The Average Church Attitude

 Tares vs Wheat

In the past fifty years, there has been a major change in the attitude of the average church goer.  There was a time when prayer requests centered around the salvation of family, friends and neighbors.  There was a real concern for the lost condition of souls.  The spiritual life of the believer has changed from “others” to me.  There are four areas where the tares and wheat are in conflict.

1.    Narcissism

Narcissism is one of the tares that has sprung up in the church.  The “Me first” which says I am number one, and other people matter only as they serve to fulfill and satisfy self.  There are those within the church that are only concerned about their rights, their privileges, their happiness.  The spiritual life of the church takes a backseat to these individuals.  Even in their speech it is filled with “me first” statements.  The tares have been planted in every church.  You will find this whole concept of my self-esteem, put-yourself first, you are number one, in every church.  This is the secular worlds view of the individual.

When the roots of the tares wrap around the wheat, Christians become infected with this spiritual disease.  They talk about being tired of doing the work of the LORD.  They begin to complain the sermons are not uplifting, the Sunday School class is not positive enough, they whine that the church is not doing anything for them.  It will not be long until the church is not a priority in their life.  Jesus instructed us to crucify self and put other first in our life. (Matt.16:24-24; Philp.2:3)

2.    Self-indulgence

Closely related to narcissism, self-indulgence says that life ought to be lived solely for my needs and pleasures.  This whole philosophy is based on “love”.  If I am showing “love” then it is alright.  After all God is “love” so what I do in love will be blessed by God. It is responsible for the acceptance of same sex marriage, adultery and fornication within the church. In their attempt to justify their self-indulgence they influence the wheat to tolerate what they are doing because it is done in “love”.  What soon happens is the wheat begins to condone their life style and soon it is a common practice.   The wheat dies and the tares flourish.

3.    Materialism

Materialism says, “I am what I have” and “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Instead of concentrating on the spiritual and eternal things, materialism seeks after those things that can be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, and possessed. Everything and everybody takes a second seat to material-ism—the accumulation of things. In contrast to this, Christianity teaches that we ought to be laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven. In other words, life is an investment, and we can either invest for short-term benefits or long-term gains.

Jesus describes this generation in His Revelation to John in chapter 3.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

4.    Diversity

America churches  pride themselves about their diversity. Diversity is the secular culture's belief that there are many different right ways to live and believe. Find whatever works for you. If it's Jesus and Christianity, fine. If it's Hinduism, great. Whatever you want to believe is just fine. Find the church of your choice. Rigidity is out. Absolutes are out. All paths lead to the same god. God wouldn't turn away sincere people. All this nonsense is from the tares that have been planted by Satan. In America, even witchcraft and devil worship are constitutionally protected religions. Many seem to think that the Creator of the universe is somehow limited by the Constitution of the United States. He is not! Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The apostle Paul taught, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). By the way, that name is Jesus. Any culture totally given over to being diverse in their approach to God has forgotten that there is a Law above the law. America, both collectively and individually, will honor God and be blessed, or it will disobey God and pay the bitter consequences. The same is true for a church that has allowed the tares of diversity to be planted.

This conflict of tares vs wheat has brought about the secularization of American churches, which in turn has had a tremendous effect on Christians. It is as unfortunate as it is true that we have bought, nearly “lock, stock, and barrel,” the secularization lie. Consequently, we have given ourselves over to a traditional, uncritical, and unscriptural view of the separation of church (the sacred) and state (the secular).

