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Five Things God Wants You to Know
Death is a reality that is soon to visit each one of us. Sadly, most people do not desire to talk about the occasion, and try to avoid any thought about it. But as witnesses of reality, we beseech people that we must think, and even more, we must prepare for the occasion.
In light of this thought, would you please consider the following thoughts concerning your welfare before our holy God, Creator, and Judge, who loves you so very much? |
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First: You Need to Be Saved!
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) |
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Second: You cannot Save Yourself.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” (Titus 3:5) |
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Third: Christ Has Provided for Your Salvation.
“Who (Jesus) His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24) “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.” (John 3:16) |
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Fourth: You Must Accept Christ For Salvation.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31) “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.” (John 1:12) “That is thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) |
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Fifth: Now is The Time to Accept Christ as Your Saviour.
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) “As the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.” (Hebrews 3:7-8) |
If you have received Christ into your heart as a result of reading this, please write and let me know. I would love to hear from you. As well, if you need help finding a Bible-believing-Christ-centered church in your local area, please contact and write me.
QUESTION: "Do you stand condemned before God?"
A very faithful preacher, Charles Spurgeon, is quoted as once saying something that is good for you and I to consider. After reading what he said, would you sit down and take the time to do as he mentioned?
He said, “Will you do me a favor?...Will you take a little time alone this evening, and after you have weighed your own condition before the Lord, write down one of two words? If you feel that you are not a believer, write down Condemned. And if you are a believer in Jesus and put your trust in Him alone, write down Forgiven.”
“Do it, even if you have to write down the word Condemned. We received into a church fellowship a young man who once said to me, ‘Sir, I wrote down the word Condemned, and I looked at it. There it was. I had written it myself: Condemned.’ As he looked, the tears began to flow and the heart began to break. And before long he fled to Christ, put the paper in the fire, and wrote down Forgiven.”
“This young man was about the sixth who had been brought to the Lord in the same way. So I ask you to try it. Remember, you are either one or the other—condemned or forgiven. Do not stand between the two. Let it be decided. And remember, if you are condemned today, yet you are not in Hell. There is still hope!”
If you further desire understanding of what God’s plan unto salvation means for your life, then I invite you to read the rest of this portion of writing. Would you please consider what God says to you? Would you please consider Christ Jesus for your life?
As we begin, it is important to understand that the Holy Bible says in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The one thing that stands between you and the Kingdom of God is your sin—and God said that ALL have sinned (Romans 3:23). God did not leave anyone out! And if you are going to be honest with yourself, you must admit that you are included.
You are a sinner, first, because you inherited a sinful nature from your great-great-great-great…grandfather Adam that has been passed down to you. As well, you are a sinner because you have disobeyed the clear commands of God. God commands you to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44 and 1 Peter 1:16). God’s standard is perfect holiness. Perfect holiness is exhibited through His Law. A look at God’s basic Law, the Ten Commandments, will reveal to anyone that he is guilty of not keeping them, and therefore, has fallen short of God’s perfect standard of what is right. God commanded in Exodus chapter 20: “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” and you have lied; “Thou shalt not steal,” and certainly you have taken something that was not yours; “Honour thy father and thy mother,” and you have not always obeyed and done as they have instructed. Just as it only takes one instance of stealing to make someone a thief, it takes only one sin to make you a sinner. God says in James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Therefore, even if you think you have only broken one of God’s commandments, you are guilty before God of transgressing against all His Law.
There are no “good sinners” or “bad sinners” in the sight of God—we all stand guilty before Him, and unworthy of Heaven. The Bible states, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Because “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses [good deeds in life] are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away”(Isaiah 64:6).
The Bible says that there is a penalty for sin—DEATH. “…and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). You cannot pay for sin by going to church, being baptized or doing good deeds or keeping commandments. The only payment that will clear your account is death. This is not just a physical death. The Bible is clear that after the body dies, there is a second death or spiritual death.
The Bible says in Revelation 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” The Bible is clear that if you must pay the price for your own sin, you too must suffer a second death forever in Hell—the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). No other payment that you can make would pay the price, because the wages of sin is death.
Even though you have chosen to disobey God and partake in sin, and that you deserve to go to Hell, God still loves you. God loves you so much that He did not want you to go to Hell. Yet He would not be just and righteous if He overlooked your sins and allowed you to go to Heaven with your sins, just as a judge would be unjust to let a murderer go free just because it was someone he knew and loved.
Sin must be paid for. There is only one way for your sin to be paid for without you spending all eternity in the torment of Hell: that is to let Someone else pay the price for you and experience the punishment of death for you.
And this is exactly what God has done for you! God the Judge sent His only Son to this world and pay the punishment of death for you. John 3:16 says, “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.” God allowed His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die in your place to pay the price of death that you owe. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”(1 Peter 3:18). You cannot do anything to earn salvation, you must simply receive the salvation that Jesus paid for with His blood.
