Maybe I'm old fashioned but the last time I looked, God said in His Word that His Word is everlasting and never changes. So that means that everything that is in there, should be. God still means every Word, every command, every do and every don't. And the consequences of doing the do's and the don'ts haven't changed either.
I hear so much about God's unconditional love in people's talk nowadays. Some use it to ease their minds because they are living in sin, as if His love will just cover everything they do, even when they know it's contrary to His Word and to His commands. It's like some kind of greasy grace or sloppy agape they can apply to make themselves worthy of Heaven. It's like a Get Out of Jail free card that you can play in the game of life. It's not dependent on anything that I do or don't do in life.
Truth Bomb! Get ready! That's delusion!
God does love you unconditionally in that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." What greater example of unconditional love can there be in that God sacrificed His only Son for people who, for the most part, don't care. Tis true! Broad is the way the leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and FEW there be that find it. That in itself should be enough to scare the Hell right out of you.
There is no sin that He cannot cover with the exception of the unpardonable sin. Ah wait, isn't that a conditional statement? You mean that there are sins that God cannot forgive? Yep! He also said that the man who stiffens his neck to correction will eventually come to a place of no return and be lost. Ignorance is not bliss. In this case, it's a disaster! God holds us accountable for every shred of truth we hear from His Word. When we choose to ignore it and live our own way is when He cannot accept us into His Kingdom. And unless you are a citizen of Heaven, you will not be saved. Do you have your green card for Heaven? You can find it at the foot of the cross dipped in the Blood of the Savior.
And, to make matters worse, just because He loves you does not mean that He accepts you? What kind of justice would that be anyway? We live according to His commands, seeking after Him, sacrificing at times the pleasures of this world and we are rewarded with heaven. Unconditional love would imply that Hitler, Stalin, Bin Laden, sex offenders, murderers, and all the rest who are demonically inspired and died without repenting will also go to heaven. That would be unconditional love. It would also be unequitable and show favoritism. That is not who God is. He is just.
Face it friends, we have a part to play in the outcome of God's unconditional love. Either we recognize the greatness of His sacrifice equals the greatness of our sin, no matter how small and harmless they may seem to us, and accept the sacrifice for sin that God offered, OR we delude ourselves into thinking that no matter what I do, no matter how I grieve the heart of God by what I do, no matter how much I cheapen the Blood of the Savior by continuing in my sin and expecting it to still wash me, we will wind up in Hell. Yes Virginia, there is a Hell.
As one preacher put it, "there is a Heaven to gain and a hell to shun." The outcome is really your choice. Every man in Hell is loved by God. The problem was that they did not love God back. They chose instead to live life by their own rules, whatever seemed "right" to them. The problem is that we are judged not by our own thoughts, motives or intents. We are judged by how well our lives lined up with God's Word.
You see, Christ was the most valuable thing that God possessed. So sacrificing His son, along with Christ's willingness to die, was no small thing. It is only because of what THEY did that we can have a shadow of hope in this world of avoiding eternal damnation, which is what we deserve. So because we recognize the greatness of our sin, the awfulness of our destination, and the irreversible fact that there is nothing we could do, say, or pay to God that would lift the death sentence from our lives, we repent of our sins and allow God to make us new creatures. It doesn't just happen somewhere in the cosmos. it's a decision that we make to accept the decision that God and Jesus made so long ago. We come to God alone through Christ and Him crucified. We receive NOTHING of our own merit, talent, goodness, or wisdom. It's all through Christ. He is our ticket! He is our green card! He is the door to eternal life.
I don't understand why people take this so lightly. Just because you may not believe it doesn't make it any less real. I can believe that the Washington Monument does not exist, that it was just photoshopped into the landscape of a Washington D.C. travel brochure. But when I go there, I will soon know that it is real, even though I didn't believe that it was. My beliefs didn't change anything of reality. Don't make this mistake with God! Call upon the Lord Jesus. Confess your sins to Him. Thank Him for saving you and begin a life of service and sacrifice that comes from a grateful heart, down a narrow way, to eternal glory! Heaven is waiting!
