Wisdom of God

1Corinthians 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

Christ crucified is to the Jews a stumblingblock and to the Greeks foolishness. These are two groups of people that reject the gospel. The first person I will focus on is the Jew. This was a person that was very respected as a person. He went to the temple very devoutly. He tithed all he had, right down to the mint and cummin (down to the spice rack). You would see him fasting twice a week with a face full of sadness and sorrow. He would wear these robes which were long and flowing and would pray on the street corners so that all could see. He had the law of Moses written between his eyes and came from a pure Hebrew bloodline. If he saw a "Gentile dog" walking in his direction he would cross to the other side of the street so he would not dirty him self by coming in too close proximity. He was the religious of his day and he considered him self to be superior in every way. Not only in bloodline or tradition, but in everything about his lifestyle. He was a "good man". He loved the law and the righteousness he got from obeying it. When he heard of Jesus, that he was a lowly carpenter, he scoffed. When he heard that this Messiah was a Nazarene, he laughed. Would he forsake his father's religion and bow down to a carpenter? Would he he reject his religion and all the effort and work that he put into it, and now put his faith in this supposed deliverer? NEVER! Here he was obeying the laws of God, getting recognition from his peers and gaining in righteousness, and now he was to throw it all away for a Man? Absolutely absurd! Christ crucified was a stumblingblock to him. The Jew could not accept it.

Perhaps there is a "Jew" reading this today. Let me introduce you to yourself. Perhaps you come from a real pious family who are well thought of in your community. You love the "church". You love it right down to the stain glass windows, the arched doorway, the red carpet and the glass chandeliers. You love the life, the aura of it, the people, and even the positive messages that make you feel so wonderful. You love it when the preacher takes a cute story from the bible and gleans some wisdom from it that you can apply to your life to make it better and better. You are so proud to be a member of the one true denomination and you thumb your nose at everyone else. Christ will be to you a stumblingblock. You get real uncomfortable when you hear talk of such things as Jesus dying for the ungodly. When you hear a song sung like "There is power in the blood", it makes you shudder. It is all just a doctrine to you. It's not real. If I were to tell you that all your going to the "house of God" is for nothing... If I tell you that all your singing and praying, pass for nothing in the sight of God because you are a hypocrite, dead in your trespasses and sins... If I tell you unless you get your heart right, all the externals will do you no good... You would tell me to get lost. If I preached to you the externals, like reading your bible, fasting, having daily devotions, you would gladly hear me. If I had told you that you needed to do this or that to be saved, you would gladly had listened to me. If I took a week to tell you all that you must DO to be saved, you would heard me with eagerness. If I had told you that you must take your socks off and walk fifty miles in your bare feet, you would have started off first thing in the morning. But to hear that Salvation is a free gift and it is only offered to the ungodly sinner, you won't have any of it. If I tell you that it is Christ's righteousness that saves you and not your own, you dismiss it immediately. If I tell you that Christ on the cross, was a statement from God, of what you deserve, but that He took your place, you would turn and walk away. Let me ask you a question, "Jew". When you stare death in the face, will your religion save you? When you stand before the throne of God, will you take comfort that finally all your efforts and good works will pay off? Christ crucified is to you a stumblingblock.

The other person I will deal with is the Greek. The Greek loves wisdom. He either despises all religion or he thinks that they all have something good to offer. He is found everywhere. In the work place, in the university or college dorm, on television or radio. He loves little quaint expressions and wise sayings from the great philosophers. Ask him a question and he knows it all. Whatever it might be, politics, economics, religion, but as soon as you talk to him of Christ, it is foolishness to him and he won't hear of it. Ask him about "New Age" or Buddhism, he will talk your ear off, but Jesus bleeding on a cross for his sins is foolishness.

If this describes you let me ask you a few questions. When death stares you in the face, will your wisdom mean anything then? When tribulation comes, will wisdom give you comfort? When you begin to drown in misery, depression and guilt, will your wisdom cheer you up? Will your philosophy give you eternal life? No sir! Without the promises of God to hold you up, all your learning and wisdom will do you no good. It will only make your path a little slipperier as you slide down into the pit of hell.

1Co 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God

Here is the wisdom of God. God viewed humanity with all their ungodliness and sin, and saw that something needed to be done. He knew that the judgment must fall because of sin and He saw all their religion and self effort was insufficient and was sick of it. What did He do? Even while we (mankind) were still enemies of God, sinning at every opportunity, God showed His great love and when the time was right, God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, to live amongst us so that He could feel with our infirmities and taste death for every man. His name was Jesus and He lived like us and was tempted in every way as we are, but without sin. He had every desire as we have. He was fully man, yet fully God and He lived perfectly. Someone had to pay for our sin... Either we who committed the sin or someone to take our place. Jesus qualified as a perfect substitute and God laid the sin of the world on Him and He died on the cross as if He were all the sinners on earth. He went into the depths of the earth for three days and then resurrected in a glorified body, ascended to heaven and is currently seated at the right hand of God, waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. One day soon He is coming back for all those that believe this, to take them with Him to heaven where there will be a great big family reunion, with singing and dancing! If you noticed, this is God's righteousness not ours. The gospel is all God's righteousness and He reserved salvation for those that are ungodly sinners who work not! That is who salvation is for. Why? Because God will not have some man glory in His presence. God will not have man say to Him, "I did it, or I deserve it". All that is required is faith. You can see how this poses a problem for the self righteous man. It is very humbling to know that all your right doing and self effort will never be enough to get to heaven but that one must rely completely on the right doing of another, which is God Himself. Absolutely beautiful! Marvelous! Oh the wisdom of God! To those that are saved, it is the power and wisdom of God.

Quest For Glory

Romans 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

This passage is loaded with doctrine that is very applicable to our times. All non believers and many professing Christians are almost totally ignorant of God's righteousness. People are running around seeking glory, establishing their own righteousness being totally ignorant of God's. Why is that?

