SALVATION (The Gospel of The Grace of God)
The True Condition of Man
You belong to a fallen race. Every man is a sinner. Every man is minus God; without God, he has no desire for God. Man naturally doesn’t want God; he wants to get away from God, and he wants his own way. Human nature is extremely dangerous because it wants to trust human merit.
A nice man in his natural state doesn’t have God naturally. You get God supernaturally; ye must be born again. There’s something wrong with man—it’s called Sin. Man doesn’t want to give God His proper place, and everybody has a handicap due to Sin. The Bible tells men how bad they are, but they don’t like to be told that; they think they are Somebody. Moral and decent men have trouble confessing they are ungodly and that they can’t help save themselves.
The man that doesn’t recognize and acknowledge God is a fool. In the book of Proverbs, the Bible says the plowing of the wicked is Sin (Proverbs 21:4). The wicked man works hard plowing God’s dirt, breathing God’s air, and enjoying God’s blessings, but he never recognizes God. To not recognize your Creator is a sin! A fool only makes provision for time, but not for Eternity. You make provision for this world, but not for the world to come, and that makes you an unspeakable fool.
A fool tries to satisfy his immortal soul with temporal, material things. Your soul can’t be satisfied with money, houses, cars, fine food, and clothes—it just won’t work! Your soul can’t feed on worldly possessions. Man longs for something in his soul; he is an immortal being who has a hunger in his heart for something that will last forever.
Think of a little girl whose momma died: she wanted her momma, and a flower, a book, or candy wouldn't satisfy her heart. Her heart could only be satisfied by her momma. Your heart wants God! Your heart doesn’t want a good time, money, or stuff. Give your heart what it wants! That crying in your soul only God can hush, and that longing in your heart only Christ can satisfy. You have a heart hunger that only God knows about, and God knows Who you need: The Lord Jesus Christ.
There’s no tragedy as tragic as combining high mentality with low morality. Religious facts can’t save your soul. You can have a capacity for knowledge and still be immoral. Hitler had brains and a dynamic personality, but he was still a killer. If you don’t have enough sense to get right with God Almighty and prepare for Eternity, you’re not a wise man. Don’t play the fool! Smart alecks play the fool with their soul.
The Reality of Judgment and Hell
There are two emergencies: time and Eternity. You need to make provision for both. Make preparations to meet God or you’ll die a fool.
You can’t beat the game of Sin. Men start out drinking, but then they get a DUI, kill someone, or end up with delirium tremens or cirrhosis of the liver. Sin will put you in a jam! The wages of sin is death—eternal death (Romans 6:23). All the torments and tortures of hell await the man who loves sin and rejects Jesus Christ.
Hell is going to be pretty bad for most Americans; a man that walks away from luxury and comfort, and then has to cry for a drop of water with a parched tongue in the fires of Hell will be a miserable man! There won’t be any liquor in Hell—it takes water to make liquor! You can’t take this world’s possessions with you out into Eternity.
Most men are pretty sure there is a God and a Heaven, but they don’t want to believe there is a Hell. That’s human nature. But everybody is not going to the same place when they die! The world wants to get rid of any thought or mention of God, because they want to keep their sins and enjoy their darkness. But you need some spiritual common sense about your soul: don’t live the life and die the death of a FOOL!
The Only Way of Salvation
Line upon line, precept upon precept—tell them the same simple truths over and over. Whatever the Bible says is so! The Bible is the Word of God. The devil hates the Bible!
Ecclesiastical religious bosses were the enemies of Jesus, and they still are today. They talk very pious and have a lot of rules, selling themselves and their religion with no life in it. External religion only brings confusion and exhaustion; outward religion bewilders and disturbs folks. Hollywood religion, making the headlines, is just glamorous religious entertainment.
Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh—He was God Incarnate, born of a Jewish virgin. He came into the world to seek and save sinners. He died on Calvary’s Cross to keep men and women from perishing in the lake of fire, and He rose from the dead! Jesus is the only Savior for guilty men.
Jesus Christ is Good, but my goodness wouldn’t ever take me to heaven. You can’t dress up nice enough to get into God’s house! God doesn't look on your religious garb; God looketh on the heart. You can’t forgive yourself; you’ll only make excuses for your sins. You are naturally lost, but Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus wants to save you; you can have Him, just take Him, and He’ll take you! Jesus provided the Savior, now you must provide the sinner.
Unless you believe that Jesus Christ is God, you shall die in your sins (John 8:24). That’s clear, isn’t it? That’s as clear as day! The man that wants to know the TRUTH won’t have any trouble about it. Keep it clear! The road to Heaven is well marked: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12). "Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we MUST b
Seek Mercy from God through the PRECIOUS BLOOD of Jesus Christ! You need faith, repentance, wisdom, grace, and mercy from God. You’re saved freely by Brace through faith in the atoning Blood of Jesus Christ. If you simply trust Jesus Christ, and you don’t trust yourself at all, you are saved! A wise man will trust Jesus Christ, not himself.
The best way I know how, I trust Jesus right now to be my Savior: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
DISCIPLESHIP (The Walk of Absolute Surrender)
Learning and Obeying the Lord
Learning of JESUS is the best education a Soul can receive. Sit at His feet and be trained by Him. The man that learns to yield, trust, and obey God is the smartest man alive!
The wisdom of this world says you don’t need God, that you can save yourself, make something out of yourself, and take control of your future. But you must be all out for Jesus, or you can’t learn the will of God. The will of God must be the supreme thing in your life: "Thy will be done." When your eye is single to the will of God, life will be more understandable.
Anyone or anything that would stop me from doing the will of God, we should hate it. Be intolerant of things that hinder the will of God! Human nature has no divinity in it at all, and human nature wants to do what it is inclined to do. The love of money and the love of principle tug at you, staggering you from one side to the other. But we’re going to do right, let it cost what it may—just don’t be ugly or mean about it!
The two biggest words ever tied together are two little words: Do Right. If you don’t know if you ought to do something, don’t do it! Don’t take any chances. Just let that settle it, and give God the benefit of the doubt. If something is convenient and attractive, always be leery of it. Don't act until you do know: pray over it and check into it.
You may not be all you could have been in the past, but you can be all God wants you to be from now on. There’s no stain on any page of tomorrow!
Following Christ
How do you stand in the sight of God? If you’re not for Jesus Christ, you are against Him! If you go with Jesus Christ, you are going to cross the grain of your age. Christianity is never popular, though surface religion is sometimes popular. People are easy and soft today; there’s no fight in Christianity today, resulting in spiritual weaklings with no character who chase ambitions, pleasure, and position.
There’s no glamour in carrying a cross—you’ve got to have some backbone! The disciples are always a small remnant. Discipleship will cost you all you have. You can’t go with the crowd and just drift along, going with the flow of this world.
It doesn’t cost you anything to go to Heaven, but it will cost you something to stand for Jesus Christ and the Bible in the world! You’ll probably be lied about, misrepresented, and slandered, and they may say you hate people. Be all out for Jesus Christ and the Gospel!
Persistent Prayer
Men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1). Prayer moves God! "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jeremiah 33:3).
Call on God sincerely! "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). Knock and see if anyone is home! Knock hard, loud, and long in Jesus’ name. Knock fervently, honestly, heartily, and humbly—not just with these "now I lay me down to sleep" prayers.
Recognize God—look up and tell Him that He’s good to you, and that you love Him and appreciate all He has done for you! The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, just like a mother’s eyes over the cradle where her baby is lying. Trust Him, obey Him, and walk with Him every day.
