Two Minutes With The Bible

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The Counsel Of Kindness
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

While probably everyone has an idea of what it means to be kind, the precise definition of kindness might surprise you! Let’s begin by seeing how the Bible defines this word, as we compare Scripture with Scripture:

In II Chronicles 10, Rehoboam had just inherited the throne of Israel upon the death of his father Solomon (9:29-31). When the people asked if he would ease the financial burden that his father had placed upon them (10:1-5), Rehoboam “took counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon” (v. 6). These elders wisely replied,

    “If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever” (v. 7).

However, the parallel passage in I Kings 12 records their words differently:

    “If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever” (v. 7).

Far from a discrepancy, this variation in what these men were heard to say that day is God’s way of defining kindness. To be kind to a man means to be a servant to him. This agrees with Webster’s definition of the word “kind”: “Disposed to do good to others, and to make them happy by granting their requests, supplying their wants…,” etc.

How important is kindness? When Rehoboam “forsook the counsel of the old men” (I Kings 12:8.), and determined to be more unkind than his father ever dreamed of being (vv. 14,15), “Israel rebelled against the house of David” (v. 19). This was the beginning of the great division in the twelve tribes of Israel, as Jeroboam led ten of the tribes in revolt away from the house of David, driving a wedge between the ten tribes of Israel and the two tribes of Judah (I Kings 12:20-33). In other words, millions of people were divided for a thousand years—all for the lack of a little kindness!

In closing, while your lack of kindness is not likely to have that kind of monumental effect in the world, it will affect someone. Why not rather decide right now to be Pauline in practice as well as in doctrine, and “be ye kind one to another!”

[nChrist]

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Satan And The Truth
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation…” (II Cor. 5:17).

    “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…” (Eph. 2:10).

    “And ye are complete in Him…” (Col. 2:10).

“In Christ!” What a glorious truth! What a high and holy position! No religious ceremony, neither circumcision nor baptism, needed to make us spiritually complete. God only asks now: “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph. 4:1).

Many Christians are satisfied with salvation through the blood of Christ, but God wants us to have much more than this. He wants us to have “the full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2), to know the security, the blessedness, the glory of a position in Christ. He wants us to know “the exceeding riches of His grace” (Eph. 2:7), and to enjoy “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).

But Satan does not!

For proclaiming these glorious truths the Apostle Paul was bitterly opposed on every hand, even by some saved religious leaders of his day.

And Satan has not changed!

Proclaim this message today and “your adversary the devil” will soon be roused to action. He hates this message of grace which the glorified Lord revealed through Paul (Eph. 3:1-3) and let us not be asleep to the fact that, as in Paul’s day, he will again seek to use even saved religious leaders, evangelical “big guns,” if he can, to oppose it, thus robbing Christ of His glory and believers of their blessings.

[nChrist]

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Important Recall Notice
by Anonymous


The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to the serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype unit code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units.

This defect has been technically termed “Subsequential Internal Non-Morality” or more commonly known as SIN, as it is primarily characterized by loss of moral judgment. Some other symptoms are:

    Loss of direction
    Foul vocal emissions
    Amnesia of origin
    Lack of peace and joy
    Selfish or violent behavior
    Depression or confusion in mental component
    Fearful

The manufacturer, who is neither liable or at fault for this defect, is providing factory authorized repair and service FREE of charge to correct the SIN defect. [The number to call in your area is F-A-I-T-H. Simply believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again, and your unit will be regenerated. No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Christ will repair and replace it with]:

    Forgiveness
    Love
    Joy
    Peace
    Longsuffering
    Gentleness
    Goodness
    Faith
    Meekness
    Temperance

Please see operating manual HOLY BIBLE for further details on the use of these fixes. [See sections I Cor. 15:1-4; Eph. 1:7; and Gal. 5:16-26].

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human unit without correction voids the manufacturer’s warranty, exposing the owner to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded. [For free emergency service before it’s too late: call upon the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself a ransom for our sins].

DANGER: The human units not receiving this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace.

This action was authorized by the Creator.