This goes to the root of who we are as a depraved human race according to biblical teaching. The first man, Adam, was made in the image of God and crowned with His glory. He was also made in fellowship with God and therefore rightly related to Him. When Adam sinned sought his own self interests and stepped out of fellowship with God, God took His glory away. Since that time, we the human race been without the glory of God and have this deep desire for glory, and there is nothing wrong with that, except that we we seek it in the wrong place and for the wrong reason. IN OUR NATURAL STATE, OUR QUEST FOR GLORY IS DEEPLY SEEDED IN "SELF", and therein lies the root of all our problems.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The result is when we seeking our own glory, apart from God, whether it be in material wealth, sports, fancy cars, an important position in a company, or RELIGION, the itch never gets sufficiently scratched. There is no lasting satisfaction. The empty hole where the glory and fellowship with God should be, is still empty. Men seek religion as a way to fill that empty void, but it is only a continuation of the problem because it will still never satisfy for it still stems from purely selfish motives. It is still a vain attempt to attain glory and establish our own righteousness, that will forever be insufficient. We may join a "church", get baptized, volunteer at a soup kitchen, join a cause, witness, read our bibles, donate to charity etc, to try to fill that need for glory, but it is still just dead works and filth in God's eye. Without faith it is impossible to please God and it is through this channel of faith in His righteousness that all of our actions must emanate from.

So continuing on, the root of the problem is this, that we (the human race) are going about establishing our own righteousness without submitting ourselves to the righteousness of God. To clarify, IT IS NOT GOOD WORKS THAT GOD HATES, IT IS GOOD WORKS THAT IGNORE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, THAT GOD HATES. When we do good works that come out of a heart without faith, whose only motivation is to fulfill selfish desires, it's those works that God calls filth. It is personal works of righteousness that manifest out of a sense of guilt, out of a sense of duty, where the motivation is as the relationship between a slave and his master, and based completely on legal motives and not love. A truly born again Christian is motivated by the love of Christ which is manifested in His righteousness (in the gospel), not in legal motives. Why? Because a Christian is not under the law (or covenant of works) but under grace. This verse perfectly illustrates it...

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

What that verse says is that when a person gets saved, there is no more need for that person to seek personal righteousness to get in right standing with God and inherit eternal life. When a person gets saved they have all the righteousness needed to get to heaven, which is Christ's. For the rest of that individual's life, all of the good works that he or she does, should come out of a thankful and loving heart because of what God has done for them (ie. God's righteousness). God's righteousness is now the motivation for everything in that believers life. Any act he does, springs forth from the faith he has in God's righteousness, which is what He did when He sent His Son Jesus to this earth and made Him to be sin for us and shed His blood on that tree. When a person gets born again, and finally sees the enormity of God's righteousness manifested in the Gospel, it absolutely melts his heart. Just the thought that God would justify ungodly heathen sinners, while they are still in their sins, is beyond human understanding. The tremendous gap between the ungodly life of the individual coupled with the hell they deserve, contrasted against God's awesome love that comes from His righteousness, motivates the new believer to act out of love and thanksgiving, finally glorifying God the rightful Owner of all glory. At the point where the sinner believes God and submits to His righteousness, that sinner is again crowned with the glory. That empty hole that the sinner used to fill with pleasure seeking, material wealth, religion etc. is now forever filled because of this. That continuous feeling that there is something missing, is gone. In its place is only joy, thanksgiving, and love because of finally submitting to the right righteousness and getting the glory back, both of which are God's.

So to get in right standing with God again (like Adam was before he sinned), we must be in God's kingdom, and to be in His kingdom we must be born again. How do we get born again? By rejecting any personal righteousness, or any offering out of our souls to God for the purpose of getting in right standing with Him, and simply turning to God and believing that Jesus got right with God for us. It is in trusting that His sinless life, His blood, His dying, His resurrection is enough to get us rightly related to God and into heaven.

Draw Nigh To God

Mt 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Mt 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Here is the main point that I would like to focus on that has recently been on my mind. Drawing nigh to God and how one goes about it. If we look at the above verse we see Jesus blasting the scribes and pharisees because they were holding their tradition over the word of God. They were worshiping God in vain because they taught the doctrines and traditions of men and held this over the word of God. In essence, they worshiped each other and themselves, rather than truly worshiping God.

I wonder if we would examine our own institutionalized Christianity, how true Christ's statement would be today. I wonder if we stripped all the traditions away that stand in the way of drawing nigh to God, if we would not experience something much better. Jesus said, "The people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." Could that be true in our own Christian lives? Isn't much of what is taught on television stations like CBN, or heard on Christian radio, or even from the pulpit, that we just need to do something, and God will draw nigh to us? Perhaps the real question would be, is God found purely in religious acts? Do we limit God to our morning devotional or our daily bible reading? Do we limit our worship to a church meeting on Sunday? Is God found only in a building? Are we limiting Him to certain acts, deeds or places? Is this where God is found? Is there more to this life than the seen? How do we get close to God?

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the BLOOD of Christ.

We were made nigh by the Blood of Christ. Without the blood of Christ we don't draw nigh to God. It is by faith in the blood which we draw nigh. But how, you say is that practical in our experience? The next verse says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Jesus Christ has made peace for us by His blood. That is how we come nigh to God. Believing that His blood is sufficient for us to come right through the veil, into the holiest of all and boldly approach the throne of grace. Why boldly? Because His blood not only covers all our sin but takes it away so that we are acceptable in His sight. Because Christ's robe of righteousness covers us so that God views us (His children) as He does His precious Son. It is faith in that, that we draw nigh to God.

Heb 11:6 But without FAITH it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

A profound statement. Without faith it is impossible to please him. A person can go around and do everything that they ought to do. Read scripture, daily devotions, church meeting on Sunday, whatever it may be, and their heart can be far from God. Without faith that God is who He says He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him, it is impossible to please Him. It saddens me when we limit our worship and our relationship with God to certain tasks or deeds with as much enthusiasm as a slave to his master, ignoring God's righteousness, mercy and grace and focusing only on ourselves.

Heb 7:19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better HOPE did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

"The bringing in of a better hope", is contrasted to the law here and the better hope that is meant here is this new salvation and righteousness and blood that is revealed in the Man Christ Jesus. Faith and hope are very similar in the bible. Hope that Christ is coming soon and hope that we will soon have our new bodies and will dwell with Christ for eternity. Hope that His righteousness and not our own will be sufficient to inherit eternal life. We draw nigh to God through the means of what Jesus Christ did for us.

So I would like to conclude with these thoughts. Scripture says that we have been made nigh by the blood of Christ and we draw nigh to God by Hope and Faith. My main point that I would like to get across is that God is always nigh to us who are saved, by faith in the finished work of Christ. Christ lives in us! We limit him to certain activities throughout the day, when He is there all the time! He is there when we mow the lawn. He is there when we are at work. He is there when we wash the dishes or when we go for a walk. The best times we can have with God are those times when the roar of the lawn mower drowns out all other noises, or seeing the flash of lightning and hear the thunder crashing. Or meditating on Isaiah ch6 or Ezekiel ch 1 over the hum of a diesel engine. Or thinking about Revelation ch 19 over the profanity laced lunch room at work. Even then God is nigh.

