Posts Tagged ‘Sin’
Can Salvation Be Lost?
Is it true that once saved you can still lose your salvation and go to hell? Some people will say that this true, and it depends on the one given salvation.
However, numerous Scripture verses teach otherwise, and we are going to look at just a few of them; especially ones that Jesus stated. Read them for yourself and then decide if Jesus is right or if man’s religion is right. Then we will finish with a quote by Charles H. Spurgeon from his book, “All of Grace.”
All of the following verses are taken from the Gospel of John.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 1:12, 13 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. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6:39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
John 6:40 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.
We see in these verses that they lay out God’s plan for salvation and why once someone is forgiven for their sins, because of the sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf, they can never die spiritually and be sent to hell.
Jesus tells us that one must be born again not only to be able to see Heaven but also to enter into Heaven. This act of being born again, as seen in John 1:13 is not done by being born into a Christian family (not of blood), nor of being born by our good works (of the will of the flesh) or of our own free will (of the will of man), but of God.
The act of being “born again”, which provides our salvation, is “All” of God and man adds nothing to his salvation.
As for whom will receive this gift of salvation it is explained quite clearly by Jesus in saying that “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:” Not only does God draws whom He wills but Jesus also said, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me”.
In addition, all whom the Father draws to Jesus not only will come and be saved but, be kept saved as Jesus says, “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”
As we have seen, God saves whom He wills, draws whom He wills to Jesus, makes them alive in their spirit and guarantees their salvation will never be lost and will keep them unto the end. Not because of anything that man has done or deserves, but because of what Jesus has done for them on their behalf.
The great British Preacher, C. H. Spurgeon, says this about salvation in his book, “All of Grace”…
“If you will have Jesus, He has you already, If you believe on Him, I tell you that you cannot go to hell, for that would make the sacrifice of Christ of none effect. It cannot be that a sacrifice would be accepted and yet the soul should die for whom that sacrifice has been received. If the believing soul could be condemned, then why a sacrifice? If Jesus died in my stead, why should I die also? Every believer can claim that the sacrifice was actually made for him. The Lord would not receive this offering on our behalf and then condemn us to die.”
Many other scripture verses will back up this statement that once a person is given salvation by Jesus Himself he is saved for all eternity. The true “born again” disciple of Jesus will never lose their salvation.
Salvation is provided by God, given by God as He wills, and saves for all eternity everyone for whom Jesus was sacrificed. Salvation, true God given salvation, can never be lost.
I pray that God will open your heart and your spiritual eyes to see this marvelous promise of God and receive it as your own, and have true peace in the security of your salvation. For it truly is all of God.
Have You Heard The Shepherds Voice?
The 23rd Psalm begins with “The Lord is my shepherd”. Pretty much everyone knows that but have you ever heard the Shepherd’s voice?
I am sure that if you believe you are a Christian you will most likely say that you answered a call to accept Jesus and be saved. So, now that you have “accepted” Jesus as savior, you are now saved; right?
What if I told you that unless you have heard the Shepherd call you by name the chances are that you might not be saved! Scary thought is it not.
There was a moment when Jesus was talking with some Pharisees. At one point He made this statement found in John 10:
Joh 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
Joh 10:2 But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Joh 10:3 To him the porter opens; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
Joh 10:4 And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Read carefully what Jesus is saying, especially in verse 3. He says that being the Shepherd, His sheep will hear His voice and He calls His own sheep by name. Did you get that? Jesus states that He knows all His sheep and He calls them by name.
In verse 4, Jesus tells us that He will go before His sheep and as He calls them by their name, they will follow Him: for they know His voice. Only Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will they follow.
Later on, the Pharisees ask Jesus this question in John 10: 24.
Joh 10:24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long do you make us to doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Here is the response that Jesus gave:
Joh 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
Joh 10:26 But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Joh 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Jesus tells them plainly that the reason they do not believe is that they are not of His sheep. The only way they would believe on Jesus would be if they were of His sheep and He has called them by name to follow Him.
If they are not one of His sheep, He will not call them to follow Him and they will not believe on Him no matter what He says because they are not of His sheepfold.
You see, we are to “believe” on the Lord Jesus as we hear Him call our name to follow Him, and as we hear Jesus call our name, we will believe on Him as our Lord, our Shepherd, and we will follow Him willingly.