[nChrist]

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The Pauline Authority Of The Local Church
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19).

By the time the Lord spoke these words to Peter, He knew from the reaction of the religious leaders in Israel that they were not going to accept Him as their Messiah, but were rather going to kill Him. Hence we see Him here preparing for His death by giving Peter the power and authority to act in an official capacity in His absence. This power was then expanded to include a quorum of two of the twelve apostles (Matt. 18:18,19). We see the apostles exercising this authority in the early chapters of the Book of Acts.

However, the authority the Lord gave the twelve apostles had to do with authority in the “kingdom” church (Matt. 16:19), and we know that God interrupted the kingdom program after the stoning of Stephen. The Apostle Paul was then given the “authority” to act in an official capacity in the Lord’s absence during the dispensation of grace (II Cor. 10:8.). This authority was then passed on through Paul’s epistles to the local church. Note Paul’s words in I Corinthians 5:

    “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present…”

    “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 5:3,4).

Here the Corinthians are assured that when they broke fellowship with the man living in open and unabashed sin (v. 1,2,13), they would be doing so in the “spirit” of the Apostle Paul. That is, they could be sure that the decision of their local church would carry with it his apostolic authority and “the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We see this principle again in II Corinthians 2:10:

    “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also; for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ.”

Here we find Paul claiming to be acting “in the person of Christ,” i.e., with His power and authority. And we also see him telling the Corinthians that when they acted, they acted in his authority, and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of this is especially significant when we remember that Paul says these words to the Corinthians, the most carnal church to whom he wrote. Thus we know that the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ today resides in the humblest local church that recognizes the authority of the Apostle Paul in the present dispensation.

[nChrist]

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For Jesus' Sake
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake” (II Cor. 4:11).

There is much that we all do for our own sake, for the sake of our children, our loved ones or others, but the real test of the believer’s love for the Lord is what he does “for Jesus’ sake.”

Under the dispensation of Law our Lord told His disciples that to be forgiven they must forgive: “Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37), “but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15).

But now, under the dispensation of grace, He exhorts us to forgive one another “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). The difference is striking. Before the cross: If you would be forgiven, forgive. Now, in the light of the cross: You have been graciously forgiven for Christ’s sake. In the light of this be tenderhearted and forgiving toward others.

And we are to go farther than this: Not only are we to forgive our brethren in Christ, but we are to be prepared to show this attitude toward the world as well. St. Paul said: “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all” (I Cor. 9:19), and referring to his persecutions by unbelievers, he said: “We… are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake” (II Cor. 4:11). How many unbelievers would be won to Christ; how many of our Christian friends would be strengthened and helped, if we adopted this attitude toward others!

As to suffering itself, the Apostle also gladly bore this “for Jesus’ sake.” In writing to the Corinthians, he said: “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong” (II Cor. 12:10). He had learned that in weakness he leaned the harder, prayed more, and was brought closer to His Lord, and herein lay his spiritual strength.

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The Plumbline
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “And, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in His hand….Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of My people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more” (Amos 7:7,8.).

As we compare the two verses of this vision, God identifies the “wall” as “My people Israel.” But what did “the plumbline” represent?

A plumbline is a tool that is used even today by masons who wish to erect walls that are perfectly straight. A simple weight at the end of a string is suspended alongside the wall as it is being constructed, to ensure that it is being built straight, and at a perfect right angle to the gravitational pull of the earth. Construction workers know that bowed or leaning walls are easily toppled (Psa. 62:3).

Since our text tells us that this “wall” that represents Israel was “made by a plumbline,” we believe the plumbline to be the Law of Moses. It was the Law that defined Israel as a nation, and its perfect code of righteousness ensured that Israel was built in accord with the perfectly upright standard of the very righteousness of God. Here in Amos 7, God is re-applying the plumbline standard of the Law to Israel to show Amos how far his nation had shifted away from the perfect standard with which she had been constructed, and why He could no longer “pass by them any more” in mercy, but must rather bring the judgment that their sin demanded.