The good news is that how that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”(1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The good news is that “But as many as received him [Jesus], to them gave he [God the Father] power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).
The good news is, “That if thou [you personally]shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
Now the question for you is: Do you believe the report of God that Jesus died for your sins and then arose physically from the grave to prove to you that He is the way, the truth, and the life? Do you believe this without any doubt?
If you do believe God’s report, then if you shall repent of your sins and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says you shall be saved (Acts 3:19; Romans 10:13). If you will receive Jesus and His death on the cross as payment for your sins, He has promised to receive you into His family as a child of God.
Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him...” Receiving Christ is as simple as opening the door and inviting someone in. Christ stands ready to come into your heart, forgive your sins, and make you a child of God. But He will only come by invitation. Won’t you bow your head right now, wherever you are, and invite the Lord Jesus Christ to come in?
Here is a simple petition you can pray to God:
He said, “Will you do me a favor?...Will you take a little time alone this evening, and after you have weighed your own condition before the Lord, write down one of two words? If you feel that you are not a believer, write down Condemned. And if you are a believer in Jesus and put your trust in Him alone, write down Forgiven.”
“Do it, even if you have to write down the word Condemned. We received into a church fellowship a young man who once said to me, ‘Sir, I wrote down the word Condemned, and I looked at it. There it was. I had written it myself: Condemned.’ As he looked, the tears began to flow and the heart began to break. And before long he fled to Christ, put the paper in the fire, and wrote down Forgiven.”
“This young man was about the sixth who had been brought to the Lord in the same way. So I ask you to try it. Remember, you are either one or the other—condemned or forgiven. Do not stand between the two. Let it be decided. And remember, if you are condemned today, yet you are not in Hell. There is still hope!”
If you further desire understanding of what God’s plan unto salvation means for your life, then I invite you to read the rest of this portion of writing. Would you please consider what God says to you? Would you please consider Christ Jesus for your life?
As we begin, it is important to understand that the Holy Bible says in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The one thing that stands between you and the Kingdom of God is your sin—and God said that ALL have sinned (Romans 3:23). God did not leave anyone out! And if you are going to be honest with yourself, you must admit that you are included.
You are a sinner, first, because you inherited a sinful nature from your great-great-great-great…grandfather Adam that has been passed down to you. As well, you are a sinner because you have disobeyed the clear commands of God. God commands you to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44 and 1 Peter 1:16). God’s standard is perfect holiness. Perfect holiness is exhibited through His Law. A look at God’s basic Law, the Ten Commandments, will reveal to anyone that he is guilty of not keeping them, and therefore, has fallen short of God’s perfect standard of what is right. God commanded in Exodus chapter 20: “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” and you have lied; “Thou shalt not steal,” and certainly you have taken something that was not yours; “Honour thy father and thy mother,” and you have not always obeyed and done as they have instructed. Just as it only takes one instance of stealing to make someone a thief, it takes only one sin to make you a sinner. God says in James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Therefore, even if you think you have only broken one of God’s commandments, you are guilty before God of transgressing against all His Law.
There are no “good sinners” or “bad sinners” in the sight of God—we all stand guilty before Him, and unworthy of Heaven. The Bible states, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Because “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses [good deeds in life] are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away”(Isaiah 64:6).
The Bible says that there is a penalty for sin—DEATH. “…and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). You cannot pay for sin by going to church, being baptized or doing good deeds or keeping commandments. The only payment that will clear your account is death. This is not just a physical death. The Bible is clear that after the body dies, there is a second death or spiritual death.
The Bible says in Revelation 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” The Bible is clear that if you must pay the price for your own sin, you too must suffer a second death forever in Hell—the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). No other payment that you can make would pay the price, because the wages of sin is death.
Even though you have chosen to disobey God and partake in sin, and that you deserve to go to Hell, God still loves you. God loves you so much that He did not want you to go to Hell. Yet He would not be just and righteous if He overlooked your sins and allowed you to go to Heaven with your sins, just as a judge would be unjust to let a murderer go free just because it was someone he knew and loved.
Sin must be paid for. There is only one way for your sin to be paid for without you spending all eternity in the torment of Hell: that is to let Someone else pay the price for you and experience the punishment of death for you.
And this is exactly what God has done for you! God the Judge sent His only Son to this world and pay the punishment of death for you. John 3:16 says, “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.” God allowed His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die in your place to pay the price of death that you owe. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”(1 Peter 3:18). You cannot do anything to earn salvation, you must simply receive the salvation that Jesus paid for with His blood.
The good news is that how that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”(1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The good news is that “But as many as received him [Jesus], to them gave he [God the Father] power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).
The good news is, “That if thou [you personally]shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
Now the question for you is: Do you believe the report of God that Jesus died for your sins and then arose physically from the grave to prove to you that He is the way, the truth, and the life? Do you believe this without any doubt?