At this point you might be wondering whom it is who gave us to Jesus to be our Shepherd and us His sheep, to follow Him. In John 10: 29, 30 we read:
Joh 10:29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Joh 10:30 I and my Father are one. (Jesus is God)
Jesus Came To Reveal The Sin In Us
After reading the title you might say, “Did not Jesus come to seek and save they who are lost?” Why, then, do you say that He came to reveal the sin in us?
Good Question and here is the short answer. If we do not know that we are lost there would be no reason for us wanting to be saved. Think of this. Go and read again the Sermon on the Mount, and ask yourself if you have kept all those sayings that Jesus gave us. I am sure you would say, “No.” Why? Because we all have a sin nature and we want to do only according to our nature. We want to do things “our” way.
You see, none of us can say that we are without sin. In fact that is just what Jesus came to teach us. In His teachings and in the activities and miracles that He did He would mention sin.
In the story about the man who was lying on a mat by the pool of Bethesda Jesus healed him and later when He encountered the man again, we read this:
John_5:14 (KJV) Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
What about the woman caught in the very act of adultery, “the very act” they said? All these righteousmen said that in their law a person doing this was to be stoned. What was Jesus going to do about this? Well, let us see what Jesus said and what was their response:
John 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
John 8:9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last:
You see, these perfect, these righteous men saw in themselves their own sin and realized that they, too, were sinful people.
However, Jesus did not stop there. He now turned to the women and said this:
John 8:10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
John 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Even to the woman whom He just kept from being stoned He revealed to her the sin that was in her life.These are just a few examples of Jesus revealing sin us.
Here are a few more verses that Jesus said about sin:
John_8:34 (KJV) Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sinis the servant of sin.
John_9:41 (KJV) Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
John_15:22 (KJV) If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
Jesus knew that man thought of himself to be a good person, a righteous person, one who will go to Heaven because of their basic (sometimes) obedience to God. Just as I thought of myself – when I die God will weigh all of my good deeds against all of my bad deeds, the good will outweigh the bad, and for that reason God will welcome me into heaven. I sure am glad I found out how wrong I was, when Jesus revealed my own sin to me.
Did you, or do you now, believe the same thing? Remember what the Apostle John said:
I John_1:8 (KJV) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
The problem is that we “all” have sin in us, and unless we see our sinfulness in all of its ugliness and filth, and how we need to be saved from facing the wrath of God because of our sinfulness, we will never want to be saved. We are a sinful people and for that reason, we need to be saved from our own sinfulness, and its consequences.
Yes, Jesus came to seek and save the lost, but until man sees that he is lost he will never see the need to be saved. We need to see our sinfulness and confess it so. Only then, once our sin is revealed to us and we see it for what it is will we cry out to be saved.
For woe is us that we are such a sinful people. We need to have our sin taken away in order to be saved, and only Jesus can do that. As John the Baptist said:
John_1:29 (KJV) The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Has your sinfulness been revealed to you? Do you now see that you are lost and need to be saved? Jesus has sought you, He has revealed your sinfulness to you and He has done so in order to save you; because He loves you.
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Do Good People Go To Hell?
You Know, being confined to Hell for all eternity can be a scary thought. I wonder if good people go to Hell. If good people do go to Hell, then how good does one have to be “Not” to go to Hell?
Right now, you are probably thinking that, “I know I am good enough to go to Heaven and not be sent to Hell.” Yeah, I know the feeling.
When I was a teenager I was quite active in the Episcopal Church. I was an acolyte, a Sunday School Teacher, taught in Vacation Bible School, and was leader of the Youth Group – Spy’s it was called, which stood for “St. Peter’s Youth”. Catchy, do you not think?
What I really enjoyed doing was when I was asked to be a Lay Reader during Morning Prayer Service. It got to the point that, except for giving the sermon and the blessings at the end of the service, I got to do everything else. Man, I was King Teen of the Church. I was a pretty big guy on campus, so to speak, and the thoughts of going to Heaven when I died were never in doubt.
After graduating High School my life began to change and church activity began to drift off, especially after I was called to active service in the Navy. I had already joined the Navy Reserves when I was just a Junior in High School and the Navy, in its wisdom, saw fit to bring me up to the big leagues. Actually, I really enjoyed my three years on active service. It is a time of life that I would do over again.