Today in the dispensation of Grace, of course, God is not dealing with Israel or any other nation, but rather with individual members of the Body of Christ. In the epistles of Paul we read of how in Christ we too have been formed in accord with the perfect standard of the Law (II Cor. 5:21), and that the righteousness of the Law is given to us as a free gift of God’s grace through faith (Rom. 3:21-26; 10:4; I Cor. 1:30). Thus when believers today wish to apply a standard to our lives to check to see if we have drifted from who God made us in Christ, we look not to the Law, but to the epistles of the Apostle Paul.

We close with a very practical admonition. Every builder knows that when a wall falls, it always falls in the direction in which it is leaning. If the reader has ever wondered about the harm in an occasional drink of an alcoholic beverage, or the danger of seemingly “harmless” flirtations with immorality, it should be remembered that Christians are like walls—they too always fall in the direction in which they are leaning! Let us thank God for the plumbline of His grace, and may we determine as never before to walk worthy of Him.

[nChrist]

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A True Veteran
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Before you have placed your trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior, there is nothing whatever you can do to please God or to gain acceptance with Him. John 3:35 declares that “the Father loves the Son” and cares what you think about Him and do with Him. This is why Verse 36 goes on to say:

    “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

But once you have received Christ as your Savior and Lord there is much you can do to please God. You can witness to His saving grace, you can please Him by living a godly life, you can work for Him, you can sacrifice of your means to further His cause, and yes, you can fight for Him. “Fight for Him” you say? Yes indeed, for this world system, our Adamic natures and Satan and his hosts, are all antagonistic toward the Christ who died for our sins. Satan’s forces, especially, work behind the scenes to “blind the minds of them that believe not” (II Cor. 4:4). These fallen angels, we read, are “the rulers of the darkness of this world” (iEph. 6:12).

This is why God urges His children to be “strong in the Lord,” putting on “the whole armor of God,” so as to meet and defeat these evil forces (Vers. 10,11). This is why He puts a sword (“the Word of God”) into our hands and bids us “stand… stand… stand!” (Vers. 11-14).

Ah, but a great veteran, who waged many battles in making Christ known to the lost, gives us an inkling of the thrill that goes with being “a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” In his last words, just before his execution, the Apostle Paul declared triumphantly: “I have fought a good fight!” (II Tim. 4:7). It was indeed “a good fight” in which he had been engaged, a fight to bring light and salvation and blessing to benighted souls. And the reward:

    “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown” (Ver. 8.).

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Why the Hush?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.

    “And He straitly charged them that they should not make Him known” (Mark 3:11,12).

Have you ever wondered why the Lord did not want these “unclean spirits” to make Him known?  We believe it was because He didn’t want the likes of them telling others about Him.  That is, He knew that the testimony of such sinful, unclean creatures would hurt Him, not help Him.  He already had enough people thinking He was “in cahoots” with devils (Matt. 12:22-24).  If people heard devils testify of Him, well, that wasn’t exactly the kind of testimony He needed!

We often wonder if the Lord feels the same way today when instead of unclean spirits, unclean believers testify to others about Him.  We’re not suggesting that only saints who get straight “A”s in conduct should be allowed to witness, for none of us is perfect.  Nor are we saying that God can’t use the testimony of sinful men, for if He can use Balaam’s donkey to speak His words, He can certainly use carnal believers.  But we can’t help but think that if God “had His druthers,” He’d much rather use a saint who has purged himself of uncleanness and is “meet for the Master’s use” (II Tim. 2:21).

We believe the same principle applies when it comes to pointing people to Paul as our apostle.  In Acts 16:16, “a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination” followed Paul, saying:

    “These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

    “And this did she many days.  But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” (v. 17,18.).

What the devil was saying was true, of course, but that didn’t stop Paul from hushing the testimony being offered by such a questionable source.  And so when we as grace believers try to convince our brethren that Paul alone is the servant of God that shows unto us the way of salvation in this dispensation, our testimony will be received much more readily if our lives “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things” (Titus 2:10).  Anything less would cause Paul, if he were here to see it, to be as grieved with us as he was with the damsel possessed with the spirit of divination.