Under the Law vs Under Grace

This topic is what separates the saved from the unsaved. It separates Christian from non Christian.

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Ga 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law (or under the law) are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Ga 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept UNDER THE LAW, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Ga 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made UNDER THE LAW,
Ga 4:5 To redeem them that were UNDER THE LAW, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

It seems that being under this state of being under the law is not a desirable state to be in. It seems that Christ redeemed us from under the law. In fact, being under the law is called a curse because a person must do the law perfectly in order to be justified by it, and if you fail to keep it just once, you are condemned for all eternity. Here is what Charles Finney says about what it means to be under the law...

To be under the law is to be subject to the law as a covenant of works. In other words, to be under the law is to be under the necessity of perfectly fulfilling the law in order to obtain salvation. To be under the law is to be influenced by legal motives or considerations, to be constrained by the fear of punishment or influenced by the hope of reward. To be under the law is to be constrained by conscience and a sense of duty, instead of by love. Individuals seem to go painfully about their duty under the biddings of conscience, and submit with about as much pain and reluctance as a slave to his master.
To be under the law is to be under the condemning sentence of the law, like a state criminal, and of course shut out from communion with God. A state criminal, under sentence, is legally shut out from all friendly intercourse with the government, and is considered and treated like an outlaw. Just so with a sinner, under the sentence of Gods law. While the sinner remains in a state of spiritual death and alienation from God, the sentence of eternal death is out against him. He is shut out of communion with God, and consequently sin will have dominion over him.

I can not say it any better than that. Beautiful peace of writing. So in contrast, let us look at what it means to be under grace. To be under grace means that a person accepts the gift of salvation freely without any offering of good works or anything from his or her soul. To be under grace means to be united to Jesus by faith and receive continual life and influence from Him. Through faith I mean simply believing that what Jesus did on the cross is enough to get you into heaven. To be under grace means that a person is motivated by love, and is excited and moved by grace not a sense of duty or legal motives. How marvelous it is to be under grace! How true it is what Jesus meant when He said that the Truth shall set you free.
How wonderful it is to know that there is never one act of righteousness required for me to inherit eternal life! How wonderful to know that ones sins are forgiven! How marvelous to know that not one sin will be put to ones account! It is great to be under grace!

Christianity a Religion?

Christianity is not a religion. It is not a belief system. It is not a covenant of works. In other words, it is not a system where one obeys set rules or laws in order to obtain salvation. This is how Christianity differs from all religion because in true Christianity you cannot get to heaven by doing what you ought to do.

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.

Galations 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.

Ga 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

These are some profound passages. By doing the things in the law, you cannot be saved. That is what it means. By doing what you know that you ought to do, you cannot inherit eternal life or stand justified before God. Why is that? Because all people after the first time they sin, already are in a condemned state. Just as if they were on death row at the federal prison. In the last passage Paul says that if a person could earn salvation by doing good works, than Christ died for nothing. Pretty blunt words. If you can stand justified before God by your own good works, the Jesus died in vain. No sir, this is not just another religion. This is the anti-religion. As we see from scripture, true Christianity is not mankind seeking to please God in order to please Him or justify themselves.



So what is Christianity? Again, true Christianity is not man living under a covenant of works to please God. True Christianity is God taking on a body like ours (Jesus Christ) born of a virgin, who lives with the same temptations and desire as we do, yet without sin, He lives perfect and dies on a cross, taking on Himself all of our sin, goes to the grave and resurrects three days later, ascends to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. The important thing is, God now has one righteous MAN that succeeded where Adam failed. God now has righteous blood that can pay, not just for one person's sin, but for all the sins of every person ever born, past, present and future. We know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin and nothing can make an atonement for the soul except blood. So now God has a just basis to forgive any sinner that simply believes that what Jesus did is enough to inherit eternal life. Completely free of all human effort. As well, God can now be completely just in the act of forgiving any and all who believe.

So what is the sum of my note? Christianity is not a religion or belief system. Christianity is not about man doing something to please God. Christianity is not even about man's righteousness. Christianity is God revealing His righteousness through one MAN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS, and faith in that MAN is how we can stand completely justified before God. Christianity again is not mankind living by rules, laws, principles but by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith that He lived the life that we should have, but didn't, faith that He fulfilled the law for us, faith that He took the full wrath of God that should of been directed at us. Faith that it is His doing, His righteousness, His reign, His glory, His power, His grace, His mercy . It is all about Jesus! It's about the reign of a Supreme Potentate. It is about the rule of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It's about Jesus Christ who is the express image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. It is about Him, by whom were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him, and He is the head of all. It is about Him who was before all things. It is about Jesus who is TRUTH. It is from Him that All truth emanates from. He is life and He is the light of the world, not a religious system. Not a covenant of works to be obeyed. Something God did in His Son and it is belief in Him that makes it effectual for us, not in doing religious acts or deeds.

Religion The Enemy Of The Gospel?

One of the biggest antagonists to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is RELIGION. What do I mean when I say religion? This system of seeking after self-righteousness under the guise of pleasing God. It is keeping ordinances, traditions, and a lot of self effort to stay in the good graces of God. Religion is the veil that hides Jesus from the masses. It is a false sense of security that makes the guilty party feel better about themselves. Religion attempts to ease the discomfort of the deep-seeded guilt, and when it fails it brings the victim to a state of self loathing and hatred for never reaching the desired level of righteousness. It is an itch that when scratched continues to itch more and more without ever reaching the desired satisfaction. Religion never does satisfy fully. Just like sin, it might be pleasurable for a season, but in the end it always leaves the victim life empty, meaningless and his soul condemned. Often the true gospel message is preached, but is made impotent and powerless by the onslaught of "do's and don't's" that reverberate through the hearers mind. Especially among "church goers" that have never come to the knowledge of the truth and found that release. Also there are internal voices that say, "It can't be that easy," or , "That just sounds too good to be true". It is almost too good to be true that God could call us guilty, hell-deserving sinners, completely righteous, and do it as a free gift. How could a just and righteous God do that? Because he called and treated His Son as if He were all the guilty sinners in the world and took out His wrath on Him.