Strangely enough, I never went to church at all while serving in the Navy. Church was the last thing on my mind. I was too busy, well, being a Sailor…
Eventually I was released from active service, got married, had kids and was living life OK. During all of this, I still felt that I would go to Heaven when I died. If someone were to ask me how I knew – this is what I would tell them. “Well, I know that when I get up there God would put all of my good qualities on one side of a scale and all of my bad points on the other side of the scales and the good would out way the bad and for that reason I would be allowed to get into Heaven.” With that kind of thinking about what was there to worry.
To make a long story short, along the way I started going to church, got involved in various activities and actually started reading the Bible; not a good idea for someone with the thinking about going to Heaven that I had. Maybe this would be you as well.
Over a period of time, there were three words that would pop up on occasion; four times in Psalms, once in Romans and twice in the Gospels. What were these three words? There were, “There is none.”
Now, by themselves, the phrase, “There is none,” is really not a bad thing about which to ponder, but when you add three more words to them it becomes a big thing. The other three words are, “That does good.” So, when you put them together you get, “There is none that does good.” Think about that for a moment and then let me add what Jesus said about being good.
In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark there is a story about a person that came up to Jesus and said, “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus answered like this,
“Mark 10:18 – And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”
Man, that was like running into a brick wall. Jesus actually said that, “No one is good except God.” I mean, if no one is good that would mean me! How could Jesus say that I was not a good person? Look at all of the work I did in the church early in my life and being told how I was a good little boy. Look how I was a good father and husband. Look how people liked me and said that I was a good person. Everyone thought that I was a good person except… except Jesus!
Now, how could I doubt Jesus? However, if He was right… then I had nothing good to offer God when I died. If I had nothing good I would not be allowed into Heaven. If we cannot get into Heaven by our good works how do we get into Heaven?
I started reading and studying the Scriptures, especially the New Testament. I learned that the reason we are not considered good is that we have a sin nature, and this sinfulness has separated us from God. In order to come back into a right relationship with God we need to repent of our sinfulness and to seek forgiveness for our sins.
However, our sins require a penalty for which they need to be paid. We need to pay for them – unless – unless someone stands in our place and takes on them the penalty for which we owe God. I learned that Jesus has done this for they who would confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and to believe in their heart that God has raised Him from the grave. In other words, whoever would call upon the name of the Lord would be saved.
If we would just repent of our sins and believe that Jesus is Lord of our life because of what He has done, and have a desire to be obedient to Him, to do His will, then we would be forgiven for our sins based on the fact that Jesus died for sins and paid the penalty for them.
In fact, if you would just call upon Jesus as Lord of your life you will find out that you have been forgiven, saved from paying the penalty for your sins by facing the wrath of God on Judgement Day, and are now in God’s family for all eternity.
Good works will never save you, anyone or me. Only by calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus, will anyone be forgiven, saved and allowed into Heaven.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Surely you do not want to be one of those good people, depending on your good works, who wind up in Hell? Will you not now call upon the Lord Jesus to be saved? It really is that easy. If I, one who was a very religious and good working man can do so – you can as well.
Throw your good works aside and call upon Jesus to be saved. Do so before it is too late.
Could You Forgive As Jesus Asked?
Everything that Jesus taught is to show man that he could not be obedient to God, and was unable to earn his way into heaven. What Jesus said about forgiveness is a good example.
In Matthew 6: 14, 15 Jesus said the following:
Mat 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
Mat 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Let me ask you a question? How easy is it to forgive someone? Is isn’t is it. In fact, depending on the offense, it is not easy and it may be that you do not want to forgive them at all. Am I right? I do speak from experience.
Here, however, Jesus tells us that unless we can forgive others for their sins against us then He will not forgive us for our sins against Him. If you think about it, that is very scary. You think, how can I forgive them for what they did to me? If you only knew what they did, you would understand why I cannot nor do I want to forgive them.
If that is the case then we are stuck. If God will not forgive us because we will not forgive others, how are we going to get into heaven? That is the question, and that is what Jesus is showing us. In simple terms, Jesus is telling us that we just can never do what is needed to earn our way into heaven. There has to be another way, and there is.
In John 14 Jesus tells us what the only way is for us to get into heaven:
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
In everything, Jesus taught that, because of our sinfulness, we cannot be obedient to God the Father and earn our way into heaven. Someone must do that for us and that someone is Jesus.
We do not want to forgive because we cannot forgive; that must be taken out of the way. Jesus did just that for His sheep.
