We have been taught that it is our felt needs that are important or that it is our individual worth that causes God to look upon us. The truth is that God will not hear, see or deal with us until He quickens us and gives us the free gifts of His Grace and Mercy. We are all born into this world, under the wrath of God; and if you are not truly saved as you read this lesson, you are still under the wrath of God (See Ephesians 2:1-3). That is the truth, but it should not cause you to despair, if you will humble yourself and seek His face and turn away from your sin.
It has become obvious to me that we are over-informed, we have too many little sound-bytes of information concerning things that we should not be involved in. Due to this overload of meaningless information we have developed a sense of investigation concerning everything. If we hear that some Hollywood star has been involved in a prostitution ring, we want to know the names of everyone who has ever patronized her. If some local person is involved in a crime, we demand to know the who, what and where of it all.
As a result of that kind of interest we have even begun to question the absolute truths of the Word of God. We demand proof (scientifically) of the divinity of Jesus Christ; and we balk at our children being taught intelligent design in creation. We should never question the Biblical Truths of God. He is Who the Bible says that He is and whether we believe it or not depends on our relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Most of our problems comes from our misunderstanding of who we are. We rate ourselves a lot higher than we can reach. We are a people who are born into this world damned by our forefather Adam and His nature; and we will do nothing to remedy that until God takes the situation in hand and decides to give us the illumination of His will from the Word of God the Bible (See Romans 10:17).
It stands to reason that if we refuse to seek the Grace and Mercy of God that we will never be anything except a candidate for hell and all its terrors. We all understand that shortly many of us will begin to receive the income tax rebates that the congress approved. If we did not really believe that those funds has been applied to our checking accounts, we could go hungry while we had funds to pay for a nice juicy steak. The same applies to the gifts of God; they must be believed to the point of our seeking God’s Grace and Mercy. None of us has either of those until God gifts us with them (See Ephesians 2:8-9). Now I know that there are multitudes who belong to some denominational church, and that is great if that particular church is preaching the absolute truths and the full counsel of God; and they are aggressively applying those truths to your life as they expect you to grow and live in such a way as to glorify God. Sadly there are very few churches today that do that kind of teaching and preaching.
It is for that reason that the Lord called me to the ministry that I have today. God has called me and made it evident to me that what He wanted me to do was to be "present for duty", to preach the truth of God and not be afraid to apply it to the lives of those who will hear. I pray that many who read these lessons will realize that God is not pleased with the visible church and then that those who read will begin to really study the Word of God and to gauge their lives by it. Listen, dear brothers and sisters, it give me no pleasure to have to criticize the organized church; but God gave me instructions to abide in His Word, and His Word says that we are lost and blind and going to hell if we continue the way that so many churches are going today.
That is the message that God has for us today. I am only the messenger and I know that what I say is the truth because I was bound up in that error for a good many years. Congregations have become comfortable with "cheap grace" preaching that merely skirts the truth, and then pats everyone on the head and tells them that they are all alright because none of us is able to live the way the Bible teaches. They tell us that we are all sinners and that none of us are saints and that makes us feel good because we are all in the same boat. WRONG! We are not all in the same boat, and if we are and we are all wrong we will all end up in hell for eternity.
I hope you will listen to what I am about to tell you. There are only two kinds of people in the world, and there is nobody somewhere in some grey area between these two. There are sinners and saints. There are saved people and there are lost people. There are people who have been born again and there are those who have not been born again. There are people who are obedient to the Word and Will of God and there are those who are self-governed. There are those who will spend eternity in heaven and those who will spend eternity in hell. That’s the only two groups of people in the world today; and I didn’t say it… Jesus Christ did (Matthew 7:13-14,15-27)! Jesus, the God- Man tells us plainly in Luke Chapter eleven and verse 23, that there is no middle ground with Him.
We are either with Him or against Him. We can use this as a test of our own relationship with Christ or the relationship of others to Christ. Are you with Christ as He gathers into the Kingdom those who are to be saved, or are you against Him and scattering the people that you meet, driving them away from Christ? It is one or the other, and the test is simple. Do you love Christ enough to know His Word and Will and do you earnestly seek out opportunity to witness His love to others? I’m sure that many who read this will think to themselves, I have gone to church at every opportunity and I feel like I am a good person and a good husband or wife and a good father or mother. That’s good; but you get no points for being good in your own sight. You must be born again, recreated in Christ Jesus and be that new creature that is spoken of in 2nd Corinthians 5:17.
You must be doing the Will of God Who is in heaven, if you intend to inherit heaven when you die (See Matthew 7:21-23). There may be some who think that their lives have been too dark and sinful for God to save; however our God is a God of Grace and Mercy, and if you can truly seek Him and turn away from your sin and trust the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, you may be saved. I cannot give you any formula except that you must be willing to die to yourself and all of your sin, obey His commands in His power, and follow in His footsteps for the remainder of your life and He says that He will save you. Don’t ever put limits on the power and love of God! If you have come to the point that you cannot live unless you know His forgiveness……"Come on in, the water is fine".
We study the Word and pray and ask God to apply the blood of His Son Jesus Christ to our sins and we cry out for His salvation until He answers us with that radical change of the new man. Don’t think that you have anything to offer God; because it is you who are in need of His forgiveness. Humble yourself as you see how great and glorious God is and how unworthy you are. God will always do what He has said He will do and He will do whatever pleases Him. Remember this, if you want to be saved, it takes God and God alone to save anyone. Salvation does not come with church membership, or with the approval of other sinners, it comes in God’s time and on His terms.
We spoke earlier of there being only two kinds of people, saved or lost; and we said that all of the lost will go to hell while the saved will inherit the peace and tranquility of heaven forever. Your job is to put yourself in the way of God and seek His forgiveness for your sin. Think on this, consider how long you have observed people staying alive in this world. Some last to 80 or 100 but that seems to be the most we can expect; and many die way sooner than that. There is an eternity that you will have to spend somewhere and there is only two options, heaven and hell. What about it?
Until next lesson, this is brobob. 
