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NOTHING COULD BE WORSE
A man
who looked on the bright side of every situation had the habit of responding
to all unpleasant news with the comment, It could have been worse. One day a
friend told him, “I had a terrible dream last night. I dreamed that I had
died and gone to hell.”
The
optimist’s response was, it could have been worse: you could really have died
and gone to hell.
Have
you ever thought of where you will go when you die? What if your
eternal abode should be the lake of fire? That is the only situation
regarding which nothing could be worse! No matter how terrible any earthly
situation may be, it ends with death, but to find yourself in torment for
eternity is terrible beyond the power of man to imagine. The wail of one who
went to hell (the prison house of lost souls pending their final consignment
to the lake of fire) is recorded in Luke 16:24, “Father Abraham, have mercy on
me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool
my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”
What
does one have to do in order to enter hell? Nothing! You see, there are only
two places to which souls may go at death: hell or heaven, and the only
qualification one needs to enter the first is the natural birth that brought
him into this world, while the only qualification needed to enter heaven is to
have had a second, spiritual birth, which occurs the moment a man is willing
to acknowledge the he is a sinner unfit for heaven, and to believe that when
Christ went to Calvary it was to die as his Substitute.
There
is no greater delusion than to believe that we are fitted for either hell or
heaven by what we do, for the fact is that there is no sin (except to die as
an unbeliever) that can’t be forgiven; nor is there any good anyone can do to
fit himself for heaven, except to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
His reply to those who inquired how to fit themselves for heaven is recorded
in John 6:29, “This is the work of God,that ye believe on him whom he (God)
hath sent.”
The
sinful nature with which man is born is the only qualification needed to enter
hell. Except for those who are “born again,” the lake of fire is the final
destination of mankind.
How
then can men escape hell and enter heaven? Here is Christ’s answer, “Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Ye must be born
again,” John 3:3-7.
Perhaps your next question is the same as that asked by the man to whom Jesus
was speaking, “How can a man be born when he is old?” John 3:4. The reply is
the same today as then, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.... 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,” John
3:16-18.
Will
you believe in your heart that Christ has died for all your sins, and that
that belief is all you need to fit you for heaven, and save you from hell?
That simple act of faith constitutes the new spiritual birth without which you
cannot enter heaven. Christ warns, “Enter ye in at the strait (narrow) gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and
many there be which go in thereat: because strait (narrow) is the gate, and
narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it,”
Matthew 7:13-14.
The
alternative is to remain as you are, and die unsaved. Nothing could be
worse. The torment of hell is for ever.
******
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TWO YEARS
FROM NOW
In the course of a recent
conversation which I had with a lady, she said that in two years she was going
to retire, and first on her list of retirement activities was a trip to London
and Paris.
As an afterthought, she
added with a laugh, “If God spares me.”
It was evident however that
she didn’t really anticipate any such change of plans as would result from her
not being spared. But what if God doesn’t spare her? What if between now and
her anticipated retirement she were to die?
Then two years from now,
instead of enjoying herself in London and Paris, her body will be returning to
the dust from which it came, and her soul.... Where will her soul be?
The Bible declares that
there are only two eternal destinations: heaven, or first hell, and then the
lake of fire - heaven being the eternal abode of those who see the need of
having their sins forgiven, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the One
Who died at Calvary for the remission of those sins; the lake of fire being
the ultimate and eternal abode of those who either neglect or deliberately
refuse to believe in Christ as the only way to heaven.
Anticipation of retirement,
and the pleasures of travel are much more pleasant than the contemplation of
death, but death must be contemplated for it is inevitable.
Perhaps you too are making
plans for the future, and like my friend, adding, “If God spares me,” but,
like her, without really considering the consequences of not being spared.
But suppose you’re not spared. What preparation have you made to go into
eternity, to meet God? Is it such that you can say with absolute assurance,
“I know I’ll be in heaven”? Or can you say only, “I hope I’ll
be there”? And if so, what is the basis of your hope? Is it that your life
is no worse than that of many, and better than most... that you are a church-goer...
that you give generously... that you’ve never done anyone any harm... that
you’ve never done anything really bad, etc.?
Then the Bible says you have
no hope whatsoever, for the only way to heaven is by means of a new
birth. “Ye must be born again” (John.3:7) are the words of Jesus
Christ, not of man. Have you been born again? Can you recall a day when you
faced the truth that you were a sinner on your way to hell, and that the only
way to be saved was to believe that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the
cross it was in your guilty place, for your sins? That faith is the only
thing that will save you from hell and fit you for heaven.
You say, “It’s too easy.”
It is easy, but only
because Christ did what no one else could do - He gave His life as a ransom
for your soul. That’s why it’s easy. All the difficult part was done that
day two thousand years ago when He cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Men and women who trust Him as Savior are assured by God Himself, “He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
Since you don’t know what
will be two years from now (or, for that matter, two minutes from now), and
since it is at least possible you could be among the multitude that will go
from earth out into eternity, isn’t it madness to postpone securing the
eternal welfare of your soul? Your “passport” to heaven is more easily
secured than is one needed to enter a foreign country. It’s free, and
obtainable in a moment. How? It’s yours the moment you admit you’re a
sinner, and believe that Jesus Christ loved you enough to die for you. Why
not obtain it today? You may need it before tomorrow.
