to bridge the gap between God's holiness and our sinfulness. We need Someone to protect us from God's curse and wrath against our sin, we need Someone to endure the eternal death penalty of God's law in our place. You better get saved.
We need an Advocate (a Heavenly and Holy Defense Lawyer) to represent us and speak on our behalf to God in the eternal courtroom. An Advocate that will intercede for us, that will plead with God not to destroy us because of our sin, we need an Advocate that will lay down His life for us. The Lord Jesus Christ is just that Advocate - He is our go-between. Jesus is the only One who can approach God's judgment bar for us. Why? Because Jesus is God as well as man. Jesus has both a divine nature and a human nature. His sinless blood sacrifice is the only thing acceptable to God. We must be saved by blood – by God's own blood - that blood that flowed from the veins of Christ Jesus.
We are all natural born sinners, but God's law demands perfect obedience. For there is no man that sinneth not, no one is able to keep God's law perfectly. We haven't just failed here and there. We are totally unable to keep a single one of God's commands in perfect integrity. God is holy and just, so His demands are always righteous. Most people have trouble naming the Ten Commandments, let alone keeping them. We are all sinners by nature, and thus we are unable to obey God in anything. We are not able to keep even one of the Ten Commandments perfectly and continually. Frankly, we like to serve and follow after other gods, use bad language, resist authority, forget God, lust after sexual pleasure, steal other people's stuff, say things to tear people down, crave and desire after unlawful things, and dwell upon evil things with our thoughts. The first risings of sin from our heart begins in our thoughts, and imaginations, we fulfill the desires of the flesh and mind - the Bible calls this lust.
We blatantly violate the Ten Commandments every day; we are grumpy, nasty, greedy, selfish, and overindulgent. No man is able to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly; we break them daily in thought, word, and deed. All our attempts to obey the law fail miserably. The law condemns our evil thoughts and desires; the sins of our past years continually haunt us in our memory and conscience. If we try to do our best to save ourselves, we are doomed to frustration and failure. If we stumble at just one point of the law, we are guilty of breaking all of it. (See James 2:10). You are not the good person you would like to think you are. You are covered with the filth of sin. The law can never save us; it can only reveal and magnify our sin. The law can do nothing to relieve the bondage of sin, it only accentuates and intensifies sin and confirms our bondage. If we were able to keep the law, we could be saved by it, but since we cannot keep it all, we are only condemned by it.
We are always inclined to minimize our sin, we compare ourselves to others who are more sinful outwardly than we are. We excuse our sin, claiming that there are some extenuating circumstances. Or we simply get used to our sin, like the way a pig farmer gets used to the smell of pig dung and pig slop. We become jaded and hardened by sin. We are covered with the excrement of our sinful depravity. Like a little baby, we have soiled ourselves, but we cannot cleanse ourselves. We are filthy with our own pride, lust, and greed, our self-indulgence, self-admiration, and self-pity. These all make us filthy in God's holy eyes, and a stench to God's holy nostrils. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. God's blood and grace must intervene and take away our sins. We must acknowledge our need for a true righteousness and look completely to Another to provide it. You're a sinner and you need Someone to stand before God for you - Someone who is holy from head to toe.
We often try to cover up our sin, dressing ourselves up to be good enough for God. What we ought to do instead is to confess our sin and look to Jesus alone for Salvation. Men try to quieten their consciences by religious deeds and moral resolutions, and try to stand well in the sight of their neighbors. They sometimes will even invent a religion to help cover up their sin. But their conscience is still convicted, their guilt and shame still springs up again within them, nothing can still the restless uneasiness of their heart. The guilty soul in vain attempts to conceal its sin. We need a true Righteousness not of our own. We need a covering that blots out all our sins, and forever clothes us with spotless purity, which will hide us from the searching holy eyes of God, and that will completely justify us before God.
If you want to live with a holy God in His heaven, all you'll have to do is live a perfect life without sin - you need a perfect Righteousness, and Christ Jesus is the only source of true Righteousness. That is all there is to it. The law demands 'perfect' righteousness, but the problem is that we have none because we're sinners. We don't always do what is right; therefore we are guilty in the sight of God. We stretch the truth, cut other people down with our words, think highly and boast about ourselves, break our promises to others, use our money to serve ourselves rather than to help others in need, we reject Christ and forget God days without number. This is why we need Jesus Christ to defend us. What we need is the best lawyer in the universe! The perfect holiness of God's law condemns us, and leads us to seek the Gospel of Christ for free mercy. The Law condemns us, and then we start desperately looking for a legal remedy; and we discover that God has provided a free one for us in Jesus Christ's perfect life and death. Jesus can do for us what God's law cannot do; He can save us completely without any of our works being involved at all.
We need Someone to keep God's law perfectly for us. Jesus offers God perfect obedience to the law for us. We are all idolaters, rebels, liars, and cheats, and thus we can never be saved by our own human obedience. But everything Jesus ever did counts for every sinner who trusts only in Him. And everything you've done that is sinful and bad will be counted and charged to Jesus if you come and receive Him. By simple faith in Christ we offer perfect obedience to God and His holy law. It is absolutely necessary for us to trust in Jesus, because the Day of Judgment is coming for all of us. And since we're in big trouble with the heavenly law, we will need a Heavenly Lawyer. If we don't have the Advocate, we will have to face the justice of God's wrath all on our own, and we know what will happen to us then. We must sincerely confess that we are separated from God by our sins. We must acknowledge that we are sinful creatures, in need of our Holy Creator. We must trust that Jesus made a sinless blood sacrifice for our sins on the Cross.
Here's the real good news: God in His tender mercy realized our helpless state, and He provided us a Heavenly Defense Lawyer (the Advocate - See I John 2:1-2). Jesus lived as one person with two natures; He had both a divine nature and a human nature in one man. God became flesh. The Almighty dwelt among men in flesh and blood, skin and bone, sinew and tendon. The God-man was sinless, He was crucified, His body was torn by the hard nails and sharp spear of our hatred and rebellion. He suffered and died to pay the full price for our sin.
Christ Jesus suffered the law's penalty against our sin in our place. Jesus bore all our sins in His body on the Cross, He never committed a sin Himself, He was holy from head to toe, but He took the sins committed by us into His own body, and paid the eternal price, and made satisfaction for them to God with His own innocent life-blood. We must cry out for Christ to save us. We must stop trusting ourselves, and trust simply and implicitly in the Crucified Redeemer, Christ Jesus Himself. We must receive Him as the only sacrifice for our sins. Then after we have trusted Christ, we are safe in Christ, and the law and wrath of God will hold no more terror over us. Jesus has suffered the penalty that we deserved for our sins, and the law frightens us no longer, for God can never punish the same sins twice.
You need Christ to stand before God for you in His perfect Holiness. Don't just study and read about Jesus Christ, from your heart trust your soul with Him, take Him for your own personal salvation. Seal the deal with Christ Jesus as soon as possible. Look only to Him, trust in His precious blood and righteousness alone. By the blood of Jesus we are justified freely, redeemed, reconciled, forgiven, and released. Anyone who has a guilty conscience - and every sinner does – can come and be clean by trusting only in the Blood of God. The Cross is where atonement was made, and where our sins are forgiven forever. The Cross must be the center of your salvation. It is only by the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary's Cross that we are able to have a personal and eternal relationship with God. The blood of Jesus gives us eternal life freely, and speaks mercy and peace to our soul, and He turns away God's wrath from us. (See Romans 3:25; 5:9; Eph 1:7; 2:13; Col 1:19-20; Isaiah 12:1; John 3:36; Rev 1:5)
Now understand - the only way to get to Heaven is by the Blood of God. If you are to be saved from your sins, you are going to have to deal with Jesus Christ Himself one on one. His own blood must be applied 'directly' to your sins. It is only by trusting in God's blood that any sinner ever gets saved from hell-fire. The Blood has to come between God's perfect holiness and our unholy sin, that is, the blood of the Crucified One which is the only thing acceptable to God. Jesus offered up Himself as our personal sin sacrifice. His sacrifice was a sacrifice in blood - His own blood - poured out for ungodly sinners. The Blood of God is where sinners can find mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Plead with God for mercy through Jesus Christ, as if you were the only and worst sinner in the whole world. Ask God to have mercy on your soul through Jesus' most-precious blood. There is mercy for sinners now, if you will simply trust in the blood of Jesus to cover and cleanse you from all your sins. Trust Christ entirely and eternally with the safety of your soul.
Mercy's door is always open to the sinner who knocks with sincerity. Go now and knock at Christ's door, and His mercy shall be yours freely. The only demand from God for you to believe in Christ is that you admit yourself a lost and ruined sinner. If you know for a fact you're a real sinner, you can know the real Savior of sinners. Christ came to seek and save sinners. Jesus came to save even you. Good moral people that trust in their own works go to hell. Those proud souls that are busy sewing their fig leaves together, and working out day by day the garment of their own self-righteousness, will soon find their good works to be utterly insufficient in the Day of Judgment. Cast your self-righteousness away, cast all your good works overboard, believe only in Christ, trust wholly in Jesus. You may ask, "What is it to believe?" To believe is to cast yourself simply and wholly on the Blood of Christ for salvation.
You must first be condemned by the Law of God, and then sincerely seek the Heavenly Lawyer to defend you, and then humble ask HIM to freely acquit you by His redeeming grace before the eternal Judge of Heaven. Only the grace of Christ and the Blood of God can extinguish the fire of sin in your heart, soul, and mind. Adam sinned in the garden, and now after 6,000 years his sin nature is still passed upon us all. God cannot condone our sin, and the blood of animals can never take away our sin. So God in love condescended into this dark world as a man, the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, He lived, bled, and died in the sinner's place.
Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, regarded your helpless estate, He went up to Calvary's Cross all alone for you and shed God's blood to extinguish your guilt and put away your sins forever. Now understand - this is Calvary Love: On Calvary's Cross, the worst possible thing happened to best possible Person, so that the best possible thing could happen to the worst possible person. Jesus never did anything in His life to deserve anything bad. But now, since Jesus suffered, the best thing can happen to the worst person. The worst tragedy of all (the Son of God dying in our sins) brings us lost sinners the best thing of all (free salvation from our sins, the righteousness of God, and eternal life).
Jesus didn't die for His sins; He died especially for your sins. Jesus was obedient unto death and bore all your sins and then He died in your sins, so you could trust in Him completely, and not in yourself at all. Your sins spilt God's Blood on Calvary that day, and helped nail Jesus Christ to the Cross. Jesus died in your sins, so you could die in His righteousness. Turn your eyes away from your silly religion and your vain good works, and look only to living Christ.
Come to Christ now, and make the great exchange with Him, exchange all your sins for all His righteousness, your vileness for His sinless perfection; your sinful nature for His divine nature. He will save you by His free grace. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever believeth in Him shall never be condemned. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved. Trust in God's Blood now, and you will be clean, free, and redeemed forever. God be merciful to me, the sinner, for Jesus' sake. You need a "Real Good" Lawyer for your upcoming court case with God. (Seek the sinner's only Advocate - Call upon Jesus' precious name in sincerity now).
Our human morality, religion, and self-goodness can never rid us of our sin burden. The righteous requirements of God's law and the threat of God's judgment and wrath trouble us day after day. Remember - God is the great and terrible judge of all our sin. We are all guilty sinners before a holy God. God may seem distant to you today, it is your sin against God that causes that distant feeling. God's holiness is a terror and dread to lost sinners. We all need a merciful Lawyer to stand in the gap between God, and us sinners, between heaven and earth. We need a Heavenly Attorney to bridge the gap between God's holiness and our sinfulness. We need Someone to protect us from God's curse and wrath against our sin, we need Someone to endure the eternal death penalty of God's law in our place. You better get saved.
We need an Advocate (a Heavenly and Holy Defense Lawyer) to represent us and speak on our behalf to God in the eternal courtroom. An Advocate that will intercede for us, that will plead with God not to destroy us because of our sin, we need an Advocate that will lay down His life for us. The Lord Jesus Christ is just that Advocate - He is our go-between. Jesus is the only One who can approach God's judgment bar for us. Why? Because Jesus is God as well as man. Jesus has both a divine nature and a human nature. His sinless blood sacrifice is the only thing acceptable to God. We must be saved by blood – by God's own blood - that blood that flowed from the veins of Christ Jesus.
We are all natural born sinners, but God's law demands perfect obedience. For there is no man that sinneth not, no one is able to keep God's law perfectly. We haven't just failed here and there. We are totally unable to keep a single one of God's commands in perfect integrity. God is holy and just, so His demands are always righteous. Most people have trouble naming the Ten Commandments, let alone keeping them. We are all sinners by nature, and thus we are unable to obey God in anything. We are not able to keep even one of the Ten Commandments perfectly and continually. Frankly, we like to serve and follow after other gods, use bad language, resist authority, forget God, lust after sexual pleasure, steal other people's stuff, say things to tear people down, crave and desire after unlawful things, and dwell upon evil things with our thoughts. The first risings of sin from our heart begins in our thoughts, and imaginations, we fulfill the desires of the flesh and mind - the Bible calls this lust.
