Luke
2:30 “For my eyes have seen Your salvation” NKJV
Despite the fact that many of the Jewish Religious
leaders had missed the Prophets foretelling of the coming Messiah as a humble
suffering servant at His first coming and not a conquering King, there were
still many Jews who may have been insignificant to the religious rulers but not
to God. A man named Simeon was one of those people who had rightly divided the
word of truth and it was because the Holy Spirit was upon him. Simeon was not
insignificant in God’s eyes because he had a heart that desired to see the One
who would come and bring comfort, counsel, and confirmation to Israel and to
all people. Joseph and Mary brought their Son Jesus to be circumcised according
to the Law of Moses (8 days after birth) and they met this man Simeon. It was
God the Holy Spirit that pointed out to Simeon that this is the Child.
Genesis
49:18 I have waited for your salvation, O LORD! NKJV
Just as Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit to see the
Child Jesus as God’s Salvation so must every person of every generation come to
see Jesus Christ as the only way to God the Father? Answer to this question is
an emphatic yes. It is no surprise or shock that the human hearts of men and
women do not want there to be one way and more specifically One Person that
they must come to in order to go to Heaven. I just recently stood in line at a
convenience store buying batteries and I was reading the cover of a magazine that
had the picture of the Down Home with the Neely’s wife on the cover and an
article inside with how she has lost weight. A lady in front of me pointed me
to a picture on another magazine of Michael Jackson’s dead body. I knew she was
about to finish her transaction with the cashier so I asked her, “Where do you
think Michael Jackson is today?” and she was reluctant to speak what she
believed but she said, “I don’t want to say he is hell, so I think he is
probably in Heaven he was a good person.”
Romans
3:10-12 As it is written: “There is
none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” NKJV
I have heard so many responses like that from people
who believe that people can be good enough to go to Heaven. I said to her, “How
good does a person have to be to go to Heaven?” She did not respond. I told her
that Jesus said, “If you look at a woman with lust you have already committed
adultery with her.” She just nodded her head and agreed acting as if she did not
ever hear those words and hurried along to finish her transaction so she could
leave. Well, I then told her that you have to be perfect and there was only One
Man that was good and His name is Jesus and that is why we need Him to bear our
sins because we are not good but He was perfect. She was then done with the
cashier and walking out of the store and I finally asked her if she had a Bible
and she said she had 5 Bibles. I urged her to open one of them to the gospel of
John Chapter 3 and read what Jesus said must happen in order for anyone to go
to Heaven. Finally, as she walked through the doors while I was paying for my
batteries I said to her, “Jesus was talking to a man who believed he was good.”
Luke
5:32 I have not come to arouse {and} invite {and} call
the righteous, but the erring ones (those not free from sin) to repentance [to
change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with
abhorrence of their past sins]. QAB
We can never forget about Oprah Winfrey and her
influence on millions of people for more than two decades. She rejected her
Baptist upbringing under the care of her father and has now embraced the new
age teachings and believes that there are many roads that lead to what one calls
God. Although she is no longer on television daily she still has many books,
tapes, cds, and dvds of her shows that people buy continually. The enemy loves
to get into the heart/mind of someone most visible like her to spread his lies
to a larger audience. People today worship many gods that they have made up or
they are of satanic origin. The Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Occultist, Mormons,
Jehovah Witnesses, and the thousands of other false belief systems in this
world tell people like the lady I mentioned earlier that they can do things or
be good enough or practice something long enough or unlock the divine already
within them and this will earn their way into Heaven or a better after life or
they will just keep coming back to this earth in some other form.
1
John 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether
they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By
this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit
of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the
world. NKJV
When Simeon saw the One the Holy Spirit revealed to
him, he picked up our Lord Jesus Christ and blessed the Father for showing him
His salvation. God the Father has sent His only Son and He alone is the way to
forgiveness of sins, He is the restorer, He is the author of faith, He is the
giver of life, and He is the finisher of the faith that He gives to those who
come to Him. Man can go here and there searching, looking, and seeking but he
will never be satisfied, fulfilled, and find rest until he comes to God’s only
Salvation Jesus Christ. I always like to use this analogy to prove that God has
but one way for human beings to be saved. Every person living right now and
that has ever lived or ever will live has become a member of the human family
by only one way and that is through being born through the birth canal of a
woman. Likewise as God the Father made it so for physical birth to be one way
only, He has made it so that no one can enter His presence or be adopted into
His Heavenly family after their bodies die except by being born again
spiritually through the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Isaiah
25:9 And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; We have
waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; We have waited
for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” NKJV
Isaiah
49:6 Indeed He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To
raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I
will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation
to the ends of the earth.” NKJV
Acts
4:8-12 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the
people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done
to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you
all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man
stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief
cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no
other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” NKJV
“In contradistinction to the Gospel of Christ, the
gospel of Satan teaches salvation by works.” A. W. Pink
“A world of nice people, content in their own
niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as
desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world-and might be even more
difficult to save.” C. S. Lewis
“Like Muslims
we assume that God will judge us "on balance." If our good deeds
outweigh our bad deeds, we will arrive safely in heaven. But, alas, if our evil
deeds outweigh our good ones, we will suffer the wrath of God in hell. We may
be "marred" by sin but in no wise devastated by it. We still have the
ability to balance our sins with our own righteousness. This is the most
monstrous lie of all.” R. C. Sproul
“It is not faith in Christ that saves you (though
faith is the instrument) - it is Christ’s blood and merits.” Charles H.
Spurgeon
“The
mightiest man that ever lived could not deliver himself from his sins. If a man
could have saved himself, Christ would never have come into the world.” D. L.
Moody
“If there be ground for you to trust in your own
righteousness, then, all that Christ did to purchase salvation, and all that
God did to prepare the way for it is in vain.” Jonathan Edwards
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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