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Does The Word Of God Contradict Itself?
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Satan has sought to undermine the authority of the Word of God since the beginning. He whispered to Eve, “Yea, hath God said,” suggesting God was withholding something from our first parents. But more often than not his attacks are far more subtle. The liberal, for example, would have us believe the Scriptures contradict themselves; therefore they cannot be trusted. This is nothing more than an attempt to cast a shadow of doubt upon the veracity of God’s Word.

Despite the claims of the liberal, God never contradicts Himself. He’s omniscient! He knows the end from the beginning; how could He possibly contradict Himself? When we’re confronted with an alleged contradiction, the problem isn’t with the Word of God; rather, it’s with our understanding of the Scriptures. Most times there is a simple solution to the problem.

The account of Judas’ death is often appealed to as a glaring contradiction:

    “And he [Judas] cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Matt. 27:5).

    “Now this man [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18.).

We believe the Acts record is merely an augmentation of Matthew’s account of Judas’ dishonorable end. After Judas hanged himself, either the limb or rope broke, and since the top part of the body is heavier than the lower extremity, he fell headlong to the bottom of the ravine where his body burst open upon striking the jagged rocks.

Another supposed contradiction is found in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:

    “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand” (I Cor. 10:8.).

    “And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand” (Num. 25:9).

Once again, Paul’s account of the plague is simply a fuller description of what actually transpired during the wilderness wanderings. The key is found in the apostle’s words, “and fell in one day.” Paul reveals 23,000 died in this judgment on the same day, but according to Numbers, the total number of Israelites that perished, which included the days that followed, was 24,000. The apostle was merely emphasizing the seriousness of committing fornication, by showing how many fell in one day.

While these two purported contradictions are easily resolved, this is not always necessarily the case. In those areas where we are unable to adequately address a discrepancy, we must patiently wait upon the Lord for additional light, which may not be given until eternity.

[nChrist]

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Are You Ready?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


I wonder what finally became of Molotov? Most of us know only that he was expelled from the Communist Party and was later recalled to Moscow to answer for what Kruschev, of all people, called “barbarous crimes”! Molotov, “the hammer,” was active in the Communist Revolution since 15 years of age. A close friend of Stalin, he served Soviet Russia variously as Secretary of the Central Committee, Premier of USSR, its Foreign Minister and its Representative to the UN.

But in 1957 Kruschev, jealous of Stalin’s popularity, dismissed Molotov from the Presidium and sent him away as ambassador to ‘Outer Mongolia’. Now disgraced along with his old friend Stalin, this once popular hero of the Soviets was discarded by the system he championed. Pathetic, but he deserved it.

Contrast this with the Apostle Paul. He had been great, prospering in his religion above many of his equals, being “more exceedingly zealous” of the traditions of his fathers (Gal. 1:14). But he gave all this up and counted it loss for “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.” Serving Christ amid unceasing persecution, he said:

    “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel [good news] of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).

Yes, and in his last recorded words before Nero beheaded him, Paul said:

    “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown…” (II Tim. 4:6-8.).

What a triumphant way to go! And you, my friend, can go that way too — if you can say with Paul, “I am ready.”

    “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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God's Delight
by Pastor John Fredericksen


We delight in the embrace of a child, the gathering of family, even in things and hobbies.  But what delights the heart of God?  In Proverbs 15:8 we learn, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is His delight.”

When the lost seek to worship or give to the Lord apart from saving faith in Christ, in effect, on their own terms, it cannot please the Lord.  Oh, but when God’s redeemed children come to Him in the praise and dependence of prayer, it is His delight.  He created us for fellowship with Him.  He longs for your relationship with Him to be vibrant and consistent.  Each of us can delight the heart of God by daily making time to be with Him in prayer and in the study of God’s Word.

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Are You Listening?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Apostle Paul had much that he yearned to teach the Hebrew believers — wonderful truths that would have thrilled their hearts — but these truths were “hard to be uttered,” or difficult to explain to them, since they were “dull of hearing.” The word “dull” in Heb. 5:11 really means “slothful,” or indifferent (as in Heb. 6:12). They were not merely hard of hearing, as we say, but were too lazy, too indifferent, spiritually, to pay attention. They were not sufficiently interested.