If you do believe God’s report, then if you shall repent of your sins and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says you shall be saved (Acts 3:19; Romans 10:13). If you will receive Jesus and His death on the cross as payment for your sins, He has promised to receive you into His family as a child of God.
Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him...” Receiving Christ is as simple as opening the door and inviting someone in. Christ stands ready to come into your heart, forgive your sins, and make you a child of God. But He will only come by invitation. Won’t you bow your head right now, wherever you are, and invite the Lord Jesus Christ to come in?
Here is a simple petition you can pray to God:
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“Lord Jesus, I know that I have sinned against You and I deserve the punishment of Hell. Lord Jesus I believe that you are God the Son who I have been searching for.
I believe that You took the punishment that I deserve so that through faith in You I may be forgiven. I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and I believe that You arose from the grave for my sins. With Your help, I invite you to come live within my heart and I place all my trust in You to be my Savior and the Lord of my life. Thank You for Your wonderful grace and forgiveness—the gift of eternal life! Amen!” |
If you sincerely prayed that prayer and asked the Lord Jesus to save you, here is a promise Jesus said, “…I will come in.” That’s not a maybe. Christ promised that He would. With Christ being the Savior of someone’s life, he offers full assurance of their eternal destiny with him. To be united with Christ forever. Therefore, if you died right now with Christ in your heart where would you go? To Heaven! If you had died before you
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, where would have you gone? The difference between Heaven and Hell is the Lord Jesus Christ living within, who died to pay the price of your sinfulness.
Now that Christ lives in your heart, He has promised that He will never leave. “For he hath said, I will never leave thee, for forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). No matter when you die, Christ will still be in your heart as He promised, so an eternal relationship with God is as sure as if you were already physically in Heaven.
Now, when God saves someone, He saves them to do a glorious work in and through their lives. We must live a life of appreciation toward Him. God does expect us to obey Him after we become His children, and the very first command that He gives is found in Acts 2:38. "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus…” Repentance takes place within the heart, when you turn away from your sins and self and turn to Christ as your Savior. Baptism is the outward sign of what has happened in your heart—a beautiful picture demonstrating to the world of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Immediately after we get saved, God expects us to be baptized and show the world that we belong and are committed to Him.
Subsequently, it is as important to be inside your Bible every single day. Jesus stated in Matthew 4:4, “…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The Holy Bible is God’s holy Word which is the nutrition and support of our souls. Therefore, our responsibility is to be faithful reading and meditating on God’s Word every day; likewise, God’s responsibility is to feed our soul as we read and meditate on His Word. Then we shall grow in the faith and get to know the Lord Jesus in a more dynamic love relationship. As well, you and I need to hang around other Christians who desire to know God more too. God has instructed us in Hebrews 10:24-25,“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” You should ask God to help you find a good Bible-believing Christ-centered church within your local community to be part of on a regular basis. Your regular fellowship with other believers in Jesus not only will encourage and provoke you to grow in the faith, in addition, you will be an encouragement to other believers too.
If you have received Christ into your heart as a result of reading this, please write and let me know. I would love to hear from you. As well, if you need help finding a Bible-believing-Christ-centered church in your local area, please contact and write me.
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, where would have you gone? The difference between Heaven and Hell is the Lord Jesus Christ living within, who died to pay the price of your sinfulness.
Now that Christ lives in your heart, He has promised that He will never leave. “For he hath said, I will never leave thee, for forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). No matter when you die, Christ will still be in your heart as He promised, so an eternal relationship with God is as sure as if you were already physically in Heaven.
Now, when God saves someone, He saves them to do a glorious work in and through their lives. We must live a life of appreciation toward Him. God does expect us to obey Him after we become His children, and the very first command that He gives is found in Acts 2:38. "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus…” Repentance takes place within the heart, when you turn away from your sins and self and turn to Christ as your Savior. Baptism is the outward sign of what has happened in your heart—a beautiful picture demonstrating to the world of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Immediately after we get saved, God expects us to be baptized and show the world that we belong and are committed to Him.
Subsequently, it is as important to be inside your Bible every single day. Jesus stated in Matthew 4:4, “…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The Holy Bible is God’s holy Word which is the nutrition and support of our souls. Therefore, our responsibility is to be faithful reading and meditating on God’s Word every day; likewise, God’s responsibility is to feed our soul as we read and meditate on His Word. Then we shall grow in the faith and get to know the Lord Jesus in a more dynamic love relationship. As well, you and I need to hang around other Christians who desire to know God more too. God has instructed us in Hebrews 10:24-25,“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” You should ask God to help you find a good Bible-believing Christ-centered church within your local community to be part of on a regular basis. Your regular fellowship with other believers in Jesus not only will encourage and provoke you to grow in the faith, in addition, you will be an encouragement to other believers too.
If you have received Christ into your heart as a result of reading this, please write and let me know. I would love to hear from you. As well, if you need help finding a Bible-believing-Christ-centered church in your local area, please contact and write me.