03/23/23 KNOW GOD'S BENEFITS

03/23/23 KNOW GOD'S BENEFITS

Don't let the devil rob you of your Divine opportunity.

Though sin separates a person from God, it does not relieve anyone of their responsibility to trust and obey God, neither does it rob them of their opportunity to receive Christ as their Savior.

Sin is a corrupter, but God still gives us the responsibility and opportunity to choose to do right. In fact, God has taken steps to restore us to a right relationship with Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. The first and most essential right choice we have is to choose to believe on Jesus. Don't believe those who say you cannot choose. Adam's sin did corrupt and separate the human race from God, but God did not abandon Adam or the human race. God sought Adam after Adam sinned.

Adam's sin is obviously the most destructive sin in the history of the human race, yet God sought Adam and provided reconciliation. God also offered Cain the opportunity to do right and be reconciled. Regardless of how they responded to God's offer, the offer was real and the opportunity to accept God's offer was real.
Not only have we inherited a corrupted nature from Adam, we have all chosen to sin, and sin separates us from God. God does not want any of us to be separated, therefore He gave His Son as the sacrifice that satisfies the justice of God and reconciles whoever believes and receives Christ as their Savior.

Sin separates from God, but trusting in Christ's death and resurrection reconciles us to God. We have a choice. We have a responsibility, we have an opportunity. The devil wants to rob you of your blood bought right to believe. Though sin separates us from God, it is death (the end result of sin) that irreconcilably and eternally separates us from God. In order to be reconciled, in order to be regenerated, we must believe, repent and confess Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Read, believe and heed what God said through Paul.

(first a preview)
Romans 10:6-8
We can only be made righteous by Christ, by faith in Christ.
Saving faith comes to us through the proclamation of the gospel.

Romans 10:9-10
We must believe that Christ died for our sins and we must confess Jesus as God, as Lord.

Romans 10:11-13
Whoever believes the word of salvation by faith, and whoever calls on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved.

Romans 10:14-15
Calling on Jesus requires believing the message.
Believing the message requires hearing the message.
Hearing the message requires a messenger be sent.

Romans 1:16-17
Hearing and heeding the message of salvation by faith results in obedience to God, which is the result of faith in the word of God.

(now the passage)
Romans 10:6-17 NKJV
6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down from above)
7 or, " 'Who will descend into the abyss?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
13 For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.