This is always a serious condition in the light of the fact that “God hath spoken,” and that disobedience to His Word will be judged (Heb. 1:1,2; 2:1-3). Yet, alas, this is the condition of the professing Church today. The great majority of religious people are not sufficiently interested in what God has said to engage in diligent, prayerful study and, like those of Paul’s day, still have to be taught “the first principles” of the Bible. They have remained babes, spiritually, unable to digest anything but “milk,” and so remain “unskillful in the Word of righteousness” (Heb. 5:12-14).

What has brought this condition about? Is it because our Bibles are being burned and the Church persecuted for reading it? Is it because God is unwilling to lead us further into His truth? Most assuredly not. It is because so many men of God in high places no longer have the single passion to know God’s Word and to make it known. They could be as greatly used of God in teaching the Scriptures as their predecessors were, but they are “slothful of hearing” and hence can present their hearers with little that is of true value.

This, in turn, is reflected in the religious masses. They “love” their Bibles, but not enough to study them diligently and become workmen whom God can approve. Let us not be numbered among these. Rather, let it be our one great desire to gain a clear understanding of God’s Word, rightly divided — for His sake, for our own sake and for the sake of the needy souls about us.

[nChrist]

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The Living God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God” (Psa. 42:2).

The recent “God is dead” theory had little true comfort or satisfaction for men in trouble or sorrow.

For years we supposed that the term “the living God,” in the above passage, had reference to God’s power to help, in contrast to the impotence of dead heathen idols. A careful examination of the context, however, leads us to believe that it has rather to do with His ability to respond. The gods of the heathen, by contrast, were like children’s dolls; they could not even change their countenance or respond in any way.

    “The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

    “They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;

    “They have ears, but they hear not, neither is there any breath in their mouths” (Psa. 135:15-17).

But the true God is a living God. He does see, hear and respond. The Psalmist, in Psalm 42, compares himself to a stag, panting with thirst. It is sometimes supposed that the scene is one of a stag pursued in the chase, but the passage says nothing of this. Palestine is a dry land and entirely apart from being hunted down, a deer might well pant for streams of running water.

Be this as it may, the stag, in this passage, is not seeking for help; he is thirsting for refreshment, and so did the Psalmist long for the refreshment of fellowship with God, the living God.

How wonderful it is that we may know the living God through faith in Christ! This is why the Apostle Paul declares in Heb. 10:19:

    “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus… a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. “

By His death at Calvary our Lord tore away the veil that kept us from entering into God’s presence, and now in response to our need He says:

    “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

Yes, God is a living God!

[nChrist]

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The Spirit Of Truth
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).

How blessed to know that the Author of the blessed Book which has changed so many hearts and lives and homes is “the Spirit of truth.”

The Spirit did not, of course, reveal all truth at one time. “The Law was given by Moses;” later the prophesies were penned by men of God as they were “moved by the Holy Spirit” and still later our Lord uttered truth “kept secret since the world began.”

But even our blessed Lord, while on earth, did not lead His followers into all the truth which God would have His people know. “I have yet many things to say unto you,” He said, “but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16: 12,13).

But when the Spirit came at Pentecost, did He immediately lead the disciples into all truth? Not yet. They still proclaimed the prophetic program, the message which our Lord had taught them and committed to them (Luke 24: 45; Acts 1:2,3).

It was not until some time later that the glorified Lord revealed “God’s purpose and grace” to and through the Apostle Paul, and the Spirit in turn caused others to understand it (Gal. 2:2,7,9; Eph. 3:1-5; II Tim. 1:9).

The glorious message revealed to Paul is the capstone of divine revelation, thus he says that it was given to him to “fulfil [complete] the Word of God” (Col. 1:25).

St. Paul wrote more books of the Bible than any other writer and in them we have the fulness of divine truth as God would now have us know and understand it!