We blatantly violate the Ten Commandments every day; we are grumpy, nasty, greedy, selfish, and overindulgent. No man is able to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly; we break them daily in thought, word, and deed. All our attempts to obey the law fail miserably. The law condemns our evil thoughts and desires; the sins of our past years continually haunt us in our memory and conscience. If we try to do our best to save ourselves, we are doomed to frustration and failure. If we stumble at just one point of the law, we are guilty of breaking all of it. (See James 2:10). You are not the good person you would like to think you are. You are covered with the filth of sin. The law can never save us; it can only reveal and magnify our sin. The law can do nothing to relieve the bondage of sin, it only accentuates and intensifies sin and confirms our bondage. If we were able to keep the law, we could be saved by it, but since we cannot keep it all, we are only condemned by it.
We are always inclined to minimize our sin, we compare ourselves to others who are more sinful outwardly than we are. We excuse our sin, claiming that there are some extenuating circumstances. Or we simply get used to our sin, like the way a pig farmer gets used to the smell of pig dung and pig slop. We become jaded and hardened by sin. We are covered with the excrement of our sinful depravity. Like a little baby, we have soiled ourselves, but we cannot cleanse ourselves. We are filthy with our own pride, lust, and greed, our self-indulgence, self-admiration, and self-pity. These all make us filthy in God's holy eyes, and a stench to God's holy nostrils. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. God's blood and grace must intervene and take away our sins. We must acknowledge our need for a true righteousness and look completely to Another to provide it. You're a sinner and you need Someone to stand before God for you - Someone who is holy from head to toe.
We often try to cover up our sin, dressing ourselves up to be good enough for God. What we ought to do instead is to confess our sin and look to Jesus alone for Salvation. Men try to quieten their consciences by religious deeds and moral resolutions, and try to stand well in the sight of their neighbors. They sometimes will even invent a religion to help cover up their sin. But their conscience is still convicted, their guilt and shame still springs up again within them, nothing can still the restless uneasiness of their heart. The guilty soul in vain attempts to conceal its sin. We need a true Righteousness not of our own. We need a covering that blots out all our sins, and forever clothes us with spotless purity, which will hide us from the searching holy eyes of God, and that will completely justify us before God.
If you want to live with a holy God in His heaven, all you'll have to do is live a perfect life without sin - you need a perfect Righteousness, and Christ Jesus is the only source of true Righteousness. That is all there is to it. The law demands 'perfect' righteousness, but the problem is that we have none because we're sinners. We don't always do what is right; therefore we are guilty in the sight of God. We stretch the truth, cut other people down with our words, think highly and boast about ourselves, break our promises to others, use our money to serve ourselves rather than to help others in need, we reject Christ and forget God days without number. This is why we need Jesus Christ to defend us. What we need is the best lawyer in the universe! The perfect holiness of God's law condemns us, and leads us to seek the Gospel of Christ for free mercy. The Law condemns us, and then we start desperately looking for a legal remedy; and we discover that God has provided a free one for us in Jesus Christ's perfect life and death. Jesus can do for us what God's law cannot do; He can save us completely without any of our works being involved at all.
We need Someone to keep God's law perfectly for us. Jesus offers God perfect obedience to the law for us. We are all idolaters, rebels, liars, and cheats, and thus we can never be saved by our own human obedience. But everything Jesus ever did counts for every sinner who trusts only in Him. And everything you've done that is sinful and bad will be counted and charged to Jesus if you come and receive Him. By simple faith in Christ we offer perfect obedience to God and His holy law. It is absolutely necessary for us to trust in Jesus, because the Day of Judgment is coming for all of us. And since we're in big trouble with the heavenly law, we will need a Heavenly Lawyer. If we don't have the Advocate, we will have to face the justice of God's wrath all on our own, and we know what will happen to us then. We must sincerely confess that we are separated from God by our sins. We must acknowledge that we are sinful creatures, in need of our Holy Creator. We must trust that Jesus made a sinless blood sacrifice for our sins on the Cross.
Here's the real good news: God in His tender mercy realized our helpless state, and He provided us a Heavenly Defense Lawyer (the Advocate - See I John 2:1-2). Jesus lived as one person with two natures; He had both a divine nature and a human nature in one man. God became flesh. The Almighty dwelt among men in flesh and blood, skin and bone, sinew and tendon. The God-man was sinless, He was crucified, His body was torn by the hard nails and sharp spear of our hatred and rebellion. He suffered and died to pay the full price for our sin.
Christ Jesus suffered the law's penalty against our sin in our place. Jesus bore all our sins in His body on the Cross, He never committed a sin Himself, He was holy from head to toe, but He took the sins committed by us into His own body, and paid the eternal price, and made satisfaction for them to God with His own innocent life-blood. We must cry out for Christ to save us. We must stop trusting ourselves, and trust simply and implicitly in the Crucified Redeemer, Christ Jesus Himself. We must receive Him as the only sacrifice for our sins. Then after we have trusted Christ, we are safe in Christ, and the law and wrath of God will hold no more terror over us. Jesus has suffered the penalty that we deserved for our sins, and the law frightens us no longer, for God can never punish the same sins twice.
You need Christ to stand before God for you in His perfect Holiness. Don't just study and read about Jesus Christ, from your heart trust your soul with Him, take Him for your own personal salvation. Seal the deal with Christ Jesus as soon as possible. Look only to Him, trust in His precious blood and righteousness alone. By the blood of Jesus we are justified freely, redeemed, reconciled, forgiven, and released. Anyone who has a guilty conscience - and every sinner does – can come and be clean by trusting only in the Blood of God. The Cross is where atonement was made, and where our sins are forgiven forever. The Cross must be the center of your salvation. It is only by the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary's Cross that we are able to have a personal and eternal relationship with God. The blood of Jesus gives us eternal life freely, and speaks mercy and peace to our soul, and He turns away God's wrath from us. (See Romans 3:25; 5:9; Eph 1:7; 2:13; Col 1:19-20; Isaiah 12:1; John 3:36; Rev 1:5)
Now understand - the only way to get to Heaven is by the Blood of God. If you are to be saved from your sins, you are going to have to deal with Jesus Christ Himself one on one. His own blood must be applied 'directly' to your sins. It is only by trusting in God's blood that any sinner ever gets saved from hell-fire. The Blood has to come between God's perfect holiness and our unholy sin, that is, the blood of the Crucified One which is the only thing acceptable to God. Jesus offered up Himself as our personal sin sacrifice. His sacrifice was a sacrifice in blood - His own blood - poured out for ungodly sinners. The Blood of God is where sinners can find mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Plead with God for mercy through Jesus Christ, as if you were the only and worst sinner in the whole world. Ask God to have mercy on your soul through Jesus' most-precious blood. There is mercy for sinners now, if you will simply trust in the blood of Jesus to cover and cleanse you from all your sins. Trust Christ entirely and eternally with the safety of your soul.
Mercy's door is always open to the sinner who knocks with sincerity. Go now and knock at Christ's door, and His mercy shall be yours freely. The only demand from God for you to believe in Christ is that you admit yourself a lost and ruined sinner. If you know for a fact you're a real sinner, you can know the real Savior of sinners. Christ came to seek and save sinners. Jesus came to save even you. Good moral people that trust in their own works go to hell. Those proud souls that are busy sewing their fig leaves together, and working out day by day the garment of their own self-righteousness, will soon find their good works to be utterly insufficient in the Day of Judgment. Cast your self-righteousness away, cast all your good works overboard, believe only in Christ, trust wholly in Jesus. You may ask, "What is it to believe?" To believe is to cast yourself simply and wholly on the Blood of Christ for salvation.
You must first be condemned by the Law of God, and then sincerely seek the Heavenly Lawyer to defend you, and then humble ask HIM to freely acquit you by His redeeming grace before the eternal Judge of Heaven. Only the grace of Christ and the Blood of God can extinguish the fire of sin in your heart, soul, and mind. Adam sinned in the garden, and now after 6,000 years his sin nature is still passed upon us all. God cannot condone our sin, and the blood of animals can never take away our sin. So God in love condescended into this dark world as a man, the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, He lived, bled, and died in the sinner's place.
Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, regarded your helpless estate, He went up to Calvary's Cross all alone for you and shed God's blood to extinguish your guilt and put away your sins forever. Now understand - this is Calvary Love: On Calvary's Cross, the worst possible thing happened to best possible Person, so that the best possible thing could happen to the worst possible person. Jesus never did anything in His life to deserve anything bad. But now, since Jesus suffered, the best thing can happen to the worst person. The worst tragedy of all (the Son of God dying in our sins) brings us lost sinners the best thing of all (free salvation from our sins, the righteousness of God, and eternal life).
Jesus didn't die for His sins; He died especially for your sins. Jesus was obedient unto death and bore all your sins and then He died in your sins, so you could trust in Him completely, and not in yourself at all. Your sins spilt God's Blood on Calvary that day, and helped nail Jesus Christ to the Cross. Jesus died in your sins, so you could die in His righteousness. Turn your eyes away from your silly religion and your vain good works, and look only to living Christ.
Come to Christ now, and make the great exchange with Him, exchange all your sins for all His righteousness, your vileness for His sinless perfection; your sinful nature for His divine nature. He will save you by His free grace. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever believeth in Him shall never be condemned. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved. Trust in God's Blood now, and you will be clean, free, and redeemed forever. God be merciful to me, the sinner, for Jesus' sake. You need a "Real Good" Lawyer for your upcoming court case with God. (Seek the sinner's only Advocate - Call upon Jesus' precious name in sincerity now).
God With Us, Christ For Us
Every man is a sinner, and all sins must be punished, every one of them. All of your past sins are either on your soul right now, or they are on the the Lamb of God. The only way to get rid of your sins is simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. God with us, Christ for us. God manifest in the flesh bleeding and dying to save sinners. Immanuel, God with us; Christ Jesus the Lamb of God died for us. Incarnation, Substitution, Redemption, Propitiation, and Salvation are the all-important truths. Christ IS the Gospel, the Gospel is Christ Jesus Himself. Where Christ is precious, sin is heinous. If you sense, confess, and own your guilt, then Christ is the Savior you need. As a sinner, look to Jesus for everything your soul needs. There is nothing good in you at all, for you a sinner through and through. While unconverted, all you have done all of your life is Sin against God. Quit your hold on sin, and lay hold on Christ by simple faith in His precious blood.
Trust Christ personally for everlasting salvation. Quit your dirty ways and wicked thoughts, and turn to Jesus Christ. Quit your false righteousness. Christ is the only Savior, it is His chief business to save the ungodly. The King of Heaven stooped to rescue His enemies from the wrath to come. Incarnate Deity, Bleeding Omnipotence, Immortal Love Crucified for my sins on Calvary's Cross. Christ's bleeding love is all you'll ever need. Cut your sinful connections, quit your evil companions. Renounce your secret sins. Jesus is the sinner's Friend. Think of what you are, and despair; then think of the who the Savior is, and take heart. The Great Substitution of Christ is the sinner's only hope. Quit your love and life of sin, trust Christ, love Him. The bleeding Savior is the substance of the Gospel. Jesus Christ was God and man mysteriously united in one Person. God Almighty Incarnate died for your sins especially. Quit your sinning: leave it, and loathe it. If you try to be something, you shall be nothing. Just be nothing, and let Jesus Christ be everything - that's it in a nutshell. Give up your trust in Darwin, or you will die in your sins.
Salvation is only given away freely, it can't be earned. The Great Physician has none but "gratis" patients. Ask Christ for grace to overcome your vile habits. Come to the Cross, and receive "Everything" for nothing. If you die with your face toward Darwin, you will surely perish. The Substitution of Christ for sinners is the center of the Gospel. Take Christ for your Substitute. Trust in what Jesus did, and your sins are no more. Whosoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Ponder the pierced One, meditate on the Mediator. Only the Holy Ghost can convince a man of his sinfulness. Think much of the spitting, scourging, bleeding, nailing, and piercing. Jesus made a perfect Atonement with His own blood for human sin. His life of doing good, working miracles of mercy, caring for the fallen, suffering poverty and shame, weariness and hunger, Gethsemane and the bloody sweat, Calvary and the gory death of the cross. He lived a life of service and suffering; He came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. God Himself covered His infinite glory with a shell of human flesh, and in mercy dwelt here on earth among the sons of men. Divine Justice is no respecter of persons. Only Christ's bloody death paid the full penalty to Divine Justice for you.
The marrow of the Gospel is Jesus suffering for our sins. He His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree. On the Cross Jesus bore the whole weight of divine justice in your place. Meditate earnestly upon Jesus' sinless life, His full blood Atonement, and His resurrection. The Precious Blood is the only satisfaction to Divine Justice. A sinner is freely justified in the sight of God by faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Read the Bible, believe the Bible, obey the Bible. Keep Christ always at the front, think much upon Him.
