Receiving eternal Life Part 2

God's Redemption...Let's take it one step further from our previous study.

Not only are we hopeless sinners, but God is just and demands punishment. The Words of God rumbled through the smoke and fire of Mount Sinai in Exodus 34:7, "...yet by no means leave the guilty.,," Where there is sin, there must be punishment. That is what just is. God proclaims Himself a just God. If you and I robbed a bank and both got caught, and the judge sent you to prison and let me go he, the judge, was my uncle, what kind of judge would he be? He would be immoral, dishonest and unfit for his responsibility.

God is a judge governed by His own justice. Yet the Scriptures tell me He is also merciful. He would do anything in His power to avoid the punishment that must be given. We are sinners. God's justice demands that a punishment be inflicted that fits the crime. Yet in His mercy, He does not want me to suffer.

God sent an answer to this dilemma in the living, dying, and living again of Jesus Christ. He was, He is, He will be the infinite God-man. John said, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." He was a teacher,  a miracle, a philosopher, a healer, but the only reason He came was to save us. In Isaiah 53, Isaiah prophesied centuries before Jesus came, about how He would come to this world, where He would come, how He would live, how He would die and what He would do.  Isaiah summed it all up when he said in verse 6, "But The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." The last words Jesus spoke on the cross was to scream down Golgotha; "It is finished!" The word He spoke was actually a term used by accountants that simply means, "Paid." He was saying, "You owed it. It was your sin. You deserve to suffer, but it is paid. I, Jesus Christ, paid the price." Remember Romans 6:23, " For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

                                          Study God's Word, know His Word, Jesus Christ!

Receiving Eternal Life

If The Lord came back this very minute, would you go to heaven? If He looked you in the face and asked you, "Why should I let you in?" what would your answer be at that moment? John wrote to the congregations of Christ's church in Asia and said that assurance is the purpose of the plan. It was the reason he wrote what he wrote.

First John 5:13 says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." (NKJV)

The plan of God was given because of man's ruin. The first truth we must understand is that heaven is a free gift. I cannot earn it, deserve it, or buy it. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (NKJV)

Some will come closer than others, but nobody is going to get to heaven through their own effort. If The Lord told us the only way to get to heaven was to jump over a one hundred foot wide, one hundred foot deep canyon, all of us might try it, but none would make it. I may get six feet and you may get twelve feet, and an Olympic athlete may get eighteen feet, but we would all wind up at the bottom on the canyon floor.

God's standard is perfection, but man is always a sinner, imperfect. Romans 3:10 & 23 says, ""There is none righteous, no, not one;...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (NKJV). You might at this point say, "Well I am not so bad, preacher." That may be true. But if we are going to weigh ourselves in the balance of goodness, we are in deep trouble. Including our anger, our selfishness, the evil we think, all the good things we should have done and did not, and all the things we did that we should not, most of us sin many times a week.

Suppose, though, that you were the most righteous person on earth. You do not sin hundreds or even dozens of times a day. You have whittled your ungodliness down to three sins a day. That is a thousand times a year, twenty thousand times over the next twenty years. Could you then stand before The Judge and tell Him you are innocent and deserve to be acquitted because you only sin a thousand times a year?

We cannot change the basic truth that we are all sinners. We can improve, however. With God as our helper, we must continue daily to fight that battle, but we are never going to change that basic truth. If I had a lemon tree in my yard and wanted it to be an orange tree, I could go out and take off all the lemons and scotch tape oranges to that tree. Do you know what I would have? I would have a lemon tree with oranges taped to it. I can white-wash me and put up a great looking facade. But do you know what I would be? Nothing more than a white-washed sinner with a great facade. We are all sinners in need of what only a perfect God can give.

We will continue this study in our next time together...May God bless!

Draw Near To God!

James gives us the most important solution to every problem man can face. James 4:8, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you."

We should draw near to God because we can. There was a time when none but the high priest of Israel could enter the Holy of Holies, but now, "by a new and living way," we draw near to God with all boldness (Hebrews 4:16; 7:9). God has placed His Spirit in His body, His members, His Church. Those members, the Christian, now are zealous to begin their service to Him. As we yield to His guidance, that child of God finds fulfillment which otherwise cannot, will not be found. It,s like the stream that empties into the river, which in turn finds itself ushered into the sea! Our struggling "stream" of consciousness seeks to find its way into God's open ocean of wonderful peace.

Draw near to God because of the contentment it brings. The man who deliberately keeps his distance from God will regret it for eternity. Apart from God, there is only emptiness, darkness and needless misery! But that man who comes near God discovers the joy that Christ knew for Himself (John 17:15). There is joy, without an alloy.

Draw near to God because of the change it produces. Moses drew near to God on Mount Sinai, and on descending that mount, he found it necessary to veil his face because the people could not look at him.The bible account states, "Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him." (NKJV) The life that has been with God reflects where it has been. Godliness is neither an accident nor a pretense. In the presence of Jehovah, we may unburden our hearts as He listens who knows us so well. Christian, hungry soul, spend time with your Maker. People will be drawn to your side in search of what you have found as you reflect the God with whom you spend time. In prayer, Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)

One of the most remarkable passages of the Old Testament needs to find its way back into our hearts; Psalm 102:2-3, "Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases," (NKJV).

Have you given up and forsaken that one pathway to glory? Finding no strength in yourself, have you come to the conclusion there is no strength at all? Remember the words of the Apostle Paul, "I (you and me) CAN DO all things through Christ who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13) Consider God's Word as we conclude;

Isaiah 40:28-31, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint." (NKJV)

                                                                     God bless until our next time...