Have you believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

Dear friend,

We have some very important questions we want you to consider because we care about you deeply. They may be the most important questions you will ever ask yourself. We would like you to consider what it is you believe regarding Jesus Christ. What you believe about Him matters…your eternal destiny depends on it. If you have never considered who Jesus Christ is and why He matters, we pray that you will take the time today.

Dear friend….have you believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins?

Whether you’ve been in “church” your whole life, you’ve been a “Christian” your whole life, you were baptized as an infant or you consider yourself to be a “good person” we want you to take a few minutes to consider the following. Your eternity is not based on what you have done, who you are or how you were brought up but on what you believe concerning Jesus Christ. Beloved, 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ came from heaven, took on flesh and died a sacrificial death on the cross. We can’t just ignore that. God demands that we do something about Christ. We have two options: believe that He came to earth to die for our sins or reject it. We want to explain to you that you must make a decision about what you believe. Believing Jesus was just a “good man” or “not wanting to deal with this right now” are not neutral positions. That is called unbelief and we need to show you what happens when you don’t believe in Christ.

The Bible says that we are “saved by grace through faith and not by works lest any man should boast”. Ephesians 2:8

What God is saying is that we need to be saved. We need to be saved and we are only saved by God’s grace. First of all you ask…what are we being saved from? We are being saved from the wrath of God. God hates sin and He has declared that all sin will be punished by death…physical death, spiritual death and eternal death. We need to be saved (rescued) from God. God loves us and He does not want anyone to perish eternally because of their sin. He wants us to realize that we have sinned against Him, we are alienated from Him and that we need to turn to Him for the forgiveness of our sins. But first we must recognize that we are sinners.

God is holy, righteous, merciful and just. He has declared that He hates sin. Sin is primarily an offense against God. It is doing what is wrong (commission), as well as not doing what is right (omission). All of God's instructions are His laws, and transgression against any of them (whether in thought or deed) are sins against God.

The Bible says we have all sinned against God. I’m sure that we are all honest enough to admit that we have all broken Gods laws at one time or another. By our nature we are disobedient. It is not our nature to obey God. It is our nature to disobey Him. Our sins are against God Himself and the Bible says that because of our sins we are alienated from God. We are actually enemies of God. The Bible puts it even more emphatically…it says we are “dead in our trespasses and sins”. Because of this we cannot be with God. We need to be perfect…sinless…holy…to enter His presence. There is nothing we can do to fix this problem of sin and alienation from God. Clearly it would take a miracle. But God has provided a miracle! God has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him through His amazing grace spoken of in Ephesians 2:8.

God comes after us, mercy seeks us, love finds us. Apart from Christ, we are spiritually dead and alienated from God. We are face down in a pool of water dead in our trespasses and sins. But then God comes and rescues us! He grabs us up and breathes His life into us. If God does not save us we will remain face down in that pool of water…dead. You see a dead man can’t save himself…he needs a Savior. Jesus said “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 Without Christ, we are spiritually dead…we must be born again, not physically, but spiritually…and only God can give us that rebirth through Christ.

The bible says that God loves us. “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 God continues…“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17 And finally…“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18 Jesus said, “If you do not believe I am He you will die in your sins.” You see we are condemned by God already when we are in our sins and unbelief. You see that our outlook is grim. But praise God…He has not left us in our sorry condition. He says we can believe! Our belief removes the condemnation of God. If God says there is something we need to believe or else we are condemned…should we not listen?!

What must we believe? We must believe that we are alienated from God because of our sin and our only hope is to cast ourselves on Him for His mercy and forgiveness. We must believe our salvation rests on nothing else but Him. Salvation from sin is by the grace of God alone. The Bible says that God is our Savior…we can not save ourselves. You see God has provided one way for us to be saved…that one way is through Jesus Christ His Son. God said…“he who believes in Him is not condemned…whoever believes in Him should not perish”. John 3:18;16 We must believe that only Jesus Christ can bring us to God. Only He can give us eternal life. Jesus said..“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”John 14:6 Only Christ can bring us from death to life.