Be obedient to the Faith, that is - believe that The Lord Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh, trust Him because He suffered in your place paying the penalty due to your sins against God, trust to His bloody death (Cross) that satisfied divine justice completely for you, rely upon the Blood Atonement which Christ has rendered, that's what is means to be saved - Be obedient to the Faith. Frequently think of Christ. You naturally think of food often throughout the day, because your body lives upon it. Your appetite makes food impossible to forget. Likewise think of Christ continually, He is the bread of Life that satisfies the hunger deep in your soul. Personally quit your sins, lay hold on Jesus Christ for eternal life. Count on Jesus, not on Darwin. Self-loathing and self-denial are some first signs of spiritual life. As a cup hangs on a nail, likewise we must hang on Christ completely for all our salvation from sin. Cheerfully consent to be nothing, and let Jesus be everything.
God with us (I Timothy 3:16); Christ for us (Romans 5:8; Romans 8:32; I Corinthians 5:7; II Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Titus 2:14; I John 3:16; Galatians 2:20).
Trust Christ personally for everlasting salvation. Quit your dirty ways and wicked thoughts, and turn to Jesus Christ. Quit your false righteousness. Christ is the only Savior, it is His chief business to save the ungodly. The King of Heaven stooped to rescue His enemies from the wrath to come. Incarnate Deity, Bleeding Omnipotence, Immortal Love Crucified for my sins on Calvary's Cross. Christ's bleeding love is all you'll ever need. Cut your sinful connections, quit your evil companions. Renounce your secret sins. Jesus is the sinner's Friend. Think of what you are, and despair; then think of the who the Savior is, and take heart. The Great Substitution of Christ is the sinner's only hope. Quit your love and life of sin, trust Christ, love Him. The bleeding Savior is the substance of the Gospel. Jesus Christ was God and man mysteriously united in one Person. God Almighty Incarnate died for your sins especially. Quit your sinning: leave it, and loathe it. If you try to be something, you shall be nothing. Just be nothing, and let Jesus Christ be everything - that's it in a nutshell. Give up your trust in Darwin, or you will die in your sins.
Salvation is only given away freely, it can't be earned. The Great Physician has none but "gratis" patients. Ask Christ for grace to overcome your vile habits. Come to the Cross, and receive "Everything" for nothing. If you die with your face toward Darwin, you will surely perish. The Substitution of Christ for sinners is the center of the Gospel. Take Christ for your Substitute. Trust in what Jesus did, and your sins are no more. Whosoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Ponder the pierced One, meditate on the Mediator. Only the Holy Ghost can convince a man of his sinfulness. Think much of the spitting, scourging, bleeding, nailing, and piercing. Jesus made a perfect Atonement with His own blood for human sin. His life of doing good, working miracles of mercy, caring for the fallen, suffering poverty and shame, weariness and hunger, Gethsemane and the bloody sweat, Calvary and the gory death of the cross. He lived a life of service and suffering; He came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. God Himself covered His infinite glory with a shell of human flesh, and in mercy dwelt here on earth among the sons of men. Divine Justice is no respecter of persons. Only Christ's bloody death paid the full penalty to Divine Justice for you.
The marrow of the Gospel is Jesus suffering for our sins. He His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree. On the Cross Jesus bore the whole weight of divine justice in your place. Meditate earnestly upon Jesus' sinless life, His full blood Atonement, and His resurrection. The Precious Blood is the only satisfaction to Divine Justice. A sinner is freely justified in the sight of God by faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Read the Bible, believe the Bible, obey the Bible. Keep Christ always at the front, think much upon Him.
Be obedient to the Faith, that is - believe that The Lord Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh, trust Him because He suffered in your place paying the penalty due to your sins against God, trust to His bloody death (Cross) that satisfied divine justice completely for you, rely upon the Blood Atonement which Christ has rendered, that's what is means to be saved - Be obedient to the Faith. Frequently think of Christ. You naturally think of food often throughout the day, because your body lives upon it. Your appetite makes food impossible to forget. Likewise think of Christ continually, He is the bread of Life that satisfies the hunger deep in your soul. Personally quit your sins, lay hold on Jesus Christ for eternal life. Count on Jesus, not on Darwin. Self-loathing and self-denial are some first signs of spiritual life. As a cup hangs on a nail, likewise we must hang on Christ completely for all our salvation from sin. Cheerfully consent to be nothing, and let Jesus be everything.
God with us (I Timothy 3:16); Christ for us (Romans 5:8; Romans 8:32; I Corinthians 5:7; II Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Titus 2:14; I John 3:16; Galatians 2:20).
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Some Probing Questions 2
Do know anyone you would trust your soul with except the Lord Jesus Christ? How long will it be until you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? What sin is it that is keeping you from trusting Christ right now? How long do your intend to insult and provoke Christ with your rejecting unbelief? How long do you plan to linger on dangerous ground with God's wrath abiding on your soul? *John 3:36* Are you resting on Jesus' finished work alone? Are you abiding in your sins in the peril of eternal punishment? Remember God's patience and mercy towards your guilty soul will not last forever; you have provoked Him long enough.
You may know much about the Bible and religion, but do you know the Blood? Is the Precious Blood of Christ the life-blood of your hope here in time and out in Eternity? Have you experienced the free forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus' blood? Have you ever felt the burden of sin, and have you ever taken that sin-burden to the foot of the Cross and asked Jesus for His mercy? Are you laboring under a sense of sin with a troubled conscience? If so, those are the first workings of the Holy Spirit in a lost soul. Has Christ Jesus ever said to you personally, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Have you ever received Christ Jesus into your heart by a simple faith in His atoning blood? Has the Holy Spirit ever convinced you of your sinfulness and guiltiness before God? When the commandment comes via the Holy Spirit, He lays down the straight line and shows you your crookedness, helps you to discern your lost estate, the evil of your sins, the emptiness of your own righteousness, and terrors of the wrath to come.
Here it is simply put - Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, repent towards God, and Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved; then yield up everything to His will, live to His glory, love Him supremely, and you will have joy unspeakable and the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Eternal life is as Free as the physical life you live, the air you breathe, and the sunlight you enjoy each day. Almighty God had to become a Jewish man and bleed and die in order to bring the free pardon of sin and eternal life down here to us sinners, and do you really think that your measly works can help purchase the forgiveness of sins for your soul? Salvation is absolutely Free, not earned. Can you help contribute to the ransom price for your sins against God?
Are you desiring and willing to receive wisdom and light from above? Will you give up the light of self and trust in Jesus? Will you take the Lamb of God who is the Light of Heaven, the bleeding Lamb, to be the light and comfort of your soul? Will you have your sins laid on the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, and trust Him as suffering in your place, to make Atonement for your guilt? Are you a teachable soul ready to receive the engrafted word which is able to save your soul? Think of your sinful thoughts, words and ways in the light of God's Law, the mirror of His perfect holiness. How far short have you come of the divine requirements? Step now into the light of God's Law, the light of God's blessings and mercies towards you, the light of the Cross, the light of the Resurrection, the light of Jesus' second coming, and the judgment to come. Just who are you trying to impress anyhow? If its not the Crucified Creator, then your life is being lived absolutely in vain.
How will your secret actions appear in the light of the day of Judgment, and how will they weigh in the infallible balances of divine justice? All boasting is excluded with the Law and at the Cross. Have you not lingered long enough in sin and unbelief? Have you not rejected Christ enough times already? Should you not now give up resolving and get down to business concerning your soul like someone with good sense? Christ Jesus must be received by you personally by an act of faith into your innermost soul. Do you know what it is to receive the water of life freely which Jesus Christ bestows on thirsty souls that call upon His name in truth? Have you the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works? Every man under the sun is going to believe in someone or something; be wise, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Religion and self-righteous human nature invents its own plan of salvation, and winds up in hell because it thinks it can help out Jesus Christ. Have your sins been freely pardoned by Christ Himself? Suppose you were to die where you are right now and have to appear before your Maker unforgiven, where would you be for all Eternity? The self-righteous religionist is unable to believe that the Gospel is a simple matter; the religious carnal mind looks for difficulty and complex preparation; they hear the words, but they miss the spirit and central sense of the Gospel; the grace and freeness of Christ's love surpasses their self-righteous thoughts.
Cast your soul on the Lord Jesus Christ by a simple faith in His Precious Blood. Rest in the power of the Holy Spirit to help you overcome your inward corruption and outward foolishness. You will never find peace in the ways of sin. The safety of a building depends mainly upon its foundation. Are you building on the sure foundation, on Christ Himself? There is not one single work required from you to help complete Christ's perfect blood atonement for human sin. Has the ransom price been fully paid by Christ's Blood for your sins?
Do you try to avoid doing the things that grieve the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus? You can spend many hours with recreation, entertainment and men, but how much time to you spend with your Maker at the throne of grace? Who and what are you seeking in this life? What are you personally doing now to further the gospel and kingdom of God for Jesus' sake? Redeem the time - Tell out the story of eternal redemption through the Precious Blood of God manifest in the flesh everywhere you go. What are you personally doing to save some soul from sin today? The best proof of your sincerity and love for Christ is your own personal holiness and sincere effort and determination to glorify Christ and wins souls to Him in some practical way. Words are leaves; but actions are fruit.
You may know much about the Bible and religion, but do you know the Blood? Is the Precious Blood of Christ the life-blood of your hope here in time and out in Eternity? Have you experienced the free forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus' blood? Have you ever felt the burden of sin, and have you ever taken that sin-burden to the foot of the Cross and asked Jesus for His mercy? Are you laboring under a sense of sin with a troubled conscience? If so, those are the first workings of the Holy Spirit in a lost soul. Has Christ Jesus ever said to you personally, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Have you ever received Christ Jesus into your heart by a simple faith in His atoning blood? Has the Holy Spirit ever convinced you of your sinfulness and guiltiness before God? When the commandment comes via the Holy Spirit, He lays down the straight line and shows you your crookedness, helps you to discern your lost estate, the evil of your sins, the emptiness of your own righteousness, and terrors of the wrath to come.
Here it is simply put - Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, repent towards God, and Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved; then yield up everything to His will, live to His glory, love Him supremely, and you will have joy unspeakable and the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Eternal life is as Free as the physical life you live, the air you breathe, and the sunlight you enjoy each day. Almighty God had to become a Jewish man and bleed and die in order to bring the free pardon of sin and eternal life down here to us sinners, and do you really think that your measly works can help purchase the forgiveness of sins for your soul? Salvation is absolutely Free, not earned. Can you help contribute to the ransom price for your sins against God?
Are you desiring and willing to receive wisdom and light from above? Will you give up the light of self and trust in Jesus? Will you take the Lamb of God who is the Light of Heaven, the bleeding Lamb, to be the light and comfort of your soul? Will you have your sins laid on the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, and trust Him as suffering in your place, to make Atonement for your guilt? Are you a teachable soul ready to receive the engrafted word which is able to save your soul? Think of your sinful thoughts, words and ways in the light of God's Law, the mirror of His perfect holiness. How far short have you come of the divine requirements? Step now into the light of God's Law, the light of God's blessings and mercies towards you, the light of the Cross, the light of the Resurrection, the light of Jesus' second coming, and the judgment to come. Just who are you trying to impress anyhow? If its not the Crucified Creator, then your life is being lived absolutely in vain.
How will your secret actions appear in the light of the day of Judgment, and how will they weigh in the infallible balances of divine justice? All boasting is excluded with the Law and at the Cross. Have you not lingered long enough in sin and unbelief? Have you not rejected Christ enough times already? Should you not now give up resolving and get down to business concerning your soul like someone with good sense? Christ Jesus must be received by you personally by an act of faith into your innermost soul. Do you know what it is to receive the water of life freely which Jesus Christ bestows on thirsty souls that call upon His name in truth? Have you the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works? Every man under the sun is going to believe in someone or something; be wise, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Religion and self-righteous human nature invents its own plan of salvation, and winds up in hell because it thinks it can help out Jesus Christ. Have your sins been freely pardoned by Christ Himself? Suppose you were to die where you are right now and have to appear before your Maker unforgiven, where would you be for all Eternity? The self-righteous religionist is unable to believe that the Gospel is a simple matter; the religious carnal mind looks for difficulty and complex preparation; they hear the words, but they miss the spirit and central sense of the Gospel; the grace and freeness of Christ's love surpasses their self-righteous thoughts.
Cast your soul on the Lord Jesus Christ by a simple faith in His Precious Blood. Rest in the power of the Holy Spirit to help you overcome your inward corruption and outward foolishness. You will never find peace in the ways of sin. The safety of a building depends mainly upon its foundation. Are you building on the sure foundation, on Christ Himself? There is not one single work required from you to help complete Christ's perfect blood atonement for human sin. Has the ransom price been fully paid by Christ's Blood for your sins?
Do you try to avoid doing the things that grieve the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus? You can spend many hours with recreation, entertainment and men, but how much time to you spend with your Maker at the throne of grace? Who and what are you seeking in this life? What are you personally doing now to further the gospel and kingdom of God for Jesus' sake? Redeem the time - Tell out the story of eternal redemption through the Precious Blood of God manifest in the flesh everywhere you go. What are you personally doing to save some soul from sin today? The best proof of your sincerity and love for Christ is your own personal holiness and sincere effort and determination to glorify Christ and wins souls to Him in some practical way. Words are leaves; but actions are fruit.
