Welcome!
Dear friend, if you do find
yourself at this web-page, it is most probably due to you being handed a Gospel
Tract or Booklet by someone that truly loves and cares about the eternal
destiny of your soul, and you most probably saw a web address on the literature
in your possession and visited the same. You, together with those browsing the internet,
are most welcome and we do encourage you to look into the life of Christianity.
From the literature you were possibly handed, or the conversations that you
were engaged in, you were told that the Bible makes it very clear that we have
all sinned against our Creator God. Romans 3:23 tells us that everyone has
sinned and fallen short of measuring up to God’s Holy standards. His standard
is perfection (Matthew 5:48), and none of us has attained to that perfection by
matching it, and in God’s Word He also says that we are to be Holy for He is
Holy (Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Peter 1:16). When the Bible says we
have all “sinned”, what does it mean to sin? The Bible says that sin is the transgression
of the Law of God (1 John 3:4). To transgress God’s Law is to be disobedient to
His moral Law, the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). Now, let us take a brief
look at them:
1. You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me. Scripture tells us that we are to have no other gods before the One True God, who is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exodus 4:5; 6:3; Matthew 22:32). We are also to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4,5; Mark 12:30). Have you always placed God first in everything that you have done? Or have other things or persons taken precedent in your life ahead of your Creator God? Has your money, material possessions, hobbies, sports, family members and the like taken first place in your life ahead of your love, or lack of love, for God Almighty?
2. You Shall Not Make Yourself Any Graven Image. To make a graven
image, Scripture warns that you are not to fashion anything with your hands in
the likeness of things in the heavens above, upon the earth beneath or in the
waters under the earth. Idols are not only sculptured images made of silver,
gold, brass, wood, stone, plastic or any other materials, but it could also be
making an idol in your own image created in your mind, a god you are more
comfortable with. Psalm 115 warns against idol worship and those who make idols
and worship them. Idolatry is mentioned throughout the Holy Scriptures that it
is an abomination before God Almighty (Leviticus 19:4; Deuteronomy 29:17; 2
Kings 21:11; Psalm 106:36; 135:15; Ezekiel 14:6; 1 Corinthians 12:2; 1 John
5:21). When men follow their traditions of ancestral worship, this is also
idolatry, for there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). Idols can also be the money, material possessions, etc.
referred to under the First Commandment above. Are you an idolater?
3. You Shall Not Take The Name Of The Lord Your God In Vain. The Name of God and His Son Jesus Christ are to be reverenced and be worshipped. However, many times the Holy Names of the Father and His Son are blasphemed, used flippantly and substituted for four-letter swear words as they are dragged through the mud! Hollywood uses the Holy Names of God as cuss words and used mockingly in their films and very often misrepresented. Blaspheming God is also when a person who professes to be Christian does not bring forth the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23) and their lifestyle is contrary to their “faith”. They call themselves children of God, but live like the devil. This gives occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme Him (2 Samuel 12:14).
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Do you set aside one day
in seven to worship God? We are told to not to neglect the coming together of
the brethren (1 Corinthians 14:26). To remember the Sabbath day and keep it
holy would be to set it aside where we give a day to God in worship, prayer and
seeking Him. Six days we work – God requires us to come and meet Him without
distractions on one in seven, which should not be a tall order to meet – or is
it?
5. Honour Your Father and Mother. This is the first commandment with a
promise. If we honour our parents we will live long upon the earth. Have we
always shown respect and honour to our parents and obeyed everything they have
told us to do? Remember, to honour our parents is what God commands, but we are
never to follow instructions from our parents that are contrary to God’s Word.
We can never follow man’s traditions and commands for by doing so it makes the Word
of God of none effect (Mark 7:13). Have you been obedient to teachers,
employers, authorities, law enforcement officers, and church leadership and the
like (Romans 13:1-7; Hebrews 13:17; Ephesians 6:5-8)?
