The Following is a true story: At the end of a Church service a young woman came forward saying, "I need to be broken, I need to be saved!" The preacher knew her and her father well and replied, "How many times? How many times have you come to the altar and prayed the prayer for salvation?" She said, "six times." The pastor asked, "Did it do you any good?" She said, "No. My life is vile and sinful and I’m empty and lost." The minister replied, "Well there’s no sense in us repeating the same mistake is there?" Sadly she said, "No, but what can I do?" The Pastor said, "Go home. Just go home, and cry out to God as though Hell was opening up it’s mouth to swallow you down. Cry out to God for Him to save you! Desperate situations require desperate prayers."

She came to the Pastor the next day and said, "I cried out to God all night until I fell asleep. And I woke up this morning and realized that God had not answered me and fear fills my soul -what can I do!" The Pastor took her hands and looked into her swollen, weary eyes and said, "Child, you have only two options. Give up and stop crying out to God. Or continue crying out to God until He saves you." After this the woman went back home.

At the beginning of the next service, the Pastor and the young woman’s father were together at the altar weeping and praying for God to save her. Suddenly, they were joined and embraced by the woman. Her countenance was glowing, just radiating the glory of God! And she proclaimed, "My Father saved me! He heard my desperate cry and rescued me. If every person in the world got together to tell me that I was still lost I would have the greatest confidence that my God loves me and has saved my soul! I sought the Lord all night until I fell asleep again. But this time when I awoke I heard a voice in my heart say, ‘I have saved you daughter!’"

This is what a real salvation experience looks like. This is the same response the Jews had on Pentecost when they were pierced by the Gospel message as Peter preached they cried -"What must we do to be saved!" We each have to see ourselves as this young woman did and cry out to the only one who has the power to save us. Did you notice that when God responded He called her "daughter?"

God is our Heavenly Father who loves us with an everlasting love -and His desire is to save every person who will come to Him in trust and obedience. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my Word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into Judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24)

There are costs in following Christ

When you feel the Lord calling you to Himself you must answer that call promptly regardless of what circumstances you may be in. But understand that there are costs involved, -Jesus said, "Count the costs" before you commit to Him. But of course the price for denying Him is eternal death.

During His ministry on earth, Jesus called a man to follow him at what seemed to be at the worst possible time. This man had an elderly father who he was attending to and said to the Lord, :"Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus replied, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:21-22) The Lord was calling this man to "life." Being God in the flesh, Jesus already knew everything about this man’s situation and was saying, "Have faith and first follow Me."

This text also sheds light on how the Lord views those in the world, -as "dead." Not only was the man’s father dying, but Jesus considered the "living" who would bury him as being dead also -"Let the dead bury the dead." There is no doubt that many will find offence in this. Jesus offended a great many while on earth and His Words still bring about offence. Jesus said, "Blessed is he who is not offended in Me." But these are few indeed.

The "Jesus" taught in most of the Churches today is not the Jesus of the Gospels. Most do not preach a Jesus who said that He had not come to bring peace but a sword -and that whole families would turn against one another because of Him. (Matt.10) Jesus called the Jewish religious leaders many names, exposing them as, "children of the devil," "brood of vipers." "Hypocrites," "blind guides," "murders of the prophets," etc. Jesus claimed that He was the only way to salvation and life. And Jesus said that those who would not gather with Him were against Him. (Matt. 12:30) Jesus said many kind, loving and comforting things also. But the Word of God is a double-edged sword that cuts and separates.

The real Jesus will both discipline and comfort you as any loving father would for the sake of the child he loves. The Church has played down doctrines that seem harsh, but it comes at the expense of the pleasant teachings. Because, without the terrors of Hell the value of being saved from so harsh a sentence loses it’s value.

Unless we come to grips with this terrifying doctrine we will never understand the depths of what Jesus did for us on the cross. His body was being destroyed in the worst way -but that was a minor thing compared to the moment He was separated from His Father as our sins were laid upon Him, -"My God, My God! Why have you forsaken Me?!" What did it cost Him to love, embrace and save you from your record of rebellion against Him? What did He endure in order to cleanse you and receive you in purity?