Why Jesus? Well let us explain. As we told you earlier, the Bible is very clear…without exception, every person ever born, except Jesus, has sinned against God. Therefore every person ever born, except for Jesus, needs to have their sins forgiven. The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus is the only man that never sinned. (Jesus was 100% God and 100% man.)

God said He will pour out His wrath against sin. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 The only thing that appeases God’s wrath against sin is an “atonement”. Atonement means the reconciliation of the guilty to God by a divine sacrifice. Jesus was our divine sacrifice. God requires a sinless blood sacrifice to atone for sin. Jesus was our sinless blood sacrifice, our substitutionary atonement. In Jesus’ death on the cross, Jesus substituted Himself for sinners and paid the requirement of the punishment for sin which is death. As a result of Jesus’ atonement, our sin is transferred from us to Him, and God then grants us forgiveness. Jesus’ substitutionary atonement is the basis for our salvation. Jesus’ death on the cross satisfies the demands of God’s holy justice and appeases His holy wrath against sin. Through Christ’s atonement for sin we who believe are reconciled to God as Father and become His children. We are forgiven the debt of our sin and are now fully acceptable to God.

Only Jesus is able to offer Himself as a sacrifice to God. That is why Jesus came to earth as a man. He came so that He could die a substitutionary death and bear the wrath of God for our sins. He took our punishment upon Himself. Because of our belief (faith) that Jesus’ death was the satisfaction to God for our sins, God will then grant to our account the perfect righteousness of Jesus. We trust in what Jesus has done on the cross as our only basis for acceptance with God. We believe that we need the righteousness of Christ to be acceptable to God and without it we are without hope. We must apply Christ to ourselves. The Bible says “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 The Bible says “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. 1 Peter 3:18 We will never be perfect like Jesus in this life, but God will look upon us as if we were because we have believed in His only begotten Son. Salvation is the free gift of God. It is provided by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, for the glory of God alone.

So friend do you believe you are a sinner? Do you believe you have broken God’s law? Do you believe that you have in your heart broken all the commandments and that you deserve punishment? Is there a burden that you now carry with you? Are you sorrowful for your sins against God and do you now repent of them? Do you believe you need a Savior? If you want saving, you cannot save yourself; can you trust Jesus Christ to save you? Do you look away from everything that is within you our without you to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Do you now trust His sufferings on Calvary and His whole atoning work as the ground of your acceptance before God?

Then cry out to God to save you. Get this straight today! Cry out to God to be merciful to you, a sinner. Cry out to God for His Holy Spirit. Only through the Holy Spirit will we come to see that we are sinners. God’s Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, the righteousness of God and His judgment of sin. The Holy Spirit enables us to repent of our sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior.

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” Romans 10:9-13

We love the Lord and we care about you deeply. If you have any questions we would love to help you answer them. We have additional free resources that we would be more than happy to provide you with such as Bibles, Bible studies, sermons on CD, etc. Begin to study the bible yourself so that God’s word is planted in your heart. We would love nothing more than to personally sit down with you and discuss the blessings God has for you through Christ.

Take care and God bless!

contact us at onegodonegospel@comcast.net

If you do not have a church home we invite you to join us Sunday at 10:00 am for worship services at our church…Marimont Community Church 424 W. Walton ~ Pontiac, MI 48340 ~ 248-332-7239

If you would like a free bible, please contact us at onegodonegospel@comcast.net
For more resources please visit the website: www.onegodonegospel.org

Which way to Heaven?

click here to listen or read...Which way to heaven?

Which way to heaven....Do all roads lead to God? Not according to the scriptures. Here is a fantastic teaching by John MacArthur on the exclusivity of Christ. You can read the transcript or listen to the mp3.

If you believe that there is access to God outside of personal faith in Jesus Christ than you have not beleived the God of the Bible. I ask you today to go to the attached link and read and/or listen to the sermon. 

