The Gospel
What's The Reason For The Hope?
Everyone is on a journey.
This journey has ups and downs in life.
Every journey has a starting point.
And journeys do come to an end.
The journey begins with our birth and ends with our physical deaths.
Do you know what the word "gospel" mean?
The word "gospel" means "good news."
But we have to give you the bad news
so that the good news makes sense.
What's the bad news?
Everybody has to die.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 (NKJV)
"To everything there is a season,
time for every purpose under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die."
You don't know when your death will occur.
Ecclesiastes 8:7-8 (NKJV)
For he does not know what will happen;
So who can tell him when it will occur?
No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no one has power in the day of death.
There is no release from that war,
And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.
We all have an appointment that we won't miss.
Hebrews 9:27 says "And as it is appointed unto men once to die,
after this, the judgment.
So since death is true on one hand, judgment is true on the other.
Everybody has to die. Young old, rich or poor.
Have you ever asked yourself a question?
Who said we have to die, and why?
The answer is in the Bible. Whether you believe the Bible or not, death will still come.
God gave Adam a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The devil came disguised as a serpent and lied to Eve that she would not die.
Eve ate of the tree and then gave it to Adam. Adam disobeyed God's command.
"The Scriptures confined all under sin.
By one man's sin, death came, and death was passed upon all men,
for all have sinned."
Well, God told the truth and the devil lied.
The graves, caskets, toe tag and body bags is evidence that God told the truth.
Sin is the reason why everybody dies.
What sins have I committed?
Lying. Stealing. Using the name of the Lord in vain, murder,
bearing false witness, homosexuality, sodomy, adultery,
fornication, drunkenness, extortion, effeminate,
idolatry, revelry, lust, pornography, masturbation, and others.
We're all guilty before God.
The penalty for sin is death.
Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Everyone that's born today have a birth certificate.
One day at the appointed hour, everyone will have a death certificate.
But the Lord God sent His Son Jesus to pay the penalty of death for every man.
The Lord God "...demonstrated His love for us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us."
But wait a minute.
I'm still going to physically die. That's right.
Remember when God raised Jesus from the dead?
That's what will happen to those that die in Christ.
We'll be raise from the dead just like the Lord.
That's good news.
The Lord "commands men everywhere to repent (turn)" because
He has set a date by which He will judge the world by His Son.
God is just, righteous, and holy.
He set the ONLY standard of morality.
Our morals come from God, written upon our conscience or hearts.
But remember.
He paid for our sins by sending His Son to die for us.
But you're not instantly forgiven apart from repentance from sin,
and then you get to continue in sin.
You must repent to receive forgiveness
(see Matthew 4:17, Romans 6:1-4, and Acts 26:18).
No good judge will tell a criminal that they're
forgiven of their crimes and then they're released.
They're punished for the crime that they were convicted of.
But the Father sent His Son to become sin for us.
He never committed any sin.
But He took our place of punishment
and was nailed to the cross.
He became the Only Substitute to appease
or satisfy the requirements of the Just and Holy God.
When we repent (turn) from sin
and place faith in Christ ALONE,
the Father forgives us.
We prove our faith in Christ by obeying His commandments
AFTER we repent and place faith on Christ ALONE.
No other god or dead idol did what the Lord Jesus had done.
If you don't understand the magnitude and seriousness of YOUR sin,
and it's punishment in a burning hell,
you'll never repent and place faith on Christ alone.
It's with urgency that we tell you the truth in love
because once death seizes us,
there's no turning back, do overs, or another chance.
Since we don't have a problem with a judge sentencing
a criminal to prison to pay for their crime,
why should we have a problem with
the Lord passing judgment on sinners?
But the Lord made a way to forgive sin and give us eternal life
by sacrificing His Son on the cross
but if you don't see that you're a criminal
and throw yourself on the mercy of God,
you can't be saved.
So what will happen to those that don't repent, and place faith in Christ?
There will be a resurrection for the unrighteous to be judged by the Lord.
Every sin will be read out of the book written about you.
All of your evil deeds.
Your good will not outweigh your bad
and your religion apart from Christ will not save you.
The Bible says "There's none that's righteous. No, not one."
The Bible says "There's none that's good but One, that is God."
The Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
So since God is the only One that's Good, that means we're all bad.
Even when you think that you're a good person,
it's a false sense of security to trust
in your own righteousness to get into the kingdom of God.
The Bible said
"Except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God"
and "Unless one is born of the water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
You must be born again."
If you die without repenting (turning from sin) and place faith in Christ ALONE,
"The wages of sin is death..."
you will burn in hell and then be judged at the Great White Throne,
and then be cast into the lake of fire forever.
In this life on earth, your ONLY hope is Christ.
"...the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Lord Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes unto the Father but by Me."
Peter, the Lord's disciple said that
"Neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is no other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved."
Buddha, Allah, Confucius, Shinto,
and the other dead gods never
died as a sacrifice to pay the penalty of sin.
Only the Lord Jesus paid our debt in full.
That's why Christ said on the cross just before His sacrificial death.....
"It is finished."
Or the debt of sin is released in full.
At the close of every day, 150,000 people will die.
You don't know the date or hour of your death.
"How shall you escape if you neglect so great a salvation."
"Behold now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation."
You can have hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Today if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart.
When will you repent and place faith on Christ?
You're 10,000 feet in an airplane.
The pilot says,
"This plane had an engine failure.
It's going down.
Put on a parachute."
You don't tell the pilot, "I'll think about it."
You find a parachute immediately because you want to stay alive.
You don't put it off in procrastination.
It's the same with life.
Death is unexpected but it's expected.
You don't know when you're going to die.
Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone
and death will happen to everyone.
If you've read this far, we appreciate your patience.
A good question to ask would be.....
"What must I do to be saved?"
Repent (turn) from sin and place faith on Christ ALONE,
find a true Christian Church and get water baptized,
then read and obey the teachings of Christ in the Bible every day.