Romans 3:10-26 (Psalm 10:6-7, Isaiah 59:7-8)

I went to a Buc-ee’s. It’s quite an operation. One leaves trying to wrap their mind around what is or is not America and wondering what will become of us. The gas was 10 cents higher than the other stations on the Interstate, but nobody seemed to care or notice; it’s a Buc-ee’s, so presumably, that makes it worth it. Without exaggeration, this one must have more than 100 gas pumps, every lane full; cars, SUVs, or pickups with boomers dragging a fifth wheel.

I’m not sure what the attraction is. The people seem to be there only to be there. Everything was slightly overpriced, and although the food looked pretty good, it was only gas station food. But Buc-ee’s is more than a gas station; it’s a relationship. The BBQ sam’mich was going as fast as they could make them by the dozen.

The lady at the checkout, local as they come, said it’s flat out, non-stop; there must be thousands of people coming and going every day. They’ll pay you $20 an hour to work the overnight shift. She seemed a little slow, but professing Christ, she’s my sister and probably has a more faithful love for the Saviour than I’ll ever know. All some need is a crumb from the Master’s table (Matthew 15:27). God rarely calls those from the high lofts – if that’s you, salvation is no small gift; don’t waste it (Luke 12:47-48).

It’s hard to know if the people going there don’t care about inflation and the state of things in the world, or perhaps that’s the point of stopping at a Buc-ee’s on your road trip; to forget the world. There was no sense at all of the death of America or the irony of the place as a symbol and type of the commoditization of the consumer being a nail in the coffin of the West by ending the tangible work of making and building things. The country’s going to hell, actual, but hey, let’s head to the Buc-ee’s out by the Interstate!?!

There’s a section for T-shirts and hats and Buc-ee’s gear. No, I didn’t get a Buc-ee’s T-shirt. Maybe a twinge of regret since I’m not against self-deprecating humor. An area with very overpriced “local” stuff with a State or nearby tourist attraction theme to it. Many self-serve soda dispensers with Buc-ee’s brand of cola, root beer, orange, and the like. They make their own dessert fudge right there and have other areas with things like that. And, of course, a section of regular snacks like Cheeto’s and Coke in a can for those who need a known degree of danger to their health delivered in a familiar size, shape, and color.

On private property, which sole purpose is to make money, it’s often a tricky business, pretending to browse while not angering a money spender. I was quite the novelty among those from far-flung midwestern and northeastern states. A real live Christian, openly discussing salvation in Christ Jesus and handing out literature about the human soul’s condition and relationship to its Creator. A real oddity, curious looks of wonder all around. Christians really exist, rare, but we saw one at the Buc’ee’s, didn’t we, honey, and it asked me about heaven.

“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” – Romans 3:11

There is none righteous, no, not one. Nobody understands; none seek God, for it’s the Almighty that calls to them and draws them and makes the previously unaware begin to see His purposes; nobody seeks God but that God reveals Himself. You can talk at the Buc-ee’s to a midwestern tourist all day long about Christ, but they can’t hear you until God speaks to them.

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” – Romans 3:18

Holy God stands before all men, observing their every thought and deed, but neither can they see Him.  So few now care for the things of the Almighty or ever consider His ways. How does a civilization turn Godless and survive?

And so America tells itself what is said by all those about to suffer a fall: “He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.” – Psalm 10:6. A fitting verse for an afternoon at the Buc-ee’s, overwhelmed with abundance.

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” – Romans 3:14. Compare with: “His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.” – Psalm 10:7

Is that you, a sinner, dead in your trespasses, self-assured yet utterly self-deceived, blind to God? A man can curse God without ever speaking a word.

“15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known” – Romans 3:15-17 (see Isaiah 59:7-8). It is an apt description of the American leadership we’ve come to know, realizing they are taking us where almost none but the hopelessly useful idiot dare go.

The place was packed with people, but there was still room to move and browse. Are they conscience, wandering through life, or simply taking a break from the soon-coming and man-made wreckage?

But I did meet a brother in Christ who was missing several front teeth. I know this because I asked him about his eternal station and saw the biggest unashamed smile light up half complex; that man knows Christ, and from what he’s been saved. It never gets old, that smile of the true believer, the blessing of the almighty by His Spirit living in their heart, the wonderfully fearful, and nowadays ever more rare called of God, appointed unto salvation to service of Him. He moved here from England as a child, an Air Force vet, and a good guy. ‘Round these parts, missing teeth don’t mean dumb; that’s just Hollywood.

His Church is a large one, down to about 50 core people as they search for a new Pastor. As hard as that sounds, it appears to be a good thing: find out who’s committed, purge the chaff, gather the dead branches and burn them up, get new leadership, reset, and serve with purpose. He was there just for the spectacle of it all. Neither of us was disappointed.

We talked by a display of beef jerky, a prominent item, being both road food and guy food. It caught my stomach’s attention. I told him we had about forty; that is the core where I go, serving the Lord with consistent purpose. I’m blessed beyond measure to be among folks who love the Lord, seek the lost with the Gospel, work for Christ with purpose of heart and mind, and are training the young. It’s a rare thing where I go, having been to dozens of Churches, many just like the Buc-ee’s, full of tourists who, for the life of their eternal soul, couldn’t explain the purpose or meaning of what their Church exists to accomplish and why they are there or who profits.

Departing from my new friend and heading for the Beef Jerky counter, I got $15, half a pound worth by weight, of the “sweet and spicy,” which was neither sweet nor spicy. And it got eatin’ in the vehicle on the freeway after leaving; this is what one dutifully does with beef jerky on the road. Not dry, somehow, although under spiced, it was pretty tasty. Since they said we couldn’t eat cows anymore, I ate it all ’till I felt a little gurgly in the belly. I still eat dead cows; price is no object if it means one more good ol’ methane-loaded cow fart to make a liberal cry.

I don’t know if America will make it. I suspect not. But my new toothless Buc-ee’s friend and I, we’ll make it. The rest may burn like a roman candle, but we’d like you to know; that you can make it too.

“24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” – Romans 3:24-25

Ephesians 2:1-10

“1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”

To be brought to life in Christ Jesus by the resurrection of your dead soul for your trespasses and sins against God Almighty is, without hesitation, the principal object at the outset. The world has a system for you, no grand purpose nor calling, but striving after the desires of the body and mind blindly following nothing much but living according to the course of this world. The world is full of people having little more worth than a self-licking ice cream cone consuming themselves upon the lust of the flesh, living for nothing, and dying alone. Every man dies alone.

It’s a complicated world, having trespassed against the Living God while remaining in self-serving sin. A life such as that is pointless; never to understand the power you perceive is the spirit that works disobedience, making yourself an heir of perdition.

