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Are you part of God's Family?
Being a part of a family is a blessing from
God that is Irreplaceable. The closeness of family relationships
exceeds all others. When a family is motivated by love for each
other, it is amazing what acts of kindness and sacrifice they can
perform. God the father showed us His tremendous love when He sent
His only Son into the world to suffer and die on the cross that we might
by faith become members of His eternal family.
The words of
John 3:16 give us a revealing look at the heart of God where it says, "For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.” God "so
loved" you and me that He allowed His Son to pay man's sin debt.
If Jesus Christ had not willingly come into our world as an offering for
our sin, we would be eternally lost. In Luke 19:10 the Bible says,
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was
lost." The truth that the Bible makes abundantly clear is
that Jesus Christ is the only way to become a part of the family of God.
In the Gospel of John Jesus said of Himself, "...I am the way,
the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me.“ (John
14:6).
There is life
beyond this earthly existence in which all those who have trusted Christ
will live as members of God's family. In Ephesians 3:14-15 the
Bible says, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
named." You
can become a part of the family of God by humbling yourself before God
and following a few simple but necessary steps:
-
Acknowledge (Understand that you are a sinner)
What exactly is a sinner? What is sin? Sin
is "breaking the law", transgressing the will of God, and
disobeying the rules, so to speak.
Have you ever told a lie? Stolen
anything? Broken a rule
(such as driving above the speed limit)?
You have, because the Bible says…
Psalms
14:3 They are all gone aside, they are all
together become filthy: there is
none that doeth good, no, not one.
Romans 3:10 As it is written, There
is none righteous, no, not one:
Romans 3:12 They
are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Romans
3:23
For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God;
EVERYBODY
is a sinner. "But wait!
I have NEVER done ANYTHING wrong!",
you protest. Well, the
Bible covers that, too.
1
John 5:17 All
unrighteousness is sin:
and there is a sin not unto death.
James
4:17
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to
him it is sin.
Let's
allow you to argue that you have NEVER done ANYTHING "wrong".
If you have done something that is not righteous (it may not be
something that is "bad" in and of itself), or if you have
failed to do something good when you had a chance to, you have sinned.
ALL HAVE SINNED. "But I do many, many good
things!" you say. The Bible
says that it doesn't matter.
Isaiah
64:6 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.
Romans
3:20 Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight:
for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Galatians
2:16 Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of
Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be
justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
-
Realize (There is a penalty for sin)
God is a holy God.
He is a God of love, yes. He
is also full of compassion and mercy.
But He is holy, and He is just.
God's justice demands that sin be punished.
You might say "What
kind of loving God would send a person to Hell?” Well,
you must understand that Hell was NOT created for people, it was created
for Satan. Matthew
25:41 says "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart
from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
It was never God's plan for men to go to
Hell. It wasn't even God's
plan that men should die! The
Bible says in James 1:15 "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death." We have brought
death upon ourselves by sinning!
Romans 5:12 Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Romans 6:23 For
the wages of sin is death;
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We go to work, and when we do, we earn a
wage. At the end of the pay
period, we expect to get a paycheck, the reward we have earned by
working hard all week. Death…not
just physical death, but spiritual death as well, is what we have
"earned" for our sins. You're
probably thinking that the Bible is just a book of doom, gloom, and bad
news at this point. It gets
better, just keep reading.
-
Trust Him (Jesus paid the price for your sin)
We FINALLY get some good news.
That's what "gospel" literally means, "good
news". You may have
noticed it in the last verse listed for you above, Romans 6:23:
"… but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord." We
EARNED death by our sins, but LIFE is a FREE GIFT!
We don't have to go to church, we don't have to do good deeds, we
don't have to get baptized, we don't have to recite a rosary, we don't
have to give all of our money to the poor…a GIFT cannot be earned! You just ACCEPT it. The
Bible is very clear that salvation is a gift, freely offered by God to
ALL men, women, and children!
Ephesians 2:8,9 For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should
boast.
Romans 6:23 For
the wages of sin is death; but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable
gift.
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is
of God; that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God.
