Coming to Jesus

2 Corinthians 6:17-6:17

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whomsoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. I believe that we all can live forever if we believe in Gods word and apply it to our daily existence. We can no longer as Christians live our lives next to the life stile of the un-believers. Christ told us to " Come out from among the world and be a separate people." He was not saying that we had to separate ourselves from people in general, but separate ourselves from the unrighteous life that they live.

The Apostle Paul once said, "at one time we ourselves were unruly. So we all at one time or another were all sinners and an un-believer, but through the drawing power of the Holy Spirit we accepted Jesus as our personal savior. So we must forget the things that we have done in the past and "Let us go on to perfection." Not laying again the foundation of dead works." What must I do to be saved? The Bible says, Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Why then do people try to make salvation so hard to accept? There are a lot of self-called preachers in this world who have no clue what the Holy Scriptures mean. So they are the blind leading the blind. To believe in Jesus is easy. Why does the scriptures say only to believe in his name. Because Jesus died on the cross over two thousand years ago and rose again three days later and also ascended back to the Father in Heaven.

So sense we cannot see Jesus we must believe with our heart in just His name. I don't believe that is so hard to do. So then why do people have such a hard time believing in Jesus? Well I've experienced a lot of different types of people and believe me, its not that they don't believe in the Son of God, it's that they don't want to let go of this life and the material things in it. People have been deceived in believing that if you allow Jesus to come into your life, then you lose everything, but what they don't know is that being a Christian is easer than being an un-believer. We as Christians haven't given up any thing; we on the other hand removed everything that was hurting us anyway.

Jesus said, "Come out from among the world and be ye a separate people." We have only removed the willful sin from our life . We have entered into a life of love instead of hate, understanding, instead of rejection, and patience instead of indifference. I believe that indifference is the biggest demon that people have that we as ambassadors of Christ need to address. There are not enough preachers in this country today who preach on the alternative of Heaven. That very fact is one of the reasons that a lot of, not only sinners but some Christians fall away. The Apostle Paul states, "A man only remains saved, when he is put in remembrance of what has been preached."

In the book of Jude the scriptures state, on some having compassion, making a difference and on others using fear, hating even the garment, spotted by the flesh, reaching down, pulling them out of the fire." We need to preach Jesus as Lord and Savior, but also God as the avenger and destroyer of all who refuse to believe on His only, begotten Son. Believe me, there is a vengeful God, and there is a hell and a lake of fire, which waits to receive all who reject Jesus. Its Gods promise, and it will come to pass. This reminds me of the passages in scripture, which recalls a rich man and a poor man, named Lazarus.

The scriptures prove the existence of hell with this story to those who will believe with there heart and not with the mind. It states how the rich man wanted for nothing in this life and how Lazarus wanted only the crumbs from the rich mans table. They both died. "And the rich man lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, and cried, Father Abraham, send Lazarus and dip his finger in water to cool my tongue, for in these flames I am in torment. And Abraham said that he couldn't because, between you and us, there is a great gulf fixed. The Bible has almost as much about hell as it does about Heaven. Don't lie to yourself there is a place of torment, and it will be forever. To continue, the Bible states that we love God with all our heart, mind soul and strength. Lets look at this again a little slower and deeper. The first is HEART, the Greek word for heart is cardia, that's where we get the word cardiac. The heart is the center of who we are.

You can say that, you love your wife with all your heart, or you love your job or whatever. But do we really? The heart is one of the smallest organs in the body but with out it we cannot exist, with out the heart, the body dies. So to love God with all of our heart, we must, one, believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. God must be allowed to control our Hearts to lead us to whom we need to be in His eyes. The second is with the Mind. Our mind controls that we believe that we are, it controls our actions our hopes and our desires. Our mind can develop good or bad thoughts, and only we can control which of these it is going to be. If we can allow God to control our mind, which is sensual He can turn it into a most desirable part of whom we are.

