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He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
The first reference tells us why God wrote the Bible. The second reference tells us why Jesus came to this Earth as a literal physical man. In both cases we are given two reasons. The first reason is so that we can have God's eternal life and be positive that we have it. The second reason is added to the first reason and tells us how to add God's blessings after we have God's eternal life. Every person who is in church is here because they want God's blessings on their life. (Say Amen!!) Therefore, I am going to tell you a couple of basic things which are absolutely required in order to get God's blessing.
First, we each must have God's eternal life before God can add the blessings of the abundant life
to it. With that said, Romans 10:13 says: For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
. That is: we must accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord
in order to go to Heaven.
Go back to our original reference where we read: He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life
. What the Bible calls being saved
is having God's life
in you. This also matches John 14:6 where re read: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me
. The word am
is a verb of existence. The existing Being Who is God in human flesh is our way to God, our salvation. Notice that Jesus also said no man cometh unto the Father, but by me
. That is a clear statement that the only way to God the Father, and an eternity in Heaven, is by the person who is God the Son in human flesh. Notice that Jesus does not say I show you the way
or I tell you the way
but He said that He personally is the way.
Lots of religious people will tell you that you have to do some religious act or say a particular prayer or something else which disagrees with what the Bible truly says. However, as I already showed you, true Biblical salvation comes when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord
. Again, Ephesians 2:8-9 says For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast
. We can not earn God's life. In fact, we have earned God's wrath because, as Romans 3:23 says: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God
. In addition, 1John 3:4 says: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law
. We all have done what we want to do instead of what we know is the right thing to do. Even a baby fusses when nothing is wrong because it wants to control its mom. All of the fighting and wars throughout history are because different people demanded that everyone do what they wanted. When we refuse to do what God tells us is best and insist upon having our own way, we sin. God is not going to let us into Heaven and make a mess of Heaven like we did on this Earth. That is one of the main reasons why God tells us to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord
.
There are two main points to accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord
. The first is that we agree to obey our Lord
and stop insisting upon having our own way. The second thing is that we are to worship our Lord
. That means that we must recognize His power and authority which is far greater than our own.
Now, people might think they are not so bad, but their life does not match the glory of God
and we already saw that Romans 3:23 says that to come short of the glory of God
is sin. In addition, Revelation 21:8 says: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death
. We all have told at least one lie in our life. Therefore, unless we do what God demands we will end up in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone
for all of eternity. People who don't want this result must accept God's free gift which is His life in us which is given when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord
. With that said, we will return to the lost at the end of the message and give them a chance to get saved. However, right now we need to concentrate on the people who have been saved.
If you are truly saved then you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord
. Therefore, you owe Him two basic things: worship and obedience. Now, God gave us a free will and will not take it away even to keep someone from spending eternity in the lake of fire
. God does not take away our free will but God blesses the obedient and curses the disobedient. Therefore, if you worship God and obey God, like you are supposed to do, then you will be blessed by God. If you refuse to do as you should then you will be cursed by God.
Lets start with worship.
Now, lets look at obedience. God's greatest command to the saved is to do the 'Great Commission'. However, before we do that we need to obey other commands such as get baptized, read our Bible daily, pray daily, attend church, including Sunday School, where we are taught how to obey God. In addition, there are other commands given as we grow spiritually but with each new command we can get new blessings. However, the greatest blessings are when we give our entire life to the service of God which usually includes our doing mission work. God's greatest blessing to me came only after I moved to the mission field and God wants many in here to become available for mission work and that starts with getting trained to do the job.
We started with verses which told us that God wrote His Bible and Jesus came to this earth so that we could have God's eternal life and so that we could grow that life and get the abundant life
. However, none of the things which get God's additional blessings in the abundant life
do us any good unless we have God's life in us first. Therefore, we have a two-part invitation. The saved are invited to come and commit to daily worship and obey God so that God can give them the abundant life
. The lost are invited to come and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord
so that they can avoid an eternity in the lake of fire
and so that they can go to Heaven when they die.