2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Believing the gospel of Jesus Christ forces us to acknowledge that we have nothing to offer God, we have nothing we can do, we are completely helpless hell-trodden sinners, who are without hope and have only Jesus who can save us. We are shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean and Jesus is the only one within a million miles, and the only one with the means to save. You believe that and you're saved. There is no self effort in the Gospel. It is His works, His righteousness, His power, His glory, His Blood. Nothing for us to do here. All God's doings. All Jesus and His righteousness. No room for self effort here. Makes a person feel a completely helpless in himself. But when that release comes when a person lets go of his own righteousness as a means to save himself, and clings only to Christ, it is a wonderful thing. What a relief when one finally lets go and just believes! This is why religion is so pointless. It continues on from here and says, "Just continue on with your self effort to please God and go to heaven". And God is saying that He is sick of all our religion and self effort. The whole point to the salvation is so that we could once again be rightly related to God (not by something we do, but something He did) and fellowship with Him in a walk of faith, believing God moment to moment. Just imagine a man who is continuously running around buying things and dressing himself up to show his wife that he loves her. Imagine a man who is always working to make a better living, striving to make more money so his wife will see that he adores her. Wouldn't she soon tell him to stop and just look at her? Perhaps go for a walk together and enjoy each others company? You see, all God wants is us. All God wants is to walk with us in the cool of the day again, like He did with Adam in the garden. God is lonely for our company. Jesus is lonely for our company. Cast off your empty religion. Jesus is all you need.

What Really Matters

A person is not a Christian because one goes to "church". A person is not a Christian because one goes to a certain denomination. A person is not a Christian because he/she is baptized. A person is not a Christian because He/She professed to be a Christian. A person is not a Christian because he/she said a prayer and really meant it. A person is not a Christian because he or she confessed their sins. A person is not a Christian because he/she is spiritual. A person is not a Christian because he/she is broken and contrite. A person is not a Christian because he/she does devotions daily. A person is not a Christian because he/she fasts and prays a lot. A person is not a Christian because he/she has read the bible all the way through. A person is not a Christian because of some position they hold. A person is not a Christian because they memorized scripture. A person is not a Christian because he/she wears modest clothes. A person is not a Christian because they are a better at being a Christian than the next person. So what constitutes a Christian? What if all of those "religious duties" were taken away? What if your bible were taken away? What if there was no more church meetings? What if all your rules were taken away. What if all of your "Christian friends", went away, leaving you no one to compare yourself with? What if all your Sunday clothes were burned in a fire? What if you were paralyzed from the neck down, stranded on an island, without your "daily bread", or your bible, incapable of any religious efforts? Would you still be "Christian"?

All these self efforts and traditions, will no more make a person a Christian then standing in a garage will make a person into a car. God calls our righteousness filth. The apostle Paul calls it dung. Why? Because we sinned and fell short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter that one has a real good Christian spirit. We fall short. Doesn't matter that all our life we have gone to "church". We fall short. It doesn't matter that at one time we said a prayer. It doesn't matter that at one time we repented. It means less then nothing to God. It doesn't matter that when you were twelve you got baptized. We fell short. So what matters to God?

What matters to God is His Son Jesus Christ. That is what matters. Apart from all of Jesus Christ's right doing here on earth, His life and His dying, His blood, and His resurrection, His righteousness, nothing pleases God. NOTHING! We are filthy, ungodly heathen sinners worthy of the fires of hell and nothing else. Without the blood of Jesus to cover and pay for our sins, and His righteousness imputed to our account, we could never, ever come into God's presence (heaven). The most pleasing thing a person could do to make it right (for all of our sin and rebellion) with God apart from Christ on the cross, is to take a knife and slit our own throats so that the blood runs to the ground and people and animals trample all over it and our lifeless bodies. I am not kidding. Even that would be insufficient. Our blood is too polluted to be worth much. Knowing this, to even dare think that by doing the right thing one can climb his way into God's good graces and inherit eternal life, is absurd. That is why religion is so disgusting to God. Thinking that we by going through religious motions can fool God! Thinking that tithing ten percent and attending the one true denomination will make it right with God! Thinking that coming to "church" and confessing our sins and then going out and continuing to live in sin will cut it with God. Thinking that by having devotions, fasting and praying will make all the times we sinned and broke God`s law, just go away. All the while breathing God's good clean air and thinking that we got away with it! Just thinking that if we tell God we are sorry, He will forgive us. How could God be righteous and just if he just forgave sin whenever someone said sorry? Absolutely delusional!

The cross was a statement by God of His rejection and condemnation of the whole human race with all of our religion and self effort. God was sick and tired of man`s empty religion that tried to cover for their evil deeds.

God requires blood to be shed to pay for sin. God used the blood of animals in the old covenant to cover the sins of those Jews that offered them up as a sacrifice. But the blood of animals was not sufficient to remove their sins. God in His long suffering, saved those old testament saints on credit til some real blood could be shed. The life and blood of an animal cannot substitute the life and blood of a human. If I had a friend who had never sinned and was perfectly righteous, that friend (if it pleased God) could take my place in hell so that I could take his place in heaven. But an animal is not worth the life of a human. God only used this as a picture of what was to come. When God's wrath poured out on His only Son, instead of us, and Christ's blood ran onto the ground at Calvary, it was the most profound act of love the world ever saw. Frankly, it is almost too good to be true. To think that the Creator of all the universe would come down and take upon Himself a body like ours and be tempted as we are, chastised, humiliated, beaten, whipped, nailed to a cross and take upon Himself our sin, is beyond words. Beyond human comprehension.

The only way we can go to heaven and be rightly related to God is to know that all our self effort and religion will forever be insufficient and just believe. There is nothing in our experience that we can do to be saved from eternity in the lake of fire. Salvation is not in our experience. Salvation is what Jesus did on the cross over two thousand years ago, and it is in believing that, that we are saved. Simply relying on nothing else, but that what Jesus did is sufficient for us to go to heaven. Trusting that the blood of Jesus was enough to pay for all your sins. A person must be brought to a point where he or she sees that there is no other way. Either Jesus took care of it, or it is eternal damnation for all of us. Either Jesus did it all and salvation really is a free gift, or we are all in big trouble. I don't know about the rest of you, but my faith is entirely on His works and not mine. All my hope is in His righteousness imputed to me and not mine. Religion and self effort which is my righteousness, is not the way, it is the anti-way. Religion is what makes the truths of Christianity so hard to get across. Religion is man doing things to please God. Religion is doing the things in the law to try to please God and justify oneself. True Christianity is God showing His GREAT LOVE toward us in that while we were still sinners DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS, Christ died for us.

