There is a glorious gospel that needs to be told to a people in much need of it. As a saved member of this family and circle of friends, I can testify both to the gloriousness of the gospel and the need of the people to whom it is addressed. Please note this at the beginning: ‘If the gospel is true, AND IT IS, it must by its very nature be shared with others that they may also be saved.’ Only a wicked man is able to withhold something so valuable from people so desperately in need of it, when it is within his capacity to share it! I was wicked, but now am saved and my heart’s desire is to share the gospel truth with you all, that all of you may also have an opportunity to be saved.
First of all, if we are to be saved, there has to be something that we need to be saved from, which would be eternal torment in the Lake of Fire. You may not believe this, but there are also some who don’t believe they will die if they jump off the top of a 50 story building. For a short time after their jump they may think themselves safe, but the time will come when the concrete will prove them wrong! Likewise, you may continue to refuse to believe in a literal fiery eternal Hell, but the time WILL come when you will be proved wrong.
Here is a little known fact: ‘There are NONE that are now dead who do not believe in Hell and its torments.’ Those who are in Heaven knew about it, and fled to Christ for salvation; others knew about it and thought it was not meant for them but their arrival there proved them wrong; still others denied Hell’s existence and will be there for eternity. Few people currently in Hell thought THEY would end up there.
There is no love or joy of any kind in Hell, there will be no family visits (though the whole family may be there); there will be nothing to bring relief as you are set to burn with weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity. There are many doors in, but there is not one door out; you will wish to leave, but that will be impossible; death will have sealed your position for eternity.
Now you ask, what has caused people to go there? In one word it is SIN. All have sinned, and for that all deserve to spend eternity in Hell. You like me were born in sin, termed original sin and inherited from the first man Adam. A reasonable person will not have to take more than a casual look in the mirror of the soul to find they are a sinner. One lie, one spot of envy, one vain thought (let alone the grosser sins of murder, adultery, idolatry, drunkenness, fornication and the like) by themselves are just cause to condemn you to Hell, separated from a thrice-holy God for eternity.
Even if you believe you have not sinned in one of these (you would only be fooling yourself), there is yet a sin greater than all of these, known as unbelief. We were born in unbelief, and by not believing God and His word, have called the holy, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God of the Bible a liar to His face. Having jumped off the building through original sin how is it that you can still refuse to believe the law of gravity? You poke your finger into the very eye of God by refusing to believe Him, and yet have the audacity to think it will go well with you for eternity. Note: Hell and gravity are both a certainty!
Some of you may think, sure I have sinned, but I will atone for my own sin through doing good works; I will try as I can to make the world a better place. If you are able to do thus, I am compelled to ask, where were you when God framed this world, and why did He not consult you?
Analogy:
You have been pricked in the heart and come to the understanding that you must get to Hawaii (Heaven) with the understanding that ending up anywhere else will be Hell.God has ordained that there is however only one way to get to Hawaii; you must first board THE PLANE destined there (salvation by the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ), then it will only be natural for you to sit down (do God’s work). Without first boarding the airplane, all hope of sitting down as the means of getting you to Hawaii is purely vain. There are many people sitting down all over the world who may try and hope as they wish, but they will not be getting to Hawaii until they first board a plane destined there. Merely sitting down without first boarding THE PLANE is hopeless.
You should also realize that there are many planes and that most of them do not go to Hawaii, however, from where you live there will be a way to get to one plane that is going there. Be wary though, because there is many a person who has boarded one of the numerous wrong planes (false religion), along with enumerable blind guides (false pastors/prophets) [IE: Billy Graham-Popish Denominational Ecumenicalism; Rick Warren/Bill Hybels-Hegelian New Evangelicalism; Norman Vincent Peale/James Dobson-Psychological syncretism; Robert Schuller/Benny Hinn-Charismatic confusion; and the whole host of the Pastor Feel Good’s-Antinomianism] all trying to load you on to one of the wrong planes. And these are just some of the wolves within ‘professing’ Christianity! You could also get into the multitudes of other false religions like Romanism, Islam, Judaism, Kabbalism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Spiritualism, New Agism, Humanism, Atheism, Russellism, Mormonism, Eddyism, Adventism, Scientology, and countless others. The sad part is that those who trust in any of these false systems of religion are not on their way to Hawaii. Now this may cause you to ask: Are there few that be saved? Yes, the Bible says there are only few that are saved, so be careful not to board any old plane, but to board THE PLANE.
Then there are those who are wise in their own eyes and say everybody knows you can get to Hawaii by boat. To you who seek to defy God, I must warn you that it would be wise not to board the Titanic; that ship WILL sink. When God says there is only one way, THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY; you must board THE PLANE.