The third part is the Soul; the soul is the part of us, which is senses touch, taste, feel, sight and hearing. The Bible describes the soul of man as a worm, in revelations, where the worm dieth not. To control the senses we must be willing to convert ourselves to a different type of lifestyle. Taste not, touch not. Converting from who we were into who God wants us to be. It's as simple as saying, no, to our body and saying yes to a righteous life free of sin. And the last is Strength, What is our strength? To me its what gets me up in the morning, when I don't want to move, its what allows me to try things that others say, that I cant do. Its what tells me to go on when the entire world seems to be falling in around me.

To love God with all my strength is, to me, a willingness to say yes to Gods wishes when I feel down or week in body. To me all of these things can be accomplished to their maximum at the first thing in the morning, when it's still and quite. We must keep our Father on our hearts, mind, soul and within our strength constantly. When you do anything for the Lord do it with all you being with everything that you are. We at times each day must attend to our daily business, jobs, family and our other things, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when it comes time for you to worship God give it all you have. What must I do to be saved? The Bible states, Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. What does it mean to be saved?

To be saved is to be released from the condemnation and the annihilation that is coming to this world. The Bible states that we that believe on the name of the Lord are not condemned but those who believe not are already condemned. Salvation is the gift from God, and it is not to be abused, as an occasion to sin. Why do I say this, the Bible states that Jesus said, If and when you sin, have an advocate with the Father, who is just and rightly to forgive you of your sin. But this does not give the believer an open season on sin. Because the Bible states that, those that are saved are saved indeed, but those that endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. If we sin by mistake then we have an advocate with the Father and He will forgive, and so our salvation, remains in tact. But if we sin willfully, knowing the will of God concerning us then we become unruly and disobedient.

At this time two things can accrue, 1. God may not recognize us as a son any longer or 2. God may forgive you of that sin, but you would pay a deer price for you disobedience. Some may say that God will always forgive sin. But the Bible states that, Gods spirit will not always strive with man. Put it this way, say that you were committing adultery and the rapture took place at the same time, do you really think that you would go with the rest of the saints or would you be left behind? Its something to think about, and missing Heaven is not worth anything that this world can offer. Be not deceived, God will not be maulked. Satan is out there trying to steel, kill, and destroy any one who believes in Jesus. He knows that no man goes to the Father except through the Son. So Believing in God is not enough, you have to believe in the Son.

So then, what is salvation, eternal life thru Christ Jesus our Lord? Why then can I say this? The Bible says, that, you believe in God you do well, but the devils also believe and they tremble. The demons believe in God and Satan also but that is not enough. Christ called Satan, the prince of this world. Which is true, after the fall of Adam, the custody of this world fell into satins hands and he became the prince of the earth. Before we go on you need to understand whom Satan is. Satan, bellesubub, Lucifer, Devil, Prince, Lightgiver, roaring lion, Accuser, lier, thief, murder, destroyer, and fallen angel. This is the man who wants to rule the world, heaven and you. Why would anyone want to follow any one with this type of heritage? You may say, well I don't follow the devil.

But in reality, you do. The Bible says, choose you this day whom you shall serve. You only have two chouses Christ, to the Glory of the Father or Satan. Jesus bought and paid for your salvation on the Cross of Calvary. its the Gift of God. But you have to accept, the sacrifice of Jesus and believe that He is the Son of God. Satan was the most beautiful angel that God had created. The word Light giver means, teacher. Satan looked upon himself and beheld his own beauty and decided for himself that he should be God. He devised a plan to over throw God and take Heaven for himself. He deceived one third of the angels in heaven to follow him. Which they did. But what he forgot, was that God is all knowing and God knew what he was going to do before he did.

God sent Gabriel and the other angels in heaven after Satan and cast him and his followers out of heaven. These are already condemned to be cast into the lake of fire. They have been tried, convicted and sentenced, their fate is sealed, is yours? Not if you repent of your sins and be converted. All you have to do is believe in Jesus. Some say, if Satan is already condemned then why is he still trying to destroy me. That answer is simple, He knows that in the end, no matter what he does he's going to loose and be cast into the lake of fire to burn for eternity, so he wants to take as many people with him as he can. Think of it this way, every time someone is deceived by Satan and dies in their sins, he laughs at them, knowing that you've believed a lie. Satan doesn't even care if you don't believe in God or Him; all he cares about is that you believe a lie.