“2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”

There is a prince of this world, all the evil among men becoming glaringly evident, wickedness on every media and medium luring and enticing only to leave you dead, hell-bound, but this is God’s world; he made it and you. He owns it, so while living according to the law of trespass against Him, you offend His holiness, never seeing or even desiring to understand the war in the dimension of spirit at the root of the grave evil taking hold all around you.

“3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

But you’re not alone; you are a sinner as all men are before the Holy One, and He is the true power, having already conquered your sin, death, and hell. You had not sought the good before sin took root in your conscience; how could you, having been born into sin. There is none that seeketh after God…there is none that doeth good. Fulfilling your desires with wanton disregard for God’s plan, you are by your very nature a child of wrath, for the wrath of God abides on all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Sin is blinding. It’s not simply blinding to those that are aware; it’s so pervasive, so thorough that those blinded by sin are blinded to not only the immediate presence of sin but may never know that sin exists. Sin is not simply the sum total of all the unfit thoughts and deeds accumulated as you serve the spirit of disobedience; it’s what you are; you are a sinner. If you could stop sinning, you never would have started. And God is awakening your blinded soul to your condition.

“4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,”

The two most lovely words ever spoken are, but God. But God is drawing and calling, making space in your mind that His word might penetrate to your core need; you need mercy, for He is full of love and rich in mercy. “We love him, because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19.

His great love is shown round about you, a little at the first; His revelation shows you the evil of this world and the evil in yourself, revealing the need for His great forgiveness. Even dead in sin, it’s God that brings alive the eternal soul to the realization of Christ’s blood sacrifice, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin to bring about everlasting life together with Christ. God does this of His own accord, which seems quite absurd to have to say, but far too many, God help them all, are counting upon some sense of being a good man. Too late, you’ve already sinned against God; there’s no meter in heaven; it’s Christ or the death of eternal torment.

You are a sinner, condemned already in your trespasses and sins. Only the Almighty, the Creator, gives life and new life by mercy and grace unto the everlasting hope of heavenly places with riches beyond understanding, imputing worth for the soul by Christ Jesus to those that call upon His holy name.

It’s the heart of a man, your heart, not your deeds, that God desires. Not as corruptible things, silver or gold, or keeping commandments that men heap upon themselves as though impressing their neighbors gets the attention of God’s good graces. God is not impressed with you; He’s God. “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” – Proverbs 17:3

“5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”

You can be raised to walk in the newness of life, through Christ, by the resurrection of the spirit in your soul; the Father in heaven offers forgiveness of sin and salvation from the wrath to come. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” – 1 Peter 1:23.

Jesus Christ took your sins to hell with Him and buried them there for you; Christ speaking of His own life, declared, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” In authority to lay down His life paying your sin debt to the Father, and He took it up again. He raised Himself from the dead on the third day, leaving your sins behind.

But, it’s more than a spiritual resurrection, which is incredible enough. Having ascended to heaven, at the right hand of Power, it is He who makes the way of life eternal. Those sealed unto redemption in Christ, seated with Him in heavenly places now through the Spirit of God, when the last trumpet sounds, we shall see him as he is and abide in His presence; death shall be no more. Your soul, if you are His, will be altogether in the company and glory of Holy Almighty God.

He created you for this: to know Him and to be with Him, and you, wasting another day, taking another lick at the ice cream cone, would you call upon His holy name?

“7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

God’s riches are exceeding. They are exceeding what? They’re God’s riches; what manner of silly question is it to ask what they exceed, for there is nothing but a long ugly slog before you of growing old, and if you make it that long getting sick, only to return to the dust from which God formed you. Preparing for contingencies is wise, but what is your final contingency? How can you save yourself? Remember those two great words, but God? God’s riches are exceeding anything and assuredly anything of this world; His grace in kindness by Christ Jesus is what you need.

“8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

But God, in His mercy by the grace of His good pleasure, offers salvation unto those who would hear, for Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. If it’s not of works, and salvation isn’t by works, then eternal life must be by grace. If you take upon yourself the duty to work for eternal life, rejecting the gift of His mercy in love, you make the grace of God of no effect. What an end of those ones, God help them.

But if it’s by grace, and it is, then the grace of God’s eternal pardon is what you need. Well, it says it in the Holy Bible, right there in verses 8 and 9; by the grace of God, through your faith in Christ Jesus, and not of works as though you could boast before God of anything whatsoever. Salvation is a gift to those who hear the call of Christ, and His call to you is now!

“10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Every day people try to repair the sin-scarred planet, to fix each other, all the while circling the drain. Those that are Christs, we’re not saved for nothing; having received a new life by God’s great mercy in Christ Jesus, we show that same mercy to others. You know that you have kindness and charity of heart within you; God made you this way. In Christ is where that work has meaning and eternal value; one day, in heaven, we’ll see the fruits of those labors.

So there are works and good works, but none gaining the favor of He that is holy except and unless you be quickened with the Spirit of God for it is His own Son that the Father sees when He looks upon those raised up together with Christ. Without Christ, you are an unclean thing, vile, unworthy. Why did God allow His own Son to be tortured to death if you could satisfy His wrath on your own by some good deeds? Every religion of good deeds mocks Christ, for without Christ’s sacrifice unto salvation for us first, your works come short of the glory of God, raising no worth in heaven.

Jesus didn’t stay dead; it was not possible for Christ to see corruption. So many get this backward; that’s how deadly the sin of pride is; we’re predisposed, through sin, to misunderstand the simple truth of the sovereignty of the Almighty. We want to do it on our own, but Christ is incorruptible, and you are only corrupt. Every man convinces himself that he is a good man. The most grotesquely wicked souls on earth consider themselves good men by doing what they perceive to be good things.

Thinking that there must be something you can do to win salvation, what are you next to God that you should attempt to steal His throne, making yourself a saint by your own good graces? God makes saints! Without Christ first, you are as a son of perdition, a worker of iniquity, a child of disobedience, run by the prince of the power of the air, bound by your sin to burn in hell. No man can keep the whole law, and no man can disannul by works the miracle of the glorious grace of the Lord God Almighty unto salvation by the suffering of Christ Jesus on the cross; who do you think you are that you can buy heaven with your merit?

But God, the master craftsman of all that are His by faith, having created you, has ordained for you a service to Him that you should walk therein. No longer to serve the wasteful and repetitive grind of the long march to the grave and hell, but created in Christ unto good works, having first received mercy from the throne of His judgment by grace, to be made a child of the King. God gives results of eternal importance and purpose; your soul finally being fulfilled; it’s Christ that fills that void, that hole in your heart where you know, knew all along, good must be able to live there.

