Part #5 of #6….. “DEAD OR ALIVE SETTLE IT NOW”…..Continued from Crumb 0048
“The proclamation of the Gospel of Grace” is not just an invitation. It is also a final call for salvation with a plea ‘now’ and ‘today’.
God is always a God of “now”. HE is always working in the present. The message of salvation is a message of “now and today”.
Scripture through Paul the apostle urges us, “not to receive the Grace of God in vain”. He further tells us that, “now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” [2 Corinthians 6:1-2].
Is this Scripture attempting to coerce us into making a decision? NOT AT ALL.
Why then this exhorting plea for urgency? After all, so many of us have all the time in the world. We’re still young and have years ahead of us. So why then, this great seeming hurry?
Let me give you two prime reasons.
(I) Death Is Constantly Knocking on Our Door
From the moment we are born, death starts to knock on our door.
There is reality in the fact that death can, does and will come to all of us at any moment. More often that not, it gives no notice whatsoever.
There are many, young to old, who will go to sleep tonight and not wake tomorrow morning.
For those who are battling with terminal sicknesses and diseases are battling for life. That means they are battling against death. Nobody really wants to die for we all hate death.
When it comes to death, the Gospel message is the “only message” that truly gives us an infallible hope.
The Bible tells us that this hope does not “disappoint” [Romans 5:5] or make us “ashamed”.
And this “Living Hope” is “Life Eternal”.
What Happens If You Die Without Christ
The Bible tells us that if we die without Christ we will have died in our sins. For we will have rejected the price that Christ paid for our sins on the cross.
And since “the wages of sin is death” [Romans 6:23], means that we would then have to pay for them.
This death is the second death as described in [Crumb 0045] and is an eternal separation from God.
To pay this demanded price would take a time period of eternity. And the place would be in what the Bible calls, “the lake of fire”, a place of eternal doom and regret.
So if you die unsaved without Christ, the moment you die your spirit and soul first goes straight to hell.
This hell is located in the centre or heart of the earth [Matthew 12:38-40], [Luke 16:19-26] and [Ephesians 4:8-9]. It is a place of extreme torment as the Scriptures indicate.
The Final Judgment
You will remain there in hell for a minimum of a thousand years [Revelations 20:5], awaiting the final judgment.
The ‘White Throne’ judgment of Scripture in [Revelations 20:11-13] is the final judgment. No believers in Christ Jesus will be present at this judgment.
Casting into the ‘lake of fire’ known as the second death, will be from this place of the white throne judgment.
It will not be a glorified body, and will be subject to every evil influence.
It will be so bad that you will crave for and desire death but it will not come and will be an eternity of extreme regret.
If only you had believed! will be the only thing on your mind.
And since you chose not to believe when you had the opportunity, your choice takes you right there to that lake of fire.
You’ll have only yourself to blame.
It is not a pretty picture at all to put it mildly.
Sorry, but the party is not in hell, as many mockingly and jokingly say it is.
The Escape Route Is In Place
But God has already made the escape route for you “never” to go there. All you have to do is only believe in the Gospel.
“Jesus Christ Died for your sins, was buried, and rose for your justification” [1 Corinthians 15:1-4] and [Romans 4:25].
All God expects is that with our heart we believe it + nothing else [Romans 1:16].
What a solid and sure way God has legally made for all of us to escape that which is bound to come.
And remember, that is “not religion”. It is “Grace Filled Salvation”.
For there is no salvation in religion.
SO then, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?” [Hebrews 2:3].
“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven:” [Hebrews 12:25].
Hell and the lake of fire, the eternal prison was ‘never’ created for us. It was specifically created for Satan and the fallen angels [Crumb 0021].
Think about it for a moment in the natural. Our prisons are created only for convicted felons. Never for the innocent citizens.
Because of the Divine Blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, God can legally declare us innocent.
He can do that irrespective of all our past, current and future sins.
And all we have to do is just simply believe what God has done for us with our heart + nothing else. “IT IS AN IRREVOCABLE DEAL”
To reject this great offer and gift of God would truly be the epitome of abject foolishness.
(II) The Wrath And Judgment Of God Is At Hand
The Gospel is a plea for urgency, because this world will come under the judgment of God any day and moment.
The Bible tells us about the great judgmental flood that came in the days of Noah. The world was prosperous, but had become so evil to a point of no return.
Everyone was just about an unscrupulous law unto himself in every sense of the word [Genesis 6:5-13].
The above Scripture tells us that, “every imagination of the thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil continually”.
Are we not seeing the same all around us today?
God through the preaching of Noah was constantly warning the people of the judgment by a flood to come. He created an escape route for anyone to enter the saving ark, built by Noah according to His instructions [Genesis 6:14-22].
This warning lasted for a hundred and twenty years [Genesis 6:3], but to no avail.
Only eight people, Noah and his family, were saved.
The rest ignored the call and perished. What a tragedy!
This Flood was so severe that it literally changed the geographical map of the earth.
It is believed that the earth’s tectonic plates shifted and the axis also changed to a ‘tilt’, because of this. Seasons, as we understand them climatically, came into existence.
Scripture in [Genesis 10:25] refers to what has come to be known as “Theory of the Great Continental Drift”
The Gospel Is The Ark Of Salvation
Today, the gospel of Grace of Jesus Christ is that “saving ark” for all humanity.
The proclamation of this Gospel has been sounding for the last two thousand and twenty years.
And just like the doors of Noah’s ark closed before that flood came, this door will close too.
This door of the ark of the gospel is at this time closing fast. We see world events around us setting the stage for just that.
The reality is that we need to make a decision now, as procrastination will prove to disastrous.
Warning Or Threat?
Many could see this message as a warning and many could see it as a threat.
But if you think about it reasonably, what is the difference between a warning and a threat?
A ‘friend (someone who cares) warns’ whereas, an ‘enemy threatens’.
All of us have experienced that on more than a few occasions in our lives in various ways.
Warnings from friends have saved us often from what ‘could have been’ and what “turned out to be” disasters.
We are grateful for such friends.
Jesus Christ is still very much a lover and friend of sinners. HE HAS NEVER CHANGED. He “is the same yesterday, and today and for ever” [Hebrews 13:8].
Jesus Himself still warns us that the coming judgment will be just like the days of Noah.
Further, this judgment would come without notice [Matthew 24:37-39]. It will be like nothing ever known in human history.
If we care to notice, the red flags are so noticeably visible just about anywhere and everywhere we look.
t was scoffed at and ignored in the days of Noah.
However, this warning is being ‘scoffed at’ the same way it was scoffed at and ignored in the days of Noah.
But the flood of judgment came. And so it will surely come this time too, for the stage for this to happen is just about set up.
Amazing crumb explaining the Gospel of Christ as saving ark !!! That is indeed what it is, as we so often have heard, that Jesus saves !! Praise the Lord !! We all need to get in there before the doors close !!
Amen!….. And time is running out fast!