Today’s Postmodern Church

Seems as though the Church is not what Jesus established it to be in this postmodern age. Still, there are a lot of people who want to find a Church and settle into a congregational family. Far and away the majority are searching for a place that they can be comfortable in and whose views are considered politically correct in today’s fragile climate. They want to be a part of a Church that is well respected and loved in the community. However, a Church such as that is a Church whom Jesus Christ would not recognize as His own. Jesus specifically foretold that His true followers would be few, hated by the world and would suffer persecution.

Most postmoderns have friends who are non-Christian, atheist or agnostic in their beliefs and consider them to be "good people" and as worthy of salvation as anyone. This is a false "salvation" doctrine based upon personal merit. They cannot reconcile in their minds how a kind and loving God could send these dear friends to Hell. In fact, these New Age "Christians" have trouble with the very idea of a place called Hell and most do not believe in it’s existence.

A religious faith that holds the belief that sex outside of marriage and homosexuality is sinful is also difficult for many to receive. Most are looking for a tolerant Church which accepts all with very few exceptions. The exceptions would not necessarily be what the Bible defines as being sin, but based more on what today’s Western culture considers to be inappropriate, such as racism, sexism, homophobic and being intolerant of the religious beliefs of others. Many seem to believe that they have the power and authority to create and worship a god of their imagination -a god that doesn’t offend them and that is palatable to their personal taste. But a god such as this does not really exist, nor does it have the power to save.

What is missing in all this is the truth of what the Gospel is, and what the true definition of the Church is. The Church is Gk "ecclesia.", meaning people who have been called out of the world to a life in Christ. The Gospel is the power of salvation for those who believe in and put their faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Church are those who through conviction have turned from practicing sin as defined by the Bible, and who seek to walk obediently in God’s will. They are those who have received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which leads and empowers them. And they are commissioned to preach the Gospel message of salvation in Christ to the entire world. This means proclaiming to sinners that they are forever lost and separated from their Creator by their sins. That they are in fact the living dead. And it means boldly declaring the truth that salvation is in Christ alone and without Him there is no lasting life. What is a sinner you might ask? A sinner is anyone who has not repented from their sins and received Christ as both their Savior and their Lord. Jesus must be LORD of your life.

A "Gospel" message that demands one to humbly confess that they are a wicked sinner is extremely offensive to many today -most do not think of themselves in this way. But for a moment, consider how offensive it must be to God when someone believes that they are "good" already and deserve being rewarded in Heaven. Many do not like the idea that they need Jesus for salvation, but Jesus declared, "No one is good except God alone." (Mark 10:18) In Romans 3 God says, "There are none righteous, not even one." Jesus alone is good and righteous, and this is why we need salvation and His life in us.

Since all have sinned, all are destined for eternal death in the Lake of Fire. But God so loves the world that He gave His only Son to save us from that terrible fate. The Father watched as His Son was mocked and ridiculed, then suffer and die to save those lost in their sins. With that in mind, consider how offensive it must be to God when a person makes light of so great a sacrifice. And it must break His heart when He sees so many reject or neglect so great a salvation offered in His Son.

Salvation is the greatest event in human life. The angels of Heaven rejoice when a sinner repents and receives salvation in Christ. But each person is free to accept, reject or neglect this salvation in Christ. Don’t allow Satan to deceive you into believing that you can do many "good" things to save yourself. God says that any righteousness that we produce on our own is nothing more than filthy rags to Him. God has given man a free will -freedom to choose. There is freedom to sin but no freedom in sin -sin enslaves. C.S. Lewis said, "Hell is the greatest monument to human freedom."

We will one day die

Of all of God’s creatures man alone knows that he will someday die. The Bible says that it is appointed for man to die once, but after this face the Judgment of God. (Hebrews 9:27) It might have surprised you to learn that the Bible teaches that the living are already dead - in fact, all human beings are born dead. This is why Jesus said to Nicodemis, a prominent Jewish Rabbi, "you must be born again to see the Kingdom of God." (John 3) Jesus was explaining that it wasn’t enough to be born of the flesh, but that one must be born again of the Spirit of God in order to inherit the promises of God -and greatest of them all is eternal life.