Monday, October 26, 2015
The Old Redemption Story
Every man by nature is sin-sick and lost. Sin is evil, death is sure, Eternity is forever, Heaven is real, and Hell is hot. There's no way for you to make your wrongs right with God by your own efforts. You have lived foolishly and enjoyed your sins. You have long withstood God's longsuffering and forbearance; you have long provoked Him to His face; you have not hearkened to His calls; and grieved the Holy Spirit a thousand times. Your sins are evil, bitter and hateful. You are accountable to God for all your sinful thoughts, words and deeds. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment. The standard at the Judgment will be Jesus Christ, a perfect man. *Acts 17:31*
Are you ready to have your secrets judged? God knows what you're up to behind closed doors. The truth of the matter is that if everything you had thought, said, and done in the last 10 years was put on a video screen for all your friends and family to see, you would leave town and never come back. God knows what you're doing every minute of every day, and He has it all written down in books. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. You have a guilty conscience, for you have violated your conscience over and over; you've done wrong. You need to own up to your sinful condition. Without Christ as your Advocate and Substitute, you are going to give account of the whole thing.
You've got Hell coming, if you die in your sins. One day in the future God is going to settle accounts with every man. God knows who fears Him, and who doesn't. You are afraid of the wrong thing, you are afraid of what men may think about you if you trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. You've broken the Law of God all your life. Sin has ruled and hardened your heart. You are guilty before God indeed; your iniquities deserve eternal death and the wrath of hell. It is an awful thing to be the enemy of God.
God is Just, and He must punish your sins. God's divine justice and the dread sentence of eternal death must fall upon someone's head. The vengeance of God must be satisfied. The LORD cannot ignore your sinful rebellion, nor can He relax His divine justice toward you. Someone must pay your sin's penalty due to the Law of God. So God in mercy became a Jewish man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
The Invisible God took upon Him human form; He came down here and dwelt among sinful men. He lived the life of a humble, poor servant. He lived a sinless life, and at the last, He bore all human sin in His own body on the tree. Jesus never had to a confess a sin throughout His whole life. He was the divine Substitute for guilty sinners like you and me. Jesus stepped in between sinners and the wrath of God. Christ died for the ungodly. He bore the punishment and penalty that your sins deserved. He became the Sin-Bearer for you. He went to the Cross all alone. The Eternal God suffered and died a human death and shed His holy blood on Calvary's tree.
Jesus endured the whole wrath of God against human sin, dying in the place of the guilty. God sentenced Jesus to die in your place. Christ suffered what you ought to have suffered. God punished Jesus for all the sins you will ever commit. Jesus laid down His life for your transgressions. Through Christ Jesus' bloody death, God's holiness is honored, His divine justice is satisfied, and His wrath is appeased. You can escape the eternal death you deserve, and you can be given eternal life freely - simply trust what Christ Jesus did for you.
You have willfully rejected Christ and despised God's words and departed and wandered away from God into sin's darkness. But God's pardoning Grace sent His Son, and He paid your sin-debt with the blood that flowed from His veins on Calvary's Cross. You must personally believe on and receive God's Son - the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. Jesus is the dearest friend a sinner ever had. Only Jesus can save your soul from the love of sin and make you glad.
In Eternity past, Christ was rich; He was so rich that all He possessed was as nothing to Him. He had all the riches of glory within His power, yet He laid aside all that, voluntarily yielded Himself, and came down to Earth that He might live and die for us poor, miserable sinners. His poverty was all voluntary. He needed to become poor only because we were in need, and then He loved us to death. In matchless love, He came to rescue us from our sinful poverty and make us eternally rich through His grace.
The Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, was born into a poor home; He was brought up in a carpenter's trade, He had nowhere to lay His head, He was ministered to by others of their substance, and had nothing to give His mother at His death, and right before He died, He committed her to the care of one of His disciples. Jesus died for ungodly sinners, that are spiritual bankrupts and beggars like you: He became poor for you, so that you through His poverty might be rich; not just temporal riches, but eternal riches; and by Christ's sinless obedience, sufferings, and shameful and bloody death, He paid all your sin debts, and produced a robe of Righteousness, with which He will clothe your naked soul if you will only forsake your own righteousness and trust to Him implicitly. Only through Faith in His Precious Blood can your sins be washed away forever.
Jesus wants to be your friend in court on the last day, He is wealthy and generous, He can pay your sin debt completely, and redeem you from your sins. Jesus' atoning blood doesn't change like your poor heart. God's blood doesn't go up and down in value, like the stock market, or fluctuate like your faith. If you are saved, you are saved instantly and eternally. If you are 'resting' in Jesus' blood, you are safe today, and you are safe for all Eternity. Away with your doubts and fears, trust to the Savior slain for your sins, are you are forgiven - away with excuses, questionings, and carnal reasoning. Hate your sins, but receive the Savior. Cast yourself at His feet. Take shelter at the Cross, flee from the wrath to come.
Genuine faith is to simply trust and cling to Christ Himself, in whom we have redemption, through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. When your soul is the filthiest with sin, seek for nothing but God's blood. When your soul is at its darkest hour, seek no light anywhere but in His Cross. Do not try to prepare yourself to be saved - all your so-called good works will only assist in your damnation. Christ Crucified is all you want and need. Don't reject His free, bleeding love any longer. Do not look within; look without to Jesus dying and living for you.
Christ never came to save the righteous; He only came to save lost, ruined sinners. Jesus is your only hope and satisfaction. Christ is able to save sinners, even the best and worst, and He will only save you without help from your doings or your feelings. Christ Jesus will save anybody, except the self-righteous who think they are good enough to earn grace and win heaven. Simply stop trying and start trusting to Jesus now. Get to the Cross ASAP - Go directly to Jesus now for Help.
Instead of looking to religion or within yourself, look to Jesus who suffered and bled to death for your sins on the Cross of Calvary. The sinless Son of God loved you enough to die for you. He died the Just for the unjust, to bring you to God. Fix your eyes on Him alone and believe in Him. If you look within yourself, you will only see doubts, fears, and much evil. You must look away to the living Christ. When doubts and fears prevail, look to the Cross. When your conscience reminds you of your past sins, trust again to His bleeding wounds in simple faith. Your boasting must be silenced, your pride must be put down - Christ Jesus must get all the glory. Your sins made Jesus bleed - please don't reject His free mercy.
Self-righteous men sneer at the simple faith of the Gospel. Remember - if you have not faith in Christ, the wrath of God abides on you. You are condemned already, because you have not believed on the name of Jesus Christ - the eternal Son of God. Jesus was the God-man, the Mediator between God and men, offering Himself as the Great Sacrifice for your sins. You can only come into contact with Christ by faith in His precious blood, and through that blood you gain access to God's infinite Love, Mercy and Grace.
Free salvation can be yours right now. Simply abandon your self-righteousness, that is, stop trusting yourself and what you can do to help save you - Rest in Jesus only. *Matthew 11:28* Leave your sins and works behind - flee to the Cross for shelter. Make Jesus' finished work your soul's only confidence. Trust God's heart, rely on His Son's blood and works, look to the Holy Spirit's working and power, believe God's promises to save sinners. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believing is this - relying upon, or trusting Another with your soul's eternal Safety. Fix all your faith on Jesus' blood. Confide your eternal destiny into Jesus' dear hands.
Faith in Christ's Blood is the little key that unlocks the treasury of God's grace. Salvation is a very simple business; religion is a puzzling, convoluted business. Simply take Christ, to have and to hold, henceforth and forever, as your only trust and confidence. You must come to Christ as a sinner. God's mercy must save you, or else you must die eternally. Acknowledge that you are lost; get it settled now; you could die anytime unprepared, and be hauled before the Judgment. You can't face divine justice without Jesus Christ; don't try it. If you wind up in Hell one day, it will be because you didn't take God's only Cure for Sin, and that is the Atoning Blood of God manifest in the flesh. Come to Jesus at once by Faith in His blood, and He will give your heavy-laden soul Rest. Look only to the bleeding Lamb of God dying in your place.
Are you ready to have your secrets judged? God knows what you're up to behind closed doors. The truth of the matter is that if everything you had thought, said, and done in the last 10 years was put on a video screen for all your friends and family to see, you would leave town and never come back. God knows what you're doing every minute of every day, and He has it all written down in books. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. You have a guilty conscience, for you have violated your conscience over and over; you've done wrong. You need to own up to your sinful condition. Without Christ as your Advocate and Substitute, you are going to give account of the whole thing.
You've got Hell coming, if you die in your sins. One day in the future God is going to settle accounts with every man. God knows who fears Him, and who doesn't. You are afraid of the wrong thing, you are afraid of what men may think about you if you trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. You've broken the Law of God all your life. Sin has ruled and hardened your heart. You are guilty before God indeed; your iniquities deserve eternal death and the wrath of hell. It is an awful thing to be the enemy of God.
God is Just, and He must punish your sins. God's divine justice and the dread sentence of eternal death must fall upon someone's head. The vengeance of God must be satisfied. The LORD cannot ignore your sinful rebellion, nor can He relax His divine justice toward you. Someone must pay your sin's penalty due to the Law of God. So God in mercy became a Jewish man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
The Invisible God took upon Him human form; He came down here and dwelt among sinful men. He lived the life of a humble, poor servant. He lived a sinless life, and at the last, He bore all human sin in His own body on the tree. Jesus never had to a confess a sin throughout His whole life. He was the divine Substitute for guilty sinners like you and me. Jesus stepped in between sinners and the wrath of God. Christ died for the ungodly. He bore the punishment and penalty that your sins deserved. He became the Sin-Bearer for you. He went to the Cross all alone. The Eternal God suffered and died a human death and shed His holy blood on Calvary's tree.
Jesus endured the whole wrath of God against human sin, dying in the place of the guilty. God sentenced Jesus to die in your place. Christ suffered what you ought to have suffered. God punished Jesus for all the sins you will ever commit. Jesus laid down His life for your transgressions. Through Christ Jesus' bloody death, God's holiness is honored, His divine justice is satisfied, and His wrath is appeased. You can escape the eternal death you deserve, and you can be given eternal life freely - simply trust what Christ Jesus did for you.
You have willfully rejected Christ and despised God's words and departed and wandered away from God into sin's darkness. But God's pardoning Grace sent His Son, and He paid your sin-debt with the blood that flowed from His veins on Calvary's Cross. You must personally believe on and receive God's Son - the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. Jesus is the dearest friend a sinner ever had. Only Jesus can save your soul from the love of sin and make you glad.
In Eternity past, Christ was rich; He was so rich that all He possessed was as nothing to Him. He had all the riches of glory within His power, yet He laid aside all that, voluntarily yielded Himself, and came down to Earth that He might live and die for us poor, miserable sinners. His poverty was all voluntary. He needed to become poor only because we were in need, and then He loved us to death. In matchless love, He came to rescue us from our sinful poverty and make us eternally rich through His grace.
The Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, was born into a poor home; He was brought up in a carpenter's trade, He had nowhere to lay His head, He was ministered to by others of their substance, and had nothing to give His mother at His death, and right before He died, He committed her to the care of one of His disciples. Jesus died for ungodly sinners, that are spiritual bankrupts and beggars like you: He became poor for you, so that you through His poverty might be rich; not just temporal riches, but eternal riches; and by Christ's sinless obedience, sufferings, and shameful and bloody death, He paid all your sin debts, and produced a robe of Righteousness, with which He will clothe your naked soul if you will only forsake your own righteousness and trust to Him implicitly. Only through Faith in His Precious Blood can your sins be washed away forever.
Jesus wants to be your friend in court on the last day, He is wealthy and generous, He can pay your sin debt completely, and redeem you from your sins. Jesus' atoning blood doesn't change like your poor heart. God's blood doesn't go up and down in value, like the stock market, or fluctuate like your faith. If you are saved, you are saved instantly and eternally. If you are 'resting' in Jesus' blood, you are safe today, and you are safe for all Eternity. Away with your doubts and fears, trust to the Savior slain for your sins, are you are forgiven - away with excuses, questionings, and carnal reasoning. Hate your sins, but receive the Savior. Cast yourself at His feet. Take shelter at the Cross, flee from the wrath to come.
Genuine faith is to simply trust and cling to Christ Himself, in whom we have redemption, through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. When your soul is the filthiest with sin, seek for nothing but God's blood. When your soul is at its darkest hour, seek no light anywhere but in His Cross. Do not try to prepare yourself to be saved - all your so-called good works will only assist in your damnation. Christ Crucified is all you want and need. Don't reject His free, bleeding love any longer. Do not look within; look without to Jesus dying and living for you.
Christ never came to save the righteous; He only came to save lost, ruined sinners. Jesus is your only hope and satisfaction. Christ is able to save sinners, even the best and worst, and He will only save you without help from your doings or your feelings. Christ Jesus will save anybody, except the self-righteous who think they are good enough to earn grace and win heaven. Simply stop trying and start trusting to Jesus now. Get to the Cross ASAP - Go directly to Jesus now for Help.