It’s a new life and life everlasting, for by grace are ye saved through faith. Call upon Jesus, seeking forgiveness from sin, beseeching upon prayer the throneroom of heaven, for mercy by His grace to enter into the exceeding riches of His glory through God’s lovingkindness; asking that you would be quickened in Christ. Receive His mercy from wrath, life today, and the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul for eternity, that you might know His exceeding abundant grace in the ages to come. Forgiveness unto salvation is nothing to forgo or attempt by any manner of your own concoction. It’s grace; it’s all grace; behold, now is the accepted time: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.

“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” – John 3:18-19

The wardens of the global prison are ever-tightening the noose of control as you wallow on death row. We’ll not lie about it; perhaps they’ll starve you, but going along with the kings, small and great, of this world may get you to your grave at a ripe old age. That might seem easier than serving in light and the whole truth but think of the ends thereof, which are hell. They are the kings of murder, war, and money. And the proverb is true, “Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.” Proverbs 24:1.

Surrendering to God will be the first thing in the best things to come that you will ever do. He has no co-equals, no partners; only soldiers, servants, slaves, and sons; you must surrender first. How can you save those that need saving while chained to the kingdoms of this world, which are your bondage? They are the servants of death; you can’t beat them except in the power of God. There is a better King, an High King.

You are condemned already, simply for rejecting Jesus. It sounds so judgmental. The light of God has come into the world, but you love darkness rather than light. You’ve chosen the deeds of evil walking in sin. Perhaps you’ve considered what you’ve been charged with, shame and guilt flooding your mind. But what are you condemned to; what is the end of them that live under the condemnation? Maybe you should keep your head down, pretending to be ok; nobody will know. After all, you rather feel pretty good about yourself while addressing none of your sin before the throne of Almighty God. Your appointment with death fast approaches. Jesus came not to condemn the world because you are guilty already, a walking dead man.

Everybody loves to talk about John 3:16. It’s America’s favorite verse. You see bumper stickers and T-shirts, and people quote it often. Many have been saved by God, coming to faith upon hearing this verse, and you can too. It’s perhaps the most famous verse in the entire English-speaking world. But many more figure that God will save them only because they exist in the world, “For God so loved the world.” They think that Jesus wouldn’t condemn anybody, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.” Hey, Jesus loves me just as I am; He wouldn’t condemn anybody. This is the new religion. Pity you didn’t read the following several verses. You’ve already been judged guilty, sentenced to eternal death.

“11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” – John 3:11-12

There is murder, war, adultery, child trafficking, and on and on the list of grievous sins could go. From the earliest days of history, Holy God has sent many witnesses into the world to testify of the things they have seen and heard of God. Jesus says if you can’t hear of the earthly things, how shall you believe the heavenly things? If you won’t believe that God made you in the first place, how will you believe that He can make you anew by His Spirit? Evil and the sins thereby are real, with very real consequences; there will be an accounting.

If you can’t discern which way the wind is blowing, how can you turn to the Spirit of God? People love darkness rather than light. They look for the darkness; they analyze the darkness, loving it so much that they make an idol of the darkest of sinners. Some spend all day fully immersed, seeking the darkest “news” they can find; there is a grip on you, holding you to the darkness. You love darkness rather than light! Being cursed with sin already, what are you going to do about it!

If you can’t see the darkness for what it is, can’t understand earthly things, how shall you believe in the light of God to save your soul? For there is a love greater than all sin; you can overcome this world by faith in Holy God. You say your eyes are opened, but if they are, why won’t you fear before God, asking Him to save you from this present world and the wrath to come?

“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” – John 3:20

People fear the light. You don’t want to face your sins because you know that by admitting to being a sinner, you will be reproved, that your sin will find you out, but you can’t ignore it forever. Being condemned already means not just being dressed down for your guilt, but that the wrath of God Almighty abides on all who reject the Son of God, you’re a walking dead man. Deep in your mind, where you dare not plunge, you know you’re guilty, appointed to face God in His wrath.

You know you will face Him. Shocking is that you have a clue of this and will not seek His answer and talk to Him. That guilt doesn’t come from nowhere; made in His image, your guilt answers; you are a witness against yourself before His throne! His answer is not of this world, and it’s not in you. Holy God isn’t asking that you straighten up, fly right, or try to square yourself away or undertake self-reformation of any kind; He that believeth on Him is not condemned! Believe by faith in the only begotten Son of God.

You have Christians, real Christians, figured all wrong.

“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” – Titus 3:3

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being disobedient to the truth, serving lusts and pleasures, hating and envying. And willfully causing harm to others for the kings and kingdoms of this world, sometimes in ignorance but more often desiring to hurt and even kill others on the orders of some faceless distant “leader.” We are all these wicked things and worse, but, in this moment of clarity, Christ can forgive you by His grace. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” – John 6:47

The kingdoms of this world claw at you convincing you to stay in the darkness. Yes, evil is real; it is a spirit and wants you dead. Isn’t that interesting? The same spirit that wants you dead is the same spirit you have lived by. Do you see the deception? Being so deceived that you refuse to accept the condemnation of God, while death and hell laugh at you, claiming your soul to eternal damnation to be cast into outer darkness, tormented forever. That’s right; death isn’t the blessed end to those under the torment of darkness; it gets worse. What you’ve wrought in this world will be visited upon you, and without the mercy of the Christ of God, you will burn.

God wants to help you, but He is the perfect gentleman; you must enter His throne room in prayer seeking mercy by faith in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. He won’t force you. Jesus Christ is the only sinless, nailed to a cross by the darkness of this world. He paid your debt to God that God would free you to live in darkness no more; you can come into the light. Free from the condemnation, forgiven, brought into the love of Holy Father God, remade into a living man. Jesus does love you.

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” – Matthew 6:22

Turn your eye to Jesus Christ, resurrected from the tomb, proving that death and hell are no match for Holy God. Keep your eyes heavenward on the things of mercy. God can change everything about you; He can remove the evil desires that have a grip on you. That’s our story; turned to the true and living God, given a new heart with a desire to carry out the orders of God, forsaking the petty kings of the world and their sin, for which of their lies ever led to any good thing at all. What have they gotten you but pain and misery, hate and anger? Sympathy and empathy were words of philosophical meaning, with no desire; God can change all of that, bringing you into the light and love of the completed truth.

Your eyes are opened to truth; the kings and kingdoms of this world are a sham, evil, and control all the time. Thank God for opening your eyes, for most remain in darkness. But don’t stop there; there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Ask Him for a new heart to be delivered from death and hell and translated into the kingdom of light, life, and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Then, you will see, startling, two kingdoms with two masters, and you will pity this world and the dead souls, condemned already, wandering in it.

