“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to
us. God is love;
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in
him.” —1st John 4:16
God is love. Few people nowadays understand what true love
is, nor can they comprehend the unconditional love of God which sent Jesus to
Calvary to die for our sins. God's love is UNCONDITIONAL, i.e., it matters not
who you are, nor what you have done—God loves you!
God doesn't love us for who we are; but rather, because of
WHO HE IS! Likewise, we ought to love others because of who WE ARE, and not
because of who THEY ARE, nor what they do, nor what they think. God's love is
unconditional.
Romans 5:5, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
I love you, whoever you may be, and I mean that!
If your house were on fire in the wee hours of the morning,
and I came banging at your door to warn you, you'd thank me and call me a hero
no doubt. My ministry is no different. I am warning people about the
consequences of sin, and of dangerous false prophets, and of the judgment to
come in hellfire. I have great concern for the souls of living beings and don't
want anyone to be cast into the Lake of Fire. I care.
The Bible ought to be a frightening Book to you if you're
not prepared to meet your Maker. There is much false teaching today about a
loving god who would never cast anyone into a burning hell; but this is not the
God of the Bible Who has plainly stated in 2nd Thessalonians 1:8-9 . . . “In
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction...” (all Scriptures are quoted from the precious and inspired King
James Bible). Jesus plainly said in John 10:35, “...the scripture cannot be
broken.” You can rest assure that God will keep His Word. All Christ-rejecters
will suffer eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone (Revelation
20:11-15; 21:8).
Only a fool would risk their eternal destiny on the
assumption that God would never cast anyone into hellfire. Just look at the
suffering in the world today because of sin. Do you think eternity will be any
different for those who die in their sins? Oh, listen my friend, please obey
the Gospel, so you don't end up in Hell.
Love Everybody
We've all been deeply hurt by others at times. When
memories arise that bring pain to the forefront of your soul, love those who
have hurt you by praying for them. I don't care if you haven't seen them for 25
years. Just tell the Lord that, if they are still alive, you are praying for
them, for God's will to be done in their life; and if they're dead, then you
are praying for their loved ones still living. I sometimes pray like this, to
cope with painful memories of persecution from enemies. I think this is what
the Holy Bible means in Romans 12:19, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will
repay, saith the Lord.”
One of the biggest sins of the Independent Baptist movement
that I see is a woeful lack of love for one another. Jesus plainly taught that
without love, the lost world won't see any difference between us and them.
Isn't that what we often hear from unsaved people... “I don't go to church
because they're all a bunch of big hypocrites!” ...
John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
John 15:12, “This is my commandment, That ye love one
another, as I have loved you.”
John 15:17, “These things I command you, that ye love one
another.”
Paying your debts is love. If you owe someone money and
withhold payment, when it is in your power to pay them, you don't love them. If
you are broke, then you need to go personally to them and work out some
arrangement to pay them...
Romans 13:8, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another:
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”
The Holy Bible teaches that love is not something that
needs to be taught, because God Himself (through the indwelling Holy Spirit)
teaches every believer to love each other. The Holy Spirit always leads us to
LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
I promise you that the very moment that you let everything
go into God's hands, which is exactly what Romans 12:19 teaches, and decide to
love everybody no matter what (unconditionally),
1st Thessalonians 4:9, “But as touching brotherly love ye
need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one
another.”
In the Bible, Jacob first met God at a place called Bethel.
Genesis 35:15, “And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with
him, Bethel.” Like most of us, Jacob's life took a sharp turn for the worse as
time passed, and everything fell apart. God told Jacob to go back to Bethel
(Genesis 35:1), which today would picture the local church. No matter what the
magnitude of your sins, you can still go back to Bethel. The first step in
getting your life back together is to get back into a local church, get into
Christian fellowship with God's people, get busy serving God, fear Him and keep
His holy commandments (Proverbs 3:5-7).
God Hates as Much as He Loves
Although God loves all mankind; God also equally hates sin.
God has an unconditional hatred for sin. It matters not how kind, generous and
loving you may be—you will be cast into hellfire on Judgment Day if you refuse
to obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Bible commands (Revelation 20:11-15).
All the love in the world won't keep you out of Hell if you die in your sins.
You had better get born-again and then you can one day die
in the Lord and go to Heaven . . . “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord
from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours;
and their works do follow them” (Revelation 14:13). Every person will one day
either die IN THEIR SINS, or else they will DIE IN THE LORD.
