The enthusiastic pastor addresses his congregation:
“How many of us, truly KNOW why we could fail the Lord and end-up in hell, even though we spend so much time doing the Lord’s work, so much time in HIS Word─the Bible? The Answer is simple, like every other part of the Bible, it is found in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Let’s take a closer looker at this verse and find out what it means once and for all.
“For the WAGES of SIN…” “Wages” means that you are paid for rendering a service, is that not correct? This then means that something must be performed, a service must be performed, and that would be SIN. So what is SIN? It is anything, which includes the original thought that precedes any form of action, ending in the action of SIN being completed…which is AGAINST the Laws of GOD.
Brothers and Sisters…don’t sit there and think that you are any different than any of the rest of us! We all SIN!! Adam and Eve were the very first humans on this earth and they indeed SINNED against the Lord by eating of the “Fruit of the knowledge of good and evil”. The Lord told them that they could have any fruit they wanted, but of that fruit, they were not to eat! Genesis 2:16-17 says:
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
So many think this was the first SIN, but to tell the truth it was not! That old devil─Satan had commited the first SIN when he wanted to set his throne above the throne of GOD. And after he was thrown out of heaven…for this SIN, he went on to destroy the first humans with SIN.
So what does this have to do with you and I, in the here and now? We carry this same SIN in each and every person that is born, it is in our children and it will be in their children as well. There is only one person ever born on this planet,that never SINNED and that is Jesus Christ! What many don’t understand is that this SIN separates us from God, because God is a JUST GOD and HE will NOT tolerate any SIN! I’m going to say that again…GOD WILL NOTTOLERATE ANY SIN!!”
(Boom!!! on the podium!)
“Now…that means we must find a way to rid ourselves of SIN, before we die or before Jesus Christ comes in the Rapture! We must rid ourselves of our past SIN, our Present SIN and even our Future SIN. All of it must be taken care of in some way before that point in time! IF we don’t, we will definitely spend eternity in hell.”
(BOOM!!! On the podium!)
“AND that means all of us!! I don’t care if you THINK your too good a person to go to hell, if there is even one sin in you, you will join the rest of us!!”
(WHAM!! He hits the podium!!)
“IF you sin once, you are just as guilty before God as the one that has commited all the sins there are!”
The pastor wipes the sweat from his face, clears his throat, sips some water and continues on, despite the rising Sunday morning heat.
“I hope each of you understand we are all guilty of SIN, that it separates us from God, we are then UNACCEPTABLE to be in GODs presence! And if we are unacceptable in Gods presence, then where are we?? That’s right!! In hell…I mean for eternity!! Going back to Romans 6:23, we see that there IS a way out though and that is the “gift of God” to us─Jesus Christ! And Jesus Christ ISGod!!
Now listen closely, here! God chose to come to this planet and to be born as a human, a position a little lower than the angels! Do you get that?! God CHOSE to come here…as a HUMAN!! HE didn’t have to, HE CHOSE to come! And why would God choose to do that?? Because HE loves us!!”
(Boom!! on the podium!)
“Because HE created us to be HIS people and HE would be our GOD! So he knew that there was only one way to rid us of our SIN! The service…or the act of commiting SIN bears a cost that would have us in hell for eternity! GOD…came here as Jesus Christ, and HE knew the only way to “PAY” the price for our SIN, was to die on a cruel Roman cross, to shed HIS blood there! And that is exactly what HE did!!”
(BOOM!! on the podium!)
“Can I get an Amen?”
And the congregation responded with quick “Amens” from their seats, crowded together inside the tent church building. The pastor, as he was prone to do many times before─paced the podium area clearing his throat, drinking water and wiping beads of sweat from his face.
“God…did not come here to make you rich and wealthy, HE did not come here to make YOU better than anyone else, no matter what you may think! HE came here to PAY THE PRICE FOR SIN! And then HE did something no one else has ever done in all of time, HE arose the third day, HE was resurrected from the dead! And now…HE is in heaven…waiting on us! What is HE waiting for?! Come on now!! That’s right…for you and me…to turn to HIM and ask HIM to forgive us of our SIN!!”
(Boom!! Another smack on the podium!)
“IF there is NO asking for forgiveness…there is NO heaven for us…that leaves only hell!! The Bible is simple on this…it is either HEAVEN or it is HELL!! It is one or the other and YOU…my brothers and sisters…must choose for yourself!!
Brothers and sisters…we are all in the same boat here. We are all tarnished by SIN! If we come to Jesus Christ…at HIS cross on Calvary…if we ask HIM to forgive us of our SIN…He has said HE will forgive us!! HE said HE would cleanse us…and make us NEW again. Now…what did HE mean by that last statement, make us NEW?? Any ideas?? Anyone??
It means WE must leave our old self, the one that used to sin all the time, CRUCIFIED to the cross of Jesus Christ!! That HIS blood would create a “new” person!! It has nothing to do with you doing anything!! Even if you are “born again” to Jesus Christ you will still sin, but now you can come to HIM at any time and ask for HIS forgiveness and be cleansed. Now you belong to HIM…you live a different life…one that follows HIS perfect will in each of you. No matter what happens, no matter who does what, NO ONE can take you from HIS hands!!”
(WHAM!! He hits the podium!)
“Brothers and sisters…do you understand this? God wants to give you life, not death, HE wants you to live in heaven not die in hell. HE wants you to love HIM and let HIM love you. HE wants to give you everything!! Why do you think HE created us in the first place?! Everything in this life points to these few small facts that GOD has chosen to create!
IF you are standing here, then you are NOT standing out there!! IF it is hot, then it is not cold!! You are always in one place or the other and never at the same two places at the same time! That is simple life, it is the same thing with the life we live and the laws that govern it, it is that way because GOD created it to be that way!
If you listen to the “unsaved” person you will hear it in their blasphemous rhetoric that they fail to understand who put this life together the way it is! I don’t care about what you think!! It is far more important to KNOW who GOD is! NO GOD, NO LIFE!!!”
(WHAM!! on the podium!)
“Now that…you can take to the bank and get cash money on the barrel-head, fer!! Let’s understand this!! Understand it right here and right now! NO God…NO life!! NO life…only death!! And let me emphasize it right here and now….DEATH is going to HELL!! IF there is NO God in your life, then all you have is death and you and death are going to go to hell!!!
And that…my brothers and sisters….is for eternity!!! That eternity….is forever and ever and ever and far, far beyond that….it never ends!! How SAD!! God gives you a choice…and you choose HELL??! It is so simple, it has alwas been so simple…YOU DECIDE for yourself…heaven or hell!! That is what this life is all about…that ONE DECISION…70-80 years or the Rapture… is enough time to choose. After that…we step into eternity and we do so WITH GOD…OR WE DO SO WITHOUT GOD!! It truly is life or death!!”
Praise the Lord always!!