Jesus himself said in John 14:6...I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  Now Jesus was either lying or telling the truth.  You must decide and today is the day of salvation.  Faith in God outside of Jesus Christ will get you to God, it will get you to God as your Judge not your loving Father. 

Jesus said in John 3:35-36 ..."The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”  If you do not believe what the scriptures reveal about Jesus Christ you are under the condemnation of God. 

There is only one way to God and that is through His Son Jesus Christ and Him alone... I pray that you will open you mind to hear the Word of God and repent and believe today!

God bless...

Have you staked your soul on the atonement?

Oh, to know the grand truths of the gospel, and to know them infallibly.

For instance, the grand doctrine of the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God—to know it and hold it and say,

"Let others question and quibble,

but I must believe it;

it is my only hope,

it is all my salvation.

I stake my soul upon it: if that be not true then am I lost."

And so with regard to all the other grand truths of revelation, the thing is to know them and grasp them firmly.

Charles Spurgeon "Hold Fast Your Shield," a sermon published in 1875.

Lest we forget...We were without God and had no hope...But God...!!

We were dead in trespasses and sins…

We were children of wrath…

We were without God and without hope…

But God…!!

    was rich in mercy…

    loved us with great love…

    made us alive with Christ…

    gave us the gift of salvation through faith…

    we were far off…

  but God brought us near by the blood of Christ!!

Ephesians 2:1-13

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Jesus Christ...Hallelujah...What a Savior!

The Gospel and the Poor

The Gospel and the Poor
Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love, pp. 38-39:

Like nothing else could ever do, the gospel instills in me a heart for the downcast, the poverty-stricken, and those in need of physical mercies, especially when such persons are of the household of faith.

When I see persons who are materially poor, I instantly feel a kinship with them, for they are physically what I was spiritually when my heart was closed to Christ.

Perhaps some of them are in their condition because of sin, but so was I.

Perhaps they are unkind when I try to help them; but I, too, have been spiteful to God when He has sought to help me.

Perhaps they are thankless and even abuse the kindness I show them, but how many times have I been thankless and used what God has given me to serve selfish ends?

read more...http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/02/26/the-gospel-and-the-poor/

Celebrating the Glory of the Incarnation

What manner of love is this?

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son,
and they shall call His name Immanuel,”
which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23

What manner of love is this that a Holy God should come from Heaven in the likeness of men? How marvelous is the love of God for us! The Incarnation of Christ is a most extraordinary and amazing affair; it is wonderful indeed that the eternal Son of God should become man1…Divinity became humanity. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, came from the eternity of heaven, across the infinite gulf between God and the creation, and became flesh.2

The Ancient of days has become an infant3…
His goings forth are from old, from everlasting…
He Who sits upon the heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger.3

Loved ones we do not celebrate the fact that 2,000 years ago a mere holy man, a great moral and wise teacher was born. No…we celebrate the fact that God Himself, the Creator of the universe, became man.

It is one of the greatest events to occur in the history of the universe and it is without parallel.4 The Incarnation of the Son of God unites earth to heaven. 4

Incarnation is a term for the coming of God the Son into the world as a human being. God's greatest revelation of Himself to man is in Jesus Christ.4 The Bible affirms Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, that He was born at a specific time and place in history, and that He died and was resurrected at a specific time and place in history.6 During His incarnation, Jesus was the glory and image of God in human form, yet He was without sin.
The only part of Christmas which is impossible to grasp is the reason why Almighty God should have loved us in this way.2

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:15-17

God sent His Son into the world that He would redeem those who believe in His name. The voice of God sounds over the universe, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Hear Him!” The maker of heaven and earth appeared out of love to redeem us. 2

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Matthew 1:21

Over that manger in Bethlehem…on the night of our dear Savior’s birth…hung the shadow of the cross. The salvation of souls was the reason the Father sent the Son into the world.5 Bound inseparably together are the Savior's birth and His death.