Instead of looking to religion or within yourself, look to Jesus who suffered and bled to death for your sins on the Cross of Calvary. The sinless Son of God loved you enough to die for you. He died the Just for the unjust, to bring you to God. Fix your eyes on Him alone and believe in Him. If you look within yourself, you will only see doubts, fears, and much evil. You must look away to the living Christ. When doubts and fears prevail, look to the Cross. When your conscience reminds you of your past sins, trust again to His bleeding wounds in simple faith. Your boasting must be silenced, your pride must be put down - Christ Jesus must get all the glory. Your sins made Jesus bleed - please don't reject His free mercy.
Self-righteous men sneer at the simple faith of the Gospel. Remember - if you have not faith in Christ, the wrath of God abides on you. You are condemned already, because you have not believed on the name of Jesus Christ - the eternal Son of God. Jesus was the God-man, the Mediator between God and men, offering Himself as the Great Sacrifice for your sins. You can only come into contact with Christ by faith in His precious blood, and through that blood you gain access to God's infinite Love, Mercy and Grace.
Free salvation can be yours right now. Simply abandon your self-righteousness, that is, stop trusting yourself and what you can do to help save you - Rest in Jesus only. *Matthew 11:28* Leave your sins and works behind - flee to the Cross for shelter. Make Jesus' finished work your soul's only confidence. Trust God's heart, rely on His Son's blood and works, look to the Holy Spirit's working and power, believe God's promises to save sinners. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believing is this - relying upon, or trusting Another with your soul's eternal Safety. Fix all your faith on Jesus' blood. Confide your eternal destiny into Jesus' dear hands.
Faith in Christ's Blood is the little key that unlocks the treasury of God's grace. Salvation is a very simple business; religion is a puzzling, convoluted business. Simply take Christ, to have and to hold, henceforth and forever, as your only trust and confidence. You must come to Christ as a sinner. God's mercy must save you, or else you must die eternally. Acknowledge that you are lost; get it settled now; you could die anytime unprepared, and be hauled before the Judgment. You can't face divine justice without Jesus Christ; don't try it. If you wind up in Hell one day, it will be because you didn't take God's only Cure for Sin, and that is the Atoning Blood of God manifest in the flesh. Come to Jesus at once by Faith in His blood, and He will give your heavy-laden soul Rest. Look only to the bleeding Lamb of God dying in your place.
Send for the Advocate
How can a man be truly prepared to meet his Maker? This is the chief question. All sinners are rebels and enemies to God by nature. The sinner's battle with God is hopeless. Be wise - ground your weapons, yield-submit-surrender, for resistance is vain. All men are hopeless sinners awaiting the great Judgment, the Judge is ready, prepare to meet Him. Sooner or later, you must stand before the Judge of all the earth. All the evidence is against you. The right way to prepare to meet this Judge is to plead Guilty. You have sinned, confess your sins. Jesus is the only Advocate you want; He's the only Lawyer you need; He wins all His cases at the Bar of Judgment in the sky. Call upon Jesus the Righteous Advocate, and He will represent you in the courtroom of Heaven pro bono (free of charge due to your poverty).
Go now and leave your case in the hands of the great Advocate. When a guilty man has an advocate, he does not go and do his legal business himself; he refers everyone to his advocate. So, I must refer you to my Advocate, Christ Jesus the Lord; go and settle my account with Him, for He has undertook my business. He said that He would defend me if I would trust Him, and I do trust Him, so I must refer you to my Advocate, he can settle with you, for I cannot.
What preparations can a sinner make to meet God? Sit down and investigate your case. You have no excuses or alibis. You cannot escape with promises of future improvement. You have gone astray willfully and wickedly, and you will do it again. Your sin is obnoxious to God, and from a sinner comes nothing but sin. An evil tree can only bring forth evil fruit. You can never do anything that is pleasing to God until you are first reconciled to Him through His Son's Precious Blood. Never set up a defense that is based upon yourself. A really guilty man will seek out the very best Advocate he can find to plead his case. There is an Advocate, His name is Christ Jesus, send for Him. You are a prisoner waiting in the death cell. Call on JESUS to be your Intercessor and Advocate. He will undertake your case. Only He can plead the case for your guilty soul, and be your Daysman to speak with God on your behalf. Jesus will be your Advocate, for He has said, "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."
Entrust your case to JESUS, appeal directly to Him, say, "Jesus, undertake my case." Engage the services of the heavenly Counselor. His services are absolutely free. Cry out to Him from your death-cell, "JESUS, please have mercy on my guilty soul!" Just put it all in His hands, and you will be set free at once. This heavenly Advocate will plead for you like no other. Take up your true position as a sinner, own your liability and sinfulness. Plead honestly and plainly, plead Guilty. Make a full confession. Your sins are staring you in the face. You're as guilty as Sin. Heartily acknowledge your guilt before God.
Sin is an evil and damning thing. You are a poor miserable soul who has utterly ruined yourself with your sinning. Divine Justice demands satisfaction for your sins. What can be done for your lost soul? Plead guilty with a broken and contrite spirit. All your hope lies in JESUS' divine Mercy, for you have no merit. Lost and undone must be your cry. O have mercy upon me a miserable sinner. Let the Great Counselor enter a plea for you, which will bar all Judgment against you. JESUS knows how to plead for the removal of all your charges and punishment. Only He can address the infinite Majesty of God for you. Do you intend to dare the day of Judgment without an Advocate and a Friend?
Your sins had wrote your death warrant and placed you low in the prison house of Satan. You sit there in the darkness of your sin as miserable as could be, guilty and condemned. But Christ Jesus came and sought you, He brought you His salvation; JESUS bids you leave your lonely dungeon of sin, He cried down through the bars into your dungeon of blindness and ignorance, He says, "Poor sinner, I died for you, if you will simply trust in My Blood and Righteousness alone, I will stand down there where you are, behind the bars of sin; I will become your Substitute; I will become the guilty sinner; and all your guilt shall be imputed (charged) to My account; I will die for it, the wrath of God will roll over Me instead of you, I will suffer for your foolishness; I will take all your sins upon Me and suffer the consequences for them." Cry up to Him through the darkness, "O God be merciful to me a sinner, I am so lost and helpless, I am vile, I am a guilty sinner that deserves hell fire, but Lord Jesus please save me, I depend only on Your Precious Blood that you shed for me on Calvary's Cross!"
Then in mercy He reaches down and pulls you out of your dungeon of misery. Then Jesus asked for your filthy rags of sin, and you hand them over to Him. In matchless Love, He strips Himself of His Robe of Righteousness, and says, "There, put it on; you shall be considered as if you were Christ; you shall be the Righteous one. I will become Sin for you, so you can become Righteousness. I will take your place, so you can take Mine." Then in matchless mercy, He casts around your shoulders His glorious robe of Perfect Righteousness. And now, is there no sin charged to your soul’s account? Oh no, none whatsoever, all your sins are forever on Christ; and all His Righteousness is forever on you.
Then the voice of Divine Justice thunders from the Throne of God, "Bring forth the guilty sinner!" The poor sinner is brought forth from his death cell. But who does the executioner lead forth? Lo and behold, it is the Advocate - the Incarnate Son of God - Christ Jesus - the Crucified Creator. Jesus stands in the sinner's place, condemned, and under the wrath of God. Then Justice cries, "Bring forth the Righteous, the perfectly Righteous One." Whom do I see? Lo, the blood-washed sinner is brought forth. Justice says, "Is he perfectly Righteous?" JESUS says, "Yes he is. Justice, you can never touch him. What I did on Calvary is his, what he did has now been laid on Me; My Righteousness is his; and his sins are Mine."
You, the sinner, stand in the dock guilty before God, you are condemned to die an eternal death for your sins against your Maker. You are about to be taken away to eternal Death. You are a guilty criminal deserving to die, for you have been a heinous villain in God's sight all your days. But just before you're about to be taken away, the Holy but Merciful Judge asks the court whether there is any possible plan whereby the prisoner’s life can be spared. Then, up stands the Gracious Advocate who is Himself pure and perfect, and has known no sin, and by the allowance of the Merciful Judge, for that is necessary, the Innocent Advocate steps into the dock, and says, “Consider Me to be the guilty prisoner; pass his death sentence on Me, and let Me die in his place. Reckon the prisoner to be Myself. I deserve a reward for what I have done; but instead, reward this sinner as if he had done My good deeds, and punish Me as if I had committed his sins.” The Advocate pleads earnestly, “The sinner deserves to die; but let Me die in his place, and let him be clothed in My Righteousness.”
Divine Justice cries, “Where is the sinner? I must have him, for he is a sinner, and he must perish for his crimes against his Creator.” Then Christ Jesus comes forward, and asks Divine Justice, “Whom do you seek?” “The sinner!” answers Divine Justice. Then said Jesus, “He is not a sinner any more; he was once a sinner, but he is Righteous now, he is clothed in My Righteousness from head to toe. If you seek the sinner, take Me instead.” “What!” says Divine Justice, “Are you the sinner?” “No, not the sinner, but I am the sinner’s Substitute; all the sinner’s guilt has been imputed to Me; all his unrighteousness is Mine, and now all My Righteousness is now his; I, the Savior, am the sinner’s Substitute; take Me, and let the sinner go free eternally.” Divine Justice accepts Christ's Substitution and Precious Blood; Divine Justice takes the Savior, crucifies Him, nails Him to Calvary's Cross, and Christ's Atonement pays the sinner's Debt in full. The curse of Sin fell upon the head of Jesus, and the Blessings of God fell upon the guilty sinner, for Jesus' sake.
Here are some of the Heavenly Advocate's arguments for the guilty sinner that comes to Him for mercy: "O Father, I have paid the sinner's penalty, he shall have My Righteousness, and I will have his sins. I went up to Calvary's Cross and stood and died in this sinner's place, and now that poor sinner has committed his awful case into My hands. He has pled *Guilty*, and he has thrown Himself upon Me calling out for your Mercy. I have suffered for all his crimes against You. I bore all Your punishment and satisfied your Divine Justice on his behalf. Please spare this sinner for My sake, because My Blood was shed for him. I claim by My Blood that he can go free for My sake. I will be held fully responsible for all his sins. Charge all his sin debt to My account, I am willing and able to pay his entire sin-debt and penalties. I am content to undertake all his punishment to save him from Your divine wrath. My Father, treat Me as if I were this sinner; and treat this sinner as if he were Me. Smite Me as sternly as You please, for I will bear Your wrath willingly, so your grace and mercy can be extended to this guilty sinner, and so that Your Divine Justice may be satisfied completely through My Precious Blood. Father, have pity on this sinner, for I have obeyed Your Law perfectly on his behalf, I have kept every jot and tittle, and now the Righteousness which I achieved, I have given it all to Him freely, for all that I am is now his. My Righteousness is now his righteousness, and now he stands accepted in the Beloved for My sake. O Father, in your wrath remember Mercy."
Then fiery Divine Justice drew his sword, and went out after the sinner, to find him and slay him. Justice’s sword thirsted for the blood of the one who had committed the crimes against the divine Law; Justice said, “He is a sinners; I will have him, I will thrust this sword in his heart, for he is a rebel, and must perish.” Then Christ Jesus came forward, and asked him, “Whom seekest thou?” “The sinner!” answered Justice. Then said Jesus, “If you seek the sinner, here am I.” “What!”said Justice, “are you the sinner?” “No, not the sinner, but I am the sinner’s Substitute; all the sinner’s guilt is imputed to me; all his unrighteousness is mine, and all My righteousness is his. I, the Savior, am the sinner’s Substitute; take Me and let him go free.” Then Divine Justice accepts the Substitution; he takes the Savior, crucifies Him, nails Him to the Cross of Calvary.
Then the Almighty Judge says, “I should condemn you sinner — My divine justice must punish all sin and your sins against Me.” But then, you cry out to the Just Judge, "Have mercy on my dying soul, for I have put all my trust on Christ Jesus the sinner's Substitute. God be merciful to me a sinner and save my soul for Jesus’ sake!" Then Christ the great Advocate comes in, puts you aside, and stands Himself in your stead. When the plea is demanded, Christ cries, “Guilty!” He takes your guilt to be His own guilt. When the punishment is to be executed, Christ steps forth, and says, “Punish Me, I have put my Righteousness and Glory on this guilty man, and I have taken this condemned man’s sins and guilt upon Me. Punish Me, and consider this sinner to have been Me. Let him go free and live eternally in Heaven; let Me suffer his misery and death. Let Me endure this sinner's curse, and let him receive all My blessings. Let Me suffer as a sinner in his place, and let him be spotless and innocent before Your Throne in the robes of My Righteousness. I have paid this sinner’s debt in full, so now the Law and Justice must let him go free forever.”
Then the Great Judge says to you, I will have mercy upon you and spare you only for Jesus' sake; My heart longs to have mercy on you. My Justice says ‘smite,’ but My Love holds back My hand, and says, ‘spare, spare the sinner for Jesus' sake!’ Oh! sinner, my heart has devised the plan of salvation; my Son, the pure and perfect One shall stand and die in your place, and be accounted guilty, and you, the guilty one, shall stand in my Son’s stead and be accounted Righteous!”
