LUKE 8 vs.26-40,
JOHN 7 vs.25-46.
Jesus came in love and grace and mercy,
He came to bless, heal and forgive, He came for the whosoever. But because of
mans wickedness, sinfulness and hardness of heart, there has always been a
division between those who turn against Him. And those who turn to Him. The
Gaderenes, and the Pharisees were completely bound up in themselves and their own
self interest, to the extent that they had no time at all for Jesus. The
possessed man, and those we read in Luke 8
vs.40, and some of the people we read about in John 7 believed.
Are you too proud to accept that you
need a Saviour, that you need
forgiveness
What do you want, your own way, or God’s
way, and are you happy to face the consequences of your choice.
Acts
17 vs.30 And the times of this ignorance God winked
at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Acts
16 vs.31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved,
Is your
heart being convicted of your sin by the Holy Spirit, are you feeling helpless
and hopeless to deal with it. (You can’t deal with it yourself). If not plead
with God to bring you to that position. Jesus is ready, willing and able to
save you and forgive your sin. You need to humbly fall before God and confess
your sin and repent of it, and wholly put your trust and confidence in Him and
His work at Calvary.
God is Holy
and He must punish sin and disobedience, but in His love grace and mercy He
sent His Son to die on a cross, there God poured out all His judgement for sin
upon His Son, and Jesus bore it all, and cried “It is finished”. We just need
to realise and accept our need of a Saviour, and of forgiveness and repent and
believe. Empty yourself of self and fill yourself with Jesus.
We see in
these two passages that we have read people who made choices. The demons
recognised that Jesus was the Son of God most high do you? The demons
recognised His power do you? If you do, you can’t just ignore Him otherwise you
will face Eternal judgement in Hell, but Jesus wants to be your Saviour He
loves you and He died for you. The cross to Jesus was not something He took
lightly, it was a punishment reserved for the worst criminals, but He was
sinless, He was Holy, it was painful, and an agonising death but far worse than
that God put the judgement for all our sin on Him and He bore it all so that we
could escape God’s wrath, and go to be with Jesus for Eternity.
2 Corinthians 6 vs.2 Behold, now is the accepted time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
When you
become a Christian you are born again, you receive the Holy Spirit into your
life and you become a child of God, your sin is forgiven and you will go to
Heaven, the possessed man was clothed and in his right mind, and that is a
picture of the difference Jesus makes to us. Our Salvation is totally based on
the worth of Christ and not our own efforts.
John 15
vs.13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.
Jesus laid down His life for me/you.
It is an unbelievable feeling to know
that all your sin is forgiven, and that God has accepted you into His family.
Things will change with the Holy Spirit
in your life you will have new desires for God and His word and prayer.
Acts 2 vs.41 Then they that gladly received his word were
baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand
souls.
42
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship,
and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
John
13 vs.34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye
love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one
to another.
Micah
6 vs.8 He hath shewed thee, O man,
what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
If there are things that you are
concerned about that are preventing you from trusting Jesus, perhaps you might think
that you would prefer to keep sinning, or you are worried about what your
friends and family might say, or you might be comfortable in circles that are
not appropriate for Christians to be in. Jesus wants you to come as you are,
and He will give you the strength to deal with whatever it is. You will be
saved immediately but the changes in your life will develop, it is a growing
process, nobody ever fully matures, but there should be continual spiritual
growth in our lives as we appreciate more and more what He has done for us, and
what a wonderful Saviour Jesus is. This is an encouragement and challenge for
Christians as well, God did not hold anything back for us He gave us His well
beloved Son, how much do we hold back from God?
I like the answer Ruth gave to Naomi
in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament;
Ruth 1
vs.16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following
after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will
lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
17
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so
to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
She had total commitment, and that is
what we should be working towards in our Christian lives.
John
14 vs.1 Let not your heart be
troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
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