Nobody is coming to save you because Jesus already came to save you. You already rejected the kingdoms of this world, come out of them as much as you can, but how will you escape death and hell and the wrath of Almighty God for your sin? Through Christ to Holy Father God is the way, the final break from this hostile planet. The Kingdom of God is real, and you can see it. What more can we say but that you have to believe God has made a way, and that way is through His Son’s forgiveness. Be deceived no more; come all the way into the light and love of the truth of God.

Being condemned already, a walking dead man, now you can hear the mercy and grace of God.

“That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” – John 3:15-17

“The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.” – Proverbs 21:16

It’s a fearful thing to observe; it’s heartbreaking. Those that hear the Gospel and don’t respond, the truth of God’s mercy falling on dead ears, God’s message of love and hope to all men being shrugged off as though it were just another tall tale. Having never understood and never responded, you remain in the world of death and darkness.

Worse still by far are those having tasted of the promise for a little season of joy in the Lord but wander back into the realm of the dead, choked by the things of this world, trodden underfoot, the way of understanding falling on stone that the seed of the Word of God could gain no purchase their heart. You wouldn’t come to the table to fill your soul to bursting with the love and peace of God.

Is the light not glorious enough? Are God’s miracles not enough? How do you stand satisfied with a little and not seek after much more; you must not like the light of the blessing of first hearing from the Almighty and the sweet taste of salvation. You walked away again, returning as the dog to his vomit. Worse yet, and as tragic as the grace of God is glorious in abundance, are those poor souls that let the seedling of the knowledge of Christ germinate and don’t with great eagerness seek of God that He would nurture and grow you to a mighty fruit-bearing Christian soldier.

Those poor souls heard personally from the Almighty and left it. It’s shocking and confounding; how, why? What could they be thinking in wandering away? Truth be told, the Churches are full of them. They joined the club but rejected God’s joyous elating fearful, terrifying presence in their conscience. Perhaps they saw the change and liked the damnation of the things they know, strange as that may seem.

“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” – Romans 3:11

There is none that understand; nobody seeks the total transformation of God, oh you might seek religion, but you are out of the way living among the dead, damned into outer darkness.

But you know your sin and know the depths to which you have plunged, now hear of the grace of God to come by our Lord Jesus Christ who would save your soul bringing you unto the knowledge of the truth, God can acquit you.

Seek after Him, call after Him, hunger after Him, for God spits out the lukewarm as the unconverted having tasted and rejected salvation. You too, who tasted His grace in a bounty of riches, His mercy to those who wait no longer for the love of Holy Father God the seal of salvation in Christ Jesus can be set upon you. You can wander out of the way, but you can’t wander back to it. Pray, cry out to Holy God all of you; I want to believe, Lord I believe, quench mine unbelief! Grab the alter of Heaven and don’t let go; call upon the Lord Almighty for his mercy endureth for ever.

“He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.” – Proverbs 21:21

Jesus is righteous, merciful, worthy of honor and glory; giving Himself upon the cross, counted worthy of death yet meriting Kingship, he posted your due to the God of Heaven and Earth, the One who created and calls to you. God in these last days has spoken unto us by his Son, having risen from the dead and been made heir of all things, showing Himself the Saviour, Jesus is the way of life eternal, in His mercy you can find this life.

Here is the knowledge of truth; there is one God. Error abounds in this by those who proffer the lie that all men worship the same god simply a different understanding of that god. Well, if this is true, why not worship your dirty toenail? No, there is one true God, and the many rest are false. There can only be one God because there is only one Mediator of the Covenant made by God through Christ on the cross. One go-between, one Daysman, will plead your case before the mercy seat of judgment, making of you His own possession by ransom honored, the man Christ Jesus.

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” – 1 Timothy 2:5-6

Now is the time; today is the day of salvation in Christ Jesus. His torture of the cross and resurrection unto life testifying century after century to those who come by faith; to taste that God is good, entering into the abundance of truth and love to worship of the one true and living God whose name, to those that truly know Him, is too terrible to utter.

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” – 1 Timothy 2:3-4

Wander no more among the congregation of the dead. When God says something is good, it is good and acceptable in His sight; that you would come unto the knowledge of the truth of His compassion is God’s desire. When God created the heaven and earth, God saw that it was good. God making you a new creation in Christ can look upon you as a son reborn; it is good in God’s eyes for you that are being accepted by the Saviour, brought into everlasting life. Call upon Jesus, for He is the Mediator of merciful salvation.

“4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 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.” – Revelation 21:4-8

The poor souls that fear God, they know. Not those who fear before God as believers, but those who fear the change that will happen to them if they trust God. They fear the loss of their old self, and mostly they fear the loss of their favorite sins. You know that your life will change when you make the leap of trust in Jesus Christ. Forthrightly, we’ll state; that you won’t miss your sins or your previous life. You’ll marvel at your new self in wonder as you consider why you ever disbelieved. The same God, who by His Son can forgive, will give you new desires, aspirations, and goals in this life; you won’t even care except to think how very silly it was that you waited to call upon Jesus.

Sure there are some weird Christians. There are also some odd Led Zeppelin fans, weird soccer moms, and strange people at your last job. There are also some pretty down-to-earth Christians. God calls men out of every type, tribe and tongue, background, education, and prior belief system; you name it; Christians used to be just like them, just like you.

Your fear is unfounded; it’s better to have sought Christ, accepted the change of heart and mind, to no longer be a servant of your sin. You can be free from the bondage that sin holds over you. Can you not see how sin has you in bondage, convincing you how much you’ll miss it? The knowledge of God Almighty and being made free in Christ Jesus isn’t worse. That’s an absurdity. What has sin ever gotten you but debt, torn relationships, pain, and misery while forging your way in this despicable and wicked world beset by evil? And worst of all, the hold sin has over you is filling you with the fear of accepting God. Your sin is a liar.

Many a wretched man, murderers and whoremongers, have come to Christ, and all men are liars, but the fearful they know it’s all true, they sense it correctly, you will change. But you’ll be well glad of it; rid of the service of your sin, which is slavery. Jesus is freedom, true freedom; no government, not even self-government, has an easier yoke than Christ has upon His own.

He has made you aware of Him by your refusal. Isn’t that interesting? You know that God is real; otherwise, you wouldn’t hold on to your current state so hard. Faith is trust in the unknown, having seen only a glimpse. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you will change; you know it. God has shown you that glimpse of His promise.