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is
the Answer to our sin problem. Jesus
is God. God became a man,
was born of a virgin, and lived a perfect, sinless life.
Because He never sinned, He did not earn death, as all other men
have. However, He willingly
allowed Himself to be killed, so that by His blood, we could be
reconciled to the God who is holy, so that His justice could be
satisfied. The Bible again makes this very clear.
Romans 5:1 Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ:
Romans 5:8-10 But
God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by
His life.
Ephesians 1:7
In Whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His
grace;
Colossians 1:14 In
whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Romans 3:24-26 Being
justified freely by His grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His
righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.
Jesus
Christ died for us, but more than that, He rose from the dead for us!
He ascended bodily back to Heaven, and will come back to Earth
again for us in the future. His
perfect life, death, and resurrection make it possible for us, as
sinners, to be made acceptable to a holy and just God, if we believe on
Him and accept the free gift that He offers us.
4. Accept (The free gift of eternal life that Jesus
longs to give you)
We have covered the things you need to
understand: You're a sinner, there's a penalty on sin, and Jesus paid
the penalty. Now we get to
the one thing you need to do. You
need to TAKE the free gift! That's
all you have to do! "That's
too easy",
you say? Is it really?
If it is, then why don't you do it?
If the Bible said that one had to spend 10 years serving the poor
in a foreign land to obtain eternal life, MANY people would do it,
"just in case" the Bible was true.
If the Bible said that one had to give a million dollars to some
church in order to earn Heaven, MANY people would work multiple jobs and
keep an exacting record of how much they had given until they reached
the mark. Yet few people
believe the Bible enough to simply take the free gift.
Think of it this way.
Jesus Christ has unlimited credit at the supermarket.
He has offered to pay for everyone's groceries; they only have to
ask for it. You go through the checkout line; the cashier rings up all
your items, and tells you the total cost.
Upon hearing the price, you realize that you don't have your
wallet with you. You have
no money, no credit card, no checkbook, no debit card, NOTHING.
The cashier tells you that it's ok, Jesus has paid the cost; all
you have to do is ask for the "Jesus discount", and you can
take your groceries home without having to pay.
Yet you stand and argue, "I don't need charity, I'll pay my own
way, thank you very much! I'll
just have to put everything back and come back later when I have my
wallet".
How silly! There
will be no "later" when you die.
Or perhaps you argue, "I
don't even know who Jesus is, and He can't possibly know me. I don't believe that He paid for my goods.
I'll find a way to pay, just give me some time".
There will be no more time for you when payment for your sins is
demanded. And even if you
don't know Jesus yet, He DOES know you, and He loves you, and wants so
very badly to give you His free gift of life. If someone were to write you a check for a million dollars,
it would do you no good at all until you cashed it. Jesus has written the check, signed it with His own precious
blood, and He is ready to cash it for you, if you will only ask Him to.
The Bible says:
Romans 10:9-10 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.
Romans 10:13 For
whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 8:36-37
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the
eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And
Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he
answered and said, I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
All you have to do is believe.
To show yourself, the Lord, and others that you believe, the
Bible teaches here that one should make an oral, audible statement that
they believe. There is no
special incantation, there are no "magic words"…you just
tell God that you believe. Do
you believe? If so, you can
pray something like this:
Dear
God,
I
understand that I have sinned (done things wrong). I understand that because I have sinned, I deserve to go to
Hell. But I don't want to go to Hell; I want to go to Heaven.
I believe that your Son Jesus lived and died for me, and that He
paid for my sins. I believe
He rose from the dead so that I might be saved.
Please save me, Lord Jesus.
I want to take your free gift.
Thank you for what you have done for me.
I love you. Amen.
Something like that will work just fine.
Again, it's not the words you say that are important, it's what
you believe. If you believe
in Jesus, and in what He has done for you, then you are saved.
Look at 1 John 5:13 one more time - "These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of
God; that ye may KNOW that ye
have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of
God." Did you
accept Jesus as your Savior? If you have accepted Jesus and asked him to be your Savior, we would
like to know about it.
Please contact us at
the church at 414-643-6843. Let us know of the wonderful decision you
have just made!
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