Most men think they are better than others naturally, and by their self-improvements, they imagine they may at the last become good enough to face God. But Salvation begins with the heart, for the heart is the governing power of every man. The natural man prefers evil, he loves the darkness, he turns from the trust, because his heart is alienated from the Life of God. Every time a man sins, it becomes easier for him to sin again and again, he has a stronger tendency to sin with impunity, and like a falling stone, his sin gains velocity. You must lie many times to conceal your first lie. Labor callouses the hands; likewise, Sin callouses the heart, soul, and mind.
As you go your own way, neglecting Christ, you're a fugitive from divine justice and a vagabond wandering moving farther away from the goodness of God. The Gospel hardens the heart that rejects Christ. The sun softens wax, yet hardens clay. Every imagination of the thoughts of your heart are only evil continually. You've been sinning against God with both hands and both feet wickedly, indulging in private sins and basest lusts which are destroying your Soul. You try to cover up your vile private life with the cloak of religious profession, but nothing is hid from the eyes of God. The lost man jokes about hell and eternity; he thinks the LORD is must too severe in His judgment, hell, and wrath toward Sins. Hell is Sin on Fire. You're a wanted Fugitive; you're on Heaven's Most Wanted list.
The amusements, entertainment, pleasures, and distractions of this world's system may help you to forget your sinful wretched condition for a little while; you may be entertained into indifference and educated into unbelief toward God. You'll never prize the Savior, until the Holy Spirit reveals the real You, to you. You'll never trust and love GOD'S BLOOD until you truly know your Sins. Ye must be born again—not merely reformed on the outside, but transformed inward, deep within by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Vain man talks about his rights as a creature. Man presumes to tell God what He ought to do, and what He ought not to do. He boasts of the dignity of human nature, the excellency of self-help, and endeavors to rectify his sinful condition by his own efforts. While you continue to neglect and reject Christ, you are ruining your Soul and hardening your heart against God. While you reject Christ, you're walking a deadly tightrope, prancing on the precipice of hell, and before long your poor Soul will be Lost to all Eternity. There's only one Way to Escape the Wrath to Come: Faith in GOD'S BLOOD that flowed from Christ's veins on THE CROSS. Apart from Christ's Atonement, your Soul must bear the penalty of your sins and be driven from the presence of God forever in shame and everlasting contempt. You cannot share the glory of your Salvation with Christ; you cannot have one finger in it. Salvation belongs entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ. No sinner can share in its glory, boast in his own merit, or claim any part of the credit. All the Glory belongs to Christ alone.
Sin is a terrible reality, and you commit acts of Sin against God daily, by nature and by choice. There's an evil heart of unbelief inside you; the devil lives inside you; you dwell in the kingdom of darkness as a child of the devil and wrath. Even what most people call a "small" sin is a desperate evil and serious offense against God's Holy Law, an intentional assault upon the Throne of God, an insult to The Majesty of Heaven, and a defiant rebellion against His divine authority. There is a little piece of hell in every iniquity you commit. Sin can only be washed out of your Soul by the ATONING BLOOD OF THE CRUCIFIED CREATOR. Therefore, Receive the Lord's Christ, the True Christ of revealed in the Holy Scriptures, the Man Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Renounce all confidence in yourself and place your entire trust in Him alone. Let Christ be your righteousness, your hope, your refuge, and your salvation.
Thoughts of God make you uneasy and afraid. You know you have offended God; your own conscience alerts that you are not prepared to meet GOD in peace. The very thought of The Almighty is irksome to you. Your sins make you dread the Holy presence of your JUDGE. If you still have good sense, the thoughts of your coming Doom frightens your Soul. Stop shutting your eyes to your certain Doom. Stop shunning God and slighting Christ; Do not continue shutting your eyes to the certainties of Eternity. Instead, sit down and solemnly consider who God is and what Christ has done for sinners. The carnal mind resists the Holy Spirit, and revolts at the Gospel, yet the day is coming when you will no longer be able to ignore God. You will lie upon your death bed: the thought of God so long neglected, His Gospel rejected, His Son defied. You will lie upon your last bed and toss from side to side with pains that the doctors and money cannot cure.