So what is your motivating factor? Is it guilt? Do you do good deeds because you know you haven't lived right? Do you try to hide your sin and guilt in a shroud of religious activity? Or do you act out of joy and love for Jesus, believing what He did for you. Do you act out of knowing that all of your sins are paid for and your salvation is secure in Christ? If you don't, then you don't believe and you are still dead in your sins. What you ought to do is come to God in all your sin and believe that Jesus and not you, made it right with God. He took care of it. Stop striving to be saved and just believe. Then go and sin no more.

Imputed Righteousness

By: Michael Pearl
What does one do to have God’s righteousness imputed to his account? “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness...
...without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin.” - Rom. 4:6. “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;” - Rom. 4:24. Believe is the condition. Read Rom. 4-5.
What did Christ do to have our sin imputed to him? He, kneeling in the garden, believed and received the weight of sin. God “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin...” - 2 Cor. 5:21. Jesus became what we are, a sinner—no, more than that, He became sin itself, “...that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” God was willing to see Jesus as a sinner, so He could see us as righteousness. Jesus became what we are, so we can become what he is. He became a sinful son of man, so we could become sinless sons of God. It was a trade. He traded his righteousness to us for our sin. He then carried the consequences of our sin before God, so we can carry the consequences of Christ’s righteousness before God. He walked to Calvary, so we could ascend to heaven. The God who “calleth those things which be not as though they were” called His Son something He wasn’t—a sinner, so he could call us something we are not—righteous. “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” - Rom. 4:8.

How Can This Be?

By: Michael Pearl
Mr. Pearl,
Within your teaching tapes, you clearly and plainly teach that we have power over sin because…the means of sin resides in the flesh…
our flesh has been crucified with Christ and is therefore dead…dead things can’t lust…we can live in newness of life because our body of flesh has been put to death, freeing us from the power of sin.
Sir, if Paul’s flesh was dead, why would he find it necessary to “fight it” and “bring it into subjection.”? Either the body is truly dead like Romans teaches or it is not really dead and we are forced to play mind games with ourselves to make ourselves believe it is dead.
I am starting to question my faith because these things are not adding up.
MS

Mike Answers
The Word of God reveals a pattern that is discovered from Genesis to Revelation. God always relates to man in this method. Hebrews 11 sums up this faith method. It is called “hope” in Romans 8. God always saves by hope, “but hope that is seen is not hope,” for if a man sees the reality, it eliminates the possibility of living in a state of hope. In all God’s dealings with man, he is seeking to restore trust. Man has spent many years “undoing” the character of God in himself and his society. God could have placed Adam in the garden in a glorified condition, incapable of sinning. God could have remained in the garden and kept Adam from sinning. God could have explained things to him in more detail and prevented him from being so tempted. But the Creator placed his first man in an environment that required ongoing trust. Adam had to walk by faith. By faith, Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice. Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. God gave him a city which had foundations whose builder and maker was God, and told him that he was the father of a great nation, when he and Sarah were incapable of having children. But rather than fulfill his promise immediately, God delayed 25 years until the promise seemed elusive at best. God told Abraham to walk through the land and that every place the sole of his foot touched was his. He spent his whole life living in a reality that God defined, but which he never saw with is eyes. He “died in faith” having not seen the promise, but was “persuaded of it.”
The 11th chapter of Hebrews goes on to show that the entire program of God proceeds in the same manner. When 10 lepers wanted to be healed, Jesus told them to go to the temple and demonstrate to the priest that they were already healed. When they were still visibly covered with leprosy, they acted on the word of Jesus and by “hope” they headed to the temple. As they went they were healed.
Likewise, when a lame man wanted to walk, Jesus didn’t create visible signs of healing; He told the lame man to rise up and walk. The man had to act by faith and hope, based on the reality of Jesus—not what was obvious to him and everyone else who saw him. The very gospel is of this nature. The preacher goes to a sinner and tells him that his sins were forgiven 2000 years ago. He must believe the unseen and act in God’s reality, not his own.
God could have designed that upon the day of our conversion, we were instantly and visibly transformed into glorified sons, without these bodies of flesh, but he chose to allow a gap between the moment of our crucifixion to sin, our resurrection and our ascension, and the full and visible realization of it in glory. God allows us a few years to walk by faith and hope, a time when we appropriate all that was in the atonement and co-crucifixion by means of restored trust and fellowship. As Abraham, we are to “reckon” a thing to be true because God says it is, not because we see it. We are to spend our lives here on earth walking by faith, living the life of Jesus Christ through the power of his spirit. It is a time when we can undo all the years of unbelief and carnality—a time when the words of God are our reality against our own sight.
You said you were “starting to question your faith.” Maybe you have had little faith and a lot of religion. It is time to believe God that you are a “new creature, old things are passed away and all things are become new.” Paul “reckoned himself to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God.” True faith starts where sight and demonstration stop. “Your faith” should be questioned, and “the faith of God” should take its place.
If Hebrews 11 were to continue until the present, it would read something like this: “And the followers of Christ, though they were living in bodies of flesh, believed God that they were indeed baptized into his body and thus freed from sin. They went out into the world, walking by faith and hope and so, though they never saw their glorified bodies or the throne on which they were seated, they believed God against the sight of their eyes and so walked in holiness and victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. While the world looked on the things that are seen, these sons of The Last Adam, believed him who is invisible and so inherited the kingdom and entered into the city which had foundations whose builder and maker is God.”

LOOKING UNTO JESUS

"Looking unto Jesus." --Hebrews 12:2
By: Charles Hadden Spurgeon

It is ever the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan's work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ. He insinuates, "Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of His children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus." All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: He tells us that we are nothing, but that "Christ is all in all." Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee--it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee--it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument--it is Christ's blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by "looking unto Jesus." Keep thine eye simply on Him; let His death, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look to Him; when thou liest down at night look to Him. Oh! let not thy hopes or fears come between thee and Jesus; follow hard after Him, and He will never fail thee.

"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesu's blood and righteousness:
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesu's name."

At Calvary

Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified,
Knowing not it was for me He died
On Calvary.

Refrain:Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary.

By God’s Word at last my sin I learned;
Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned,
Till my guilty soul imploring turned
To Calvary.

Now I’ve giv’n to Jesus everything,
Now I gladly own Him as my King,
Now my raptured soul can only sing
Of Calvary!

Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!

By: William R. Newell

Faith, What is it?