Both the change now and the offer of eternity are true; they must be, for He is God, the author of life and the creator of all things. Who are you that God Almighty, giver of all knowledge and truth, would reveal Himself to you, and you what; hang on to this wicked and depraved sinful world?

That’s why the fearful and unbelieving are damned to hell because God has told them, God has told you, that your desires and heart will change. Still, you have chosen pleasure for a season that continually ends in misery and always leads to the need for more sin over the grace of God who reached across time and the expanse of His creation, showing you a peek at His offer. How much more the miserable an end of you, knowing the truth, having been personally contacted by God, and rejecting Him. It will not go well with you when you finally meet Him. What will you say?

Since you know that the change in you will be authentic, why won’t you take the threat seriously? You know that your life will change and perhaps in drastic ways, but why do you fear that change more than the threat of death? Revelation 21:8 also tells us that the fearful and unbelieving “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Why do you hold onto this life, kicking against the call of the Gospel, knowing that your life will change? Yet you deny the eternal consequences, both the potential for peace with Holy God by accepting His offer, or by entering into eternal death, damned, being condemned already for you know your sin, having denied Him; your sin has found you out! If you know the one to be true, carefully examine by what both spiritual and logical fallacy you hold the other to be false. Either you’re made a new man now and enter into the eternal presence and glory of Holy Father God forgiven, or you stay a slave to sin and die, tortured forever.

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” – Revelation 21:5

Christ is making all things new, ending the curse of sin, and holding out the promise of a new heaven and new earth. “…God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain…” Those are the promises of life eternal; having shown you the faintest hints of the beginning of the guarantee, you must come by faith to be with Him at the end. Any Christian telling you that it’s no leap of faith is a liar; it absolutely is; for by grace are ye saved through faith. Why hold to your self-inflicted doubt, for God has shown you. God, by His Son, is making all things new. Not just a change in this life, but the rest of the promise; to not only be forgiven and remade into a new creature with a new spirit but to see God and to meet Him as a friend. If you know the one, you can see the other. Still, that knowledge comes after the day of belief and forgiveness, the day you finally submit, not to your sin, but to the God that created you and breathed the very breath of life into your soul who’s calling you out of the darkness of this present world into His light of truth. For every creature sings, “blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne.”

The change, the transformation, is quite miraculous. You can witness firsthand how the power of God will change your desires and conscience. God takes the most wretched of sinners and turns them into the kindest and most caring people. God takes those who may not be the dregs but sinners nonetheless and turns them into lifelong servants of the good, pouring themselves into helping others. But you can’t know His plan until He makes His covenant with you. Don’t be deceived by the Sunday churchgoers who live like hell the rest of the week; they are not converted. But you, having heard, called by God unto His great purposes, the conversion will be genuine. You’ll be created anew in salvation, and the old self is crucified with Christ unto death, the new man being raised to walk in eternal life, entering into the love and merciful peace of holy Father God.

The words of Jesus are true and faithful; God, the beginning and the end of all life and our faith, decided to offer eternal life and chose to make Christ judge of all things. It is done; Christ has risen from the tomb, ascending back on high, being alpha and omega the adjudicator of every soul’s decision, and you who have heard from God and rejected Him will burn. This isn’t His choice; you made the decision and brought this on yourself. He will pass sentence according to His word, for all the promises of God in Christ are yea, and amen, the fearful of that leap into faith will burn, you have His word.

But unto you, that heard and with an open heart, having sensed what change will come about, you should speak to God of the covenant He would make with you. He will give of the fountain of the water of life freely, that you would overcome this world in Him, given the presence of God in your conscience as He fulfills every aspect of His promises and covenants in you. You won’t miss the person you are now! This sin you crave will be gone. You won’t care about it anymore, and you will no longer desire it. That’s where the trepidation comes; God has revealed it to you; His power is manifest to convert you, removing your old heart’s desire and replacing it with the singular desire for Him and His kingdom, dominion, and rule transformed into a son of God. Take the offer; it’s all true!

Seated upon His throne, behold, He makes all things new; the old is cast into eternal death. But your reborn soul can enter Christ’s kingdom, He will be your God, and you shall be His son overcoming in His strength, leaving your fear and unbelief behind forever.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” – Revelation 21:7

You can overcome all things in Christ; your fear is unfounded, for His will works in the heart and mind of the new creation, His word saying; you shall inherit all things, He will be your God, you shall be His son. That’s God’s positive, affirmative, forward word, but you already knew you would change this way. Put your trust in Jesus Christ, the God of that first glimpse; your fear and unbelief are an unfounded lie.

“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” – Proverbs 21:4

Don’t be deceived by the soft peddlers of the new religion. There are indeed some things that God hates. God hates pride, and the Bible doesn’t say one good word about it. God hates a proud look. But worse, are you trying to do good, plowing row after row of charitable works? This is admirable, perhaps, but why do you consider that it needs to be done? Why are things so broken? Why do men need charity at all? Neither be deceived by your own mind. The world is broken. By doing charitable things, you admit that. Why not just call it sin? That’s why everything is broken. There is none righteous, no, not one; sin has wreaked havoc across the globe for as long as men can remember. It may seem right to be involved in charity, but the ends thereof are death by charity alone.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” – Proverbs 14:12

The charitable works in and of themselves have no effect on your sin or on your eternal state, which is death. They might make you feel good, but the best you can conceive won’t save you no matter how right it feels to accomplish what are otherwise good deeds. The Almighty declares in Isaiah 55:8, “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” You will be judged, every man, according to your works. And then you will be found guilty. Marvel not; God knows your secrets.

“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” – Ecclesiastes 12:14

Holy God will bring every work into judgment and not simply the ones you think will tilt the balance or cover the multitude of your wickedness. There is no balance; the standard is holiness, and you can never appertain to it under your own efforts. You’ve done evil already; you, by your works, are guilty of sin. No law can justify the guilty, for you are ungodly before the law of God. The Almighty is the highest Lawgiver, the great and terrible Judge of the quick and the dead. You’ve got secrets so shameful that you would never dare to tell a soul, but God sees them all. Your works mock God, but the secrets reveal your true self to Him. Face it; you do evil without even considering any consequence. But the Judge of all creation will bring every work into account. You must know that, deep in your mind, why else would you be trying to be a good person on the outside. There is a judgment with every secret thing, both good and evil.

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” – Romans 4:5

But to him that worketh not? To him, that doesn’t try to cover his inequity with charitable deeds? How can this be? It seems so strange. God doesn’t go by what you hold out to be good and evil, correct or wrong. Self-righteousness is the biggest obstacle for many who otherwise would come to the fullness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus: to accept that God is God; that hurdle is pride. Your rules, your works, your own efforts at being good; do you see the problem? It’s you; it’s all about you, what you want, what you think and say and do, and how you measure yourself. That’s pride. God hates a proud look!

