At no time in History has the terms “Christian,” “saved” and “born-again” been more misunderstood and misused than now. These terms have sadly become commonplace and are flippantly thrown around with little or no significance. Wicked people, living the most ungodly lives, can be heard professing to be born-again Christians. Pornography models and homosexuals claim to be saved Christians, while yet arrogantly living in their sins. There are even churches with Sodomite ministers and a Sodomite congregation. Surely, this is not acceptable to God in Heaven. These are not true believers, though they may be sincere! Genuine repentance brings about a change of heart, which should discourage a believer from parading their sins in public with no sense of shame or remorse. Although a person does NOT have to give up their sins to be saved, there should at least be a desire to give up their sins because they ARE SAVED. There's a big difference between the two.
Fortunately, a person who is living in such
gross sin (and all sin is gross to God) can become saved...
“Whosoever will” may come! “...and
him that cometh to me
I WILL IN NO WISE
CAST OUT” (John 6:37). What a
wonderful promise from Jesus Christ, our
God and Savior! Anyone, no matter how
deep they’ve gone into sin, can come to Christ for salvation. We
read in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:
though your
SINS BE AS SCARLET, they
shall be AS
WHITE AS SNOW; though they
be RED LIKE
CRIMSON, they shall be
AS WOOL.” It’s interesting that the word
“crimson” in Hebrew means “worm.” It
was a worm used in the making of dyes for clothing. Stains
are hard to get out! Perhaps you feel
that your life has been permanently stained with sin and there is no hope
for you. Oh, yes there is! The blood of Jesus can wash away the toughest stains which sin may
leave on your soul! “...Unto Him that
loved us, and
WASHED US FROM OUR SINS IN HIS OWN BLOOD”
(Revelation 1:5). Jesus saves!
I have spoken with a good number of people in
recent months concerning God, the Bible and salvation. Frankly,
it worries me. I am disturbed at the
subtlety of Satan and how he deceives so many people with false beliefs. One
man said that he was a saved Christian and I began to rejoice with him in
his faith. A few statements later he
said, “I go to church every Saturday to get salvation.” Immediately
a warning flag went up in my mind and I sincerely doubted the man’s
salvation! Why? It's because you
don’t obtain salvation every Saturday! This
man doesn’t understand the Bible. I
proceeded to explain to him that “Salvation is not of works, but of faith”! Salvation
is not found in a religion, but in a Person; namely, JESUS CHRIST! You
get saved ONE TIME! In John
3:7 Jesus told Nicodemus, “Ye
MUST
be born again,”
not born again and again and again. You
can only be born ONCE physically; likewise, ONCE spiritually.
Another
gentleman I spoke with said that he had grown up a Catholic, then became a
Seventh-Day Adventist and then a Methodist. He
spoke of Jesus as “our Lord” so I felt strongly that he might be a
Christian. A month later he made the
statement, “My problem with all the religions in the world is that they all
say something different and cannot agree.” Again,
this was a warning flag to me that he may not be a true Believer. Why?
It's because he is looking to religion, not Jesus. He has “Churchianity” without “Christianity!”
Most of the people I speak with concerning salvation have a form of
“Churchianity,” but do not have Christ in their heart as their personal
Savior.
Another
person I spoke with told me that he was a strict Catholic. He said that he believed in “having faith in Christ,” but he also
said he believed “works were necessary” for
salvation. He said “I believe in faith and works!” I
kindly and quickly pointed out Romans 11:6 to him... “And
IF BY GRACE THEN IT IS NO MORE OF WORKS:
otherwise grace is no more
grace. But
IF IT BE OF WORKS,
THEN IT IS NO MORE GRACE:
otherwise work is no more work.” Clearly,
salvation is either “BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH” in Jesus Christ alone
OR you are doing what Cain
did—offering your WORKS to God. It
CANNOT BE BOTH! God rejected
Cain’s offering and he will reject your efforts as well. Abel
demonstrated his faith in the coming Savior through a blood sacrifice. God
was pleased by his faith. Cain had no
faith, but misunderstood and tried to please God in his own SINCERE but
foolish efforts, just as countless millions do
today! Cain went to Hell, Abel went to Heaven!
May I say, if you’re a true Believer, you should KNOW
how You became a true believer! If
you’re a genuine Christian, then you have the Holy Spirit of God
inside and you can KNOW beyond any shadow of any doubt that you are saved. You
might have some doubts or concerns about your own salvation, but you should
at least be able to explain to someone what it means to be saved. If
you can’t tell someone else how to be saved, you had better examine your own
heart and make sure you are really a Christian! If
you know how you were saved, then you should be able to tell someone else
how to get saved. Now maybe you don’t
know all the Scriptures, but at least you should be able to tell someone the
Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Can
you do this? Do you know how and why
you're saved?
Salvation is so simple! All we need to do is put our 100% faith (total reliance) upon Jesus TO FORGIVE OUR SINS and save our souls. Turning over a new leaf is unacceptable. Your sins must be dealt with! You need forgiveness from the ONLY ONE WHO CAN FORGIVE SIN, Jesus Christ. Believe on Jesus to forgive your sins immediately if you’ve never done so. Repent, by owning before God that you’re a vile, GUILTY, hell-deserving sinner as His Word declares you to be! TURN TO JESUS CHRIST in faith, trusting upon Him alone as your ONLY way to Heaven. Have you, yourself done this? Remember, ONLY Jesus paid for your sins on the cross, so ONLY Jesus can forgive those sins and save your soul from Hell. In short, It’s Jesus or Hell!
Don’t play games with your soul and risk eternal hellfire and damnation, repent of your unbelief and turn to Christ now for the forgiveness of sin. It doesn’t matter whether you pray or not. It doesn’t matter where you're at. It doesn’t matter how you feel at the moment. It doesn’t matter what sins and faults you may have in your life. What does matter is that you acknowledge before God that you are a guilty sinner, guilty for violating His holy Law, and then call upon Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and cleanse you with His precious blood. Have you ever done this? Are you trusting Christ alone and NOT your own self-righteous works? Are you trusting upon HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, i.e., the righteousness of God which is attributed to our record through faith in Christ? Are you trusting Christ alone and NOT your good deeds? Are you trusting Christ alone and NOT your religion? We need HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! Eternal life is a free gift. Salvation is receiving; Not giving.
Are you really a Christian?
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