Perfect Love

Okay, none of the below is an original thought whatsoever. It's word-for-word plagiarized from a tract from Voice in the Wilderness Ministries. Usually when I receive a tract I contort my face, glance it over, and toss it. This one is actually a pretty solid reflection of what I think people should hear, so I want to keep it... but I don't want the paper cluttering up my little world. So here it goes.


Perfect Love

Most people "think" that God will not reject them on judgment day because they are basically good. After all, they "reason" to themselves, "I'm not a sinner, I've never murdered anyone!"

Take this test to see if you need God's forgiveness.

The First Commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."

In other words, you shall "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind." (Matthew 22:37)

This is the greatest commandment in all the Bible.

If the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, then the greatest sin cannot be murder. The greatest sin is not to love the God who created you more than the things He created!

What does it mean to Love God? The answer is found in John 14:15.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep My commandments."

But God is perfect. For anyone to enter heaven by their own merit would require perfect obedience, which is another way of saying sinless perfection!

No mere man has ever loved God like that. The Bible says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

The second: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images."

Many people "think" that since God is love, He would never send anyone to hell. The Bible says that God is a consuming fire who has a passion for justice, holiness, righteousness, and truth, who will by no means clear the guilty, but will hold every man accountable for every idle word that he speaks!

The third: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain."

When men get angry they often misuse the name of God or Jesus Christ. This is called blasphemy. "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, this shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7

The Lord says, "...he who takes My name in vain shall not go unpunished."

The fourth: "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy."

Most people are too busy on Sunday polishing their cars, watching sporting events, or trying to improve their civil conveniences to bother with God.

Does this describe you?

"For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Luke 9:25

The fifth: "Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), that it may be will with you, and that you may live long on the earth."

God Himself is a picture of the family: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and we are made in His image. The family is the foundational structure of society.

The reason our nation is in trouble is not because of drug and alcohol abuse, or crime, or violence. Those things are only symptoms of the real problem.

The root cause of our nation's decline is the breakdown of the family. Immorality, divorce, and a total disregard for authority is destroying the moral fabric of our society, because our children have not been taught to honor God and to respect authority. As goes the family, so goes the nation!

Have you ever dishonored your father or mother?

The sixth: "Thou shalt not murder."

"You have heard, 'You shall not commit murder.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever calls his brother a fool, shall be guilty (enough to go) into the fiery hell." Do you have anger or unforgiveness in your heart against anyone?

The seventh: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

"...but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matthew 5:28

The eighth: "Thou shalt not steal."

Have you ever taken anything that did not belong to you?

The Bible says, "...thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

The ninth: "Thou shalt not lie."

Have you ever told a lie? "...and all are liars, their part (will be) in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Revelation 21:8

The tenth: "Thou shalt not covet."

Have you ever looked at anything that belonged to your neighbor--like his house, his wife, or his car, and wished it was yours? Covetousness is idolatry, which is an abomination to God!

Contrary to popular opinion, the Ten Commandments were not given to show us how to be good enough to get into heaven. In fact, just the opposite is true. The Ten Commandments show us what sin is. (See Romans 7:7 below)

"I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'"

Do you ever wonder why the world is like it is, and why all men die?

The answer is found in the first book of the Bible.

God warned Adam and Eve that if they rebelled against Him the penalty would be death, and the whole earth was cursed as the result of one sin!

Do you still think you are a "good person?"

God is perfect, and God is holy. He must judge sin. But the Bible also says that God is love. 1 John 4:8

"The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ." Romans 6:23

THE GOOD NEWS

"'As I live!' declares the Lord God, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways!'" Ezekiel 33:11

"The Lord is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16

In the Old Testament, animals were offered as a sacrifice for sin. The animal had to be perfect, without spot or blemish. Symbolic of moral purity, the spot was inherited; the blemish was acquired.

When the virgin Mary was impregnated, not by the seed of man but by the Holy Spirit, what was begotten nine months later was God in a human body. Because Jesus was not born of the seed of Adam, He had no inherited sin, and because He obeyed the Law perfectly, He had no acquired sin. That is why the Bible calls Jesus "The Lamb of God without spot or blemish." As such, He was the only One qualified to die for the sin of the whole world!

SO, HOW DOES CHRIST'S DEATH APPLY TO YOU?

While living in the Chicago area, I became engaged to be married. We both went to Nevada to meet my future in-laws, and my fiancee arrived before I did. When I arrived, I was introduced and we all had dinner. That night I was escorted to my own private bedroom. The next day they said, "You're going to need to get around, so here are the keys to the car." Because I came in their daughter's name, everything that belonged to her also belonged to me!

In exactly the same way, the Bible says that when you come to God in the name of His Son Jesus, and are truly sorry for your sin, you are introduced, accepted, adopted, and you become a co-heir with Jesus Christ. In other words, those who love the Lord Jesus Christ will inherit the kingdom of God!

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand." Romans 5:1-2

"...to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:6

"...in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." Galatians 4:5

"...and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him." Romans 8:17

THERE ARE TWO PRIMARY REASONS PEOPLE REJECT JESUS

One: People love their sin. "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil." John 3:19

Two: The fear of man. People know that to receive Jesus Christ as Lord would mean being labeled by some a religious fanatic or a Jesus freak. Filled with pride, most people cannot bear the thought of being laughed at, so they willfully reject God's only provision for sin. Satan spreads the net and the fear of man drives them into it. What a terrible reason to go to hell!

"Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will deny him before My Father who is in heaven." Matthew 10:32-33

You have two choices:

You can suppress the truth, deny you are a sinner and incur His judgment and wrath, or you can humble yourself, confess your sin, and receive His grace and mercy. Do you see your need of God's forgiveness? Would you like to ask God to forgive you, and to free you from the guilt and the power of sin?

In Jesus name, do it right now in your own words.

"...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." Romans 10:9

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." Ephesians 2:8

"But from there you seek the LORD your God, and you will find (Him) if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29

It was not the nails that held Christ to the cross; but His perfect love for you!

No man will stand before God with any excuse for ignoring or denying Him.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants." Deuteronomy 30:19

"Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts in rebellion." Hebrews 3:15

SHOP, COMPARE AND SAVE!

Buddha: "I am a teacher in search of truth."
Jesus: "I Am the truth."

Confucius: "I never claimed to be holy."
Jesus: "Which one of you convicts Me of sin?"

Mohammed: "Unless God covers me with a cloak of mercy, I have no hope."

Jesus: "I Am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live."

None of these other men ever claimed to be God. They all said God is this way, go this way. Jesus said: "I Am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me!"

Voice in the Wilderness Ministries
9757 Squire Lane
Belvidere, IL 61008 U.S.A.

Telephone: 815-547-0765

www.voice-wilderness.org