You stand this day before the Judge of all creation from whom you need mercy. Those needing mercy don’t proffer their resume of good deeds; that’s not mercy, it’s self-justification, that’s pride! You need forgiveness; you need God to be God, for you’re a mortal man hurtling toward an uncertain death with no natural way to be sure what comes next. Your body will give out and soon expire; you can’t stop it. You need the favor of God Almighty, the only true and worthy King. He wants you to have the grace of His complete and determinant pardon, which requires unconditional surrender by you, bringing a personal relationship through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Salvation is not to him that tries to justify himself, but to him that believes on the God that has the power and authority to truly justify. God doesn’t justify the self-justified, the self-righteous, the baptized, the churchgoer, or the religionist. God doesn’t justify the kind, helpful, charitable, caring, and giving. God justifies the ungodly. You need Him; there’s no other way, no other truth, no other life eternal but by Christ Jesus.

Salvation is not because of who you are or what good things you do, but because of who He is. For He is the God of all glory who created things seen and unseen, things known and unknown, the bringer of revelation yet to come, the provider of all for all, the One that makes it rain on the just and the unjust alike; it is God that justifies the ungodly.

He is God, and you are not. Only God could make a way that doesn’t count deeds, but one of pardon to those that are doubtless guilty for the sin which reigns unto death, even the death of your soul. But to them that believe in the power of Christ Jesus, your faith can be counted for righteousness. Do you get that? Your deeds cannot justify, but your faith can be counted for righteousness! You can be taken from sin and death trying to be good enough to justified by belief and further made righteous by faith! This isn’t mere pardon; this is complete restoration above the prior estate through resurrection unto eternal life. This is the grace of God Almighty, to save that which was lost, who is calling all that would come by faith unto the glorious salvation in Christ Jesus.

Someone godly paid your way. Jesus Christ, the virgin born, only begotten Son of the living God, was crucified, executed in the most brutal ways that you, an ungodly prideful wicked sinner, might be made free from the works of self-justification. As of a precious Lamb without spot, Jesus’ blood was tendered. Your debt has been paid in full. Jesus did no sin because there was no sin in Him. That’s how He is ample payment for you. His works, His good deeds were all good, and there were no secrets between Him and Father God, no accounts to settle. This way, He can cover your sin by His blood and wipe away your ledger with God because, you being ungodly, but Jesus Christ being worthy of God, He took your place being reckoned among the transgressors, yet He was without sin, that you might be made righteous in Him. He died for the ungodly; the just for the unjust. He died for you.

Jesus Christ dying for you according to the Old Testament scriptural prophecies was God’s plan. Accept Him as payment. Here’s the best part, though; he didn’t stay dead. Jesus wasn’t just another guy that spoke of love and kindness and then died? No, He rose again from the grave the third day just as He said He would. He was seen by dozens and dozens of witnesses after His resurrection and was even seen of above 500 brethren at once, declaring, “…Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

“Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:11-14

Without merit, you can have the forgiveness of sins, being bought with His blood, redeemed. God, having created and made you, can translate you out of the kingdom of death and hell, into the kingdom of His own Son, with all saints being made fit to see God face to face, not guilty but full of thanksgiving to behold His glorious power which strengthens us with His might, only to find that God is love to those that love Him enough to come to Him by faith. We love Him, because He first loved us. It’s God that justifies the ungodly.

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” – Psalm 9:17

We can know a few things that are certain. God judges men and nations and He judges empires into the dustbin of history, especially those that forget Him. The problem with America is that she deserves everything that’s coming. There may be a long train of abuses against us, but God has His own list from which there is likely no escape anymore. We have no particular revelation of God but His revealed Law and Word, which are clear; all sin is ultimately against God. Though He is longsuffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish, His grace abounding unto forgiveness, He does not suffer us in silence forever. He will answer. There will be recompense, a judgment.

“Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” 1 Corinthians 1:21-22

Things will get worse before they get better. Secure your eternal destination at the hand of Holy God, who by His wisdom knows your sin, and your need of salvation. The most important preparation of all is the heart of a man with God. You can be sealed unto the day redemption in Christ Jesus, who is not only the Son of God, but God the Son and gave Himself to die on the cross taking the full wrath that you deserve not only for your transgressions past but for those still to come. And He was buried, but death and hell could not hold Him; Jesus rose from the grave again the third day, in accordance with the prophecies of scripture, proving that in Him is the power of life and the power of life eternal. He alone has the keys of hell and of death.

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14

You must be established in Christ Jesus. Few there be that find it! Get this settled today. You can receive the Spirit of God to literally and actually inhabit your heart being made a new creation in Christ, and securing the salvation of your soul being redeemed, by God, through the blood sacrifice of Jesus, having His mark, never fearing men or death again. Amen.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” Matthew 7:13

The road to hell is wide, smooth, and easy. The road to the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord is a single-lane narrow path; only may a man enter in by Him.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1

Every man has faith in things. But what is faith? Faith is trust in the unseen. Faith is the very substance, the fiber of what is hoped. Faith is the belief that if you act upon a small amount of information, the totality of what’s hoped for will become evident.

Does not science take the grain of a mustard seed of faith to pursue an object in the hope that it’s true? That’s what a hypothesis is. Science, falsely so-called, is all around us today. But we know that a hypothesis must be isolated and repeated to find it true or false. Science, if appropriately done, is done in the attempt to prove that grain of faith; otherwise, you’re operating under a supposition that has no basis. Made in God’s image, He put this desire in you; that you might observe and know His creation. Faith and science are much more akin than the haters would have you to understand.

To enquire of God also takes the grain of a mustard seed of faith in the hope that it’s true? This is salvation in God; it’s absolutely a leap of faith to believe that there is a God who wants you to know Him and wants you to be with Him in eternity. Talk to God; He desires to hear from you. Any man who claims Christ and says a soul can be saved by any other manner, by faith in rites, rituals, recitations, or ceremonies, is not telling the truth.

Faith is the substance of hope. Faith with belief and hope are the three seeming abstractions that, when formed together in the heart of a man, lead him to call upon the unknown God, only to find Christ Jesus waiting all along for your desire. Every man has his moment of hope, of hope for what his created being is telling him; that the whole of everything in nature and your conscience soul are indeed a creation of God’s mighty workings; that there is a God and a purpose for your existence.

