"All have Sinned”
BIBLE REFERENCE:
Romans 3:10-12.
As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
ENCOURAGING WORD:
One of the biggest deceptions within the Christian Church today is the fact that the two main, mainline denominations teach that we are saved by works. They might go as far as to say we are saved by grace plus works but that is still false doctrine. That is a contradictive statement. You can’t have it both ways. It is either grace or its works. You can’t receive something for free and then pay for it, if you do than you haven’t accepted the free gift. It is obvious to me that these churches mentioned above definitely do not teach the whole bible as it was meant to be taught. It’s extremely important to teach the bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter and book by book as it is written. If you are part of a church that just teaches just topical studies or they just teach the scriptures that they are comfortable with, you need to move on to a church that teaches through all the scriptures. Here is what Paul said bout that: Acts 20:27; “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” What if Paul only taught the scriptures that he liked, we would most likely all miss the gift of eternity in heaven because we wouldn’t have been taught the truth of the whole bible. That is exactly where we stand today if we aren’t taught the whole Bible. Now, to expand on the Bible reference above, this is just one verse of many that tell us that there is no way that we can be good enough to get to heaven on our own merits. In our defined language today, we have a different meaning for the word “good” than what God refers to as good. You may read the verse above and say, “I’m good”, and in our terms you may be, but in Gods terms none are good, no not one. To God, the Word good means perfect in every way, and there was only one who ever existed that meets that description. His name is Jesus Christ for those that don’t know. If we continue on with the rest of the verse in Romans 3; we come to verse 20 where it says, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” This is saying that living by the law will not make you justified in the eyes of the Lord, and according to scripture, you must be justified before you can be saved. Justified means it is just as if you had never sinned and how do we get to that status, it sure isn’t by our own self-righteousness. 2 Timothy1:9 tells us, “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” We also read the following verse in Ephesians 2:8-9; “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.” This is the verse that Martin Luther King quoted to bring about the reformation. The problem is, he didn’t take it far enough. He taught that we are saved by grace, but he didn’t explain exactly what grace is. Grace is a favor from God that is not earned. We receive this favor through salvation from God and other blessings from him. Since it is a free gift, you can’t earn it otherwise it is not grace.
What most people don’t understand is that God hates pride more than any other sin, therefore, if we could earn our own salvation then that would give us the right to brag about it as we do with everything else that we think we accomplished. God receives all the glory through Jesus Christ and therefore it is a free gift from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to those that chose to accept it.
Now, let’s get back to sin. The Bible tells us Romans 3:23; “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Notice it says “all” not some or a few, it says all. In the past I have asked many people, do you think that you are going to heaven, and the answer in many cases was an astounding “yes”. Then I would ask them why they felt that way and the answer is always without a doubt, “because I am good.” See, we are not taught the truth, the answer should be “because I believe that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again on the third according to the scriptures so that by accepting His free gift of grace, I have been saved. Jesus did it all, nothing more for me to do. Now you might say, well I didn’t sin as much as the next guy, I’m better than most, sure that works in our world, but once again, not in God's kingdom. See, God cannot and will not accept sinful man into His everlasting kingdom, therefore, we need to be sin free to enter into heaven. Since no one can do that on their own, we are in serious need of a Savior that can redeem us back to God, and the only way that can be done is through Jesus Christ Himself, coming to earth, taking on the sins of the world, and then laying down His life for mankind. This is the free gift that has to be accepted by the recipient of the promise. Only those that accept this great gift will benefit from it. All those that reject grace will stand before God at the white throne judgement where they will be judged for every sin that they ever committed because they didn’t accept Gods most precious gift.
The bible goes on the say in James 2:10 where it says, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” This means that even if you were able to keep the law, which you can’t, and yet stumble at one point, you are guilty of all. Here are a couple of verses that expand on what I just said. Matthew 5:21; “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca! Shall be in danger of the council.” (Raca in British English means ' worthless' or ' empty ') We also read in Matthew 5:27; “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” See, we have a different description of what we think the Bible teaches from what God truly means. Let me explain what this is saying with an example. Let’s say that you are hanging off a ledge of a high cliff by a ten-link chain, how many of those links have to break before you fall to your death. Well, the answer is obvious, just one, in the same way that if you sin in just one area and you are not forgiven, you will parish in the lake of burning fire for eternity. (No exceptions!) Are you starting to get the picture? In a nutshell, sinful man cannot enter into heaven, therefore we all must all be saved and the only way to be saved is by believing in Jesus Christ and accepting the Holy Spirit into your heart and become born-again. Once again, let me read you the following Bible verse spoken from the lips of Jesus Christ. John 3:5-7; “Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Now, the question that I have to ask you is this, do you believe the Bible is the true and inerrant Word of God or do you just blow it off as a book of myths and legends and fictional stories. The answer to this question will determine whether you believe the Bible is true or not. If you don’t believe the Bible is the true Word of God, then you have much bigger problems than what you can ever imagine. The Bible is, in fact and without a doubt the Word of God. We read in 2 Timothy 3:16-17; “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” So, you have to determine in your heart, do you believe the truth or do you choose to reject the truth. Your answer will not change the fact that truth is truth, and Gods Word will not return void. In my opinion it is the only truth that we can believe in today’s world.
Keep this in mind, when you stand before God at the White Throne Judgment, you will not have no leg to stand on in defense of yourself. Your books will be opened and Jesus will go over every sin that you ever committed, because you did not accept His free gift of grace and the only propitiation for you sins. Either you accept the fact that Jesus paid for your sins through His shed blood on the cross or you parish with the rest of those that thought that they could do it on their own. Revelation 20:12; tells us this; “and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” Let me ask you a very simple question, do you want to see every sin that you ever committed brought up before you and be judged accordingly or do you want every sin that you committed to be erased from existence for all eternity because you believed in Jesus Christ and accepted His free gift of grace. Jesus said in Hebrews 8:12; “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Speaking of those that have received the gift of Grace.
So, keep this thought in mind, we are all sinners, none are good, no not one, but through the shed blood of Jesus Christ He took ours sins and gave us His righteousness. Only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ can we be saved. There is no other way.
So, do yourself a big favor, get on your knees today, receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and accept the Holy Spirit into your heart. We don’t know what a day will bring, and tomorrow could be too late. Eternity is a long time, and it could start for anyone one of us at any time. I can only hope you take this message seriously and start your relationship with Jesus today!
God Bless and take care!
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