2nd Timothy 3:1-5, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, WITHOUT NATURAL AFFECTION ... Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
We All Need To Get Right And Stay Right With God. Of course, the first thing
that we should do when we sin as Christians is to confess them to God (1st John
1:9). God is faithful to forgive. In every case in the Old Testament, when
Israel confessed their wickedness and cried out to God, he delivered them.
A man once contended with me on the doctrine of forgiveness, saying that Christians are already forgiven and never need to ask for forgiveness. That is unbiblical. God lives in eternity, but we live in time. We ought to ask God to forgive our sins daily. Proof of this is found in the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:11-12, “Give us this day our DAILY bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” We ought to daily ask God to forgive our sins even as we forgive others of their sins. Proverbs 28:13, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” All of our sins were forgiven at the time of salvation (past, present and future sins). Salvation is a new birth, irreversible, irrevocable and permanent. If saved, always saved!
Yet if we commit sin as a Christian, we need to confess and forsake our sins. This has nothing to do with salvation. A child is born into the world of their parents biologically. If a son steals from his parents, he is still their son but now has a broken fellowship. He needs to make things right by making restitution and reconciliation. The same is true spiritually. We are God's property. We belong to the Lord. The day you got saved you went to work for God...
Colossians 3:23-24, “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
When we sin, even though our sins are forgiven in
Christ POSITIONALLY as God's children, our FELLOWSHIP is broken (or we could say
that our CONDITION is wrong). When king David
commit adultery and murder, his fellowship with God was broken. Several months
later Nathan the prophet confronted David because he still hadn't repented. As
with all Christians, David needed some preaching to get right with God. When
confronted about his sins, David immediately confessed his guilt for sinning
against God and was forgiven. Albeit, David forfeited many of God's blessings
upon his life. David's family was broken, his sons were killed, the glory that
once existed in David's life was gone, the reality of sin was now permanent.
Are You Resting In The Gospel Of Jesus Christ?
Thankfully, and fortunately, every person is offered
the free gift of eternal life and forgiveness in Christ. I can't believe
that so many people flaunt God's mercy and grace, even blaspheming the very God
Who has given His Son for their sins. Wow! I am not worthy, and neither are you!
Can any man truly grasp the greatness of what God has
so marvelously done for us? I think not.
There's no other book, nor religion, nor prophet, nor teaching, nor philosophy in existence that can even compare or compete with the awe, greatness, amazement and grand scale of what the Bible reveals; of all that God has done for mankind through the Lord Jesus Christ!!! Oh my friend, whoever you may be, I plead with you... “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him” (Hebrews 2:3). Acts 4:10-12 plainly states that there is NO other name given among men, whereby we must be saved, than the name of JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH!!!
Romans 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Repeatedly we are warned throughout the Scriptures that God's salvation is offered freely to mankind (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 11:6; Titus 3:5); paid for by God's gift of His dear Son, and the blood that He shed for us. How much greater then are we insulting God, even trampling underfoot the blood of His covenant, when we ADD anything to it. The man who picked up those sticks failed either to grasp or to care about the significance of what the Sabbath Day represented and meant to God and humanity. The Sabbath was not just a mere holy day of rest; but rather, it symbolized eternal rest for men's souls, through the sacrifice of Christ's body and the blood for humanity's sins. If you grasp this truth, then you will understand the importance of why no Israelite could perform any work (human effort) on the Sabbath.
Don't be deceived, no one who professes to be a Christian is truly saved if they HAVEN'T yet ceased from their own human efforts...
Hebrews 4:10, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works...”
Those who teach that faith alone cannot save,
but that there must also be human effort—to depart from sin, forsake the world,
and surrender to Christ—are NOT SAVED!!! Hebrews 4:10 confirms this! There's a
fine line between faith and foolishness, between Heaven and Hell, between
salvation and damnation. The dividing line is human effort. Add it and your
doomed. Cease from it, and trust upon the Lord, and you're saved! Any attempt to
improve mankind spiritually without the Gospel is religious humanism. Don't
leave out the cross!!! Jesus DIED, was BURIED and RESURRECTED after three days.
That's the Gospel according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4.
What an awesome God!!! I encourage you whoever you may be to place your total trust in “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Christ bore our burden of sin upon the cross, so we don't have to go to Hell forever. Thank you Lord Jesus for dying for my sins!