Be wise now - Send for the Advocate and leave your case in His hands. Only His pleading shall prevail for you. Mercy rejoiceth against Judgment.
Go now and leave your case in the hands of the great Advocate. When a guilty man has an advocate, he does not go and do his legal business himself; he refers everyone to his advocate. So, I must refer you to my Advocate, Christ Jesus the Lord; go and settle my account with Him, for He has undertook my business. He said that He would defend me if I would trust Him, and I do trust Him, so I must refer you to my Advocate, he can settle with you, for I cannot.
What preparations can a sinner make to meet God? Sit down and investigate your case. You have no excuses or alibis. You cannot escape with promises of future improvement. You have gone astray willfully and wickedly, and you will do it again. Your sin is obnoxious to God, and from a sinner comes nothing but sin. An evil tree can only bring forth evil fruit. You can never do anything that is pleasing to God until you are first reconciled to Him through His Son's Precious Blood. Never set up a defense that is based upon yourself. A really guilty man will seek out the very best Advocate he can find to plead his case. There is an Advocate, His name is Christ Jesus, send for Him. You are a prisoner waiting in the death cell. Call on JESUS to be your Intercessor and Advocate. He will undertake your case. Only He can plead the case for your guilty soul, and be your Daysman to speak with God on your behalf. Jesus will be your Advocate, for He has said, "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."
Entrust your case to JESUS, appeal directly to Him, say, "Jesus, undertake my case." Engage the services of the heavenly Counselor. His services are absolutely free. Cry out to Him from your death-cell, "JESUS, please have mercy on my guilty soul!" Just put it all in His hands, and you will be set free at once. This heavenly Advocate will plead for you like no other. Take up your true position as a sinner, own your liability and sinfulness. Plead honestly and plainly, plead Guilty. Make a full confession. Your sins are staring you in the face. You're as guilty as Sin. Heartily acknowledge your guilt before God.
Sin is an evil and damning thing. You are a poor miserable soul who has utterly ruined yourself with your sinning. Divine Justice demands satisfaction for your sins. What can be done for your lost soul? Plead guilty with a broken and contrite spirit. All your hope lies in JESUS' divine Mercy, for you have no merit. Lost and undone must be your cry. O have mercy upon me a miserable sinner. Let the Great Counselor enter a plea for you, which will bar all Judgment against you. JESUS knows how to plead for the removal of all your charges and punishment. Only He can address the infinite Majesty of God for you. Do you intend to dare the day of Judgment without an Advocate and a Friend?
Your sins had wrote your death warrant and placed you low in the prison house of Satan. You sit there in the darkness of your sin as miserable as could be, guilty and condemned. But Christ Jesus came and sought you, He brought you His salvation; JESUS bids you leave your lonely dungeon of sin, He cried down through the bars into your dungeon of blindness and ignorance, He says, "Poor sinner, I died for you, if you will simply trust in My Blood and Righteousness alone, I will stand down there where you are, behind the bars of sin; I will become your Substitute; I will become the guilty sinner; and all your guilt shall be imputed (charged) to My account; I will die for it, the wrath of God will roll over Me instead of you, I will suffer for your foolishness; I will take all your sins upon Me and suffer the consequences for them." Cry up to Him through the darkness, "O God be merciful to me a sinner, I am so lost and helpless, I am vile, I am a guilty sinner that deserves hell fire, but Lord Jesus please save me, I depend only on Your Precious Blood that you shed for me on Calvary's Cross!"
Then in mercy He reaches down and pulls you out of your dungeon of misery. Then Jesus asked for your filthy rags of sin, and you hand them over to Him. In matchless Love, He strips Himself of His Robe of Righteousness, and says, "There, put it on; you shall be considered as if you were Christ; you shall be the Righteous one. I will become Sin for you, so you can become Righteousness. I will take your place, so you can take Mine." Then in matchless mercy, He casts around your shoulders His glorious robe of Perfect Righteousness. And now, is there no sin charged to your soul’s account? Oh no, none whatsoever, all your sins are forever on Christ; and all His Righteousness is forever on you.
Then the voice of Divine Justice thunders from the Throne of God, "Bring forth the guilty sinner!" The poor sinner is brought forth from his death cell. But who does the executioner lead forth? Lo and behold, it is the Advocate - the Incarnate Son of God - Christ Jesus - the Crucified Creator. Jesus stands in the sinner's place, condemned, and under the wrath of God. Then Justice cries, "Bring forth the Righteous, the perfectly Righteous One." Whom do I see? Lo, the blood-washed sinner is brought forth. Justice says, "Is he perfectly Righteous?" JESUS says, "Yes he is. Justice, you can never touch him. What I did on Calvary is his, what he did has now been laid on Me; My Righteousness is his; and his sins are Mine."
You, the sinner, stand in the dock guilty before God, you are condemned to die an eternal death for your sins against your Maker. You are about to be taken away to eternal Death. You are a guilty criminal deserving to die, for you have been a heinous villain in God's sight all your days. But just before you're about to be taken away, the Holy but Merciful Judge asks the court whether there is any possible plan whereby the prisoner’s life can be spared. Then, up stands the Gracious Advocate who is Himself pure and perfect, and has known no sin, and by the allowance of the Merciful Judge, for that is necessary, the Innocent Advocate steps into the dock, and says, “Consider Me to be the guilty prisoner; pass his death sentence on Me, and let Me die in his place. Reckon the prisoner to be Myself. I deserve a reward for what I have done; but instead, reward this sinner as if he had done My good deeds, and punish Me as if I had committed his sins.” The Advocate pleads earnestly, “The sinner deserves to die; but let Me die in his place, and let him be clothed in My Righteousness.”
Divine Justice cries, “Where is the sinner? I must have him, for he is a sinner, and he must perish for his crimes against his Creator.” Then Christ Jesus comes forward, and asks Divine Justice, “Whom do you seek?” “The sinner!” answers Divine Justice. Then said Jesus, “He is not a sinner any more; he was once a sinner, but he is Righteous now, he is clothed in My Righteousness from head to toe. If you seek the sinner, take Me instead.” “What!” says Divine Justice, “Are you the sinner?” “No, not the sinner, but I am the sinner’s Substitute; all the sinner’s guilt has been imputed to Me; all his unrighteousness is Mine, and now all My Righteousness is now his; I, the Savior, am the sinner’s Substitute; take Me, and let the sinner go free eternally.” Divine Justice accepts Christ's Substitution and Precious Blood; Divine Justice takes the Savior, crucifies Him, nails Him to Calvary's Cross, and Christ's Atonement pays the sinner's Debt in full. The curse of Sin fell upon the head of Jesus, and the Blessings of God fell upon the guilty sinner, for Jesus' sake.
Here are some of the Heavenly Advocate's arguments for the guilty sinner that comes to Him for mercy: "O Father, I have paid the sinner's penalty, he shall have My Righteousness, and I will have his sins. I went up to Calvary's Cross and stood and died in this sinner's place, and now that poor sinner has committed his awful case into My hands. He has pled *Guilty*, and he has thrown Himself upon Me calling out for your Mercy. I have suffered for all his crimes against You. I bore all Your punishment and satisfied your Divine Justice on his behalf. Please spare this sinner for My sake, because My Blood was shed for him. I claim by My Blood that he can go free for My sake. I will be held fully responsible for all his sins. Charge all his sin debt to My account, I am willing and able to pay his entire sin-debt and penalties. I am content to undertake all his punishment to save him from Your divine wrath. My Father, treat Me as if I were this sinner; and treat this sinner as if he were Me. Smite Me as sternly as You please, for I will bear Your wrath willingly, so your grace and mercy can be extended to this guilty sinner, and so that Your Divine Justice may be satisfied completely through My Precious Blood. Father, have pity on this sinner, for I have obeyed Your Law perfectly on his behalf, I have kept every jot and tittle, and now the Righteousness which I achieved, I have given it all to Him freely, for all that I am is now his. My Righteousness is now his righteousness, and now he stands accepted in the Beloved for My sake. O Father, in your wrath remember Mercy."
Then fiery Divine Justice drew his sword, and went out after the sinner, to find him and slay him. Justice’s sword thirsted for the blood of the one who had committed the crimes against the divine Law; Justice said, “He is a sinners; I will have him, I will thrust this sword in his heart, for he is a rebel, and must perish.” Then Christ Jesus came forward, and asked him, “Whom seekest thou?” “The sinner!” answered Justice. Then said Jesus, “If you seek the sinner, here am I.” “What!”said Justice, “are you the sinner?” “No, not the sinner, but I am the sinner’s Substitute; all the sinner’s guilt is imputed to me; all his unrighteousness is mine, and all My righteousness is his. I, the Savior, am the sinner’s Substitute; take Me and let him go free.” Then Divine Justice accepts the Substitution; he takes the Savior, crucifies Him, nails Him to the Cross of Calvary.
Then the Almighty Judge says, “I should condemn you sinner — My divine justice must punish all sin and your sins against Me.” But then, you cry out to the Just Judge, "Have mercy on my dying soul, for I have put all my trust on Christ Jesus the sinner's Substitute. God be merciful to me a sinner and save my soul for Jesus’ sake!" Then Christ the great Advocate comes in, puts you aside, and stands Himself in your stead. When the plea is demanded, Christ cries, “Guilty!” He takes your guilt to be His own guilt. When the punishment is to be executed, Christ steps forth, and says, “Punish Me, I have put my Righteousness and Glory on this guilty man, and I have taken this condemned man’s sins and guilt upon Me. Punish Me, and consider this sinner to have been Me. Let him go free and live eternally in Heaven; let Me suffer his misery and death. Let Me endure this sinner's curse, and let him receive all My blessings. Let Me suffer as a sinner in his place, and let him be spotless and innocent before Your Throne in the robes of My Righteousness. I have paid this sinner’s debt in full, so now the Law and Justice must let him go free forever.”
Then the Great Judge says to you, I will have mercy upon you and spare you only for Jesus' sake; My heart longs to have mercy on you. My Justice says ‘smite,’ but My Love holds back My hand, and says, ‘spare, spare the sinner for Jesus' sake!’ Oh! sinner, my heart has devised the plan of salvation; my Son, the pure and perfect One shall stand and die in your place, and be accounted guilty, and you, the guilty one, shall stand in my Son’s stead and be accounted Righteous!”
Be wise now - Send for the Advocate and leave your case in His hands. Only His pleading shall prevail for you. Mercy rejoiceth against Judgment.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
It's All About *Him*
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. His disciples believed on Him. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because He hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom he hath sent. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. And many of the people believed on Him, and said, When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man hath done? As He spake these words, many believed on Him. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. And many believed on Him there. To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me. When he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped Him. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. We love Him, because He first loved us. It's all about *Him* (The Lord Jesus Christ Himself), you see; not you, or your religious nonsense. ;)
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Now Listen Carefully
People in America today are so distracted by the devil's amusements, philosophies, religions and other deadly distractions and damnable delusions. This lost, barbaric American society today does not value human life at all; but they care deeply about their pets, or a whale, or an owl, or a manatee. Meanwhile, they won't think twice about slaughtering unborn babies by the thousands every day and selling their body parts for profit. And then at the same time, they'll go to great extremes to get rid of the death penalty for heinous murderers, and they'll go all out to save the life of a condemned murderer on death row, that took an innocent human life in cold blood. The liberal news media and the demon-crats want to save the most heinous monsters alive and kill the most defenseless and innocent creatures still in the womb. Are you part of that crowd?
For your soul's sake, listen carefully now - your eternal destiny is at stake. You need to face the issue of your soul's salvation. There are only two classes of people in this world today, saved and lost, righteous and wicked, blessed and cursed. Which is your crowd? There is no middle ground. The lost worldling lives only for his next paycheck, promotion, partner, or party. Jesus said, "He that is not with Me is against Me." It is impossible to be neutral with Jesus Christ, God Incarnate. You are either His friend or His enemy. God won't just keep putting up with anything from you; recompense is coming, His longsuffering will soon run out for you. Sin is a dark and crooked path which sinners take of their own choosing which leads to ruin and destruction. Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you far more than you ever want to pay.
Religion makes you feel decent while you're on your way to Hell; the Gospel makes you feel sinful and miserable and then shows your need of a bleeding Incarnate God. Repent or perish, receive Christ Jesus, or you'll have to go to the Lake of Fire. The world laughs at the word - Sin, but sin is no laughing matter. Fools make a mock at sin. Evil human nature doesn't want to be bothered in its darkness and love of sin. What have you done personally with Jesus Christ? His blood is on your hands until you trust Him. If you reject Jesus Christ, you are a deliberate rebel against God Almighty, and God will only put up with so much from you. There are some insults that love won't stand, and you've insulted a holy God all of your life by rejecting His Son. You better tread carefully as you insult God's Son and do despite to the Holy Ghost. Sinfulness, self-righteousness and sluggishness keep men from coming to Christ.
