“Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”  (Luke 6)

“Love God…”  (Luke 10)

“Pray without ceasing.”  (1 Thessalonians 5)

“Teach me [T]hy statutes”  (Psalm 119)

 

Sometimes something seems so simple it seems too simple or it seems too good to be true.  How mant times have we heard it before, “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is?”  We hear that so often because it is true, most of the time…most of the time.

If you are a night owl like me and you spend some of your overnight hours watching television you see some of these to good to be true ads.  If you believe these ads you believe their products can turn you into a completely different person, a much much better person.

These products promise the perfect body with minimum effort if any effort at all.  The books will make you wealthy beyond your imagination, the pills will give you a genius I.Q. and make you a master of sex.  You would think that the problem with everyone else is their sleep pattern. If everyone would stay up all night and watch T.V. instead of sleeping, everyone would be perfect.

I would like to draw your attention the the last (4) four words in the (1st) fist paragraph, “most of the time.”  The point I was driving at in the above paragraphs is the truth that when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is…most of the time.

The promises of God are not too good to be true.  God’s promises are too good AND they are very true and worthy of you full acceptance!!!  Peter in his (1st) first epistle called them precious promises. I believe they are called prcious because they are so very precious to those whom they were made and they were made to a precious few.  What Hope there is in the promises of God!!!

One of the great if not greatest promises God makes is to those few who will repent (Turn from their sinful ways and submit to Christ), and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (love Him, obey Him, trust Him). To believe in Christ is to understand that He lived a perfectly sinless life, but was crucified anyway, not for His own wrong doing but for the wrong doing of anyone who will believe. One must also understand and believe that Christ Jesus rose from the grave (3) three days later, was seen by over (500) five-hundred men over a period of (40) forty days!!!

To benefit from the above, one merely must repent and believe, ie. understand that all Christ did He did in your stead.  The life he lived, He lived in you place. His death was in your place, His burial and resurrection was done in your place. If He had not done all of this for you, you would have absolutely no hope other than eternal punishment in hell and eventually the lake of fire.  If there was any other way for you to evade eternal destruction, why …why would Christ do it all?  Another way of explaining it is the trade-off.  The sins of all who would believe were put upon Christ and the righteousness of Christ was imputed to those that would believe. In other words, Christ’s righteousness was put to your account and with that being accomplished God no longer sees you as a sinner but as justified.  All of this and much more occurs when one believes.

 

Once a sinner has been justified before Heaven’s Triune Court he can begin a new life as he has been *born again, *born anew, *born from above, *born of the Spirit and washed in Christ’s Blood….God be praised…thanked….and Glorified.
In this new life there are responsibilities that will allow him to walk in the Spirit and with God.  There will be very simple activities that he can be faithful to that will please God and keep him on the narrow path.  But let me warn you………..

But let me warn you, you will think these  “too good to be true.”  Let me assure you these are not too good to be true, they are simply very good and very true. We will bullet point these basic works of faith.
*Love God with all your heart, mind, strength, and body. In other words be consumed by your love for God and His greater love for you. A mature love for God and a mature understanding of God’s love for you casts out fear.
*Pray. Prayer is the means whereby you will communicate and fellowship with God and A way He will communicate and fellowship with you. I would encourage you to read “Practicing the Presence of God.”  This tiny, tiny little booklet will help you develop a God-Awareness that is perpetual.
*Study and Read your Bible which is God’s Holy Word and another Way He will communicate with you.  This is an absolute must it goes with  and accompanies prayer, in terms of value and necessity.  Never let any other book replace the Bible, ie. don’t read another book instead of the Bible. However, one should read other books in addition to or along with the Bible.
*Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.
*Attend a church or fellowship. If you identify with my teachings you would probably be at home in a non-denominational church, a house church (I’m a minister in a house church), or a sothern baptist, sovereign grace baptist, but never a legalistic babtist. The point is you need Christ-ian fellowship. There is no where in Scripture that allows you to go it alone all the time. To avoid church is to displease God and hurt yourself. Having said all of that let me say this, if you really do not have a sound church or fellowship in your area, then by all means go to the net. Look for sound teachings like John MacArthur,
R.C. Sproul, Alistar Begg, Joel Osteen…….joking….I’m joking, no Joel Osteen, Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans, Paul Washer, Wretched Radio with Todd Friel (he’ll grow on you). There is a good website called oneplace.com. there are well over (100) one-hundred preachers available 24/7. Another great resource is the “Gospel Bus” with the late J. Vernon McGee. He works thru the entire Bible in (5) five years.

 

The above bullet points are valuable beyond words. None of the above is difficult but many fail to engage themselves in them.  It is mind blowing.  There is so much return on investment, but many miss out on God.  If believers would simply pray and prayerfully study their Bibles they worl find the answers they need instead of having to ask others. That’s not to say that believers shouldn’t seek counsel, they should…they certainly should on the tricky stuff. What I’m talking about is the very basics.
*”Should I marry x even though s/he’s divorced?”
*”Pastor, I am unfulfilled in my marriage, are there any loopholes that would allow me to divorce?”
“Pastor, What color should I paint my house?”  not joking.
“Pastor, I’m so mad at x, what should I do?”
“Pastor, is it okay if I date x? I know x isn’t saved but…”

With the exception of the last question, all the others could be answered by a reading of the Gospel of Matthew.

Reasons persons do not read their Bibles like they know they should.
*It’s the preacher’s job to teach me the Bible……..Woefully, woefully Wrong Wrong Wrong!!!
*Laziness….plain laziness
*Honestly, they don’t care what the Bible says.
*”I know all that ” ie. “I don’t want to waste my time reading it again.”  When someone says “I know all that” they show that they devalue God’s Word or they betray the fact that they do not know the Power that is contained in God’s Word. Whatever the case may be, it’s not good.
*(s)atan has put a deterrant upon the Word, which keeps a believer from reading….this is a real thing, I know from experience.  I also know the answer to this deterrent from experience, Pick up the Word of God and read it…study it. While (s)atan’s spiritual chain lock is a real thing so is an act of faith. By acting on faith and picking up the Word, the chain falls away.
*Procrastination
*No time…eliminate other less valuable activities….it’s that simple and it’s that important.

In closing, have you ever looked at another believer and wished you could be a bit more like them, in terms of faithfulness, attitude, knowledge, etc?  These attributes were gleaned through prayer and Bible study.