God is a holy God—a morally perfect God who is incapable of
doing wrong. God is a good God, whose holiness demands justice. As such, sinful
men must be punished for violating God's holy Law. This is why we read in
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death...” Mankind is inherently sinful
and deserves to be punished in Hell. Adam brought sin and death into the world
by his own sin (Romans 5:12).
We are all sinners, incapable of pleasing God in our own
self-righteousness (Romans 3:10-23; Isaiah 64:6; Ephesians 2:8,9). Thankfully,
God sent His only begotten Son into the world (John 3:16) to pay for our sins
with His own blood (1st Peter 1:18,19; Acts 20:28). Jesus came into the world
in the flesh, i.e., the Godhead became incarnate (John 1:1-3,14; 1st Timothy
3:16; Colossians 2:9). God did this because He loves us . . .
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down
his life for us . . .” —1st John 3:16
Having said that, I want all my web visitors to know that I
love you too, with God's unconditional love that He has shed abroad in my
heart... “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:5). I preach
against sin because I love God, and He has commanded each believer to do so
(Psalm 94:16; Ephesians 5:11). The idea that love is all that matters, and
critical doctrinal differences are a minor issue, is utter apostasy. There are
many people today who go around talking about God's love, who have absolutely
no regard for the doctrine of Christ, the plan of salvation, nor the Christian
faith. They are unsaved Modernists who know not the Lord Jesus Christ.
God Loves Sinners Too (And a Good
Thing, Because We're ALL Sinners!)
Every so often someone will try to convince me that God
only loves the righteous. Certainly, the righteous, i.e., the saved, are dear
to God and have a right to approach the throne of grace by way of Jesus' blood
sacrifice (Hebrews 4:15-16); however, the Bible plainly teaches that Christ
died for ALL men because He loves ALL men... “Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us . . .” (1st John 3:16). Romans 5:8,
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.” Jesus died for ALL MEN... “And he is the propitiation for
our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Jesus died for every unrepentant fornicator and homosexual.
Jesus died for every unrepentant murderer and adulterer. Jesus died for THE
WHOLE WORLD. This is what 1st John 2:2 teaches. Christ died for all men. Notice
what 2nd Peter 2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even
as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction.” Jesus bought those false prophets, even though they were
unsaved and unwilling to get saved.
This is God's unconditional love. God has paid the price
for all men to be redeemed, even for those who reject God's free gift of
eternal life; but God will not force them to receive it. Salvation must be
received by way of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no salvation
apart from faith in Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Jesus is the One Way to Heaven.
Therefore, no man can blame God for ending up in Hell. No one goes to Hell
except those who CHOOSE to go there.
The plainest teachings in the Bible declare “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Christ died
for all the world. If God didn't unconditionally love Christ-rejecters, then
they'd go straight to Hell the moment they rejected Christ. It is God's
unconditional love that causes Him to be long-suffering and patient with even
the vilest of sinners, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance” (2nd Peter 3:9). That is love.
Christians are only saved by Christ's righteousness,
through faith, so we certainly cannot claim that God loves us for anything we
have done. The notion that God loves Christians and hates unbelievers is
satanic, it is a false doctrine rooted in self-righteousness. We all deserve to
burn in Hell.
God loves all of humanity unconditionally. We're all bad in
God's eyes, because we have all sinned (Romans 3:10, 23). Only a self-righteous
person would dare say that God only loves certain people. The truth is that God
loves everyone, which is why we read in 2nd Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance.”
God is NOT willing that any should perish, not even the
worst of criminals and villains. We are all sinners by nature and by choice. If
God didn't love sinners, then He couldn't love anybody. Nobody loves God who
doesn't love sinners!
The Old Testament tells us in Isaiah 55:7, “Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto
the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.” God is willing to forgive any person who acknowledges that
they are a guilty and needy sinner in God's sight, and believes (trusts) the
Good News of Jesus Christ—Who died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and
bodily resurrected three days later according to the Scriptures (1st Corinthians
15:1-6). We are saved by believing THE GOSPEL.
Salvation is of the Lord. Our part is simply to believe on
the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1st Corinthians 15:2 says
that is how we are saved... “BY WHICH ALSO YE ARE SAVED.” 1st Corinthians
15:1-2a, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye
are saved.” God set the ultimate example in love, sacrificing His only begotten
Son on the cross for OUR SINS. Jesus Christ willingly laid down His life for
all of humanity. There is no greater love than this.
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