While you remain lost, all of the cards of the universe are stacked against you. If you go to Hell, don't blame anybody, because God warned you. If you wake up in Hell, take it like a man, because you knew better, you didn't have to go. You have to intentionally kick over God's warnings and barriers to go to Hell. You better watch how you act toward God and His Spirit. The Bible is a holy book, and you are naturally bad and have a bent toward evil, and that's why you don't read or enjoy the Bible. You are against the Bible, because the Bible is against you and your sinning. Rebel sinners don't like being told how to think and act.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of Allah, Mohammed or Buddha, shall remain lost and die in their sins; but Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in truth shall be saved from the love of sin here in time and the wrath to come on sin out in Eternity. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth (present tense) on him. *Acts 16:31; Romans 10:13; John 3:36; I Thessalonians 1:10*
You are either on the road to Heaven right now, or on the road to Hell. That is a hard thing to get sinners to face today. You can be as good as you can be, and yet still go to Hell. Going to Heaven depends on how good Jesus is, not how good you are. You don't want to take any chances with your immortal soul. You will be not be here on Earth much longer. You are only a heartbeat away from Eternity, and you have to live somewhere as long as God lives. It is a terrible thing to be unsaved, and to be lined up against Almighty God. If you haven't been born again by the Spirit of God, you are lost right now. You can't clean yourself up; you must look to Jesus by faith to clean you up inwardly with His own Blood. Education, religion, money or culture will not make any difference when it comes to your sin.
A man may be a kind, modest, refined, cultured, religious and respectable gentleman, but if he is not born again from above, the only thing between him and Hell is a heartbeat. You need the Cross and the Lamb of God between you and Hell. You had better not take any chances, and above everything else, you better play it safe with your soul. You don't have plenty of time. Your chances of being saved are passing by every day you live. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you have everything that is worth having in time and Eternity.
You must die and face God, and a wise man prepares for the inevitable. If you die unprepared and unregenerated, all your sinning, wasted years, and every wrong you've ever committed in secret will be brought up at the Judgment. All you can do to prepare to meet God is to trust your soul wholly with the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to die and face God all alone. It is the saddest thing in the world for a man to have a chance to be saved from his sins, and then turn away from it. If you live this life and die without Jesus Christ, you will be an absolute failure for all Eternity.
Jesus was so misunderstood while He was here on Earth, and He is still understood. Jesus was the Friend of sinners; He was so approachable; anyone could get to Him. You can get to Him today by faith in His atoning blood. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. *John 1:10* But one day He was nailed to a Cross to pay for our sins. The modest and pure Savior hung on the Cross naked in shame and disgrace, with a howling mob all around Him cursing and mocking Him till His last breath. The soldiers that nailed Him were at the foot of the Cross gambling for His garments. Jesus died in naked shame, so you could have a spotless robe of Righteousness to wear in Heaven at the Judgment. If you live in sin, love your sins, reject Christ, and then die in your sins, you will have to pay for your sins for all Eternity.
Every day you are gaining momentum on the downward road of your sinful ways, and it is getting harder and harder for you to put the brakes on. You are wasting your short life on the devil and sin. Don't put trusting Jesus Christ off any longer, stop playing around with your sins. Stop messing around with God, Eternity, the Judgment, and the eternal destiny of your soul. If you were to die today, would you go to Heaven or Hell? If you die an atheist or a religionist, you will go to straight to Hell like a bullet. Salvation is priceless; Salvation cost Jesus Christ His life; you cannot earn the forgiveness of your sins.
God is Love, but He is also Holy and Just. God's Holiness and Justice demand punishment for every sin ever committed by you. But God's divine Love provided a way out of the eternal punishment that your sins deserve without violating divine justice. The LORD will never do wrong or overlook your sins in order to keep you out of the Lake of Fire. God may have been merciful and longsuffering to you for many years while you have been sinning against Him and rejecting His Son, but you still remain condemned until you come to the Cross as a sinner. God's Love is only found in Christ's Atoning Blood, and apart from that you are alienated from God, a child of wrath, and God is angry with you every day.
It was the Love of God that sent Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, to the Cross to suffer the vengeance and retribution due to your transgressions. In order for you to be saved, and to be given the Righteousness of Christ; the Son of God had to bear your sins in His own body, and become the personification of Sin itself. *II Corinthians 5:21* All the curse and wrath of God that should have fallen upon you as a sinner, fell upon Jesus instead. He suffered the punishment due to your sins on your behalf.
If you will come to God as a lost sinner under the condemnation of God, turning from your sins to Jesus, forsaking your own self-righteousness, and simply receiving Christ Jesus and trusting to His Precious Blood as the payment for your sins, you can be saved from the wrath to come. If you are in Christ, you are under God's Love; if you are without Christ, you are under God's wrath. *John 3:36* The Love of God sent Jesus to Calvary's Cross to die for your sins, so that God's divine wrath could be eternally satisfied. Repent and look to the Lamb of God before death surprises you.
Now listen carefully - The Gospel is so simple that most people stumble over its simplicity and freeness. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (God manifest in the flesh bled and died for your sins, He was buried, and rose again the third day), and you shall be saved from the love of sin and the wrath to come. Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to cover your soul with His Precious Blood, and He will take all your sins away. Oh, be saved today!
For your soul's sake, listen carefully now - your eternal destiny is at stake. You need to face the issue of your soul's salvation. There are only two classes of people in this world today, saved and lost, righteous and wicked, blessed and cursed. Which is your crowd? There is no middle ground. The lost worldling lives only for his next paycheck, promotion, partner, or party. Jesus said, "He that is not with Me is against Me." It is impossible to be neutral with Jesus Christ, God Incarnate. You are either His friend or His enemy. God won't just keep putting up with anything from you; recompense is coming, His longsuffering will soon run out for you. Sin is a dark and crooked path which sinners take of their own choosing which leads to ruin and destruction. Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you far more than you ever want to pay.
Religion makes you feel decent while you're on your way to Hell; the Gospel makes you feel sinful and miserable and then shows your need of a bleeding Incarnate God. Repent or perish, receive Christ Jesus, or you'll have to go to the Lake of Fire. The world laughs at the word - Sin, but sin is no laughing matter. Fools make a mock at sin. Evil human nature doesn't want to be bothered in its darkness and love of sin. What have you done personally with Jesus Christ? His blood is on your hands until you trust Him. If you reject Jesus Christ, you are a deliberate rebel against God Almighty, and God will only put up with so much from you. There are some insults that love won't stand, and you've insulted a holy God all of your life by rejecting His Son. You better tread carefully as you insult God's Son and do despite to the Holy Ghost. Sinfulness, self-righteousness and sluggishness keep men from coming to Christ.
While you remain lost, all of the cards of the universe are stacked against you. If you go to Hell, don't blame anybody, because God warned you. If you wake up in Hell, take it like a man, because you knew better, you didn't have to go. You have to intentionally kick over God's warnings and barriers to go to Hell. You better watch how you act toward God and His Spirit. The Bible is a holy book, and you are naturally bad and have a bent toward evil, and that's why you don't read or enjoy the Bible. You are against the Bible, because the Bible is against you and your sinning. Rebel sinners don't like being told how to think and act.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of Allah, Mohammed or Buddha, shall remain lost and die in their sins; but Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in truth shall be saved from the love of sin here in time and the wrath to come on sin out in Eternity. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth (present tense) on him. *Acts 16:31; Romans 10:13; John 3:36; I Thessalonians 1:10*
You are either on the road to Heaven right now, or on the road to Hell. That is a hard thing to get sinners to face today. You can be as good as you can be, and yet still go to Hell. Going to Heaven depends on how good Jesus is, not how good you are. You don't want to take any chances with your immortal soul. You will be not be here on Earth much longer. You are only a heartbeat away from Eternity, and you have to live somewhere as long as God lives. It is a terrible thing to be unsaved, and to be lined up against Almighty God. If you haven't been born again by the Spirit of God, you are lost right now. You can't clean yourself up; you must look to Jesus by faith to clean you up inwardly with His own Blood. Education, religion, money or culture will not make any difference when it comes to your sin.
A man may be a kind, modest, refined, cultured, religious and respectable gentleman, but if he is not born again from above, the only thing between him and Hell is a heartbeat. You need the Cross and the Lamb of God between you and Hell. You had better not take any chances, and above everything else, you better play it safe with your soul. You don't have plenty of time. Your chances of being saved are passing by every day you live. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you have everything that is worth having in time and Eternity.
You must die and face God, and a wise man prepares for the inevitable. If you die unprepared and unregenerated, all your sinning, wasted years, and every wrong you've ever committed in secret will be brought up at the Judgment. All you can do to prepare to meet God is to trust your soul wholly with the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to die and face God all alone. It is the saddest thing in the world for a man to have a chance to be saved from his sins, and then turn away from it. If you live this life and die without Jesus Christ, you will be an absolute failure for all Eternity.
Jesus was so misunderstood while He was here on Earth, and He is still understood. Jesus was the Friend of sinners; He was so approachable; anyone could get to Him. You can get to Him today by faith in His atoning blood. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. *John 1:10* But one day He was nailed to a Cross to pay for our sins. The modest and pure Savior hung on the Cross naked in shame and disgrace, with a howling mob all around Him cursing and mocking Him till His last breath. The soldiers that nailed Him were at the foot of the Cross gambling for His garments. Jesus died in naked shame, so you could have a spotless robe of Righteousness to wear in Heaven at the Judgment. If you live in sin, love your sins, reject Christ, and then die in your sins, you will have to pay for your sins for all Eternity.
Every day you are gaining momentum on the downward road of your sinful ways, and it is getting harder and harder for you to put the brakes on. You are wasting your short life on the devil and sin. Don't put trusting Jesus Christ off any longer, stop playing around with your sins. Stop messing around with God, Eternity, the Judgment, and the eternal destiny of your soul. If you were to die today, would you go to Heaven or Hell? If you die an atheist or a religionist, you will go to straight to Hell like a bullet. Salvation is priceless; Salvation cost Jesus Christ His life; you cannot earn the forgiveness of your sins.
God is Love, but He is also Holy and Just. God's Holiness and Justice demand punishment for every sin ever committed by you. But God's divine Love provided a way out of the eternal punishment that your sins deserve without violating divine justice. The LORD will never do wrong or overlook your sins in order to keep you out of the Lake of Fire. God may have been merciful and longsuffering to you for many years while you have been sinning against Him and rejecting His Son, but you still remain condemned until you come to the Cross as a sinner. God's Love is only found in Christ's Atoning Blood, and apart from that you are alienated from God, a child of wrath, and God is angry with you every day.
It was the Love of God that sent Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, to the Cross to suffer the vengeance and retribution due to your transgressions. In order for you to be saved, and to be given the Righteousness of Christ; the Son of God had to bear your sins in His own body, and become the personification of Sin itself. *II Corinthians 5:21* All the curse and wrath of God that should have fallen upon you as a sinner, fell upon Jesus instead. He suffered the punishment due to your sins on your behalf.
If you will come to God as a lost sinner under the condemnation of God, turning from your sins to Jesus, forsaking your own self-righteousness, and simply receiving Christ Jesus and trusting to His Precious Blood as the payment for your sins, you can be saved from the wrath to come. If you are in Christ, you are under God's Love; if you are without Christ, you are under God's wrath. *John 3:36* The Love of God sent Jesus to Calvary's Cross to die for your sins, so that God's divine wrath could be eternally satisfied. Repent and look to the Lamb of God before death surprises you.
Now listen carefully - The Gospel is so simple that most people stumble over its simplicity and freeness. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (God manifest in the flesh bled and died for your sins, He was buried, and rose again the third day), and you shall be saved from the love of sin and the wrath to come. Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to cover your soul with His Precious Blood, and He will take all your sins away. Oh, be saved today!
And They Remembered
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. If I do not remember thee O LORD, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to Thy mercy remember Thou me for Thy goodness' sake, O Lord. I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember Thy wonders of old.
And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer. O remember not against us former iniquities: let Thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. Remember God's marvellous works that He hath done; His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth. I remembered Thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself.
I have remembered Thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept Thy law. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the work of Thy hands. Draw me, we will run after Thee: we will be glad and rejoice in Thee, we will remember Thy love more than wine: the upright love Thee. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? And Peter remembered the word of Jesus. Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? Remember Lot's wife. And the dying thief said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And they remembered Jesus' words. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. Remember the poor.
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer.
And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer. O remember not against us former iniquities: let Thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. Remember God's marvellous works that He hath done; His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth. I remembered Thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself.
I have remembered Thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept Thy law. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the work of Thy hands. Draw me, we will run after Thee: we will be glad and rejoice in Thee, we will remember Thy love more than wine: the upright love Thee. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? And Peter remembered the word of Jesus. Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? Remember Lot's wife. And the dying thief said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And they remembered Jesus' words. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. Remember the poor.
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
The Nitty Gritty 2
The Lord Jesus Christ is never precious to anyone but real sinners who sense their danger and their need of the forgiveness of sins. Christ Jesus gave Himself for our sins, not our merits. Go to God in secret, plead your need, plead for mercy through Jesus' innocent blood in Jesus' name. Don't say anything about your merits, the less said about your goodness the better. Your character is as bad as it can be, only plead for mercy. You are in need, awful need, because you are such a sinner, and that makes your need all the worse. You don't need "a" righteousness, you need "THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD" - Jesus Christ Himself. You can't change yourself, only the Holy Spirit can do that - you need a new heart, and a right spirit. You need a total change, you need everything, for you have nothing but sin and misery. Your need is great.