Today, Christianity may be privately engaging, but it is socially irrelevant. The central sectors of society (business, technology, science, medicine, law, politics, etc.) have been stripped of religious influence. As Americans, and, unfortunately, as Christians, we have thought it only proper to internalize our religion. This “privatization” or secret discipleship has contributed to the current secularization of America. But, more importantly, it has caused true Christianity to be without any real impact in public life. Afraid to mention the name of the Lord publicly, except within the limited confines of church and family, for fear of being thought un-American, uncivil, unprofessional, anti-social, sectarian, and fanatical, we now find ourselves without any real impact in our communities. Instead of being the salt that savors and the light that shines out of darkness (Matthew 5:13-16), we have allowed the “Wall” the secularists have erected between church and state to force us to publicly blend in with the rest of society. The same within the church.  There are areas that are off limits for discussion like abortion, same-sex marriage, and conservative politics.

Embarrassing as it is, the secularists have actually become victors by default. They are occupying territory that Christians have withdrawn from. Thinking it our duty to espouse a principle that forces us to eliminate the Lord from ALL of government and MOST of society, we have allowed the tares of secularism to wrap their roots around the wheat to strangle the life of freedom from the church.

 More Tares than Wheat

The Bible teaches that the church is supposed to influence the world as salt and light (Matt. 5:13-16), but instead the church has often been influenced by the world. Ezekiel 22:26 sends a stern rebuke to believers who make no distinction between that which is common and that which is holy.

Truly any congregation that has no distinction from the tares and wheat is close to extinction! The reason so many evangelical churches have grown so rapidly is not necessarily because of a true spiritual revival but because of cultural accommodation.   The growth is from the tares.  Tares grow faster than wheat and suck up all the life-giving nutrients from the soil.

A church that avoids what is culturally controversial, and preaches a message that is non-offensive to sin will be popular with the tares.  When a pastor is more concerned about not offending, than preaching a Gospel that transforms lives, then he belongs with the tares.

When a church fails to have its member profess a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then the door is open for the tares to take over. It is a sad day in the church when premarital sex, cohabitating or living a life that is or questionable morals, then the tares have taken over.

When the church has the same view as the world when it comes to sexual ethics, then there are more tares than wheat in the congregation.

When the youth of a church by and large adopt and or celebrate unbiblical views regarding family and marriage, then that congregation has more tares than wheat.

Not to engage in the worship music wars, but there are churches that use secular music as a normal part of their church service. This is no doubt being done to show those outside the church how relevant the church is to the culture, then the congregation has more tares than wheat.

There are times when entertainment is appropriate in the church.  However, when the primary objective of a congregation is to attract crowds by giving them an “entertainment experience” rather than present a message of transformation then the congregation has more tares than wheat.

When people only want to be able to say they are a “Christian” without repentance, or a transformed life, then they are among the tares and not the wheat.

Facing the Issues Within The Church

In 1970, Rev. Daniel Stafford wrote a small book entitled Going to Hell By the Way of the Church. The text was Matt. 13:36,42.  That was forty-seven years ago.  Today, there are still thousands going to hell by the way of the church.  Just because you attend church does not make you a Christians any more standing in a garage makes you a car.

Turn with me to Matt. 13
Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.  40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

This may make some people uncomfortable to talk about eternal punishment, or going to hell.  This is not to make you comfortable but to challenge you to live right and avoid eternal punishment.

The road of open depravity is the way that most people will face eternal punishment. However, the devil is wise enough to know that not everyone will travel that road. Knowing this, he is happy to take them to hell by the way of a good moral life while being part of a church. He may succeed in taking many more from churches that have closed their doors to the Holy Spirit, but he knows that it is possible for people to go to hell from any church.  The devil does not care that you are a faithful church-goer.  He only cares that you not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and have surrendered your life to the will of the LORD. Satan is happy for you to be religious.

The ground for the growth of the wheat and tares to grow in is the world, but today I want to look at that ground as the church.  Every church is made up of different people, different jobs, different values and different social classes. No church can survive or function without a unifying system of belief and doctrine.  The unifying belief acts as a glue to make the various part of the church function as a part of the Body of Christ.  In every church, there is a competition between the spiritual and secular for dominance.  One of these will eventually emerge as the principal view of Christianity for the church.

