The Most Important Truths!
"If you Love Me, you will Keep My Commandants!" John 14:15
"You are My Friends if you do whatever I
command you." John 15:14
"Now by this we know that we know HIM, if we
keep His Commandments! He who says, ‘I know Him’ and does not keep His
Commands is a liar & the truth is not in him." 1Jh. 2:3-4
Set aside your religious notions for a moment and ask yourself: "What is my eternal destination and what evidence can I produce that I KNOW I am keeping God’s Commandments?"
The Bible plainly says that IF you Love Jesus, you WILL Keep His Commandments. What exactly does this mean to you? That you can keep some and not others, or only the ones you prefer and you can disregard the rest? MOST professing Christians live as though none of these things matter. Do you?
What are the most important truths? When Jesus preached the Gospel message He told us that the Way was Difficult and the Gate Narrow and only a FEW would be able to enter in. In fact, He told us to MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO ENTER IN!
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and not be able!" Lk. 13:24
Most of the professing Christians who attend church regularly aren’t making the slightest ‘effort’ to ‘Enter by the Narrow Gate.’ WHY? Scripture commands it. Jesus Himself told you the way to life is Narrow and difficult and the way to destruction is broad and wide.
Why are the preachers telling something different? The real question is: "Who are YOU going to believe?"
Every Bible tract in existence indicates that the Way to life is a simple ‘repeat after me’ formula that confesses Jesus as Lord and acknowledges that you believe in Him. Millions have done this very thing and consider themselves ‘born again’ and 100% certain of heaven when they die!
Yet Jesus said, "More blessed are those who hear the Word of God and Keep it!" Lk. 11:28
How important is this? Is the ‘Word of God’ merely to ‘believe’ in Jesus and forget the other things He said?
Regardless of where you THINK you stand on this matter, the important thing is ‘Are you KEEPING His Commandments?’ And that includes a WHOLE lot more than just knowing He is the Son of God.
Even the devils acknowledge Him as God! James 2:19 Does that save them? OF COURSE NOT! Faith alone is Not the Saving Faith described in scripture. The Faith Jesus spoke of involves the following:
These descriptions of saving faith refer to the scriptures of Lk. 9:23, Jh. 8:12, Matt. 5:8, 10:22, 7:24-27, Jh. 3:20-21.
Understand that IF you are still in bondage to your selfish nature and lustful thoughts, you have NEVER experienced the kind of Faith Jesus is talking about! Real Faith in Jesus Sets you Free from those things:
"IF any man be in Christ he is a New Creature, old things have passed away, all things become new" 2Cor. 5:17
"I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me!" Gal. 2:20
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin!" Rom. 6:6-7
The reason your religion is so cold and lifeless, full of lust and carnality, is simple: NO ONE is dying to their selfish ambitions and crucifying the flesh! Certainly, you are SAVED by Grace through Faith, not of self; it’s a gift of God, lest anyone should boast! Eph. 2:8-9
BUT NOT BEFORE you are crucified with Him, made dead to sin, and raised together with Him into Newness of Life! (Rom. 6:4, Gal. 2:19-20) Then and only then will you walk in Obedience to His Commands, because they are WRITTEN upon your heart! Ezk. 36:25-27
Otherwise it’s continue in your religious facade, making a ‘profession’ of faith, but denying the Power of God to deliver you from your secret sins. Titus 1:16 No wonder the Bible says, "How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation!" Heb. 2:3
God has provided these ‘Exceeding great & precious’ promises that through these you may escape the corruption that is in the world through lust! 2Pet. 1:4
And all you can do is make excuses for your sin, justify your complacency and pretend you have assurance!
How sad it will be at the Great Judgment when the Lord sends you away with the multitudes of professing believers who ‘worked’, ‘prayed’, went to church, and did their best to convince themselves and others they were saved. "I NEVER KNEW YOU." The Lord will say, Matt. 7:21-23, "Depart from Me."
"When did you ‘Deny’ yourself anything this world has to offer? When did you empty your heart of selfish motives and allow ME to fill it with MY LOVE? At what point did you partake of MY CUP and crucify your flesh with its passions and desires? And by what form of doctrine were you delivered, that you obeyed from the heart and became a slave of righteousness, bearing fruit to holiness that ends in eternal life!"
What are the Most Important Truths? You have yet to ask yourself if a true faith abides in your heart. Outward appearances may persuade those who compare themselves with others, but TRUE RELIGION consists in OBEDIENCE to God’s Word! James 1:27
What have you chosen to ‘believe’? Are you filled with your own devices and the fruit of you own ways? Have you turned your ear from the True Knowledge of God and shunned His Commandments? Thus you are still in bondage to your sin. The Promise of God is heart Purity and a Clear conscience! (1Pet. 1:22, 1Tim. 1:5-6) ANYONE who has the True Hope of Christ in him PURIFIES himself just as he is Pure! (1Jh. 3:3)
The Most Important truth is the most basic: Have you died to self so Christ can live through you? Can you truly say that your life is hidden with Christ in GOD and Sin no longer has dominion over you? If not, you’re only fooling yourself. God knows your heart.
Mike DeSario, mike@antiosas.org
2172 Marhorfer Ave Stow, Oh 44224
330-945-4356