"Surely Jesus was identified with us. Everything He did was for us; He acted in our stead. He took our guilt. He gave us His righteousness. In all that Jesus did on earth, He acted for us because by His incarnation He identified Himself with the human race. In His death and resurrection He identified Himself with the redeemed human race. The present state of the human race before God is probationary. The world is on trial. The voice of God sounds over the earth, “Behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death. Choose you this day.” There is a strange conspiracy of silence in the world today—even in religious circles—about man’s responsibility for sin, the reality of judgment and about an outraged God and the necessity for a crucified Savior." – a compilation of excerpts from The Radical Cross by A.W. Tozer

"The whole meaning of the Incarnation is the Cross. The Incarnation was for the purpose of redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of self-realization." – My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

What manner of love is this that God should give us His only Son…the Son whom He adores? What manner of love is this that our sins should be freely forgiven? It is a love that surpasses all understanding and it is a love never to be forgotten. Let us never forget what God has done for those who believe. At this time of year when the world is celebrating “Happy Holidays” let us be sure to remember exactly what it is that we are supposed to be celebrating...the glorious Incarnation of our Holy God. Now that is something to celebrate!

Beloved if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then may God be praised that He has brought you to the saving knowledge of His Son. Let us then be sure to give Him thanks and praise for His indescribable gift of grace and let us then purpose in our hearts to be sure to tell others of the free gift of salvation God has given us through His Son.

If you have never considered your need for a Savior then we ask you to consider the following…

In the words of Charles Spurgeon:

Therefore, the Lord Jesus did not come into the world expecting to find goodness and righteousness, but to bestow them upon those who do not have them.

This is a miracle reserved for the Lord alone. God, the infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. 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.

If we had never broken the laws of God, we would not have needed justification, for we would have been just in ourselves. He who has always done the things that he should have done, and has never done anything that he should not have done, is justified by the law. However, I am quite sure that you are not one of that sort. You are too honest to pretend to be without sin, and therefore you need to be justified.

If we have sinned against God, it is God’s power to forgive, for the sin is against Himself. That is why David said in Psalm 51:4 “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,” for then God, against whom the offense was committed, could put the offense away.

With no other reason for it but His own infinite goodness, He has prepared a glorious way by which He can make scarlet sins “as white as snow”. He can remove our transgressions for us “as far as the east is from the west”. He says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.

Why did He suffer if not to take the penalty away from us? If God Himself bows before His own law, what more can be done? God will spare the sinner because He did not spare His Son. God is gracious; therefore, sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified, and saved. It is not because of anything in them or that can ever be in them that they are saved. It is because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God.

“Oh,” said the devil to Martin Luther, “you are a sinner.” “Yes,” said Luther, “Christ died to save sinners.” Faith is believing that Christ is what He is said to be and that He will do what He has promised to do.

Now when God declares that there is salvation in Christ Jesus, I must either believe Him at once or call Him a liar.

He died for men, not as believers, but as sinners. If you believe that Christ died for the ungodly, your faith will save you, and you may go in peace. If you will trust your soul to Jesus, who died for the ungodly, even though you cannot believe all things or move mountains or do any other wonderful works, yet you will be saved. It is not great faith but true faith that saves. Salvation lies not in the faith but in the Christ in whom faith trusts.

You have either to believe in Jesus or die. There is no hope for you but in Him.

If you have been brought up in the brightest of Christian light and yet have rejected it, there is still hope. If you have sinned against conscience and against the Holy Spirit and against the love of Jesus, there is still room for repentance. Though you may be as hard as unbelieving Israel of old, softening may yet come to you, since Jesus is exalted and clothed with boundless power.
- a compilation of excerpts from All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon

The Gospel…

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures 1 Cor 15:3-4

So what is the main point of what we are saying? We need a Savior! Loved ones, the Gospel is the good news of salvation for sinners. Jesus said “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”. We will not enter into Heaven with our sins. Jesus said, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Our sins make us enemies of God. The result of our sin is death...spiritual death, physical death and eternal death separated from God forever.