Being a descendant of Abraham, Nicodemis believed that he was an heir of the Covenant of Promise -but Jesus was saying that being born of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wasn’t enough to inherit the Kingdom of God. To be an heir, Nicodemis must be born of the Spirit, the Promised Seed, which is Jesus by receiving the Holy Spirit. The Apostle John explains the meaning of the Gospel this way, -"And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:11-12) Jesus made this remarkable claim, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6)

When a sinner is convicted of their sins and turns from practicing them, he then must be baptized into Christ. Water baptism is a burial and resurrection. It is an acknowledgment that your natural body is a "body of death" (Romans 7) and is in need of burial in a watery grave. Coming forth from the water testifies that you are now risen as a new creature, born again to life eternal in Christ Jesus. The Blood of Jesus deals with our sins, and baptism puts away our sin nature. "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead. . . that we too might walk in newness of life. . . knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin (sin nature) might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from (the) sin (nature)." (Romans 6)

King David understood that he was born in sin, -"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:5) Like David, we all were conceived and born in sin because we are all descendants of Adam, the first human who sinned. Being born of Adam means that we all have inherited his sinful nature. We see this selfish nature revealed in the smallest of children who will fight for the same toy.

Understanding that we are dead without Christ is necessary to fully understand the reason why Jesus had to suffer and die, and be resurrected back to life. It is impossible to rehabilitate the Adam in us. Adam must be put to death in order for a new born again Christian to receive the divine nature of God. This Adam is the body of death that can do little else but produce sin. There is a law in nature that each seed reproduces after it’s own kind. An apple seed cannot produce an orange tree -only an apple tree which will bear apples in season. The seed of Adam can only produce the natural. But the Promised Seed which is Jesus, the "last Adam" produces a new spiritual creature endowed with eternal life. That new life is not readily seen with the eye, but is in every saint of God

If you read through the book of Romans carefully you will see that the first 5 chapters deals with our sins, but from chapter 5:12 on reveals how God deals with sin itself, the sin nature inherited from Adam. Christ had to come as the second Adam to make life available, "So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45)

When we truly understand that we have no real life -no enduring life outside of Christ, we receive a revelation into the value of being saved in Christ. "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation -having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of Promise" (Ephesians 1:13) "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. . . and were by nature children of wrath. . . even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ." (Chapter 2:1-5) See also, -"When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt . . against us, which were hostile to us." (Colossians 2:13-14)

There are only two paths

There are only two choices -two paths to follow -and two destinies. God told the children of Israel that He had set before them life and death and blessings and curses -then he counseled them to "choose life." "I call Heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curse. So Choose life in order that you may live . . .by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for this is your life." (Deuteronomy 30:19-20) There is no life in disobedience, only wrath and death, -"The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

It is not God’s will that any should perish but that all would repent and be saved to life. Peter wrote that God is long-suffering and is waiting patiently -withholding His wrath to give sinners time to change their ways. Understand that there is no love without wrath. Perhaps the idea of The Judgment and God’s wrath for the wicked bothers you, -"What kind of loving God is filled with wrath?!

Think of it this way, we all have people that we love deeply. How do you feel when you see a loved one ravaged by unwise actions, abusive relationships, addictions, or something else that is destroying them? Do you respond with benign tolerance as you might to a stranger? No, you would likely become very angry because of your love. You can’t bear the sight of seeing a loved one in self-destruction. That’s how God feels about those who will not lay down their sins which are destroying them and pick up the salvation offered and made possible by the supreme sacrifice of His Son. Anger is not the opposite of love, hate is. And the final form of hate is indifference.

God is a personal God

There are many who are uncomfortable with a personal God. Many would rather confine "God" as being an impersonal force, or of an essence that is in all things. The Eastern belief of Karma and even reincarnation is popular in the Church today. It’s the concept that what comes around goes around, and that people are reborn over and over until they learn to live rightly. But the truth is man can never get it right because he is born with a corrupted nature inherited from Adam. This why we need to be born again in Jesus, a forgiving and life-giving Savior to do for us what we could not do ourselves.

One of the appeals of believing in an impersonal god is that there is no one to stand accountable to. But our Creator is a Person. God the Father is a Person, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God is a Person. Their relationship with people is personal. God made man in His own image and He loves us. God created people to expand His family by bringing many children to glory.

