Are you a lukewarm church goer? If so, you are in danger of making the Lord Jesus sick! The sermon on Sunday at the little fellowship we attend in England was on the church of Laodicea (Book of Revelation chapter 3:14-22). Jesus marked their card, and He had not one good thing to say about that church. There was not one real believer in the whole church! He was getting ready to vomit them out of His mouth!
The Bible never minces its words. Some of us who claim to be Christians are not Christians at all! We go to churches where there are no real Christians at all! We are just going through the motions, but our hearts are not right. We have never been born again.
Are you in this category, dear reader? Do you attend church, but your heart is cold towards Jesus? You go through a ritual service on Sunday, but the rest of the week is your own to do as you like, and God has to keep out?
If you are reading this, you are still in with a chance. You can change. Jesus says in verse 20: ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.’
Won’t you open the door of your heart today, and beg the Lord Jesus to come in and be your Lord, dear friend? He will come and live in you if you will acknowledge Him as your Saviour and Lord. He will seal you with His Holy Spirit, and no one will ever snatch you out of His hand.
Whatever you have done or not done, His mercy is available and He will forgive you and accept you into His great family. We are the most fortunate people in history, because we live in this wondrous age of grace when the worst sinner in the world can fall to his knees, repent, believe in Jesus Christ and instantly be changed to a saint. It is the greatest miracle of all, when a sinner repents, when a lost soul is saved.
But we know from many signs today that we are living at the very end of that era. The age of grace is ending. The Lord is coming soon to take out His people, His true church, His bride. The Rapture could happen at any time, and believers will meet the Lord in the air.
Are you ready for this great event? Apart from Calvaryand the resurrection, it will be the greatest event in the cosmos, in all of history.
Who will be raptured? Everyone who has been born again, who has a new life as a new creation, born of the Holy Spirit by faith in the Lord Jesus.
This sounds complicated, but it is not. The reason we have to be born again is that we are all sinners. We are all born with a fallen nature, which means we are natural sinners. We are inclined to sin.
Sin is bad; it is offensive. God, who is perfectly good, is also perfectly just, and His justice has to be satisfied. Sin has to be paid for. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. That is the whole reason Jesus, God in the flesh, became a man of flesh and blood, so that He might die and shed His holy blood to pay the price of all our sins.
The wages of our sins was death, but Jesus paid those wages for us at Calvary.
Why blood? Blood is the most valuable thing we have, but even our blood is not good enough to pay for our sins. Jesus’ blood is perfect, because He is both God and man. He was conceived when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary. There was no human father involved.
Jesus’ blood was formed in His own body. As medics can tell you, babies in the womb make their own blood. It does not come from the mother’s blood. Jesus’ blood was perfect, untainted by man’s fallen nature. He did not have the sin nature we are all born with.
Nothing but the perfect, holy blood of Jesus was good enough to pay the price of sin. In God’s great plan of redemption, Jesus’ blood was the only thing that could ever save mankind. And our great Savior was willing to go through the unimaginable suffering which would purchase our salvation. How can we ever thank Him enough? Can we ever praise Him enough?
Are you in that great family of believers looking for the return of Christ? Will you go up into the air to meet our Bridegroom? Are you thanking Him today for all He has done for you?
Or are you just lukewarm, claiming to be a Christian, but not giving Jesus a single word of thanks or praise, never giving Him a second thought? If you will only read the New Testament, you will begin to understand how much you need Jesus.
A prayer: Lord Jesus, You said we had to be born again (John’s gospel chapter 3 verse 3). I thought it was enough just to go to church once in a while and try to be a good person. Please, Lord, I want to really know You. I want to belong to You. I want to be born again! I want to one of Your people! I need to be forgiven of my sins. Please forgive my sins (tell Him what they are; He already knows anyway). And please make me one of Your people.
If you prayed that and really meant it, read the Bible every day. Start to study it with a good teacher like Dr Vernon McGee (Through the Bible ministry, www.ttb.com ). Find other believers who love Jesus and study the Bible. Get yourself ready for the Rapture!