We are not perfect and we must be perfect to stand before a Holy God for He is Holy, Holy, Holy. We do not measure up to God’s standard…only Jesus has lived a perfect life; we however have missed the mark…we have sinned against Him. You see if man had never sinned and made himself an enemy of God there would have been no reason for the Son to come in the likeness of men and there would be no reason for God Himself to die for us.

Jesus Christ’s perfection is God’s measuring stick. At the time of our death we will be judged on the basis of His righteousness, not ours. The Bible says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” Jesus will be our judge...as the Bible says, “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.” Do we want to stand before Jesus Christ on that day, still in our sins, with the burden of our sins on our back and have our Lord say to us “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”? Or do we want to stand before Him perfect in God’s sight, clothed in His righteousness, having laid the burden of our sins at the foot of His cross?

We will only see the weight of our sin when we look into the perfect righteousness of His laws as contained in the Bible.

Beloved we have sinned against Him…we must have an atonement. Atonement means the reconciliation of the guilty to God by a divine sacrifice. Jesus was our divine sacrifice. God requires a sinless blood sacrifice to atone for sin. Jesus was our sinless substitutionary atonement. In His death, Jesus substituted Himself for sinners and paid the requirement of the punishment for sin which is death. As a result of Jesus’ atonement, our sin is transferred from us to Him, and God then grants us forgiveness. Jesus’ substitutionary atonement is the basis for our salvation.

He takes away our sins…

God transfers the righteousness of Christ to those who trust in Him…those who have saving faith. We do not become righteous because of our inherent goodness; God sees us as righteous because of our identification by faith with His Son.

If you have not trusted in the forgiveness found in the sinless life, sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ then we have to ask you…where is your atonement for the forgiveness of your sins? There is no other way. You must have a sinless blood sacrifice. God’s grace in the forgiveness of sins through the atonement of His Son is the only sacrifice He will accept. It is a free gift. We can not earn it and we can not work for it…but we must believe it.

Have you believed in the Son of God?

From R.C. Sproul… “The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us and He was raised for our justification.”

While we reflect on the birth and death of Christ beloved, let us always remember, Jesus did not only die for our sins, He rose again! His resurrection is proof that the Son of God has power over sin and death. If Jesus Christ has not been raised our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins. His resurrection is proof that Jesus Christ is coming again and that He will judge the world in righteousness.

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. Acts 17:30-31

Salvation is offered freely to all who repent of their sins and believe and trust [have faith] in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. When you come to saving faith you have seen your need for a Savior and you understand that you are a sinner worthy of death and cannot earn God’s forgiveness in any way. You abandon all self-righteousness and self-confidence in your own works and deeds and cast yourself completely on Him for mercy and forgiveness. You put your trust in Jesus Christ as your only hope for eternal life with God. It means that you have come to know that salvation is completely of God and not of you in any way, and it is to the glory of God alone.

When we die we do not cease to exist. Our souls live on forever…for eternity. We were created in the image of God and we have an eternal soul. The God who created you loves you and has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him…hear Him…today!

When you have come to the end of yourself, then you will believe God…

When you have come to that end, you can speak to Him in prayer something like this…

Father, I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done evil in Your sight. I know that my sins have separated me from You. I have come to see the great love that You have for me and I am truly sorry and repent for my sins and I ask for the forgiveness that is found in the Cross of Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead and is alive with You now at Your right hand. I wish to turn from my past sinful life and turn to You. I seek to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior and my only hope. Father, give me Your Holy Spirit so that I may know the truth and seek to do Your will. In Jesus’ Holy Name I pray. Amen.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. 1 Corinthians 2:2; Romans 1:16

If you would like a free bible, please contact us at onegodonegospel@comcast.net
For more resources please visit the website: www.onegodonegospel.org

1. John Gill; 2. Robert Y. Eckardt; 3. St. John Chrysostom; 4. Lehman Strauss; 5. Brian Schwertley ;6. Nelson's new Christian dictionary