Historically, the Church has struggled with these two opposing views.  Paul was dealing with this same problem in the Church at Corinth, and Jesus addressed this problem in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares.  Today, the struggle continues in every church.  The wheat and tares grow together, but only the wheat will escape the fires of judgment.

The True Church, those that make up the Body of Christ (not a denomination) is the institution that can bring about a transformation in the world.  It is the Body of Christ, that is ordained the True Church, it contains only “wheat” and will have the ultimate victory over the “tares” sin.  Only a right relationship with the LORD will give us this victory.

Understanding the Tares

One of the amazing acts of God’s creation is the DNA of all life forms. "DNA is an amazing substance.  It literally makes us who we are.  But how does it work?  It’s a LONG molecule made up of 4 bases: A, T, C, and G.  These are packed various ways into chromosomes.  DNA can be exchanged, reshuffled and duplicated.

So, what does DNA do?  It is essentially a recipe book.  Copies can be made of the main DNA strand to make a “working recipe.”  Every three base pairs together codes for an amino acid and strings of amino acids make proteins.  Proteins and the products of proteins make up our entire body.  So, DNA is essential for life it is who we are.

The process is very accurate, but not perfect.  Sometimes mistakes are made – like a misspelled word.  Sometimes parts are duplicated or twisted around. What can happen is it can be: deleted, duplicated, reversed, or changed.  There is also a lot of “junk” in our DNA that gets cut out when it is used. We call these various things mutations.  Most of the time, a mutation “ruins” what the DNA needs to do, sometimes a mutation “makes sense” other times it is destructive. 

In the parable of the wheat and tares, we have been given a warning about things that look alike but are not.  What is on the inside is what will eventually show on the outside.  You cannot hide your DNA.

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.  But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matt. 13:24-30

The more you understand about tares, and how they differ from wheat, the more you can see the warning in this parable.  Since the time of Jesus, modern man has lost the common day recognition of how tares and wheat looked alike and why Roman law was enacted to make it crime for people to “infect” the crop of others with tare seeds.

Both plants look identical in their early growth, so you must wait for them to mature so you can see their differences and separate the poisonous useless weed seeds from the nutritious fruit bearing wheat seeds.

The tares also grow faster than wheat and will rob nutrients from the soil and from the sun by overshadowing the wheat crop.  When secular ideas are brought into the church, they will quickly overshadow the spiritual.  When worship become more entertainment than worship, the tares have taken over.
As the two crops compete for their growth and sustenance, the farmer is faced with a dilemma preventing him from the luxury and ease of early removal of the tares without injuring the wheat.  This has been the downfall of many good churches.  Trying to remove the “tares” is impossible.

Early Quaker used church disciple to remove the “tares” from the church.  Member who had ideas that did not conform to church doctrine were “read out of the meeting.” The results were many good Christian people left the church because it may have been their mother, father, brother, sister or a dear friend that was removed from the church.  The results were devastating to the “wheat.”

This is because the tares have a growth habit of wrapping their roots around the roots of the wheat. To remove the tares means to likely uproot the wheat which has a shallower root system than the tares.

Again, once the typical and rapid tare growth reveals the presence of tares, they are protected due to their entwining roots.  And so, once the tares are discovered to be present in a crop field, patience and observance will require waiting till harvest time to safely separate the weeds from the bounty.

The similarities of these two plants make sorting and discerning a difficult task.  We are being alerted to the dangers of subtle forgery and how counterfeit information may not be initially obvious.  So, from the beginning of our Christian experience, we need to be paying attention and mindfully discerning all that we see and hear and allow only the Scriptural truth to be the foundation of our beliefs.

This parable warns us to be diligent about what has been sown in our churches these include the doctrinal teachings, the secular ideas, the beliefs that are contrary to scripture, because they may mature to become an attachment we will have a fondness for, and later, it may leave us without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our church.