Two thousand years ago, Christ was crucified for your sins and rose again the third day. You weren’t there; you have no evidence of this event. To you, it’s unseen. Something happened 2000 years ago for sure. Millions upon millions of people haven’t lost their minds about some guy that isn’t real. Believing that takes more faith than to ask honestly; what did happen? But now that’s what faith is; the very substance of the hope that, even in the face of the absence of evidence, these things are true; if you make the leap of faith, Christ is waiting.

That’s the question; is Jesus real? It’s not some working of your inner being that makes God real to a person. God, who breathes life into every being, is a real Spirit. You’re not just a set of chemical reactions; you’re a living being. You exist. With all of nature seen and unseen, you were conceived in the mind of God, and then He created you.

The spiritual gurus say you can reach some new level of enlightened self-awareness. Maybe you can, but awareness of God comes at the intersection of the realization of faith and hope in seeking the being of God external to yourself even though you’ve never met Him. God is a Spirit, a real being that you can know if you place your hope, through faith in Christ, in His existence.

The world is wrong; something is desperately wrong; killing, lying, crime, warfare, suffering all around us; it’s called sin. Deep in your inherited conscience, you know that things aren’t right and that there is something, and some One much bigger than the observable universe can reveal.

God is manifest to those that know Him, but He only becomes evident through the seeking faith of those He is calling to the hope of salvation in Christ. He’s calling to you that your faith and hope might be in God.

“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” – 1 Peter 1:19-21

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” – Psalm 2:1-6

All men are drawn to the cross of Christ, and all enemies are being made His footstool. He will and does rule and reign from one end of the heaven to the other. Here is the genuine and underlying desire behind the destruction of the family in your civilization, to separate you from the righteousness of Christ Jesus. So that you live under their power in wickedness because the heathen rage while kings and rulers join the thousands of years old global conspiracy against the cross and the great God who created heaven and earth. They hate God and His Christ, and they hate that you would be redeemed unto Him rejecting their evil desires that you join in their disgusting, destructive fraud of the true God and His kingdom. God is the holy Creator; the sin-infested order the oligarchs have created is to attempt the usurpation of Christ’s throne.

The New Order can’t save you. Quite the contrary, having turned you into a mere unit of production, they now want you dead. But have no fear, Christian soldier; the Captain of our salvation has a plan if only you would carry it out.

Jesus makes a man’s heart His and then demands a righteous outward life. The man who is God’s head of the family requires, as does Christ, a righteous family. When many men have their family as Christ’s possession living in righteousness, it spreads as others hear the Gospel from them and see the blessings of God on His people. Whole communities change, the spark of the Gospel catches, and nations turn to Christ as He brings in His kingdom. We’ve seen this ongoing, in ebbs and flows we don’t deny, but now for two thousand years, His handiwork among the heathen is evident. It’s a grievous error to discount the power of the workings of God.

Sadly, some ascribe the power of their devil over Christ until some vaguely knowable future set of parameters that no two men can seem to agree upon when suddenly Christ’s righteousness will appear. If only they could see the appearing of Christ has come to all men and continues by the teaching of His Gospel to every nation and tongue to bring in His kingdom, for He shall reign.

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” – Revelation 11:15

Why do some sit by lamenting the daily minutia of the failing kingdoms of this present world as though observing the heathen rage and kings fighting against the cross were some new sport? God has work for you, brothers and sisters. The Gospel can conquer the kings of this world. The world is being conquered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and can be dominated by the Gospel. Why won’t you join the bands of the Lord of hosts to declare the Kingdom of God and of His Christ to the heathen, some of whom sadly it seems could be with us until the end. It appears that those who say anybody can be saved through faith are the laziest to tell the lost about Christ! Yes, it’s good hard work; that’s what God called you for to do.

“I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” Psalm 2:7-12

Verses 7 through to the end of Psalm Two in verse 12 is where we find that the great God in heaven declared His decree; that by His own sovereign will and plan, He would raise up a people to belong to Christ. A good man leaves an inheritance, but how much more would God that is only good and the only good One give to His only begotten Son a people that would belong to Christ? God’s enemies, heathens and sinners and men of all stripes hear the call of God to come unto Christ with fear and trembling, yet rejoicing that Almighty God who is holy and just would make them His own.

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” – Job 19:25

They knew He was coming; just men, those that sought the face of God’s anointed Christ foretold of the redemption of a people because God himself would stand on the earth in the latter day to make a way for those that were afar off to come unto God, forgiven, reconciled, yes, redeemed.

Christ stood upon the earth, lived among men, and though He had no duty to it, left us filled with awe at the workings and miracles, but they killed Him anyway.

Redemption is a paid price to purchase a possession. But it’s more than that; the people God would redeem were already His; all men are His. Behold, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; the expiation of all that would believe at the appearing of God’s Christ has come unto you who God knows by name!

There was a just man and devout who the Spirit of God had told that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ, a light unto the world, even to the heathen at the far stretched corners of the earth.

“And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” – Luke 2 26:32

This is the first recorded prayer asked of Jesus when He was on earth. When Jesus was just eight days old, the man looked the Christ of God in the eye and asked to depart in peace to be with Holy Father God.

When you assuredly see the Christ of God, Jesus, then you’ll know. You’ll finally live absent fear, and the fear of death that stalks us all. Seek Him now while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.

“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7

The most important thing you can ever do is to settle your soul with God; having heard the call of Christ, you can be fit to depart in peace, your conscience spirit returning unto the God that made you, at whatever chosen day the Lord has appointed.

The heathen still rage and the sons of Jacob gnash their teeth at the plan of God, or perhaps at the way He keeps His covenants of heaven to accomplish His work on earth. It’s hard to understand the hatred toward God and his way of redemption. Even those who don’t hate but merely shrug off the knowledge that you can know God to be made a friend. Why hate; what did He do but give you breath and life. Christ is hated or ignored, His plan is hated and scoffed at, and if you could crucify Him again today, you would do it. It seems so odd, who, precisely, are you to declare to God that His plan is not sufficient? Are you a god?

But not so for His sheep that hear His voice when redemption draws nigh by the Spirit of God speaking to your very soul.

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” – 1 Corinthians 6:20

Jesus died for your sins and was resurrected from the tomb by the power of the Spirit of God, proving His authority to purchase all those who have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” – Romans 3:24.

Whosoever would believe will be made the fulfillment of the New Covenant to be partaker of the promise of God to give Christ Jesus the heathen. You can be made the fruits of His inheritance, you, a heathen and a sinner, if you believe He can forgive and save your soul, you will be made a joint heir with Christ in the Kingdom of God.

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” – Acts 4:12

There’s no other way, no other name; stop arguing against God’s great plan of the ages, and simply accept the gift of the redemption of your soul to God.