When you go to God, ask for mercy, not for justice. You don't want to get what's coming to you, you want Mercy. You can never deserve divine Mercy. This is the way to plead - God be merciful to me a sinner, for Jesus' sake. The moral and the dissolute sinner, both must be saved the same way - by free mercy through Jesus' blood, not human merit. Out of the way sinners, outrageous, scarlet sinner are welcome at the Cross. Faith is trusting - trusting wholly upon the person, work, blood, merits, and power of the Son of God. The ground of real salvation is the merits of Christ - what Christ is, and what Christ has suffered. Give up laboring to save yourself, fall back upon the Finished Work of Jesus Christ and find real rest for your soul. God's grace or man's merit, faith in Christ, or faith in Self.
This is the way - Repent and be converted, leave sin, quit Self, trust in Christ alone. Lay your poor sinful heart at the feet of the Savior. Come to God on the free terms of Jesus' free love. Come on to the Cross if you wish to have your sins forgiven freely. Plead not merit, but mercy. Say, "Lord Jesus, I am sin, but you are Righteousness; I am hell, but you are Heaven." Repentance is to be sorry for your sins, changing your mind about your sins, and hating your sins, mourn over your transgressions before the offended God, and sincerely forsaking them with deep and hearty regret. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall find mercy. There is no merit wanted of you, there is no previous goodness required to qualify you, for Christ died for the ungodly. Then, why not you? The Blessed God came from Heaven and became a Jewish man, and as a man He took man's grief and sins upon Him, and went up to the Cross loaded with all human sin, and there suffered in our place, to make Atonement for our guilt. Don't trample the bleeding love of Jesus.
God is holy and a consuming fire. He dwells in unapproachable light, He is so holy that He cannot stand to look upon Sin. God is a thrice-Holy being - Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Man on the other hand is sinful, wicked, and everything but holy. Man is estranged from his Maker. We cannot approach or satisfy God in our own righteousness. For this reason we must have a Sinless Mediator who is as perfect and holy as God who can go between a sinner and God. We need Someone who can fulfill the divine Law's holy demands on our behalf, and appease the wrath of God in our place. Jesus has done all this for us on the Cross. He accomplished holiness and satisfied divine justice in our stead and leads us into the presence of God, that we may enjoy Him without fear and condemnation.
Now understand - Only take Christ with you when you approach God. First, you must admit that you're inadequate and a sinner, but human nature doesn't like this, so it will concoct excuse after excuse to duck and dodge the truth of the Gospel, because human nature loves sin and wants to do its own thing. Not merit, but demerit is all that you can boast of; not reward, but wrath. Men who have no merits can easily receive the free gift of God. Jesus Himself is the Gift of God to the guilty sinner. You cannot procure eternal life by any merit of your own. You can't do anything to merit the Son of God's salvation.
Now understand - Only take Christ with you when you approach God. First, you must admit that you're inadequate and a sinner, but human nature doesn't like this, so it will concoct excuse after excuse to duck and dodge the truth of the Gospel, because human nature loves sin and wants to do its own thing. Not merit, but demerit is all that you can boast of; not reward, but wrath. Men who have no merits can easily receive the free gift of God. Jesus Himself is the Gift of God to the guilty sinner. You cannot procure eternal life by any merit of your own. You can't do anything to merit the Son of God's salvation.
Away with your works, Salvation must be a gift, for Jesus is The Gift. You cannot earn inestimable things such as pardon, sonship, eternal life, and heaven. Christ is All. What can a sinner bring to Christ? Everything is in Christ. Come to the Cross for a broken heart. A true sense of need, guilt, and inability is the Holy Spirit's work. True repentance and faith comes from God's grace. Human nature says, "Oh, but I must be something." But you must be nothing. You cannot drill this fact into men's brains or fix it into their proud hearts. Human nature clings to human merit and self-righteousness; human nature must be something, feel something, or do something. Away with self altogether, subside into nothingness. When the human mind is all chaos and darkness, only then the Spirit of God moves and is sure to work.
Go directly to Jesus through faith in His blood, just as you are; for you will never make yourself better. by self-help you will only be worse in the future, but never better. Go to Jesus now, just as you are, go to to the Cross and buy eternal life and the forgiveness of sins without money or merit. We can only approach God by the perfect merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot approach the Holy God in our merit. We come to God only by the virtue of Jesus' Infinite Merit. Human nature is sure to boast, but salvation is all of faith in Jesus' atoning blood, so we cannot glory in self. True faith is humble, and ascribes all praise to God. Jesus is most precious to the sinner with no works, no goodness, no merits, nothing to recommend them. A man will never need Christ as long as he has enough in himself.
The Nitty Gritty 1
When it comes to religion today, many people tend to want to dilly-dally around and attempt to blend in and just play church and go through the motions. But please remember this: religion is reliance. Your religion is whatever or whoever you are relying on to get you past the grave and death and that will allow you to see God Almighty’s face with favor. So let’s just skip the chitchat and let’s get down to the Nitty-Gritty of life and death and Eternity.
All men are lost and on their way to judgment, because all men are sinners in the sight of God. The human race is rushing down a slippery precipice toward destruction. God says: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6) It is because men are lost that Jesus Christ came to save them. The Bible says: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) Jesus still saves lost sinners who have need of His forgiveness.
Now the reason men are lost is because they have sinned against God and His law. I have sinned, you have sinned, and all mankind has sinned. Your own conscience accuses and condemns you every day about your sins. The fact of the matter is, you are without excuse. You have transgressed the laws of God (by cursing, lies, thefts, laziness, gossip, lustful thoughts, wandering eyes, unclean imaginations). You have broken God’s commandments, and you must give account. You know perfectly well that you are unfit to face a holy God. There is no one who has lived a sinless life from start to finish except for Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10) “Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6) “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (I Timothy 1:15)
You’re not a sinner because you sin; you sin against God, because you’re a sinner. Your very nature is sinful to the bone marrow. Your whole life is just one long SIN until you are born again by the Spirit of God. You were born in sin, and you were shapen in iniquity. You started going astray as soon as you understood good and evil, and you have been going astray ever since. You may say, “I am not a great sinner. I am better than so and so.” What difference does that make? If you have sinned, you have sinned. One cancer will kill you. One sin will bar you from Heaven’s gates. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) “Ye must be born again.” *John 3:7*
Suppose you could do some great thing, which I am sure you cannot, and it were possible that you could from now on be perfect, and never sin again in thought, word, or deed; how would you be able to atone for your past sins? Future obedience cannot make up for your past transgressions. If you go back through your life, I am sure your memory will condemn you. Oh yes, the sins of your youth may well frighten you, those sins in the dark; those sins against your friends and parents; those sins against light and knowledge; those sins of body; those sinful words and thoughts. You may have forgotten many of them, but God has not. Look at the entire list! They are all there, all logged into God’s eternal books concerning your secret and open life, not one of them is forgotten – all your sins will be read against you in the Day of Judgment. You need Someone to take your place.
There is no hope for those who die outside of Christ. All whose names are not in the book of life will be lost, and lost forever. My friend, will you be there? If you have not trusted Christ, the wrath of God abides on you now. You may not believe it now, but you will experience reality sooner or later. Death is sure – you cannot escape. Therefore, trifle not. Your doom is sure, if you reject Christ’s free salvation and shed blood. If you go on as you are at enmity with God, there is no hope for your soul, and the lake of fire will be your eternal destiny. Eternity is long, hell is real.
If you have not received the Lord Jesus Christ as you own personal Savior, then you are guilty of the greatest sin a man can possibly commit; for you have spurned the love and mercy of God; you have refused His pardon; you have ignored His dear Son; you have turned your back on Jesus Christ Himself. My friend, please stop rejecting Christ. Receive Christ Jesus while you have life and breath and health to do so. Turn from sin.
Here’s the Good News: The only wise Creator God was manifested in the flesh as a Jewish man, He lived a sinless life, and then He died to satisfy God’s wrath for the sins of every man. The invisible Creator God became a visible Jewish human being in the manger of Bethlehem-Judah. He bore your sins in His body on the tree, He became Sin for your soul's sake, He paid the consequences and full penalty due to your sins while He suffered on the Cross of Calvary. After that, He was buried in a borrowed tomb, and then He rose again the third day from the dead, and now He lives forevermore at the right of God.
You are in awful debt to God because of your sins against Him, but a precious Friend paid your sin debt with His own life's blood. If you will only receive His payment freely, you can be freed from your sins' curse today. Trust to Jesus’ atoning blood; don’t plead for your own goodness. Your self-righteousness only stirs up God’s wrath toward you more. Your own works can never help save you. If your Salvation is connected with your works, clergy, water, a building, ordinances, sacraments, and other religious nonsense, you are lost and still in your sins with no hope. Put aside your futile efforts to be your own savior. Stop struggling, only trust Jesus' finished work now. You cannot be your own doctor; turn your sin-sick soul over to Jesus and let Him heal it with His bloody stripes.
There are no religions that can help save you from the danger of your sins. Only a Person can save you, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Read the Book of John and Romans in the Holy Bible until you run into the Lord Jesus Christ. Go directly to the Cross with childlike Faith, look completely to the bleeding Lamb of God dying in your place and suffering your punishment. Salvation is found by looking to His sinless life, His wounds, His blood, His suffering, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, His eternal life, His mercy and grace. Jesus satisfied God’s holy demands (divine justice) and paid it all for you, and you must receive Him freely. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
You are in awful debt to God because of your sins against Him, but a precious Friend paid your sin debt with His own life's blood. If you will only receive His payment freely, you can be freed from your sins' curse today. Trust to Jesus’ atoning blood; don’t plead for your own goodness. Your self-righteousness only stirs up God’s wrath toward you more. Your own works can never help save you. If your Salvation is connected with your works, clergy, water, a building, ordinances, sacraments, and other religious nonsense, you are lost and still in your sins with no hope. Put aside your futile efforts to be your own savior. Stop struggling, only trust Jesus' finished work now. You cannot be your own doctor; turn your sin-sick soul over to Jesus and let Him heal it with His bloody stripes.
There are no religions that can help save you from the danger of your sins. Only a Person can save you, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Read the Book of John and Romans in the Holy Bible until you run into the Lord Jesus Christ. Go directly to the Cross with childlike Faith, look completely to the bleeding Lamb of God dying in your place and suffering your punishment. Salvation is found by looking to His sinless life, His wounds, His blood, His suffering, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, His eternal life, His mercy and grace. Jesus satisfied God’s holy demands (divine justice) and paid it all for you, and you must receive Him freely. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
God’s Salvation is a free Gift; mercy divine cannot be earned by human nature. The only way to avert the divine justice that your sins justly deserve is by Faith in the Blood of the Son of God. There is no way to merit the forgiveness of sins, for Christ Jesus is Priceless. Salvation cost God His own Son, and God’s own blood was shed for your Salvation through the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Trust your guilty soul with Jesus Christ at once. Only His Precious Blood can bring peace to your troubled conscience and end the strife within your soul. Lean your entire soul on Him and you are safe. It is either salvation or damnation; the choice is yours. You will either receive or reject Christ, neutral you cannot be. You alone must answer for your own soul. Listen, Jesus is tenderly calling to you now. He longs to save you. Jesus shed His life’s blood for you and bore the penalty for your sin. Dear friend, this is the Nitty-Gritty of life. Jesus made a full and complete Blood Atonement for all human sin, which satisfied God’s divine justice and met the needs of sinful man. How about it friend, are you going to trust Jesus, or yourself. Jesus paid it all, and He wants to save you now. Simply trust to God Incarnate's Precious Blood, trust His grace, look to the bloody Cross of Christ alone. We beseech you to trust Christ Now.
Some Noble Attributes
* Remember and Retain God in your knowledge daily
* Humility, Deference, Integrity, Godly Sincerity, Honesty, Personal Private Purity, Truthfulness
* Thankfulness, Gratitude, Considerate of others, Merciful, Helpful
* Gentleness, Graciousness, Submissive, Sensible, Faithfulness
* Servant, Sympathetic, Kindly Mannered, Forgiving, Affable, Humble Thankfulness
* Diligence, Activity, Industrious, Thrifty, Generosity, Earnest care for others
* Prayerfulness, Watchfulness, Tenacity, Gracious Gratitude
* Acknowledgement of God the Father, Adoration of Jesus Christ, and Ascribing the glory to the Holy Ghost.
* Prayerful Dependence on the Holy Spirit; ask the Holy Spirit to make all things you say and do alive.
* Live to the glory of God so that Christ Jesus Himself may have the preeminence in all things.
* Hearty affection and gratitude towards the Savior for His Substitutionary Sacrifice for your personal sins satisfying the divine justice of God and securing your soul's eternal safety.
* Walking humbly with God, Acknowledging God's favor, Being thankful for all of God's blessings, Depending on God's grace, Behaving with purity, humility, and modesty among men.
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