We have been warned about “tares” taking root.  The tares may look like wheat and seem to be spiritually stronger, remember all deception is costly to your spiritual health!  And, just because someone is often quoted, doesn’t necessarily make it true wisdom.

Remember, DNA does not lie.  The DNA for the tares is the recipe of sin.  They are the counterfeit that looks like the real deal but is death.  Just because something look genuine, the visual may mislead you and reveal its true identity when it is too late. Weeding is always a dreary task, and best if we never had to deal with it!

In the parable of the tares is shown the deceiving power of Satan, the longsuffering of God, and the final fate of all hypocrites, or tares. The deceiving power of Satan is beyond the full comprehension of the human mind.

The longsuffering of God is a source of amazement to angels and men alike. How He can be so longsuffering with transgressors is beyond the understanding of mortal man, who desires to remove those who oppose, and bring punishment for those that have done him wrong. The final fate of hypocrites, or tares, is clearly stated by God Himself, Jesus Christ. Unless one, deliberately, tries to misunderstand the meaning of the statement of Christ, it would be mighty hard to be confused with it.
To go to hell at all is too horrible to try to conceive. However, to go to hell by the way of the church will be the most horrible thing that can ever happen to anyone. This is what Christ is warning about in this parable, and trying to keep this from happening to you.

One "planted" tare, of Satan, on the inside of the church will do more harm than a thousand, admitted, sinners on the outside. Because indifferent of professors, and indolence of pastors, the righteous and the wicked are often mingled in the visible church. Every Christian society, however pure its principles may be, has its false wheat -- those who bear a resemblance to the good, but whose hearts are not right with God. He, who sows this false wheat among God's people, is here styled God's enemy; and he may be considered, also, as a sower of them who permits them to be sown, and to spring up through his negligence. The multitude of critical, sinner voices, from without will not do near the harm as one deceptive voice of a tare from within.  There are so many today who call themselves Christian, but their experience is that of being a tare.

There are so few that will make restitution, repentance and surrender their all to God and plead the cleansing blood. The number is even less that will continually walk in the light after that grace has come into their hearts.

The question is there hope for the tares?  Several years ago, I was in a diabetic research program that would change my DNA.  I don’t know how much it changed, but DNA can be changed.  That is what the transforming power of the plan of salvation does.  It changes who we are making us a new creation in Jesus Christ.

So, yes there is hope for “tares” in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.  He has the power to transform who we are.  If you have not received that transforming power of Jesus Christ you too can have the gift of salvation.

There is Power in The Blood-Holy Week Service 2017

This evening I would like to speak to you on the Power in the Blood.  The song, There is Power in the Blood will be the foundation for the message. This week is about the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ who gave us the plan of salvation.  When He bowed His head and said it is finished the New Covenant was signed with His blood.

Would you be free from the burden of sin?

Would you o'er evil a victory win?

Would you be free from your passion and pride

Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?

Sin stains are lost in its life-giving flow

Would you be free from the burden of sin?  Would you o'er evil a victory win?

Central to the Christian faith are the atoning death and the victorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Cross is the focal point for all that distinguishes true Chris­tianity from both its rivals and its imitators.

All theological discussions of the Cross relate to justification-how the death of Christ makes possible the forgiveness of our sins. Yet the New Testament makes it clear that the atone­ment has as much to do with sanctification as it does with justification. “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:25-26). “By the which will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:10, 14). “Where­fore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Heb. 13:12).

It is by the provision of a real cleansing of the heart from the stain of racial sin that the Cross becomes vital in our understanding of holiness. The writer to the Hebrews asks in one of his great rhetorical questions, “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eter­nal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:13-14)

For what purpose, did Jesus come to the world? Answers to this question can be classified under one or the other of two major theological positions.

The first reason is that Jesus came to give to the world an example of how an ideal person should live in an unrealistic world.

·         He came to provide an example which might serve as a pattern for all persons to emulate.

·          He was gracious, just, compassionate, and loyal to the truth.

