07.06.07
Posted in Witnessing at 11:46 pm by TruthofmyKing
An all “to familiar” question when sharing your faith is captured in the title of this article.
“Why do some Churches and Christians insist on preaching Hell?”
“If God is love, why would He send anyone to Hell?”
“Didn’t Jesus die for my sins, so why should I worry about it?”
Faithful Christians preach about Hell because Jesus did!
It is true that denominations and Christians alike will disagree on the interpretation of passages about hell but I will state a fact: The loving Savior, Jesus Christ, taught more about hell than any other person combined in the entire Bible.
To prove this, find a topical bible (these bibles categorize passages into various topics) and then turn to the topic of “Hell”, read each passage, and see for yourself who was responsible for bringing us the majority of our teaching on this subject.
To NOT teach others about hell would be to NOT teach the Doctrine of Christ.
To be honest, this god that people make up in their minds, the one that does not punish evil, is a god that is unjust and unholy and truly is unloving. I will explain this later, but for now, if these accusers would just stop and think they could see that their god is nothing like the God of the Bible.
In fact, most of the Bible has to be denied or ignored to make such a statement that “God won’t send anyone to hell.”
For example consider this passage:
Heb 10:26-3126 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
NASB
Let us reason together, if you truly love something, then in that love, you must hate other things. For example, I have beautiful children, fearfully and wonderfully made by God, and I love them immensely and that is why I hate when someone hurts them physically or emotionally. My love for them provokes my anger in such a time.
If you truly love the light then you will hate the darkness, for darkness is lights rival. If you love righteousness, you will hate unrighteousness.
Let me personalize this. Think about the people that you love, what if they were blatantly lied to, taken advantage of, beaten or raped, or worse, murdered. If any one of these crimes were committed against your loved ones you would cry out for justice.
Ah Justice! This is what is missing from this argument. Take their loved ones and exceedingly sin against them, (Blaspheme against them, dishonor them, commit adultery, unspeakable acts, etc) and now, yes, now we hear their cry for justice. Isn’t there going to be a punishment for these crimes, they say?
So the same is true with God and even greater are the Truths.
I must note that our love cannot even begin to compare to His love and the justice that mankind can conceive is not even close to the justice we will come to know if we do not repent and turn from our ways.
Luke 13:3
3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
NASB
So why then did Jesus die for us? There is not enough time in my short life to thoroughly answer that question but for this articles purpose I will give two reasons: It was for Love and for Justice.
LOVE:
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
NASB
And Justice:
Prov 17:15
15 He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.
NASB
You see according to the teachings of God, it is an “abomination” for Him or anyone else to justify the wicked. According to His own word, He cannot possibly justify our sins by saying “I will forget about all your transgressions and render no punishment at all.”
In other words, because of our wickedness, our sin, we owe a debt, and Justice has to be served if God is ”Just” (and He is). Someone has to be punished; to simply justify wickedness would be an “abomination” according to the book of Proverbs.
When Jesus died on the cross, crushed and abandoned by His own Father, Justice for your sin was served. Remember, Jesus had no sin.
2 Cor 5:21
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
NASB
His punishment was for your sin. You cannot accuse God of being unjust. All one has to do is look to the cross, look at what He did to His own Son if you question His justice.
Rom 3:24-26
Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
NASB
So now that it is clear, we come back to the love of Jesus. Jesus did not have to justify you but He chose to lay down His own life because He loves you.
John 10:17-18
17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
NASB
So what does God want from us: He desires compassion, He looks to the one whose heart is broken and contrite. He asks you to repent and believe!
Isa 66:2
2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
NASB
Mark 1:14-15
14 And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
NASB
For the Truth of my King
Permalink
07.01.07
Posted in Witnessing at 4:59 pm by TruthofmyKing
2 months ago, I witnessed to a man who was a professer of Christ; that is to say that he called himself by the title of “Christian.”
“Do you believe you are going to heaven?” I asked. “Yes” he replied. “Why?……What is the reason for this hope that you have.”
1 Peter 3:15
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
NASB
He answered and said “Well, I guess it is because I am a good person and I asked Jesus Christ in my heart.”
This usual and customary answer has roots that reach deep into the bowels of hell. I cannot go any longer without exposing the deeds of satan.
If we were good, we would need not a Savior. What would this Saviour do; save us from our goodness?
You see, the very foundation of being a Christian is to first recognize your own sin; therfore realizing you need a Savior. You know, the word “sin” has become so diluted and useless in the world……let me restate my sentence: The very idea of being a Christian is to recognize that you are wicked in the eyes of the Lord.
I am sure that some of you don’t like the word “wicked” but it is true:
Gen 13:13
13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.
NASB
Paul labors so hard to make sure we all understand that we are under sin:
Rom 3:10-13
10 as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace have they not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
NASB
We are wicked. We are a vile race. We are sinners. And do not think to yourself that the above passage’s do not apply to you:
1 John 1:10
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
NASB
When you say you are going to heaven because you are good, you make the Lord a liar. In your mind, you have made His sacrifice of no use. He died to save you from your vileness, your filthiness, your sin.