Are you among His sheep? Only until you become a member of God’s family will you ever want or desire to forgive others as God forgave you. Once you have been born again, the change to being able to forgive others could happen quickly or over a period of time, and eventually you will find it easier to forgive as God wants. Especially when you realize what all God has forgiven you.
Forgiving without God will never happen nor completely go away even if you say you do. Only after being forgiven by God and given the gift of forgiveness will you forgive as God intends. Only after being able to forgive others for their sins against you will you be able to appreciate God’s forgiveness of you for your sins against Him. Then, you can truly say that God forgave you as you have forgiven others.
Does Jesus Love Everybody?
If someone were to ask you, “Does Jesus love everybody?” Most likely, you would say, “Yes.” Then if I were to ask you, “On what verse do you base that?” I know that you would say, “On John 3: 16.”
Now we have gone over this verse in other posts to show that this verse is not talking about people everywhere specifically, but in people everywhere in general. In addition, the sentence in this verse that qualifies about whom Jesus was talking is the one that says, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Salvation is not just for the Jews but for Gentiles believers also.
You might be surprised to know there are no verses in the Bible that says Jesus loves everyone. However, many verses specifically say whom Jesus does love. We are going to look at a few of these verses, and I will let you read them, study them, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you, and pray that He will open your heart to understand about what they are saying.
Here is the first verse for you to read:
John 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Now here is the second of the verses that you should read and study, just like the first verse:
John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? (Note: Jesus is only showing Himself to those whom He loves.)
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
These are the last of the scripture verses that you should look at, study and pray for insight into what they are saying:
John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; (Note: Jesus prays for future believers.)
John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
In these few Scripture verses, you can see that Jesus loves those who will be believers, believers chosen by the Father for salvation. Nothing can be clearer than what you have just read. Even in all of the Letters written by Paul, John, and Peter etc. that when they speak of God loving them they are talking about they who have become believers, true disciples of Jesus.
Please read these Scripture verses over several times and let them sink into your heart, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you understanding in these verses to God’s glory and for your own good; that you may know the truth about the love of Jesus.
Apostle Describes Meeting With Jesus
Back in the 70’s I had started a newsletter called “The Christian Layman”(Insights from a Layman’s Journal). The following was the first article in that newsletter.
_____________
Apostle Describes Meeting With Jesus
I was soaking wet, having waded ashore from the boat. The others, I had left on board, were guiding its rough underbelly onto the cool sand that had been chilled by the night air.
As I sat down, the damp sand crumpled under my weight, and I became conscious of how cold were my clothes, but I did not care. For there, sitting beside the warm fire that He had just made, was my Master – Jesus.
It had been a few days since we last met, and now we were sharing a breakfast of bread and fish. Where the food had come from I did not know and I did not care. Nothing mattered except that Jesus was alive and He was with us once again. I felt great.
We finished off the last of the fish and I turned toward Jesus; He was looking at me. It was as if He was looking into my very soul, the very heart of my existence.
“….. Do you love me?”
The words stung.
“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Two more times he asked me the same question; three times in all. Twice I said “yes.” The third time…
“Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you.”
Feed my sheep.”
I had denied Him three times on the night before He was crucified.
Now, three times He made me tell Him that I loved Him, even though He knew I did before saying so. But, more important, He had said,
“Feed my sheep.”
For three years, He had fed us, not just food but something more. He had told us that man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We are not to worry about what we are going to eat and drink. We are not to worry about whether or not everyone has physical or material comfort.
No, we are to provide His sheep with the bread that gives eternal life – Jesus.
He knows His sheep we do not. So in order for us to follow His command, we must bring the bread of life to everyone we meet. We must present Jesus to everyone, every time, all of the time. Anything else and we fail.
How about you? Have you been placed in the position of feeding His sheep? When you see Him face to face will He be able to say…
“Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
What Is The Primary Purpose Of Prayer?
Everyone prays at some time or another, but not all prayers receive answers or results in the way that the person who prayed wanted.
Let us get this out of the way before we go one-step further. Unless you are a Christian, a true disciple of Jesus, God does not hear your prayer and it will not receive an answer. The bible teaches that God does not hear the prayers of a sinner. That is a topic for another post.
Now, since that is out of the way we can proceed.
Most Christians, who repent of their sins and receive forgiveness, in one way or another, will always worry when they pray. Maybe it is about how they prayed, was it good enough. On the other hand, it could be they will worry that their prayer will not receive an answer or, if it is, the answer is not what they want.