·         He was fearless enough to die for His ideals.

·         He was crucified as a martyr for moral principles. It is His life, His ideals, His principles, and His martyrdom that are important.

The second reason is that Jesus came primarily as:

·         an atonement for sin.

·         He is a Lamb to be slain as a propitiation for broken law,

·         His death on the cross satisfied the demands of divine justice;

·          it protected the moral government of the universe;

·         and finally, was an expression of the love of God in giving His own, Son to save mankind.

The importance in the coming of Christ is to be found in His death. His life is an example and is a pattern to be followed, but can be possible only through the death and shed blood. "There is power in the blood" to make us victorious Christians.

Would you be free from your passion and pride, Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide.

Christ wrote His love in blood when He sacrifice Himself for man with His shed blood on the cross. No tongue can match the silent eloquence of the cross-fixed Christ.  On the other hand, the appalling shame of Christ's crucifiers represents the last stage of human depravity. There can be no depth beyond this, in the black abyss of sin. Manic madness is the climactic cesspool in the unquestionable wickedness of iniquity, yet God permitted the wrath of these men to crucify His only begotten Son, and at the same time use their wrath to praise Him. While they were killing Him in the malice of maddened rage, God was at the same time providing the world's redemption through His shed blood. The death of Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of more than eight hundred years' standing, which made known that this very scene would take place as revealed by the prophet Isaiah. 53 (Read)

That deadly brutality upon the sacred person of Christ tested the genuine and unshakable reality of His love; for without raising a protesting finger, He received their abusive onslaught to the death. It gave rise to a deeper sadness found in the expression, "He... became obedient unto death."

Today we wonder how any of the hearts and minds of the religious people in that day, could have become so hateful and perverted, as to invoke such slanderous fabrications against Christ, making a mockery of the Law of Moses and contempt for justice. Such thought and action coming from the high priest's chamber, and his ruling ecclesiastic associates, in the name of justice, is to announce their complete severance from the life of righteousness.  How could they reject Christ, who lived among them as a friend in every need -- the Redeemer of their lives -- the great miracle healer of their bodies -- the preacher of righteousness, who among them was without parallel; He who was the fulfiller of all their prophecies, the very incarnation of the eternal Godhead? How could they reject Him and choose a thief, who was a notorious murderer?

It was only the pride of these religious leaders that would destroy their temple, pronounce a death sentence on their nation, and make their name a by-word. The offered a criminal to replace the Son of God- Barabbas.  Had Barabbas been many times more wicked in character, with crimes more appalling than the darkest in history, that evil crowd still would have cried out in hatred, "Give us Barabbas, give us Barabbas, but crucify Jesus!"

People throughout the generations of time have raised their rebellious voices in pride to seal their own doom. Their voices are being heard this moment, in the choice being made now, between the two alternatives of accepting Christ and the truth personified in Him, and the rejections of Jesus Christ for Barabbas. The unrepentant world today, either voluntarily or involuntarily, is declaring itself for Barabbas and the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus said you are either for me or against me.

That is why today there are those who push their anti-Christian propaganda, in an endeavor to promote hatred of Christ and the Bible, with the same motivating hostility that moved the Jerusalem crowd to crucify Christ. The tragedy of it comes from the fact that much of this propaganda has taken root in our Nation and even in our churches. The cross of Christ furnishes the complete answer to all the concerns of human existence.  But in their pride and rebellion there are in pulpits today those who have betrayed Christ. We see false-teachers stirring the crowd against Jesus, telling us there is more than one way to heaven.  We see educational trusts violated in the persistent cry for the release of the godlessness of socialism, and humanism, and the equally unyielding demands of skepticism that absolute truth be crucified on the cross of unbelief. That is why today we see almost one million unborn babies murdered, alternative life-styles that destroy the sanctity of marriage, rebellious and perverted actions committed daily, lives destroyed by drug and alcohol abuse, human trafficking taking place in our cities, mockery of Christian values every day on TV and in the media.  

