Sunday, May 29, 2016

What Must I Do To Be Saved?

Acts 16:30 - 31 “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved…And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

What a most beautiful image of salvation God has painted for us here. It took a miracle to save this man’s soul, but God did it. Here was this poor lost sinner that was a jailer and God shook the place causing this jailer to think about his eternal life, and what he saw was horrible. God brought this old sinner to his knees and asking the glorious question “what must I do to be saved” and Paul and Silas answered “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” and this jailer believed and was saved. This is put together like a play right before our eyes. God is the entire creator of this play, director, producer, writer, and etc. but it is not a play, it is real, real in that a poor sinner was saved and God did so much to deliver this man to Jesus Christ. Yes, it is true that God could have just had Paul or Silas to preach a salvation sermon and God could have used that sermon to have saved this man, but God wanted to show His glorious power in this man’s salvation. God ordained this entire event in order to save this jailer to show us His glorious power in salvation. People have belittled salvation by making it possible by man to bring about their own salvation, therefore leaving God out of it. These two men could have preached till they were out of breath and this jailer would have never believed in Jesus Christ. So God cause an earthquake in order to bring about this one man’s salvation. What did God do to save you? I believe if you search back to your own salvation that something happened, something different, something out of normal that caused to you seek Jesus for salvation. God may not have cause an earthquake but God did something special in your own salvation. I have heard many stories or testimonies of many people telling me about their own salvation and some of them are simply amazing. Some people God simply brings them to salvation and some are as exciting as this event here, but we all have a story of our salvation.

It has been debated much as to what is meant here in the scriptures. I have heard things like “well they did not finish the answer to the question, they only told him the beginning, they are other things to salvation”. Folks, the question is “what must I do to be saved” and the answer is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” there is nothing more to salvation. Jesus Christ is the Saviour, ("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) and nothing else is needed. We have the complete gospel in 1 Cor. 15 1-4 and here we have the complete necessity for salvation. We do not need to add anything, works, baptism, church membership, and etc. are all wonderful things for the person who are saved but for the lost sinner, as this jailer was, Christ Jesus is the need. That is the truth and to add to it or to take away from it is to change the truth into a lie. This change is made to take God out of the act of salvation and to put it into the hands of the man. However, as we can see by this glorious event, God delivered this sinner to Christ and all Paul and Silas did was to point him to Christ. If we point in any other direction, baptism, works, church membership, or etc. we are pointing to a dead-end and not to eternal life. "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

What must you do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Folks, to believe anything different will only get you eternal damnation.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

God Haters Will Answer To God.

“And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.” Deuteronomy 7:10

We live in an era where the world’s hatred for God could not be more prevalent. Almost in every section of the world people hate God, and they don’t even try to hide it. They hate God so much that they even hate anything or anyone connected with God. The world thinks they are gaining a victory, but if the truth be known God will always have the victory. People who hate God will never have a victory. There was no victory when they crucified Jesus Christ, the victory was God’s. God will allow people to hate Him because everyone who are not saved will always hate Him. It is God’s creation and the reasoning to how He does things are totally in His choosing. Why God allows His own creation to hate Him is Gods way of allowing sin to run her course, but be assured one day it will run out of road. God will stop the hate and when He does, He will punish this sin. God’s longsuffering with evil has a punishment, and that punishment will be to their faces because God has no reason to hide or to punish from a distance. Jesus Christ is going to be their judge and He will call them up to the Great White Throne and will judge them, we will tell them their sins and then condemn them because they did not believe in Him as Saviour. The world believes they have topped the hill of defeating God and are now on a downhill roll, but what they do not know is they will run into a barrier and when they do it’s going to be painful. It is called the Great Tribulation because the troubles of that time will be so painful and awful that no one has ever thought possible. God will repay people for their hate and that repayment will be very painful. God promised, “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” Deuteronomy 32:35 So while God allows their hate today, and while it may seem they are victorious, their victory will be short. Exactly how long we do not know, but we do know the victory is God’s. I do not know the anger of God, I have never seen the anger of God, and I thank God I will only see it from afar. Nahum 1:2 “God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.” Yes, beloved, today God is most hated and we as Christians are most hated, but we are to stand strong and faithful in the Lord. Faithful is He who will bring the hatred to an end. Vengeance is His and He will repay him. Victory is ours in Jesus Christ. 1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

Sunday, May 8, 2016

“Be Not Conformed To This World”

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2

I would like to speak to you today about changes this world and especially America are going through. In America in the past several years we have seen so many changes and none of them for the Christian good. Liberalism has really drug America down into the sewage. America has gotten so bad that we are demonizing people who disagree with people using whatever bathroom they choose; this is the sickness in America. It matters not if you are Republican or Democrat both side support this lunacy. I know the perverts in American must be really enjoying this new allowance for them. However, it is not enough that so many people and politicians have agreed with them but when Christians are afraid of refusing to fight it, then there is not much fight left. Beloved as Christian we are commanded not to be conformed to this world and its ungodliness. The word “conformed” means - to be fashion alike with it- in other words as Christians it is not ok to change with the world. God does not speak good of the world; in fact, He speaks of its judgment so to come. Beloved, as Christians we are the last fight, we are the fighters of truth and godliness. If we surrender and give us as the last line of sanity, then everyone loses to Satan. I know there are much pressure from the world, I know the NFL got involved, and so many other secular organizations, but these are not Christians, these are not God’s fighters for truth. Churches that simply want growth, that want money, that desire notoriety in the world will and have conformed to this world without a fight for God. The Lord also said by not conformed to this world… ye may prove what is that good. We still love good; we still love the truth of God. We still want a world to live in where Christians can worship and serve God in truth and in spirit. The world can do what they please they serve Satan anyway, but as Christians we must continue the fight. While the Lord told us to occupy till he returns Luke 19:13, He never told us to surrender. The Lord also told us “but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” this is a renewing of the mind you might say it is a revival of God’s power in our hearts. The Psalmist prayed in Psalms 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” We need the Holy Spirt to continually work within us. We need to pray often that God will keep us upright and not allow us to fall to the temptations of the world dictating what is right and what is wrong, because they only know wrong, however they call the wrong right and will hate you for disagreeing. Beloved, time will continue and the world will continue to worsen, as Christians we will be hated more and more for doing what is right. Therefore, let us all pray together that God will keep us whole and renewed in the Spirit every day, and let us not be afraid to fight for what is godly and right. If we do not fight the good fight, then who will. We may lose the battle in this world but we will win the victory in the world to come. So while big church surrender to the image of the world, let us small church fight to the end. There were millions of Christians who have died fighting this same fight.1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” Remember let us all pray together.