You see, the only way that you will not find yourself eternally perishing in hell is to turn and repent (change from the heart) of being that vile, filthy man, who most assuredly, is known in heaven as a sinner.
Luke 13:5
5 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
NASB
Now if you are “good” (as you say), what is it that you are saved from? What is it that you are going to repent from? From your own goodness?
No, the Lord is our Righteousness! Without Him, there is none Righteous, No, not one!
So how did we get here? It is quite simple…..It is the message that is being preached!
In the words of a famous evangelists “We have preached the cure without first preaching the disease.” That is how people can say they have “come to the Savior” without ever realizing they needed to be saved. No one has ever convinced them of their disease.
This is not new, listen to what Martin Luther had to say in his day:
“Satan, the god of all dissension stirs up daily new sects. And last of all which of all others I should never have foreseen or once suspected, he has raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ.”
How can one understand Grace without first understanding condemnation?
I want so much to tell you about the goodness of God, but a man first has to sow seed before he can reap. Even then, one sows and another reaps. But I will not have you deceived, in order to sow seed you must first plow. No farmer throws his seed on top of the soil, it does not take root. Till up the heart of an evil man, show him the folly of his way, let him tremble before the Holy law of God, then plant the seed of salvation.
THE PRICE HAS BEEN PAID……….YOUR DEBT PAID IN FULL!
That man will then love much because there is no doubt, that if we truly understand this teaching, we have all been forgiven much.
For the Truth of my King
Permalink
06.29.07
Posted in Witnessing at 8:50 am by TruthofmyKing
I recently heard a statistic that only 5-10% of those in America who profess Christ as their Savior actually share their faith with others. As to the validity of the stat, I do not know, but my personal conviction is that it is very close to accurate. There are many Christians who do share their faith and I thank my God for you!
I would be willing to bet that if the other 90-95% were to win the lottery, they would tell everyone they knew and even some that they did not know. Yet if you take all the lotteries, all the riches, all the wonders, all the heavens, and gift wrap them in a box and present them to one who truly knows Jesus Christ as their Lord, they would toss that box to the side as if it were a lump of coal, because Jesus outweighs all of the riches and wonders and heavens wrapped up, rolled up, and put together.
The true Christian has already found his treasure!
Why is it so hard to speak about something so wonderful? Think about it, when was the last time something so wonderful, beyond belief, has happened to you, and you didn’t tell a soul?
And what about hell? Have you ever walked with spiritual eyes and seen the vast majority of people are on the broad road to hell?
Imagine you woke up one day and looked over at your neighbors house and saw a raging fire in their back yard and you knew the family was inside and would fall victim to the blaze if you didn’t say anything. You would dash to their door with urgency and plead with them, with all that is in you, to see the same fire that you can plainly see and plead with them to flee the death that is to come.
So I am asking you to look at the home of your unregenerated neighbor with spiritual eyes. Do you see it? Do you see the very fires of hell raging even as you read; satan crouching and waiting to devour! Why won’t you do anything?
For those of you who do share your faith…MAY GOD BLESS YOU!
“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.”
“Answering a student’s question, ‘Will the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved?’ thus, ‘It is more a question with me whether we, who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.”
~Charles Spurgeon
Heb 9:27
27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment
NASB
Mark 16:15
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
NASB
Friends, Go and preach the Gospel!
For the Truth of my King
Permalink
06.26.07
Posted in Witnessing at 8:54 am by TruthofmyKing
I recently was told by a person who professes Christ that they did not know how to witness. Friends, this ought not to be this way.
You see, to witness, is to simply speak about something that you have seen or have experienced. For example, if you were traveling down I-88 and saw a car accident, then you are a witness to that accident. Imagine now that when the police arrives, you would shrink away from speaking at all and think to yourself “Oh my, I do not know how to witness” or “I can’t tell them anything because I don’t know much about cars or accidents.”
No, you would simply tell the officer what it is that you have seen. You do not need to be an expert on cars, nor do you need to be a forensic accident investigator to be a witness at the scene. Just simply speak about what you saw, about your experience. The same is true for the Christian.
What is it that you have seen? What is it that you have experienced? What is that you have been saved from? Have you seen the heavenly vision……have you seen it? So quiet and dark yet at the same time, so awesome and wonderful. If you have had the experience, if you have seen the heavenly vision, then proclaim it as though you will never be able to proclaim it again, witness the rest of your life as a dying man unto dying men!
“Brethern, do something, do something, do something! While societies and unions make constitutions, let us win souls.”
~Charles Spurgeon
But if you are saying “I don’t know how to witness” I would ask you to examine whether your speech Should be “I don’t know what I witnessed.”
2 Cor 13:4-5
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?
NASB
Permalink
RSS