Here is how you are redeemed; payment must be made for the redemption of anything, and so much the greater an amount for God’s creation in His own likeness; you who are made in the very image of God. Jesus paid a terrible price for you, the highest cost imaginable. The only begotten Son of God freely gave His perfect, sinless blood which flowed on the earth, paying the price for the curse of sin against you and that by His resurrection, the sting of death would no longer be upon you. You who believe by faith, having the blood applied, can be among those who are His to be resurrected in the newness of life belonging to Father God.

Deny your ungodliness, repent of your unbelief and look to the blessed hope of reconciliation toward God at the appearing of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. He gave Himself a ransom for all. Now is the time.

The grace of God to bring salvation to you and to all men has appeared in Jesus Christ. That’s what happened. That’s the plan of redemption and His way of salvation. While the heathen still rage, Holy God is the perfect gentlemen, coercing none and inviting all, even you. There is no sin that can’t be forgiven and no shame that cannot be covered by the blood Christ spilled to redeem you that you might be His, secure both now to serve Him and into eternity.

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” – Titus 2:13-14

Look no further; your redemption is at hand. Blessed are they that put their trust in Him.

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” -Titus 1:2

Before there was a before, God made a promise in the counsels of Heaven, all the holy angels with Him; He promised Himself, since there is none higher, that He would make a way for you to enter into eternal life. The only thing that God cannot do is lie. God is truth. This promise stands good for you today. You must take knowledge of two inheritances and two promises that affect your eternal station.

God created you to bring glory to Himself. He created man, the first man Adam, to have eternal life. But man sinned against God. This is the problem. Sin is the problem with the whole world; it’s the problem with you.

“For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” -Ecclesiastes 7:20

You might consider yourself to be a pretty good person. You might even do good things. You can give to charity and raise your family well, educating your children and teaching them right from wrong. You can be kind and helpful, but that wrong exists at all is not God’s fault; it’s yours. You are a sinner. You’ve told a lie, taken that which doesn’t belong to you, cheated, and very likely worse than these. No matter how hard you strive to be just and do good, you are still a sinner. All sin is ultimately against God. The greatest sin of all is rejecting Christ, who was tortured to death that you might go free.

“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” -Ecclesiastes 7:29

God made you for worship and service of Him, but you have sought every invention to make of yourself a god. Religion is sending more lost souls to hell than all the beer joints, nightclubs, whorehouses, and dating apps combined. Humanism, which is self as a god, is destroying civilization and you with it. Men desire to make of themselves a god so desperately that he makes a myriad of ways to promise himself eternity, and thereby you have rejected the simple promise and truth of Jesus Christ that God made from the beginning. Hell is full of pretty good folks. That’s the dirty shame of it, for it doesn’t have to be that way.

“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” -Ezekiel 18:4

Almighty God declares in Ezekiel 18:4 that all souls belong to Him! He made your soul. He gave you self-awareness and a desire for things higher and more significant than yourself. He made you to seek after Him. He created you in His own image. You have no right whatsoever to seek a god other than He that made heaven and earth and knit you in your mother’s womb. He made you and owns your very soul. The only right you have is to seek the forgiveness of Him that is holy, by the blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

In Ezekiel 18:4, Holy God further declares that the soul in sin and open rebellion to Him will die. Now, we know that all men die. Hebrews 9:27 makes it plain: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” You have an appointment with death after which you will stand before the throne of holy and Almighty God to be judged for your sin and when you’re found guilty, and you are guilty, your soul will suffer eternal death. Your soul is His to do with as He pleases to bring glory unto Himself. Your stubbornness and pride will get you an eternity in torment. Ezekiel 18:4 says that your soul will die. Under the weight of the curse of sin, your body will expire. And your conscious soul will enter into eternal torment dying all the day long, day after day, tortured for your sin forever and forever and ever again. You have no right to object; it’s the mercy of God, who is the Judge that you need. You don’t own yourself; God made you, He owns you but know too that you were bought with a price by Christ.

You inherited death, not of your own choosing; this we understand. But God made a promise to make a way, through His Son, for you who would be forgiven. You see, God is holy and perfect. To allow sin in heaven would defile Him. He won’t have sin defile His holy name. You must be forgiven and made blameless.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” – Romans 1:18

Having read this far, it’s too late. Now you know the truth. Now you must choose. The wrath of eternal damnation abides on all who reject God’s way of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, who died for your sins and rose again from the grave in power and glory the third day. You don’t have to suffer the wrath of God. You can be restored, forgiven. You who are ashamed of your sin and need the grace of God’s promise can have eternal life.

These are the two inheritances; the choice is yours: eternal death or eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Consider wisely your eternal station.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” – 1 Peter 1:3-5

Now is the time; today is the day of the revelation of salvation in Christ come unto you. You, too, can be kept by the power of God through faith if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. An eternal inheritance that never fades and won’t corrupt and that no man can take from you is God’s offer to all who put their hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have a living hope, Jesus rose from the grave. It’s by the mercy and grace of God that all who call upon Him by faith, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, are begotten again according to the abundant mercy of God our Father by the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves you and doesn’t want hell for you but offers this day eternal life. Blessed be God the Father!

Jesus declares in John 3:3, “…Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” God desires to give you a new heart and make you a new creation, to fill you with joy and hope, charity and a desire to serve Him, and above all else to pursue the truth of Holy God for a life that brings peace to you and glory to the Father through His Son. In a world besieged by sin, you can rest on one certain truth, one sure hope, and that is the hope of eternal life by the simple fact that you are Christ’s; if that is, you indeed are His.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” – 2 Peter 3:9

The promise spoken of in 2 Peter is that of Christ’s return. The Lord is not slack. Generation after generation, the Lord is making those that He chooses by faith to be His own. Christ is bringing in His kingdom with enduring patience that you too would come to Him by repentance from your own understanding. He doesn’t want you to perish in eternal torment. It’s not the will of God that you die. God is the judge and offers a way for you to be no longer condemned. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

He’s coming back to separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the just from the unjust, the holy from the wicked, the living from the dead; you must be numbered among those that belong to Christ.

These are the two promises: eternal life and the return of Christ for you who are forgiven by His grace and sanctified by the Holy Spirit to inherit His kingdom with Him.

He’s coming back for those that are His. Christ is putting all enemies under His feet, and the last enemy He will conquer will be death. Then death and hell and all those who have rejected Christ as King of kings will burn for eternity. But His people are those made holy by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The offer from Holy God to you: to be born again by the resurrection of Christ Jesus, given a living hope, gathered all together with the faithful when Christ will hand us up with His kingdom unto the Father that God may be all in all. Amen.

“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. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” –Romans 10:9-10