J.C. Ryle

There are two ways by which a man may lose his own soul--

1. He may lose his soul by living and dying without any religion

at all. He may live and die like a beast--prayerless, godless,

graceless, faithless. This is a sure way to hell.

2. He may also lose his soul by taking up some "useless kind

of religion". He may live and die contenting himself with a false

Christianity, resting on a baseless hope. This probably is the

most common way to hell that there is today.

Let me tell you what I mean by 'useless kinds of religion".

A religion is entirely useless in which Jesus Christ is not the

principle object and does not fill the principal place.

There are too many calling themselves Christians

who practically know nothing about Christ.

Their religion consists in a few vague notions and empty

expressions. They trust they are no worse than many others.

They keep to their church; they try to do their duty; they do

nobody any harm; they hope God will be merciful to them;

they trust the Almighty will pardon their sins and take them

to heaven when they die.

This is about the whole of their religion.

I warn you plainly that such religion will never take you to

heaven. It may do very well in the eyes of man; it may pass

muster very decently at the church meeting, in the place of

business, or in the streets.

But it will never comfort you; it will never satisfy

your conscience; it will never save your soul.

Neither will it meet the approval of Almighty God.

I warn you plainly that all notions and theories about God

being merciful apart from Christ and except through Christ,

are baseless delusions and empty fancies.

Such theories are purely an idol of man's invention.

They are all of the earth; they never come down from heaven.

The God of heaven has sealed and appointed Christ as the only

Savior and way of Life; and all who would be saved must be

content to be saved by Him, or they will never be saved at all.

It isn't enough to do good deeds, go to church, be baptized, or even say that you believe Jesus died for your sins. In James 2 we see that even the demons believe and tremble. It isn't enough to know "about" God, but you must "know" Him personally. Until you have trusted Jesus as your substitute for your sins and no other thing, you are on a path to hell.

Matthew 7:21-23

²¹"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' ²³Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Notice: "I never knew you". These people did "good" things for God, which as Christians we should do (1John2:3), but they didn't really know God. They didn't have a personal relationship with Him as their Lord and Savior.

Do you know Him?

Available?

Let me start off by clarifying, I am not asking a question about your relationship status, or if you have available time to help or do something for me. Rather the question is, are you available from a spiritual standpoint? Visiting our friends Kyle and Leighanne Oswald this weekend, my wife and I attending the Sunday morning worship at Faith Bible Church in Sac City, Nebraska. The sermon was a topical message on availability to Christ. Assuming that you are already a believer, God "dials our number" all the time with opportunities to serve Him. It might not be in what we might consider a big role such as to go into missions, be a pastor, or even start a bible study, but God calls us all the time to do even "little things" to glorify His name. The question is, do you "here am I, send me", or do you respond, "I'm sorry, but Austin is not available to take your call right now, please get back to me later". It seems like it would be so much easier if God would just literally speak to us like he did in the Old Testament and let us know what He wanted us to do. Would we still have excuses though? Moses did, when he told God that he didn't speak well, and that God should send someone else. Maybe your strong suit isn't striking up conversations with strangers, but if God calls you to share the gospel with a random person in need, would you be available, or let someone else more eloquent share it with them? If your coworkers were talking about God and the Holy Spirit was calling on you to jump in, would you answer God's call, or would you just "let the phone ring". The last thing that really jumped out at me from the message, was how we truly prioritize our time. Is there more important things I could be doing instead of watching t.v. for a couple hours? How could I be serving God in this time? However you spend your time, just remember that we only have on life to live here on earth, and we need to make it count for the Lord. There is only one harvest, and then the judgment. Eternity is in the balance, and everyone will end up in heaven, or in hell with no more second chances. For the person that isn't sure if they are going to heaven or hell, now is the time to make a decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord (master), and as the substitute for your sin as Savior, and then you can know for certain that you will spend eternity in Heaven. For the believer, now is the time to spread the good news of the gospel. I love the song "Live out Loud" by Steven Curtis Chapman, when it refers to someone who won a million dollars on a game show and says "Picture this "I act like nothing ever happened and bury all the money in a coffee can/ Well, I've been given more than Regis ever gave away/ I was a dead man who was called to come out of my grave/ I think it's time for makin' some noise"". Maybe you need to start answering all of God's calls and maybe it's time that you start making some noise.