Do you have peace when you pray? If not, why not? It is because you are not sure if the answer to your prayer will be what you are wanting it to be, even if you receive an answer at all.
The secret to having peace when you pray is simple. Read the following verses:
Eph_1:5 (KJV) according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph_1:9 (KJV) Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
Eph_1:11 (KJV) according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
1Jn_5:14 (KJV) And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
God is in charge. There is nothing done outside His will. We have an imperfect will. God has a perfect will. Unless we realize that “God’s will” will always be done we will always pray for what we want expecting to get our own way, and be upset if we do not. However, in God’s perfect will, what He wants He will always accomplish.
We cannot change God’s will, never could and we will never be able to do so. Imagine an imperfect, sin infested human, telling God what He should do because it was you who asked Him.
You see, the secret to prayer is just telling God about why you are praying and what it is that you would like to see because of your prayer; there is nothing wrong with that, as long as we trust in Him no matter how He responds to your prayers, and accept His will.
God may not answer right away because it is not time to answer. He already knows what the proper time will be to respond. In addition, the answer may not be what you want, but it will be what God wants, and God only wants you to trust in Him for the response that He gives.
We must realize that God’s timing is always the right time. In addition, the answer that He gives is always the right answer. God always knows what is best as He always does according to His will.
When we finally realize that God always works all things according to His will is when we can start having peace in our prayers. God knows why we pray and what we would like, but our will is not always the best response. God wants us to trust in Him fully, completely and lovingly in His answer to our prayer.
No matter what we pray or what we would like for the answer to be, when we trust in the Lord for His response, no matter what it is, then we can have true peace in our prayers for we know that they will “always” be answered according to God’s will.
Just pray and then trust in the Lord for the right answer. For the primary purpose of prayer is just learning to know God’s will in all things and then trusting in Him for the answer that He gives.
The Real Avenger: Endgame
I am sure that by now everyone either has seen or at least heard about the new movie “Avengers: Endgame”. Well, I have at least heard about the movie. You see, I really do not go to the movies anymore. I am not into fantasy, sci-fi or bloody mayhem. I guess I am just an old-fashioned kind of a guy.
However, there is one Avenger who has a real “endgame” that I am interested in, and it is found in the Bible. Here it is from 2nd Thessalonians 2:
2Th 1:6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
2Th 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2Th 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
There is no one else Who has the power and right to bring vengeance on whom He wills than Jesus. Seeing that we also read the following in John 3:
oh 3:34 For he (Jesus) whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
Joh 3:35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son(Jesus) hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Imagine being given the opportunity to repent of ones sins and to believe on Jesus or face the wrath of God, why would anyone refuse the offer. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus said the following:
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
It does not matter whether you have little sins or big sins, any sin at all demands repentance of that sin and they who refuse to do so because they like their sin will face the wrath of God.
Why Jesus, you may ask. Here is the answer found in Acts 4:
Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
In fact, in Romans 10: 2, 10 we read the following:
Rom 10:9 That if 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.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
All of us commit sins, and we must all pay for them, unless we bow before Jesus and submit to Him as our Lord, and ask for forgiveness. If we do, we will be saved from facing the wrath of God. If we do not, we only have God’s wrath to face.
There is a real Avenger and He has a real “endgame”. His name is Jesus. As we read before:
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
From Hebrews 10 we read the following:
Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Jesus is the real “Avenger” and he does have an “endgame”. A fearful endgame. One I pray that you do not want to face and will now repent and bow before Jesus as Lord and ask for forgiveness from the only true Savior of us all. For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
If you do not, you will only face the Real “Avenger”. That is something you will wish you had never done.
Have You Heard The Gospel Call of Your Salvation
Into the woods though dark & deep, I look for a place where I might sleep.
Through fog & wind amongst the trees, I find myself upon my knees.
A sword swings high above my head, but I awake peacefully and in my bed.
Then out of the shadows Lord Jesus came.
Your salvations’ secured for I have called you by name.
Dead in your sins you could not answer the call, so I made you alive to hear it all.
Not of your own will have you behaved, for by My Grace have you been saved.
Because of My choice do you I forgive, and with me will you eternally live.
1. Romans 8: 30
2. Ephesians 2: 1
3. Ephesians 2: 5
4. Ephesians 2: 8 – 10
5. Ephesians 1: 4, 5
5. John 10; 28, 29
Riff's Christian Journal 