You can believe any thing you want to, you can practice any form of religion you want, but the Bible says that in the end time they shall have a form of religion, but denigh the power there in. Without Jesus Christ you cannot and will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Weather Jew or Gentile without Jesus you are lost.

I don't argue the Bible I only state the facts. Let God be true and ever man a liar. False religion, teachings, preachings, false doctrine, the entire world is full of different religions, many will be deceived. Then you may say how can I be sure that what I hear is the truth? The only way to be sure is to read and study to show yourself approved. Remember that God is all power, and wisdom and knowledge, he wrote only one Bible and didn't need another, I preach a God who did it right the first time, what kind of god do you serve? To continue, today is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. On the day that Jesus was crucified, I believe that Satan believed that he had defeated Jesus because of his death, but what he forgot is that the prophecy of the death of the savior was to be followed by the resurrection of the same three days later. Jesus also himself stated that he would be raised up three days later.

The Holy Spirit of God accomplished the resurrection. When God speaks the Spirit acts. So Satan was in for a surprise. The grave or death could not hold our savior down, just think the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will also quicken our bodies, we also shall be raised up, if we believe. Lets look at the sermons that Jesus preached. A lot of people don't realize that it was not just the miracles of healing of the blind or crippled but look at his sermons. When Jesus taught there were at times two to five thousand people, men, not including women and children present. Most of all his sermons were out doors. Now look at this again. Out side and multitudes of people with no microphones or speakers.

This in itself was a miracle. Lets look at the book of John CPT 21, let's start with verse 1 and go through 21. Jesus has resurrected. And was meeting his disciples. Now if you remember Peter had denied Jesus three times earlier. Peter just as the other disciples had thought that when Jesus was crucified that there ministry was over and they went back to fishing. They had forgotten what Jesus had taught them and what He had promised. If you look at this chapter Peter had been fishing and they were eating. Jesus asked Simon {not Peter} do you love me more than these? Jesus wasn't asking Peter if he loved him more than the other disciples, He was asking him if he loved Jesus more that the fish that he had caught. Some others may disagree with me but that's ok. My point is this, Christ was asking Simon do you really love me more than the things of this world or the things that give you pleasure.

Sense Peter had denied Jesus three times, Christ asked him three times, do you really love me? or am I just a interruption in your life that was fun for a while but lost its appeal? How many people do you know that appear to be sincere on church night, but down through the week wouldn't give you the time of day when they are around their non Christian friends? Peter had to leave it to Christ to see if he was true to him, Sometimes we, as Christians also have to prove whether we are also true in our profession of Christ. The reason I say this is, Peter said, "you know all things" He allowed Jesus to look into his heart to see his penitent heart and his true intentions. Peter was a lot like we are today, he lost his vision and sometimes we do. The Bible states, " Without a vision, the people perish. Ask yourself this question, have I lost my vision, have I forgotten what Jesus said to me. Take the entire Bible personally, as if it was written just for you and too you, I believe that this will help you keep your vision.

Some people believe that Jesus was going to build his church on Peter, because Jesus said thou art Simon Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. To me this assumption has a lot to be desired, Jesus was speaking about himself, Jesus was and still is the rock that we stand upon, the bright and morning star, the Lion of the Tribe of Juda, counselor, lilly of the valley, King, Priest, Intersessor. The only begotten Son of God. He is "the Rock".

Lets look at Luke CPT 8. vers. 22 thru 26. Jesus said LET US GO OVER UNTO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LAKE. If you look at this phrase a little closer there is not only a command from Christ, but also a promise and a prophecy. When Jesus made statements there was a specific purpose to what He was saying. He never said anything that didn't teach something. In Luke 8-22, Jesus was giving the disciples a promise of safe arrival to the other side of the lake, and was teaching them of faith. Christ knew that there was going to be an attempt to kill Him, and was not afraid. He said let us, the word us, designated the total company of pasangers, not just Jesus was to arrive on the other side. Will you arrive on the other side with Jesus or be left behind, Think about it.

Temple of Spirit & Truth Ministries
A.R. Smith Sermons International
http://www.ourchurch.com/member/a/arsmithsermons/