There are also people on the proper plane who at any given moment could be temporarily standing up (not doing God’s work) for whatever reason. Does that mean they are no longer going to Hawaii? No, because they have boarded the right plane! Due to turbulence, it will be much safer for them to be sitting down and be seat belted in, but for whatever reason there may be some who are standing at the moment. The important thing to note is that the work of getting them there is done by THE PLANE.
All this is to teach that it is best to know your place, as surely as you are a sinner, you also need a Saviour.
This is where the mercy of God comes in. Knowing our broken and undone condition with our total inability to save ourselves, ‘God sent forth his Son, made of a woman’, to save us from our sin. If there was another way then it would have been utterly ridiculous for God to come in human flesh and shed His own blood to save us. There is no other way to be saved, but to be washed in the blood of the Lamb, when if our ‘sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow’. God requires the shedding of blood to make remission for sin, and without it there can be no remission. There must be a substitution of innocent blood for guilty blood; hence no mere man has the ability to pay the penalty required of himself or of another. The sacrifice must be perfect, sinless and holy to blot out sin, without these qualifications there can only be a covering of sin, but the sin will still remain. All of these qualifications were entirely and singularly fulfilled in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ who is the eternal Son of God, God the Son, fully God, and fully man; was tempted as we are, yet was without sin; suffered, bled and died. He willingly shed His own blood for the remission of our sins and was raised again the third day for our justification. Christ paid the penalty we so properly deserved, and ever lives to make intercession for us with the Father.
Salvation is bestowed by grace and received through faith; that is the grace of God who had mercy on us as unworthy sinners, and the faith of us as sinners in the finished work of Christ on the cross. What is required of us is to acknowledge our broken sinful condition, believe on and receive (trust) Jesus Christ as both our Lord and Saviour, and is accompanied by a change of mind from loving sin to hating it (known as repentance). It is God’s freely offered gift that is available to all with not one being excluded, and is available to you today, if you will only believe Christ and receive Him as your personal Saviour. The moment you genuinely trust Christ alone for your salvation, you will be renewed-born again by the Spirit of God (known as the new birth or regeneration); the old self and its desires will die out, and the new self will have new desires to forsake all sin and live for Christ, which were never there before.
Analogy:
If a good man had found you to be drowning in the midst of a river, he would not merely pick your head above the water and leave you dangling in the river. No, he would pull you out of the river and place you on dry ground, and if needs be resuscitate you. It is the same with salvation by Christ. He will not merely pull your head above the torrents of sin, but will pull you out FROM it; and will breathe new life into you by the Holy Spirit, who gives you a heart to despise the river of sin and leads you away from it.
Once saved, this life may actually have even more difficulty, which is a part of the chastening of the Lord for our own good. Our old Adamic nature will still reside in us, always trying to draw us back to the river of sin, but along with it is the new nature imparted in Christ. The two natures will co-exist until we die, but through the chastening of the Lord and our submission to the leading of the Spirit of God; the Adamic nature will decrease, and the Christ-like nature will increase. This chastening is to draw us nearer to the Lord, to put us in mind of heavenly things and take our mind away from earthly things. It is to cause us to think less of self and more of Christ in preparation for eternity, which brings us to what the creation was, and is all about.
It is about selecting and preparing a bride (the saved of all generations) for Christ to spend eternity with in Heaven; one that loves Him with all their heart, and has been purified (sanctified-made holy) in preparation to marry the King, as was Esther. We were created so that we would have an opportunity to choose to love our Creator, and so that our Creator would have someone to share His infinite love with. He could have made us like robots and programmed all of us to choose/obey Him; but then this would have all been purely mechanical with no room for love.
Analogy:
When I was to be married, I first sought out a woman that would love me. Having found her I pursued her to see if we would be compatible to live together and love each other as long as we both were to live. I did not club her on the head and say, “You are coming with me”, because real love is mutual and there would have been no love in that. So I asked her to marry me, she responded with a yes, and when the ‘I do’s’ were completed, we were irrevocably married. I now provide for and protect her as I am able and as she lets me, which is but a poor picture of what Christ does for us on a much grander scale when we receive Him.
God could have clubbed you on the head and said, “You are coming with Me”, but did not because real love is mutual and requires a decision. So I put the decision to you now: Will you leave your sins and receive Christ or have your sins and go to Hell?
I have set the matter before you as plainly as I am able: An eternity of love/joy/peace with Christ, or an eternity of pain/suffering/torment separated from Christ. Death for you may seem far away, but the rapture of the saved before the Great Tribulation appears very much to be nigh at hand. Choose ye this day for you have no guarantee of a tomorrow!