Dear Family and Friends,
I am convinced that Jesus Christ will be coming very soon for His
Church. (Revelation 22:12-13, 1 Thess. 4:16-17, 1Cor. 15:51-52) We
must all be ready for death. Just as those who died in the World
Trade Center, we do not know if today will be our last. We must be
prepared for death.
I. THE PROPHECY
Jesus said:
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
come."
As a result of the terrorist act on September 11th, for the first time
ever, the Gospel was preached in all the world. As Billy Graham
shared the Gospel message, it was being broadcast to every nation in
the world to hear simultaneously.
Jesus then says:
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place...
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:"
The holy place is the temple, which used to stand on the Temple Mount,
which now does not exist. I just recently heard that the cornerstone
for the Third temple will be laid October 4, 2001.
(see http://www.templemountfaithful.org/Events/sukkot-2001.htm)
One thing that this terrorist act and future terrorist acts is helping
to do is to: speed up the prophecy of the one world government. (To
see how close we are to this, see http://www.un.org.) We know from
the prophet Daniel that the world will be ruled by ten kings, but one
head, who will be the antichrist. Currently, the United Nations has
15 members... we know that that number must drop to ten (Daniel 7:24).
We also know from Revelation 13:16-17, that the one world government
will require everyone to take a mark on their right hand or forehead.
And without the mark, we will not be able to buy or sell anything. See
http://members.aol.com/gklentprs/warning.html for the implantable mark
of the beast.
I would encourage you to read the rest of Matthew 24. Times will
become worse and worse... and more quickly. Famine and pestilence
will abound... and I'm sure that we will have much worse terrorists
attacks, possibly biochemical warfare, and purposeful spreading of
virus' and bacteria. America is not prepared for this type of
warfare.
But we can be prepared spiritually.
I. HOW TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD
The apostle Paul said:
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own
selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is
in you, except ye be reprobates?" 2Corinthians 13:5
If I look back at my life, I thought I became a Christian at a very
early age (4 years old) because I went down to the front of a church
and accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour. However, my life did not
change much. Again in college, my life changed drastically when I
started going to Campus Crusade for Christ, and saw that the God of
the Bible really existed. At that time, I would have said that "I
recommitted my life to Christ". I went to church weekly. I tried my
best to become a "good" person, and live by the standards of the
Bible. But was I saved? Again Paul says "Examine yourselves, whether
ye be in the faith", and then he says "that Jesus Christ is in you".
Well it was not until I was 26 years old that I actually "received
Jesus Christ", and Jesus Christ came into my life. I pray that
my friends and family will learn from my mistakes.
II. SALVATION
Jesus makes it very clear from Scripture that:
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
John 3:3
1. We must be born again.
Jesus also says:
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3
2. We must be converted -- this is the same as being born again.
John 1:12-13 explains how we may converted:
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God."
We cannot know anything about God unless He reveals Himself to us
(Mat. 16:17). God will not reveal Himself to us unless we repent from
our sin, put our trust in Him, and ask Him to have mercy on us.
3. We must receive Him.
And even though I thought I had done this when I was a child,
and then again when I was in college... it was never from
my heart. I had an intellectual belief in Christ. I had
not been born again.
4. We must believe
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
John 5:24
there are two conditions for eternal life here: hear His word,
and believe on Him.
5. Belief must be from the heart... not just an intellectual
or emotional belief
John 10:9-10 says:
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
The belief that Jesus talks about is a belief from the deepest
part of our heart, from the inner core of our being. Jesus gives
us an example of this kind of belief in Matthew 13:44-46:
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking
goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went
and sold all that he had, and bought it."
III. HOW WE CANNOT APPROACH GOD
Jesus said:
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21
and in Matthew 25:31-46, He explains the final judgment.
It is very clear that many people today that think they are
saved will not enter heaven.
1. We cannot approach God by any means other than by the
shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9 that salvation is:
"it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Again in Titus 3:5:
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost;"
2. Can we be saved by being good, by going to church, by doing good works?
Paul says that "there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Romans 3:12
God says through the prophet Isaiah:
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."
We can only approach God on the basis of Jesus Christ:
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6
"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
There is only One mediator between God and man: Jesus Christ.
Jesus gives a parable of two men: one man trusted in himself and his
righteousness to get him to heaven, and the other realized there was
nothing he could do to get to heaven, and put all his trust in Jesus
Christ. This parable is found in Luke 18:9-14
"And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into
the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I
am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I
possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so
much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God
be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his
house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth
himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be
exalted."
Only one man was justified... the man who said "God be merciful to me
a sinner".
The apostle Paul once says:
"I do not frustrate [set aside] the grace of God: for if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Galations 2:21
If we approach God in any other means then Jesus death,
then Christ died in vain.
IV. WHAT ABOUT GOOD WORKS?
Christ has created us for good works:
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them." Ephesians 2:10
God desires us to be zealous of good works... though good works
will never save us.
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2Corinthians 5:21
He died for us, so that we might live for Him.
"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works." Titus 2:14
V. SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
To summarize, we must all examine ourselves whether we are really
saved. If we our saved we can know because
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
the children of God" Romans 8:16
When we approach God and ask Him to have mercy on us and save us,
several things happen:
1. we are spiritually baptized into the Church by the Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 12:13
2. we become spiritually alive, as the Holy Spirit comes into our
life and opens our "spiritual eyes":
"one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." John 9:25
3. we die to ourself; we are crucified with Christ. Romans 6:3
4. we walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4
(See http://www2.msstate.edu/~whb4/biyn.org/Misc/Ledlow/goodthings.txt
for a list of 47 good things in those that believe).
If I could sum everything up in two sentences:
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and
this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1John 5:11-12
wes