Dear Reader,
You did right in clicking on this. It may be the most important mouse click you
ever made! Because,
“Truly, these [past]
times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men [and women!]
everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the
world in righteousness by the Man [Jesus Christ] whom He has ordained. He has
given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts
17.30,31)
The Bible says that you’re a sinner. It says that I’m a sinner and in fact that
we’re all sinners. It says in
Romans 3.23 that,
“All have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.”
So maybe your reaction is okay, I’m a sinner, but so is
everyone else. But dear friend, in this
case, there is no safety in numbers.
The Bible says in John 3.36,
“He who believes in
the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Another way to put that is “He who has trusted in
Christ to save him from his sins is saved, but he who has not trusted in Christ
is unsaved.”
This business of being unsaved is of the utmost
importance. Friend, you are literally
in mortal danger. Your life will end someday — and then judgment, says the Bible. Being unsaved doesn’t mean you go to the
Motel 6 instead of the Ritz. Jesus said
it means you go to:
“Hell, into the fire
that shall never be quenched — where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is
not quenched.’” (Mark 9.43b-44)
An eternity, not just of fire, but worms eating your
flesh. You may not believe it, but that
changes nothing. You may not believe
the world spins. It changes
nothing. Truth is what it is. We can’t “believe it away.”
So maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “I don’t need to
commit myself to Christ. Sure I
sin. But my good deeds outnumber my bad
deeds.“ It’s a tragedy that men and
women all over the world mistakenly think that if their good deeds outweigh or
outnumber their bad deeds God is obligated to usher them in to Heaven.
But there is no good-deeds-outnumber-bad-deeds
system. Because God is holy, just one
bad deed in life is all it takes to send you to Hell. Consider what the Bible says in James 2.10:
“For whoever keeps
the whole law and yet stumbles in one point,
he has become guilty
of all”
In short, trying to earn your way to Heaven is a “fool’s
errand.” In fact it’s worse because it
only makes God all the angrier. He has
provided a way through His own dear Son Jesus Christ and His death for you on
the Cross. And yet you reject it! And you therefore reject the only
escape! Listen to what the Bible says
in Hebrews 2.3,
“How shall we escape
if we neglect so great a salvation?”
It’s a rhetorical question — there is no
escape! Oh sinner, how will you
escape? I wasn’t able. No one else reading this was able. No one in all of human history has been
able. Will you? Are you more clever than any man or woman
yet born? Will you have some
unassailable argument that will impress God in a way that He’s never been
impressed before? I’d like to hear it!
Here’s the bottom line:
no amount of church-going, taking the Mass, giving to the poor,
volunteering at a soup kitchen, or being baptized is going to save you. You can’t be saved by good works. Ephesians 2.8-9 says,
“For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
anyone should boast.”
Christ gets the glory for saving you, friend. You’re not going to steal that glory. You don’t get to boast. Rather we get to boast of Christ.
Do you believe that?
I hope you do.
Then what must I do to be saved?
Perhaps you’re reading this and you already know that
you’ve sinned against God. You know you’ve offended Him and that He is
justifiably angry at you.
You realize you’re where you are today because you made
one bad decision after the other. You’re burdened by the sins of your
past. You’re so sick of them. You wish you could just erase them and start
all over again. You’ve tried everything
to feel better about yourself but nothing seems to work.
Well dear one if you’re in that place today, have we got
good news for you. You can start all over again. You can have your slate wiped
clean. Take it from me, a sinner, Jesus
delivers on His promises.
Jesus said in Luke 19.10,
“The Son of Man came
to seek and save that which was lost.”
That’s you, dear friend. He calls out to you today:
“Come to Me, all who
are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you
and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart
and you will find
rest for your souls.”
Jesus’ very Name means, “Jehovah Saves.” As the Son of God He is none other than
Almighty God Himself. He has the
authority and power to save you from your sins. To deliver you from the threat of Hell with its flames and worms.
You can be sure right now beyond all doubt that you’ll never see that
place. And even more importantly you
can know that you belong to Him and will be with Him in heaven for all
eternity.
Maybe you’re thinking, “But Glen, I don’t know how to call
on this Lord Jesus.” We find what we
need to do in the book of Romans, chapter 10 verses 9 & 10 (NAS):
“That if you confess
with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved; for
with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the
mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
You need to pray to God, and confess to Him that Jesus is
Lord; that you believe that He died and was raised from the dead for your
sins. And you have to believe it with
your heart. This is not a magic chant.
You have to believe it in your heart.
You can do it in private just by kneeling by your own
bed. Or if you don’t want to do it
alone you can call us. The best thing
to do, of course, is to come and visit us at Sunday morning worship where we
can sit down and help you after the service.
How will I know I really am saved?
You’ll know because there will be a noticeable change in
your life. For starters, you’ll have a
desire to worship Him with other believers at your local bible-believing
church. In Enfield, that would be First
Baptist Church. But there are thousands
of churches like us all around the world.
You need to go!
Secondly, you’ll develop a hunger to study His word, the
Bible. Lastly, you’ll find your overall
behavior changing — for the better! To
employ a well known pun, “Christians aren’t sinless, but they will sin less” as
they grow in their relationship with Jesus.
* * *
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ou know, every believer on earth was once in the place that
you are today. No one is born into the
family of God. Each of us had to “born
again” by making a decision just like you have to today. And then the funny thing is, once you’ve
made that decision, you start studying the Bible and realize God planned it for
you all along, right from the beginning.
What a merciful and loving God He is!
God promises us in Psalm 91
“Because he [or she!]
has set his love upon Me,
Therefore I will
deliver him
I will set him on
high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon
Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in
trouble;
I will deliver him
and honor him.
With long life I will
satisfy him,
And show him My
salvation.”
My heartfelt desire is for each person reading this today
to understand God’s wondrous love commended toward us through Christ. For those of you reading this who are saved,
I pray that you would glorify God by making Him the center of your worship,
your service and in your life.
For those of you who are unsaved but are seeking the
forgiveness and healing that can only be found in Jesus, humble yourself before
Him today. You won’t be disappointed.
You friend,
Glen O’Keefe, Elder
First Baptist Church of Enfield,
CT
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