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.