I hear so much about God's unconditional love in people's talk nowadays. Some use it to ease their minds because they are living in sin, as if His love will just cover everything they do, even when they know it's contrary to His Word and to His commands. It's like some kind of greasy grace or sloppy agape they can apply to make themselves worthy of Heaven. It's like a Get Out of Jail free card that you can play in the game of life. It's not dependent on anything that I do or don't do in life.
Truth Bomb! Get ready! That's delusion!
God does love you unconditionally in that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." What greater example of unconditional love can there be in that God sacrificed His only Son for people who, for the most part, don't care. Tis true! Broad is the way the leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and FEW there be that find it. That in itself should be enough to scare the Hell right out of you.
There is no sin that He cannot cover with the exception of the unpardonable sin. Ah wait, isn't that a conditional statement? You mean that there are sins that God cannot forgive? Yep! He also said that the man who stiffens his neck to correction will eventually come to a place of no return and be lost. Ignorance is not bliss. In this case, it's a disaster! God holds us accountable for every shred of truth we hear from His Word. When we choose to ignore it and live our own way is when He cannot accept us into His Kingdom. And unless you are a citizen of Heaven, you will not be saved. Do you have your green card for Heaven? You can find it at the foot of the cross dipped in the Blood of the Savior.
And, to make matters worse, just because He loves you does not mean that He accepts you? What kind of justice would that be anyway? We live according to His commands, seeking after Him, sacrificing at times the pleasures of this world and we are rewarded with heaven. Unconditional love would imply that Hitler, Stalin, Bin Laden, sex offenders, murderers, and all the rest who are demonically inspired and died without repenting will also go to heaven. That would be unconditional love. It would also be unequitable and show favoritism. That is not who God is. He is just.
Face it friends, we have a part to play in the outcome of God's unconditional love. Either we recognize the greatness of His sacrifice equals the greatness of our sin, no matter how small and harmless they may seem to us, and accept the sacrifice for sin that God offered, OR we delude ourselves into thinking that no matter what I do, no matter how I grieve the heart of God by what I do, no matter how much I cheapen the Blood of the Savior by continuing in my sin and expecting it to still wash me, we will wind up in Hell. Yes Virginia, there is a Hell.
As one preacher put it, "there is a Heaven to gain and a hell to shun." The outcome is really your choice. Every man in Hell is loved by God. The problem was that they did not love God back. They chose instead to live life by their own rules, whatever seemed "right" to them. The problem is that we are judged not by our own thoughts, motives or intents. We are judged by how well our lives lined up with God's Word.
You see, Christ was the most valuable thing that God possessed. So sacrificing His son, along with Christ's willingness to die, was no small thing. It is only because of what THEY did that we can have a shadow of hope in this world of avoiding eternal damnation, which is what we deserve. So because we recognize the greatness of our sin, the awfulness of our destination, and the irreversible fact that there is nothing we could do, say, or pay to God that would lift the death sentence from our lives, we repent of our sins and allow God to make us new creatures. It doesn't just happen somewhere in the cosmos. it's a decision that we make to accept the decision that God and Jesus made so long ago. We come to God alone through Christ and Him crucified. We receive NOTHING of our own merit, talent, goodness, or wisdom. It's all through Christ. He is our ticket! He is our green card! He is the door to eternal life.
I don't understand why people take this so lightly. Just because you may not believe it doesn't make it any less real. I can believe that the Washington Monument does not exist, that it was just photoshopped into the landscape of a Washington D.C. travel brochure. But when I go there, I will soon know that it is real, even though I didn't believe that it was. My beliefs didn't change anything of reality. Don't make this mistake with God! Call upon the Lord Jesus. Confess your sins to Him. Thank Him for saving you and begin a life of service and sacrifice that comes from a grateful heart, down a narrow way, to eternal glory! Heaven is waiting!