Satan is an adversary. He is the enemy of God and man. Jesus exposed him to be a "murderer" and a "deceiver." His goal is to murder every man, woman and child that he can. And his method is deception. Perhaps there are two Books of the Bible that Satan hates most, -Genesis and Revelation. His fate is pronounced in Genesis and is executed in Revelation when he is cast into the Lake of Fire, -"And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the Lake of Fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." (Revelation 20:11)

Though the Lake of Fire is called the "second death" it will not be an immediate death. The Greek word translated "forever" here can mean an "age" which is a term for a very long time. There is torture and torment in hell. There is darkness and isolation there where people will gnash their teeth and writhe in agony until the body finally surrenders to death.

The Bible says that Hell was not created for man, but for Satan and his fallen angels. It is not God’s desire for anyone to be cast into Hell. But the rebellious must have their part there, not only for the sake of justice, but also that the Kingdom of Heaven would be free of sinners. Sin spreads like leavening, and if given a chance would corrupt the new Heavens and the new earth which God is creating for His saints.

God cannot allow evil in His dwelling anymore than you could allow a murderer in your home. Murderers do what they do, and sinners do what they do. All sinners must be destroyed to eradicate sin -to eliminate war, strife and death. God commanded His Prophet Ezekiel to tell the people, -"Say to them, ‘As I live’ says the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his ways and live.’" (Ezekiel 18:23)

Ponder, 1. Life, 2. Death, and 3. Judgment.

In the world there are the living dead. But even those who are saved in Christ are living to die and await the resurrection. Whether in the world or safely in Christ all are awaiting the Great White Throne Judgment of God where each will be judged according to their deeds. A few will hear "Well done, good and faithful servant" but many will hear "Depart from Me, I never knew you." Jesus said that at the Judgment there would be "Christians" who will stand and proclaim all the things that they did in the name of Jesus. They will say, "We preached in Your name," "We cast out demons in Your name," "We performed miracles in Your name." but Jesus will say to them "Depart from Me you who practiced lawlessness." These people will have done everything but obey the Lord.

The Bible says that the wrath of God rests upon the sons of disobedience. We cannot "worship" God while walking in disobedience to His Commandments. God’s saints are identified in Scripture as those who keep the Commandments of God, -"Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the Commandments of God and their faith in Jesus." (Rev.14:12)

Perhaps as you read this you are someone who feels confident in your standing with your Creator. You see yourself as a good person and you believe that God sees you this way too. Even though you have never surrendered your life to God nor have literally strived to obey His Commandments -you have lived a "good life" and have tried to help your fellow man wherever you saw the need.

Consider this -if God judges you by His Ten Commandments, will you stand before Him innocent or guilty? Have you ever lied? Have you ever taken something that did not belong to you? Have you ever looked upon another person with sexual lust in your heart? Have you always obeyed and honored your parents? Have you ever coveted-just wanted something that belonged to another?

These are but a few of the Ten Commandments. I could have asked if you’ve always remembered the Sabbath day and kept it holy. Or have you ever blasphemed God by taking His name in vain. I know that I have fallen short of this standard. And I think you know that you have also. So if God judges us by the Ten Commandments we would be guilty and worthy of death in the Lake of Fire. That should concern anyone who has not been saved in Christ.

No one will be able to stand at Judgment on their own righteousness because we have all fallen far short of living by God’s standard. True Christians know and understand that they are helpless without God. They understand that they can never live up to God’s standard of righteousness. And that’s why they see the value of salvation in Christ Jesus. He takes our sins and gives us His righteousness that we may live, -"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21)

Those who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior enter into Covenant with God -a Covenant in which He will actually remove our sins from His memory, -"This is the Covenant that I will make with them . . . I will put My Laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them. And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Heb. 10:1-17)

The choice seems clear enough, -salvation in Christ means eternal life in the Kingdom of God. A place where there is no sorrow, on pain, no weeping, no death, and where there is love, the fulness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Outside of salvation in Christ is deception and death, and the fiery Judgment of Hell. In Hell there is separation from God, torture, torment, gnashing of teeth, bitter weeping, darkness, agony and eventually death. Seems like an easy choice to make. Yes there are costs. But you cannot consider the costs without also considering the eternal price of neglecting so great a salvation. As for me, I choose life.