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God's
Scorecard
"If
thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand?" [Psalms 130:3]
Are you one of the many many people on
this earth that believe that someday
when you die and stand before God, He will let you into heaven
because, according to His great
big scorecard in the sky, you have more good
deeds than bad deeds? You look around you at all the other
sinners and you figure that you are no worse than most people you
know, right? And you figure your good deeds will far outweigh
your bad deeds, so you should slide right into heaven. The
only problem with this idea is that it is not the least bit true.
Many people may think it is true and say it is true, but it
surely is not, as surely as there is a Christ Jesus who was slain
for ungodly sinners like you and I. God declares quite
graphically in the Bible, that even the best of us are just
hell-deserving sinners who have no right to heaven and no hope at
all of getting there until and unless God intervenes in our
lives. Take a good hard look at how an infinitely Holy God sees
sinful mankind:
"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened,
that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For
your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered
perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for
truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive
mischief, and bring forth iniquity." [Isaiah 59:1-4]
"The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it?" [Jeremiah 17:9]
"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually." [Genesis 6:5]
"As it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are
together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no,
not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues
they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are
swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways:
And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God
before their eyes." [Romans 3:10-18]
So according to God's Scorecard, no one
has even one measley little point in their favor. This
dreadful reality is further summed up by this seldom-quoted Bible
verse:
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and
yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." [James 2:10]
You can forget
about having any good
points on God's scorecard. It is only a record of the
multitude of sins you've committed, each of which is enough to
condemn you to hell forever...
"If thou,
LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"
[Psalms 130:3]
Even a million good deeds
won't get rid of a single sin because God says: "But we are
all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags" [Isaiah 64:6]
God says we have lost the game, utterly
and completely and there is no hope whatsoever if we
think we can somehow dig ourselves out the bottomless pit we are
in. If we could somehow earn heaven and get rid of our sins by
good works, then why would God bother to leave His throne in
heaven and humble himself to the point of being born with a human
body that would one day be beaten and crucified for sins - sins
He did not even commit? You see, if Christ is not your scapegoat
from the wrath of God, then you have no scapegoat - except
yourself - in which case it will take all eternity in hell to pay
for your sins...
"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation" [Hebrews 2:3]
"... the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of
his power" [2Thessalonians 1:7-9]
However, if you repent of your sins and cry out
to God to have mercy on your lost condemned soul, there is still
hope for you. Perhaps God will grant you a complete pardon for
your sins - at Christ's expense...
"If so be they will
hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent
me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the
evil of their doings." [Jeremiah 26:3]
If you're not saved or not
sure about it and if you care about where you will spend
eternity, then get a Bible (preferrably the King James
Version) and start reading it like the eternal destiny of your
soul depended on it, asking God to show you the truth about who
He is and how He sees you.
"Seek ye the LORD
while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"
[Isaiah 55:6]
The person who gave you this message
could be the best friend you have. Afterall, how many
people really care about where you will spend eternity? Do you
even care? enough to seek God right now? enough to stop trusting
in yourself or your church and just throw yourself at the mercy
of God, a god who is holy and just and who describes his hatred
for sin in very sobering terms:
"For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire,
even a jealous God." [Deuteronomy 4:24]
"For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and
shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with
her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the
mountains." [Deuteronomy 32:22]
"Who can stand before his indignation? and
who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured
out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him." [Nahum
1:6]
"The great day of the LORD is near, it is
near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD:
the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of
wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and
desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and
thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced
cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress
upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because
they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall
be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their
silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of
the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the
fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of
all them that dwell in the land." [Zephaniah 1:14-18]
Jesus said:
"except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." [Luke
13:3]
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