But you will not forget God at the Judgment. The Scriptures declare, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment. God will bring your Soul up from Hell, and your body will spring up from the dust or grave. All your pride, pretensions, and excuses will be slain. Every excuse will vanish, every pretense will be exposed, and all human pride will be brought low. The eternal sentence will be pronounced by Christ, remember the invitations of mercy you neglected, the warnings you ignored, the Gospel you mocked, and the opportunities you had to come to Christ, but you refused and rejected HIM. Then Christ Himself will pronounce the eternal sentence, and His judgment will be perfectly righteous and final. Don't play the Fool and damn your immortal Soul. Do not choose eternal ruin by continuing in unbelief. Death will lay your body in the grave, but your Soul will enter Eternity. Salvation is not found in anything within yourself—not in your goodness, your religion, your efforts, or your resolutions. Salvation is found in Christ Jesus alone, not in anything that comes from you.
Many in the world deny the reality of the Soul and teach that man is nothing more than a highly developed animal that evolved from a monkey. Yet the Word of God declares that you possess an immortal Soul that will exist forever. As long as you continue rejecting Christ, you remain in a desperate condition—separated from God, under the guilt of sin, and without any true hope beyond the grave. Therefore, forsake your sinful ways and your vain thoughts, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you die without Christ, you will die without hope. If you remain impenitent, you will stand before the same holy Judge and face the same Divine Justice that awaits all who reject His mercy. God shows no partiality; every sinner is accountable before Him. But there is hope for even You today. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He receives all who come to Him in repentance and faith. Turn to Him while mercy is still offered. Trust in Him while the door of grace remains open. For in Christ alone there is forgiveness, righteousness, peace with God, and everlasting life.
You are now living on Earth without God and Christ breathing God's good oxygen, without a hope of heaven; you tremble at times for the eternal death that is hanging over your head. Close now with Christ; you cannot work yourself into the New Birth. You need living Faith in the Living Savior that only comes from the Living God. Trust only in Christ's bloody sweat and agony, His Cross and Passion, He loved you and gave Himself for you. JESUS endured eternal death for your sake and safety. You're a weary slave of sin on the path of folly, hating your Creator, opposing the Savior, despising the riches of His Grace. Turn unto JESUS with full purpose of heart. If you are convinced of Sin by the Holy Spirit, do not delay, come to Christ this very moment. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, turn your eye of Faith to Calvary where JESUS was lifted up and became Sin for us.
God must and will punish your sins, but the goodness of God devised a way for you to be rescued from sin's eternal penalty. Christ Jesus came into the world and was punished in your place. God laid your iniquities upon Christ, so you may escape. JESUS really died for you, He took your Sins and shame upon Himself and suffered the death penalty as a criminal in your place. JESUS knew no Sin, He was without sin, and in Him was no Sin, but God made JESUS to be "SIN" for You; JESUS was numbered with the transgressors. JESUS' sinless Sacrifice of Himself fully satisfied God's divine justice and opened the door of MERCY to you. You are now commanded by God to believe and trust in JESUS. Jesus is Truth; Jesus is Great, JESUS is God manifest in the flesh. Your sins deserve eternal punishment. Your must be forgiven by Christ, or else you will be damned. Renounce all trust in your good works and ceremonies.
At this moment, you are living in God's world, breathing the air that He freely gives, yet apart from Christ and without any assurance of heaven. At times, your conscience troubles you as you think about death, eternity, and the judgment to come. Come to Christ now. You cannot work yourself into the new birth, nor can you save yourself by self-improvement. What you need is living faith in the living Savior—a faith that comes from the living God. The great question before you is this: Christ or sin? Heaven or hell? Eternal joy or eternal misery? Life or death? Trust wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ—His suffering, His agony, His sacrifice upon the Cross. He loved sinners and gave Himself for YOU. No amount of self-reformation can make you fit for heaven. You may try a thousand times to improve yourself, yet you can never erase/put away your guilt before a holy God by your own efforts.
As Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, so Jesus Christ was lifted up upon the Cross. Look to The Lamb of God with the single eye of Faith. Look to Calvary, where the Son of God bore the penalty that sinners deserve. God is holy and just, and sin must be punished. Yet in His mercy, God provided a way of salvation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He stood in the place of the guilty and endured the punishment that sin deserved. The Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, so that sinners might be freely forgiven and reconciled to God, made nigh by the Power of His Precious Blood.
Jesus truly died upon the Cross: He bore shame, suffering, and judgment in the place of sinners. Though JESUS was perfectly sinless, HOLY, He knew no sin, and He committed no sin, He was treated as the sin-bearer for sinners. He was numbered with transgressors, so that transgressors might be counted righteous before God. By His perfect Atoning Sacrifice of Himself, Christ fully satisfied the demands of divine justice and opened the door of mercy to all who will come to HIM. God now commands all people everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel.
Jesus Christ is the Truth. He is the great Savior. He is God manifested in the flesh. Your sins deserve judgment, but Christ offers forgiveness, mercy, and eternal life. Therefore, renounce all confidence in your own goodness, religious ceremonies, works, and efforts. Put your entire trust in Christ alone. Rest upon Him alone for salvation, and you will find in Him everything your soul needs for time and eternity.
May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to Behold the bleeding Victim of Divine Justice, the Lamb of God, the Innocent Spotless Sacrifice of ATONEMENT for your sins. View the Savior in His agonies, the streams of GOD'S BLOOD, He endured your Sins' Punishment. Now, while you're still breathing and blinking, Confess your guilt before God and your need for His Mercy, JESUS offered up Himself on THE CROSS for sinners. Self-condemned sinner, turn your eyes to the CROSS, one look of Faith saves the Soul. O guilty Soul, Behold the Bleeding Lamb of God. Fix your Faith upon the Man Christ Jesus: upon His Person, His Deity, His sinless Manhood, His Precious Blood, His Perfect Righteousness. Faith Alone in Christ Himself saves instantly and completely. The Plan of Salvation is simply this: Faith in JESUS, Nothing but Faith in His Name and Blood.
The Gospel is wonderfully simple: trust in Jesus Christ. Rest your soul upon His saving work and His finished sacrifice of Himself. Faith in the Lamb of God is an instantaneous, irreversible Gift of God, and the sinner who believes on the Lamb of God is that moment saved, not because of anything you have done, but because of what Christ has done on your behalf. Come to JESUS, Find Eternal Safety and Refuge in HIS ATONEMENT; Rely upon the Power of the Spirit of Christ; Confide in His RIGHTEOUSNESS, and you are saved from the Vengeance of the Law and the flames of Hell. But if you trust in your own works, you are lost as sure as you are breathing. If you're Thirsty, Guilty, Heavy Laden, Lost and Ruined, Christ invites you to Come to Him for REST. Faith is simply this: Abandon all confidence in yourself, and cast your guilty Soul entirely on Christ; Receive Christ into your emptiness.
Come to Christ, seek Mercy through GOD'S BLOOD. The wicked, filthy, depraved, degraded, they are all still invited to Christ. Christ takes in all of Satan's slaves and outcasts. The offscouring, the rejects, the down-and-outs, the up-and-outs, the depraved, the riffraff, the forgotten, the despised, the abandoned, the sewage of this world are all Now invited to come to Christ. This Man receiveth Sinners. JESUS welcomes sinners who know they have nothing to offer Him and no righteousness of their own. Therefore Come to THE CROSS and Receive the Free Mercy from God. Remember this: There is no Pardon for your Sins except by Faith in the Sinless Substitute, The Lamb of God Who laid down His life for your wicked Soul. Look to Him, trust in Him, and rest in Him alone, for He is mighty to save all who come to God through Him.