Another chapter from the book "All of Grace" by Charles Hadden Spurgeon

Faith, What Is It?
What is this faith concerning which it is said, "By grace are ye saved, through faith?" There are many descriptions of faith; but almost all the definitions I have met with have made me understand it less than I did before I saw them. Someone said when he read the chapter, that he would confound it; and it is very likely that he did so, though he meant to expound it. We may explain faith till nobody understands it. I hope I shall not be guilty of that fault. Faith is the simplest of all things, and perhaps because of its simplicity it is the more difficult to explain.
What is faith? It is made up of three things - knowledge, belief, and trust. Knowledge comes first. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" I want to be informed of a fact before I can possibly believe it. "Faith cometh by hearing"; we must first hear, in order that we may know what is to be believed. "They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee." A measure of knowledge is essential to faith; hence the importance of getting knowledge. "Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live." Such was the word of the ancient prophet, and it is the word of the gospel still. Search the Scriptures and learn what the Holy Spirit teacheth concerning Christ and His salvation. Seek to know God: "For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." May the Holy Spirit give you the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord! Know the gospel: know what the good news is, how it talks of free forgiveness, and of change of heart, of adoption into the family of God, and of countless other blessings. Know especially Christ Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour of men, united to us by His human nature, and yet one with God; and thus able to act as Mediator between God and man, able to lay His hand upon both, and to be the connecting link between the sinner and the Judge of all the earth. Endeavor to know more and more of Christ Jesus. Endeavor especially to know the doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ; for the point upon which saving faith mainly fixes itself is this - "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Know that Jesus was "made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Drink deep of the doctrine of the substitutionary work of Christ; for therein lies the sweetest possible comfort to the guilty sons of men, since the Lord "made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Faith begins with knowledge.
The mind goes on to believe that these things are true. The soul believes that God is, and that He hears the cries of sincere hearts; that the gospel is from God; that justification by faith is the grand truth which God hath revealed in these last days by His Spirit more clearly than before. Then the heart believes that Jesus is verily and in truth our God and Saviour, the Redeemer of men, the Prophet, Priest, and King of His people. All this is accepted as sure truth, not to be called in question. I pray that you may at once come to this. Get firmly to believe that "the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin"; that His sacrifice is complete and fully accepted of God on man’s behalf, so that he that believeth on Jesus is not condemned. Believe these truths as you believe any other statements; for the difference between common faith and saving faith lies mainly in the subjects upon which it is exercised. Believe the witness of God just as you believe the testimony of your own father or friend. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater."
So far you have made an advance toward faith; only one more ingredient is needed to complete it, which is trust. Commit yourself to the merciful God; rest your hope on the gracious gospel; trust your soul on the dying and living Saviour; wash away your sins in the atoning blood; accept His perfect righteousness, and all is well. Trust is the lifeblood of faith; there is no saving faith without it. The Puritans were accustomed to explain faith by the word "recumbency." It meant leaning upon a thing. Lean with all your weight upon Christ. It would be a better illustration still if I said, fall at full length, and lie on the Rock of Ages. Cast yourself upon Jesus; rest in Him; commit yourself to Him. That done, you have exercised saving faith. Faith is not a blind thing; for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing; for faith believes facts of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy thing; for faith trusts, and stakes its destiny upon the truth of revelation. That is one way of describing what faith is.
Let me try again. Faith is believing that Christ is what He is said to be, and that He will do what He has promised to do, and then to expect this of Him. The Scriptures speak of Jesus Christ as being God, God is human flesh; as being perfect in His character; as being made of a sin-offering on our behalf; as bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. The Scripture speaks of Him as having finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness. The sacred records further tell us that He "rose again from the dead," that He "ever liveth to make intercession for us," that He has gone up into the glory, and has taken possession of Heaven on the behalf of His people, and that He will shortly come again "to judge the world in righteousness, and his people with equity." We are most firmly to believe that it is even so; for this is the testimony of God the Father when He said, "This is my beloved Son; hear ye him." This also is testified by God the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit has borne witness to Christ, both in the inspired Word and by divers miracles, and by His working in the hearts of men. We are to believe this testimony to be true.
Faith also believes that Christ will do what He has promised; that since He has promised to cast out none that come to Him, it is certain that He will not cast us out if we come to Him. Faith believes that since Jesus said, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, it must be true; and if we get this living Water from Christ it will abide in us, and will well up within us in streams of holy life. Whatever Christ has promised to do He will do, and we must believe this, so as to look for pardon, justification, preservation, and eternal glory from His hands, according as He has promised them to believers in Him.
Then comes the next necessary step. Jesus is what He is said to be, Jesus will do what He says He will do; therefore we must each one trust Him, saying, "He will be to me what He says He is, and He will do to me what He has promised to do; I leave myself in the hands of Him who is appointed to save, that He may save me. I rest upon His promise that He will do even as He has said." This is a saving faith, and he that hath it hath everlasting life. Whatever his dangers and difficulties, whatever his darkness and depression, whatever his infirmities and sins, he that believeth thus on Christ Jesus is not condemned, and shall never come into condemnation.
May that explanation be of some service! I trust it may be used by the Spirit of God to direct my reader into immediate peace. "Be not afraid; only believe." Trust, and be at rest.
My fear is lest the reader should rest content with understanding what is to be done, and yet never do it. Better the poorest real faith actually at work, than the best ideal of it left in the region of speculation. The great matter is to believe on the Lord Jesus at once. Never mind distinctions and definitions. A hungry man eats though he does not understand the composition of his food, the anatomy of his mouth, or the process of digestion: he lives because he eats. Another far more clever person understands thoroughly the science of nutrition; but if he does not eat he will die, with all his knowledge. There are, no doubt, many at this hour in Hell who understood the doctrine of faith, but did not believe. On the other hand, not one who has trusted in the Lord Jesus has ever been cast out, though he may never have been able intelligently to define his faith. Oh dear reader, receive the Lord Jesus into your soul, and you shall live forever! "He that believeth in Him hath everlasting life."

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away’
Tis all that I can do.

By: Isaac Watts

Workman of God, Oh lose not heart,
But learn what God is like!
And in the darkest battlefield,
Thou shalt know where to strike.

Oh blest is he to whom is given
The instinct that can tell
That God is in the field when He
is most invisible!

Blest too is he who can divine
Where real right doth lie,
And dare take the side that seems
Wrong to man's blindfolded eye.

For right is right,since God is God;
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.

Justify The UNGODLY!

I felt the urge to put down this chapter from the book "All of Grace". This in my opinion is the most important chapter from any book besides the Bible and probably the best written also.

To Justify: To render (that is to show or regard as) just or innocent:- free or "be righteous" absolutely holy.