  

 The world needs a drastic and uncompromising moral and spiritual purging. We need to return to the old paths.  We need to see the crucified Christ through the eyes of Thomas, who cried out My LORD, and My God.

That Christ is rejected and Barabbas chosen becomes the more serious when we stop and realize the enormous cost paid for our salvation. The sinless Son of God died for a world that became victimized, by its own staggering sins, imposed by many and terrible transgressions. The cost was tremendous, while we yet sinners Christ died for us.

Do you see in Barabbas, a symbol of the whole human race, hopelessly mired in its squalor, the perishing victim of its own blighting sins? Will you see, also, that in Christ we are face to face with a heaven-born truth, telling us with an inescapable conclusion, that to bring humanity from death to life, from its sin-polluted state to regeneration, and to destroy that body of sin coiled so deeply about the human heart and removable only by the world's Savior, we must submit to His demands; for He is the only Redeemer and salvation for mankind. If our nation is to avert the wrath of God, we must cling to the Christ of the cross. It has been through His generous, enriching work of redemption in the hearts of obedient men, that has allowed our nation to have the freedom and liberty we enjoy. God decreed that the Holy One should suffer for the unholy, the just for the unjust, to buy back mankind from the custody of the devil's prison house of bondage and torment.

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow? Sin stains are lost in its life-giving flow.

The cross is the light of the world an alternative, which determines the destiny of men. The most appalling depth of ingratitude to be witnessed today comes through the rejection of Christ by men. You are called upon now to make a choice -- it is Jesus or Barabbas.

·        To accept Christ means to ally yourself with the most heroic and ennobling aspiration of the human mind. It places you side by side with the pioneer heroes of righteousness, who have   blazed the trail of human progress upward, to the place our nation once occupied.

·        In accepting Christ, you are aligning yourself with the unconquerable moral forces for the annihilation and overthrow of criminal actions of all types, the cleansing of political life in  the chamber of our state and federal legislative bodies, and the strengthening of our courts of justice.

·        In accepting Christ as your personal Savior, you are attaching yourself to a fountain opened for all, whose seat is God, whose majesty is love, power, and dominion, world without end.

·        In accepting Christ, you have the solution to, and freedom from, the destruction which sin has laid at your door. This deliverance brings the sweet assurance which silences the condemning  voice of an accusing conscience. It brings you the joy of a testimony, in which you can say with the Apostle Paul, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

But if, on the other hand, you elect to make any Barabbas of our modern world your choice, let me warn you that by so doing, you identify yourself with the darkest destructive forces that conspire against the welfare of humanity. Consciously or unconsciously, it means that you are aligning yourself with some of the most diseased and perverted minds, as well as the most degenerate criminals, that ever worked at the destruction of humanity's highest ideals. It means that you are latently or actively aligning yourself with the enemies of the cross, to bring about the destruction of this nation, to doom the people of this nation to judgment, to bring the wrath of God upon us.  Salvation is a matter of life and death.

Your denial of Christ means that the cross, which now holds the door of God's pardoning mercy open, will serve as the bar to bolt you from His presence unless His merciful forgiveness is graciously given to you in answer to your contrite cries before you pass from this world to the next.  Your only hope is in the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ.  Would you be free from you burden of sin?  There is power in the blood.

It is not my duty to beg you to come to Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit will do His work to convict you of your sins.  It is my duty to tell you when the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and you recognize that you are a sinner to confess your sins and repent of you wicked ways and God the Father will forgive you of your sins because of the sacrificial death on the cross of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ who shed His life’s blood that you might have life.

There is power in the blood of Jesus Christ to change your life and set you free from the power and bondage of sin. Will you allow the blood of Jesus Christ to set you free from the power and bondage of sin?  There is power in the Blood to transform your life and bring you into the family of God.