******
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BARTERING WITH GOD
If your hope of
entering heaven is based on your good works, have you considered what an
unfair exchange you’re expecting God to make: an eternity of bliss in heaven
for a few years of very imperfect good living, when He says that all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6?
If you think that
Christ’s death was for “original sin,” and that you fit yourself for heaven by
joining a church, and adding your own good works, you’re deluded.
If Adam’s one
disobedience (original sin) required Christ to die, are you so foolish as to
believe that your many sins can be atoned for by church membership and
imagined good works, when God says that no man is either righteous or good,
Romans 3, and that no one can be saved by good works, Ephesians 2:8-9?
There is only one
way to heaven: admit that you’re a sinner without any righteousness; believe
that Christ loved you enough to die in your place; and that in exchange for
that admission and belief, God will pardon you and bestow His GIFT of eternal
life, Romans 6:23.
******
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WHY AM I SO FRIGHTENED?
OH GOD, I’M DYING
He was just twenty, a
muscular dystrophy victim who had been confined to a wheelchair most of his
life, and now he had come to the end of that life. He began to cough, and
then to choke. His last words were the title of this message.
That young man was my
nephew, and just a few months earlier, a lady who tutored him had presented
him with the gospel, with the result that he was born again simply by
admitting that he was a sinner, and by trusting in Christ as his Savior.
Read these verses from the Gospel of John.
“Jesus answered and said
unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.“ (John 3:3)
“Marvel not that I said
unto thee, Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7)
“And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
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. 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.” (John
3:14-18)
“He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John
3:36)
If death, which carried
his soul into heaven, was such a terrible thing for him, what must it be for
those it carries down to hell?
It is one thing to joke
about death when it seems a long way off, but there will be no joking when
it touches you, carrying your soul to eternal bliss in heaven, or eternal
torment in hell, depending on whether you have been born again by admitting
that you’re a sinner, and by trusting in Christ as your Savior.
******
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HYPOCRITICAL AMERICA ...
bans prayer and the Bible from our schools, commits infanticide by “legalized”
abortion, disgusts nations of higher moral standards by corrupting their youth
through filthy TV and films, calls pornography adult entertainment, legalizes
homosexuality, makes a travesty of justice by hair-splitting definitions and a
double standard for rich and poor ... then has the effrontery to piously
declare, “In God we trust.”
Blind and deaf to all but the false teachers who bleat that God is too loving
to send anyone to hell, America, the most favored nation, mocks those who
preach the truth that His hatred of sin is as great as His love of sinners,
and that He will devastate this evil world in the imminent
Tribulation.
9/11 was His warning demonstration of what the world will be like at the end
of those seven years.
Only fools will ignore the warning. Save yourself today by admitting that
you’re a sinner, and by trusting Christ as your Savior. Tomorrow may be too
late.
******
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AN EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR
Society has produced a
euphemism to invest every sin with respectability, virtue, legality, even
humor, e.g., adultery or fornication is now called an extramarital affair;
homosexuality, sexual preference or same-sex marriage; infanticide, legal
abortion; vulgarity, free speech or art.
God, however, has changed
neither the name nor the penalty. He still calls sin, sin, with death as the
penalty.
Nor will man’s abolition of
God’s law alter anything. Man’s courts are not the final assize.
No one laughed in Israel
when the adulterer and his partner were stoned to death; nor will anyone be
laughing at the great white throne when the Lord banishes all those arraigned
there into eternal torment in the lake of fire, loudest of the wails of the
damned being those of the false teachers who today preach a God too kind and
loving to consign men to such a fate.
While that “great and
terrible” God is still extending grace and mercy, rather than dispensing
judgment, be saved by confessing yourself a sinner and trusting in Christ as
your Savior. Tomorrow you may meet Him as Judge, not Savior.
******
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THE COMING JUDGMENT
The precise completion of the larger part of Bible prophecy guarantees the
exact fulfillment of the remaining fraction, the Tribulation being next on
God’s agenda - a 7 year period in which half the world’s people will die by
war, famine, and disease.
How near is the Tribulation? Very!
Here are some of the signs of its imminence:
Israel’s autonomy is to be restored, and it was in 1948.
The old Roman Empire is to be revived as a ten-kingdom coalition, and the
European Common Market group gives every evidence of being that coalition.
Homosexuality is to be rampant, and it is.
The Church is to pass through the seven stages represented by the seven
churches of Revelation 2-3, and her condition today is exactly the same as
that of Laodicea, the last church on the list.
She has already passed through the sixth of the seven stages of her history as
portrayed in the seven parables of Matthew 13.
Israel’s seven great national feasts are the symbolic portrait of her whole
history, and she stands today on the threshold of the one represented by
Trumpets which culminates in Tabernacles, the Millennium.