BY: Charles Hadden Spurgeon

This message is for you. You will find the text in the Epistle to the Romans, in the Rom_4:5, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
I call your attention to those words, "Him that justifieth the ungodly." They seem to me to be very wonderful words.
Are you not surprised that there should be such an expression as that in the Bible, "That justifieth the ungodly?" I have heard that men that hate the doctrines of the cross bring it as a charge against God, that He saves wicked men and receives to Himself the vilest of the vile. See how this Scripture accepts the charge, and plainly states it! By the mouth of His servant Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, He takes to Himself the title of "Him that justifieth the ungodly." He makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who deserve no favor. You thought, did you not, that salvation was for the good? that God’s grace was for the pure and holy, who are free from sin? It has fallen into your mind that, if you were excellent, then God would reward you; and you have thought that because you are not worthy, therefore there could be no way of your enjoying His favor. You must be somewhat surprised to read a text like this: "Him that justifieth the ungodly." I do not wonder that you are surprised; for with all my familiarity with the great grace of God, I never cease to wonder at it. It does sound surprising, does it not, that it should be possible for a holy God to justify an unholy man? We, according to the natural legality of our hearts, are always talking about our own goodness and our own worthiness, and we stubbornly hold to it that there must be somewhat in us in order to win the notice of God. Now, God, who sees through all deceptions, knows that there is no goodness whatever in us. He says that "there is none righteous, no not one." He knows that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and, therefore the Lord Jesus did not come into the world to look after goodness and righteousness with him, and to bestow them upon persons who have none of them. He comes, not because we are just, but to make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.
When a counsellor comes into court, if he is an honest man, he desires to plead the case of an innocent person and justify him before the court from the things which are falsely laid to his charge. It should be the lawyer’s object to justify the innocent person, and he should not attempt to screen the guilty party. It lies not in man’s right nor in man’s power truly to justify the guilty. This is a miracle reserved for the Lord alone. God, the infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, and therefore, in the infinite sovereignty of His divine nature and in the splendor of His ineffable love, He undertakes the task, not so much of justifying the just as of justifying the ungodly. God has devised ways and means of making the ungodly man to stand justly accepted before Him: He has set up a system by which with perfect justice He can treat the guilty as if he had been all his life free from offense, yea, can treat him as if he were wholly free from sin. He justifieth the ungodly.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a very surprising thing - a thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me even to this day the greatest wonder that I ever heard of, that God should ever justify me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from His almighty love. I know by a full assurance that I am justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and made an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ; and yet by nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving. I am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas aforetime I was ungodly. Who can help being astonished at this? Gratitude for such favor stands dressed in robes of wonder.
Now, while this is very surprising, I want you to notice how available it makes the gospel to you and to me. If God justifieth the ungodly, then, dear friend, He can justify you. Is not that the very kind of person that you are? If you are unconverted at this moment, it is a very proper description of you; you have lived without God, you have been the reverse of godly; in one word, you have been and are ungodly. Perhaps you have not even attended a place of worship on Sunday, but have lived in disregard of God’s day, and house, and Word - this proves you to have been ungodly. Sadder still, it may be you have even tried to doubt God’s existence, and have gone the length of saying that you did so. You have lived on this fair earth, which is full of the tokens of God’s presence, and all the while you have shut your eyes to the clear evidences of His power and Godhead. You have lived as if there were no God. Indeed, you would have been very pleased if you could have demonstrated to yourself to a certainty that there was no God whatever. Possibly you have lived a great many years in this way, so that you are now pretty well settled in your ways, and yet God is not in any of them. If you were labeled ungodly it would as well describe you as if the sea were to be labeled salt water. Would it not?
Possibly you are a person of another sort; you have regularly attended to all the outward forms of religion, and yet you have had no heart in them at all, but have been really ungodly. Though meeting with the people of God, you have never met with God for yourself; you have been in the choir, and yet have not praised the Lord with your heart. You have lived without any love to God in your heart, or regard to his commands in your life. Well, you are just the kind of man to whom this gospel is sent - this gospel which says that God justifieth the ungodly. It is very wonderful, but it is happily available for you. It just suits you. Does it not? How I wish that you would accept it! If you are a sensible man, you will see the remarkable grace of God in providing for such as you are, and you will say to yourself, "Justify the ungodly! Why, then, should not I be justified, and justified at once?"
Now, observe further, that it must be so - that the salvation of God is for those who do not deserve it, and have no preparation for it. It is reasonable that the statement should be put in the Bible; for, dear friend, no others need justifying but those who have no justification of their own. If any of my readers are perfectly righteous, they want no justifying. You feel that you are doing your duty well, and almost putting heaven under an obligation to you. What do you want with a Saviour, or with mercy? What do you want with justification? You will be tired of my book by this time, for it will have no interest to you.
If any of you are giving yourselves such proud airs, listen to me for a little while. You will be lost, as sure as you are alive. You righteous men, whose righteousness is all of your own working, are either deceivers or deceived; for the Scripture cannot lie, and it saith plainly, "There is none righteous, no, not one." In any case I have no gospel to preach to the self-righteous, no, not a word of it. Jesus Christ himself came not to call the righteous, and I am not going to do what He did not do. If I called you, you would not come, and, therefore, I will not call you, under that character. No, I bid you rather look at that righteousness of yours till you see what a delusion it is. It is not half so substantial as a cobweb. Have done with it! Flee from it! Oh believe that the only persons that can need justification are those who are not in themselves just! They need that something should be done for them to make them just before the judgment seat of God. Depend upon it, the Lord only does that which is needful. Infinite wisdom never attempts that which is unnecessary. Jesus never undertakes that which is superfluous. To make him just who is just is no work for God - that were a labor for a fool; but to make him just who is unjust - that is work for infinite love and mercy. To justify the ungodly - this is a miracle worthy of a God. And for certain it is so.
Now, look. If there be anywhere in the world a physician who has discovered sure and precious remedies, to whom is that physician sent? To those who are perfectly healthy? I think not. Put him down in a district where there are no sick persons, and he feels that he is not in his place. There is nothing for him to do. "The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick." Is it not equally clear that the great remedies of grace and redemption are for the sick in soul? They cannot be for the whole, for they cannot be of use to such. If you, dear friend, feel that you are spiritually sick, the Physician has come into the world for you. If you are altogether undone by reason of your sin, you are the very person aimed at in the plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of love had just such as you are in His eye when He arranged the system of grace. Suppose a man of generous spirit were to resolve to forgive all those who were indebted to him; it is clear that this can only apply to those really in his debt. One person owes him a thousand pounds; another owes him fifty pounds; each one has but to have his bill receipted, and the liability is wiped out. But the most generous person cannot forgive the debts of those who do not owe him anything. It is out of the power of Omnipotence to forgive where there is no sin. Pardon, therefore, cannot be for you who have no sin. Pardon must be for the guilty. Forgiveness must be for the sinful. It were absurd to talk of forgiving those who do not need forgiveness - pardoning those who have never offended.
Do you think that you must be lost because you are a sinner? This is the reason why you can be saved. Because you own yourself to be a sinner I would encourage you to believe that grace is ordained for such as you are. One of our hymn-writers even dared to say:
A sinner is a sacred thing;
The Holy Ghost hath made him so.
It is truly so, that Jesus seeks and saves that which is lost. He died and made a real atonement for real sinners. When men are not playing with words, or calling themselves "miserable sinners," out of mere compliment, I feel overjoyed to meet with them. I would be glad to talk all night to bona fide sinners. The inn of mercy never closes its doors upon such, neither weekdays nor Sunday. Our Lord Jesus did not die for imaginary sins, but His heart’s blood was spilt to wash out deep crimson stains, which nothing else can remove.
He that is a black sinner - he is the kind of man that Jesus Christ came to make white. A gospel preacher on one occasion preached a sermon from, "Now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees," and he delivered such a sermon that one of his hearers said to him, "One would have thought that you had been preaching to criminals. Your sermon ought to have been delivered in the county jail." "Oh, no," said the good man, "if I were preaching in the county jail, I should not preach from that text, there I should preach ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’" Just so. The law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride: the gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.
If you are not lost, what do you want with a Saviour? Should the shepherd go after those who never went astray? Why should the woman sweep her house for the bits of money that were never out of her purse? No, the medicine is for the diseased; the quickening is for the dead; the pardon is for the guilty; liberation is for those who are bound: the opening of eyes is for those who are blind. How can the Saviour, and His death upon the cross, and the gospel of pardon, be accounted for, unless it be upon the supposition that men are guilty and worthy of condemnation? The sinner is the gospel’s reason for existence. You, my friend, to whom this word now comes, if you are undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, you are the sort of man for whom the gospel is ordained, and arranged, and proclaimed. God justifieth the ungodly.
I would like to make this very plain. I hope that I have done so already; but still, plain as it is, it is only the Lord that can make a man see it. It does at first seem most amazing to an awakened man that salvation should really be for him as a lost and guilty one. He thinks that it must be for him as a penitent man, forgetting that his penitence is a part of his salvation. "Oh," says he, "but I must be this and that," - all of which is true, for he shall be this and that as the result of salvation; but salvation comes to him before he has any of the results of salvation. It comes to him, in fact, while he deserves only this bare, beggarly, base, abominable description, "ungodly." That is all he is when God’s gospel comes to justify him.
May I, therefore, urge upon any who have no good thing about them - who fear that they have not even a good feeling, or anything whatever that can recommend them to God - that they will firmly believe that our gracious God is able and willing to take them without anything to recommend them, and to forgive them spontaneously, not because they are good, but because He is good. Does He not make His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good? Does He not give fruitful seasons, and send the rain and the sunshine in their time upon the most ungodly nations? Ay, even Sodom had its sun, and Gomorrah had its dew. Oh friend, the great grace of God surpasses my conception and your conception, and I would have you think worthily of it! As high as the heavens are above the earth; so high are God’s thoughts above our thoughts. He can abundantly pardon. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners: forgiveness is for the guilty.
Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are; but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. A great artist some short time ago had painted a part of the corporation of the city in which he lived, and he wanted, for historic purposes, to include in his picture certain characters well known in the town. A crossing-sweeper, unkempt, ragged, filthy, was known to everybody, and there was a suitable place for him in the picture. The artist said to this ragged and rugged individual, "I will pay you well if you will come down to my studio and let me take your likeness." He came round in the morning, but he was soon sent about his business; for he had washed his face, and combed his hair, and donned a respectable suit of clothes. He was needed as a beggar, and was not invited in any other capacity. Even so, the gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at once for salvation. God justifieth the ungodly, and that takes you up where you now are: it meets you in your worst estate.
Come in your disorder. I mean, come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die. Come, you that are the very sweepings of creation; come, though you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. Come, though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to justify another ungodly one. Why should He not? Come for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you are. I put it in the language of the text, and I cannot put it more strongly: the Lord God Himself takes to Himself this gracious title, "Him that justifieth the ungodly." He makes just, and causes to be treated as just, those who by nature are ungodly. Is not that a wonderful word for you? Reader, do not delay till you have well considered this matter.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, then may I in Him be found,
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!