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How to Get to Heaven from Your Current Location
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


MapQuest® is an ingenious website that many have probably used at one time or another.  Simply type in where you live and where you want to go and, voila!  It gives you step-by-step directions to your final destination.  Of course, it cannot give you directions on How to Get to Heaven from Your Current Location.  Only the Word of God can give us these instructions.

The year leading up to the conversion of George Whitefield, the famous English Evangelist, is a good example of how God will have nothing to do with good works or acts of self-denial for the salvation of a lost soul.  Both are repulsive in His sight.  Shortly after entering his third year at Oxford, young Whitefield underwent a spiritual crisis.  It was said of him:

“The life of God in his own soul was what he craved and must have—but how to obtain it!  The thought of his sins caused him to sweat and groan.  He shunned all company, wandering the fields and woods, deep in prayer—sometimes lying all night upon the freezing ground.  He wore the shabbiest of clothing; his only fare [meals], dry bread and tea.  In time even his prayers seemed to become sinful.”  (George Whitefield and the Great Evangelical Awakening by Anthony Beaurepaire, The Protestant Truth Society, London, England, Pg. 13).

It wasn’t until Mr. Whitefield came to the end of himself that he began to reflect on his reading of Christian literature, how it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”  With the burden of his sin greater than he could bear, he turned to Christ, the great Sin-Bearer, and was gloriously saved by the grace of God.  In his own words, he gave this touching account of his conversion:

“God was pleased at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold on His dear Son by living faith…Oh, with what joy, joy unspeakable, even joy that was full of, and great with glory, and my soul was filled when the weight of sin went off, and an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God and a full assurance of faith broke upon my disconsolate soul!”1

Perhaps you are like Mr. Whitefield prior to his conversion, trying to find acceptance with God apart from Christ.  Your defense may be, “I’m not so bad.  After all, I’ve never murdered anyone,” as if God will accept you because you never committed the act of murder.  But which sin is worse, murder or lying?  According to Proverbs 6:16,17, lying is the greater violation of the two in the sight of God—because lying leads to murder!  We need to remember and remember well, all sin has eternal consequences for those who reject Christ as their Savior.

Perhaps your pursuit of God has taken you down the path of religious rituals.  Surely here you will find favor with God!  Interestingly, it is in this area that Satan has done his most effective work to blind men to the light of the glorious gospel.  He uses religion!  If men think their religious service will gain them acceptance with God, he has accomplished his purpose to keep them eternally damned.

Here is a short list of religious practices that men do, hoping to earn their way to heaven: church attendance, water baptism, first communion, confirmation, reciting the Lord’s Prayer, responsive readings, doing the sign of the Cross, confessing and receiving forgiveness of their sins from a priest, etc.  Before his conversion to Christ, Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church, visited Rome, where he climbed the steps of Scala Santa on his knees.  The Scala Santa is believed to be the stairway the Lord ascended to reach Pilate’s Judgment Hall on the day of His crucifixion.  The Catholic Church supposedly had it brought from Jerusalem to Rome.

As a Roman Catholic, at the time, Luther believed such acts of self-sacrifice would increase his chances of entering heaven.  But it wasn’t long thereafter, in a monastery at Wittenberg, he saw things in a whole new light.  As Luther was reading Romans 1:17, where it states, “The just shall live by faith,” he paused a moment, and then it suddenly dawned on him that salvation was by faith.  Up to that point he had tried to earn his salvation through religious observances, but never felt he had done enough.  Now, for the first time, he saw that a lost soul is declared eternally righteous by God through faith on the basis of the finished work of Christ.  He was delivered from the bondage of his sins and indescribable joy flooded his heart.  So dramatic was the change in his life that Luther went on to be the spark that ignited the great Reformation.

If you would like to get to heaven from your current location, simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  We want you to know that God loves you and Christ died for your sins (Rom. 5:8.).  You see, the day Christ died at Calvary, He wasn’t dying for His sins.  He knew no sin.  Instead, He was dying for the sins of the world—my sins and your sins.  God has made a provision for all, but to receive the benefit of this provision you must believe that Christ died personally for you and rose again (I Cor. 15:3,4; I Thes. 4:14).  Salvation is in a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ!  He alone can save you from your sins!