Before the Tribulation, Christ will return to remove His Church to heaven.
Since He could come today it is imperative that you trust Him now as your
Savior. Tomorrow may be too late.
******
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CELIBATE PRIESTS
Scripture, God’s Word, knows nothing of a celibate priesthood, but repeatedly
enjoins marriage for all men, and it is ominously significant that
priestly celibacy, with its attendant evils, is associated with virtually
every cultic system on earth.
Israel’s priests, including the High priest, were married, as were Peter and
most, if not all, of the other disciples, Paul being the one specified
exception, and as God’s amanuensis, even he strongly and repeatedly
advocates marriage for all men.
Celibacy is an unnatural aberration producing the evils presently rocking
Catholicism, the incidents exposed being only the tip of the iceberg, the
visible eruption of a far larger invisible festering corruption which cannot
be kept hidden.
Scripture is crystal clear that ministry is to be by men endowed by the Holy
Spirit as evangelists, elders, and teachers, and nowhere is a seminary
education even hinted at as qualification.
Isn’t it likely that a system which for so long has taught error relative to
celibacy, may be wrong also concerning the salvation of your soul which will
be for ever in bliss or torment depending on whether you were born again John
3:3,7,16.
To be born again, admit that you are a sinner without any righteousness;
believe
(1) that Christ died in your stead for your sins, and
(2) that in response to that confession and faith, God pardons all your sin,
and will receive you into heaven.
******
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WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
Though it is the best selling book in the world only a relatively few people
read the Bible, with the result that few know what it says. This ad, which
takes about three minutes to read, is a brief summary of its teaching, and
since those three minutes could be the most profitable you’ve ever spent, why
not use them to learn facts that could transform your life?
While the Bible contains history, prophecy, poetry, and moral precepts, these
are only the background against which its principal message is set, that
message being the revelation of God and His plan of redemption for men.
First, as to God: He is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing),
holy, transcendent in His love for sinners, but transcendent also in His
hatred of sin. His love is displayed in His having given His Son the Lord
Jesus Christ to die in man’s stead for man’s sin; but His hatred of sin is
disclosed in that men who refuse to be cleansed from sin must first enter
hell, and ultimately the lake of fire to endure eternal torment.
In regard to sin, we should note that men don’t become sinners by committing
sin. They sin because they are born with a sinful nature, that nature being
inherited from Adam; and almost invariably the response to that fact is, “It’s
unfair of God to blame me for sinning since He has given me a nature that can
only produce sin,” and it would be unfair were it not for another truth
declared in the Bible.
While it is by the wrong choice made by Adam in the beginning that we are born
into this world as sinners, God gives us the freedom to choose whether to
remain in that condemned state, the teaching of the Bible being that all we
have to do to escape the terrible consequences of Adam’s wrong choice is to
believe that God loves us and wants to save us from the terrible fate chosen
for us by Adam, and here is how God’s plan works.
I must begin by admitting that I am completely sinful, without one shred of
righteousness.
Next, I must believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, loved me so much
that He became man, and died on the cross in my stead for my sin.
And finally I must believe that God responds to that faith by pardoning all my
sin, thus enabling me to enter heaven instead of hell at the end of my earthly
life.
That act of faith is how one is born again, the absolute imperative of that
new spiritual birth being emphasized by the Lord Jesus Christ, “Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ... You must be born
again ... For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life ...
He who believes on the Son has everlasting life; and he who believes not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” John 3:3,7,16,36.
Isn’t it the height of madness to remain condemned to hell because of Adam’s
foolish choice, when by your own choice you can be sure of heaven?
******
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NUDITY
A North Carolina group is
presently lobbying for permission to open a nude sports club, which isn’t
surprising since nudity is being presented with increasing boldness
everywhere, e.g., on TV, movies, in swimwear that leaves little to the
imagination, and in the latest dress fad which presents the bare navels of old
and young alike. None should wonder therefore at the increase in rape, and
the abandonment of moral sex standards, since female nudity is designed to
arouse male passion.
The accelerating trend
toward nudity, however, has a far deeper significance than is generally
recognized: it is simply another subtle step towards dismissing God from His
Own creation, the innate tendency to cover the reproductive body parts being
related to the consciousness of sin, the first act of fallen Adam being to
cover himself, Genesis 3:7-8. Nudity is rebel man’s symbolic defiant
declaration that he has no sin, thus making a liar of God Who says, “All have
sinned,” and “the wages of sin is death,” Romans 3:23; 6:23; hence His warning
in Revelation 3:18 relative to the day when every unbeliever will stand before
Him trembling, spiritually naked, just prior to being consigned to the eternal
torment of the unquenchable flame of the lake of fire, Revelation 20:11-15.
Acknowledgement of your sin,
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior is all you need to cover your
spiritual nakedness, so that on the day of judgment you will be able to stand
before Him unashamed and unafraid in heaven, clothed in Christ’s
righteousness.
******