By: A.W. Tozer

God Inspired Poetry

When I was in high school I disliked poetry but it has grown on me to the point where I quite enjoy it. I especially love poetry about the Grace, Love, Strength, and just overall Awesomeness of God. To start it off I thought I might put down some wonderful words of a song we sang in church last Sunday.


And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

'Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

By: Charles Wesley

I do not think for a second that a mere man could have written these beautiful words without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Wow, just let those words roll around in your mouth, "long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and natures night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light! my chains fell off my heart was free! I rose and followed thee!" I do not have the words. That is just divine! I don't know if I want to go somewhere quiet and pray or shout for joy. That right there is why I love poetry and song.
Are you not amazed that we should gain by Christ's blood, when we were the cause of all His pain? Is it not astounding that He left His Fathers throne in all His glory and came and emptied Himself of all but love, and bled and died for us? What I hear in the subconcious mind when I read these words by Charles Wesley, is a song called "Hallelujah" from the composer Handel's album named Messiah.

The next poem is also truly beautiful and definitely a favorite. It has a beautiful flavour of pure and holy worship.


My God, how wonderful Thou art,
Thy majesty, how bright;
How beautiful Thy mercy seat
In depths of burning light!

How dread are Thy eternal years,
O everlasting Lord,
By prostrate spirits day and night
Incessantly adored!

How wonderful, how beautiful,
The sight of Thee must be;
Thy endless wisdom, boundless power,
And glorious purity!

O how I fear Thee, living God,
With deep and tender fear;
And worship Thee with trembling hope,
And penitential tears!

Yet, I may love Thee, too, O Lord,
Almighty as Thou art;
For Thou hast stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart!

No earthly father loves like Thee,
No mother, e’er so mild,
Bears and forbears as Thou hast done,
With me, Thy sinful child.

Only to sit and think of God,
Oh, what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name,
Earth has no higher bliss.

Father of Jesus, love’s Reward!
What rapture it will be
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,
And gaze, and gaze on Thee!

By: Frederick Faber