6. You shall Not Kill. We know it is wrong to kill. Jesus said that
whosoever is even angry with his brother is a murderer (Matthew 5:22). We are
also warned that whosoever hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). In
Jeremiah 17:9 the prophet tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked:” and we know that out of the abundance of the
heart comes murder (Mark 7:21). Gossip is also murder of the heart when you
speak all manner of evil against your neighbour (Leviticus19:16; Proverb
20:19). Do watch what comes out of your heart when you speak.
7. You Shall Not Commit Adultery. It was said of old times you shall
not commit adultery, but Jesus said that even looking with lust upon a woman is
adultery of the heart (Matthew 5:27,28). Have you looked upon another with
lust? Adultery is also sexual relationships outside the bounds of marriage, be
it heterosexual or homosexual sex. This is known as fornication and no
fornicator will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9,10). 1 Corinthians
6:18 also states that we are to flee fornication for every sin committed is
outside the body, but fornication is a sin against your own body.
8. You Shall Not Steal. It is wrong to steal, irrespective of the size
or value of the object. Theft is also when people are involved in, whether
buying or selling, stolen goods in the act of piracy. See Matthew 19:18; Mark
10:19 and Luke 18:20. Have you stolen anything? Even cheating on an examination
is “intellectual theft.” Thieves will receive punishment in hell fire.
9. You Shall Not Lie. Have you bared false witness (lied) to anyone?
The Word of God tells us that our tongues, although small cannot be tamed (James
3:5-8). Jesus also warned that if any person speaks lies he speaks the language
of the devil (John 8:44). All liars will have their part in the lake of fire (Revelation
21:8; 22:15). God wants us to speak truth not lies.
10. You Shall Not Covet. To covet is when someone desires and lusts
after something that belongs to another person. Have you ever coveted after
possessions that belong to another? Or have you coveted another man’s wife or
daughter for sex? If you cannot afford buying something do not go coveting after
it. This leads to all manner of evil activities – which can even lead to murder.
To be covetous, the Word of God warns that covetous persons fall into the
category of all other wicked and evil person types (see Ephesians 5:5; 2
Timothy 3:2; 2 Peter 2:14). “Wishing” to have something is not “something” to
play around with.
If we all are honest with
ourselves, we can see that when we examine ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5) against
the moral law of God, we all fall short of His perfect standards. That would
mean that every last one of us would be guilty as a transgressor of His law and
be deserving of punishment and hell fire for all eternity. The good news is
that where we have failed miserably, Jesus did not and He lived a perfect,
sinless life (Hebrews 4:15). Scripture also confirms that Jesus is God in the
flesh (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; John 1:1,14; Philippians 2:6; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 John
5:7) and “when
the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive
the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4,5). The Bible says: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). You cannot stand
before God in your own righteousness. That kind of righteousness is
repulsive to God (Isaiah 64:6)! He offers those who will come to Him His own Righteousness
so that you will be clothed in it on the Day of Judgment, and not in your own
righteousness. An exchange must take place; you must somehow lose your sins and
gain His Righteousness. Therefore, Romans 5:8-9 tells us: “But God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him.”
When Jesus Christ died on the cross
for your sins He paid your ‘court fine’ so that you could go free. He
can legally commute your death penalty as He redeemed you from the curse of the
law (Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:23). This is truly good news. Jesus
satisfied God’s wrath and was resurrected to life, and therefore Jesus can save
a sinner from His wrath. Scripture tells us that those that are the called and
elect would show “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”
(Acts 20:21b) as “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Romans
2:4b).
If God Almighty is speaking to
you this day, do not harden your heart in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2:12;
Luke 19:9,10; 2 Corinthians 6:2). Salvation is of the Lord (Lamentations 3:26; 2
Peter 3:15). Call upon the name of the Lord and believe in your heart and upon
Jesus Christ, and be saved (Acts 2:21; 4:12; Romans 10:9,10). Make Psalm 51
your repentant prayer. Get a Bible and feed on it (Job 23:12; Psalm 119:103) –
be obedient to God’s Word and live it out.
Here is a video that deals with the Cost of
Discipleship:
It Will Cost You Everything
