Discover Four Simple Laws ...and solve life's greatest mystery

LAW 1: GOD IS HOLY AND JUST

In civil law, a good judge must punish crime. If he turns a blind eye to injustice, then he is corrupt and he himself should be punished.

"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before your face" (Psalm 89:14).

In one ten year period in the United States, 63,000 murderers were never brought to justice. These were unsolved crimes. If God turns a blind eye to those murderers, then He is corrupt by nature. It makes sense that if He is good and just, He should be angry with those who have taken the lives of others, and He should punish murderers, rapists, etc.

This is the teaching of the Bible—that God will "by no means clear the guilty." He "will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil," "God is angry with the wicked every day."

LAW 2: THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH

"...sin is transgression of the Law" (1 John 3:4)

Let's look briefly at the Ten Commandments, and see if we have kept God's Law:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me
   
   
2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image
   
   
3. You shall not take God's name in vain
   
   
4. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy
   
   
5. Honor your father and mother
   
   
6. You shall not murder
   
   
7. You shall not commit adultery
   
   
8. You shall not steal
   
   
9. You shall not lie
   
   
10. You shall not covet

The truth is, we are not like that. We have all "sinned" many times, and therefore we have stored up God's wrath, which will be revealed on Judgment Day. The proof that we have sinned will be our death, and after death we must face God in judgment. Think of it—if He has seen our every thought, word, and deed, and if He is going to bring all our sins out as evidence of our guilt on the Day of Judgment, we will all be found to be guilty. Our conscience has shown us right from wrong; we will be without excuse. God will give us justice, and Hell will be the place of our eternal punishment. "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known."

LAW 3: GOD IS RICH IN MERCY TO ALL THAT CALL UPON HIM

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us..." (Ephesians 2:4).

A youth once borrowed a fast car, and in a drunken stupor, sped through his home town at 120 m.p.h. Since everything was horse-drawn in his country town, there was no laws against speeding. So the council passed a law saying that 60 m.p.h. was the maximum speed, and that any transgressors would be fined $100 for every m.p.h. over the speed limit.

On his way back through the town, the speedster decided to pull the same prank. He was apprehended, tried, and found guilty by his father, who was the town's only judge. He was fined $6,000, and because he had no money and no words of defense, the youth was led off to prison.

As he sat in despair in prison, his father appeared at the door, and told him that he had sold all is own prized possessions and paid the fine for him. The son couldn't believe that he loved him that much. They embraced as they never had before, and walked off in a new-found relationship, bounded together with love.

That's a picture of what God did for us through the Gospel.

We have all broken the Law a multitude of times, but God came to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ, and paid the fine for us?"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Christ Jesus our Lord."

THE GOODNESS OF GOD

Jesus satisfied Eternal Justice, then rose from the dead, so that God can grant us eternal life. But just as we cannot earn a gift, so we cannot earn eternal life by our good works?"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone boast."

LAW 4: ETERNAL LIFE IS IN JESUS CHRIST

"He who hears My word and believes on Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" (John 5:24).

Life's greatest mystery, death, was destroyed by the One who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." The Bible says, "He who has the Son, has life..."

To find the way to God, to understand the truth of God's Word, and to received the gift of eternal life, begin by repentance and faith through a prayer like this:

"Dear God, I understand that I have broken Your Law and sinned against You. Please forgive my sins. I repent from sin and turn to you Lord God. Thank You that Jesus suffered on the cross and died in my place. I believe according to the Bible that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and is alive forevermore. I now place my trust in Jesus Christ as My God and Savior and confess him as Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen."

If you have repented and trusted in Jesus, then you can now partake of the blessings of "the New Covenant." Here are just ten of God's exceedingly great and precious promises:

1. You have passed from death into life.
   
   
2. God will supply all of your needs according to His riches.
   
   
3. Jesus will be with you in trials, promising never to leave nor forsake you.
   
   
4. The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth, and give you the power to live a holy life.
   
   
5. You are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ—God has removed your sins as far as the east is from the west.
   
   
6. As you abide in Christ, you will see the "fruits" of His Spirit begin to manifest in your life.
   
   
7. As you read the Bible daily, it will come alive to you and cause you to grown in your faith.
   
   
8. When you pray, God will hear you and answer your prayers.
   
   
9. The cross will be continual evidence of God's love for you.
   
   
10. As you continue in the faith in Jesus. God will "keep you from falling, and present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy."
    
    
11. Search the Scriptures daily, and see what God has in store for those who love Him; find yourself a Jesus-centered, Bible-teaching church and commit yourself to it.

May God continue to bless you as you obey Him.

Taken from a gospel tract, "Discover Four Simple Laws...and Solve Life's Great Mystery" from Way of the Master Ministries www.wayofthemaster.com

As you may have already read. My journey into life had finally began when I was nearly 32 years old. The moment that I cry ed out to Jesus as my God and savior, the moment that I turned to Jesus in repentance, the moment I cry ed Jesus forgive me, take my life was the moment that I passed from spiritual death to Life in God. Alive in Christ I had been in that moment born again of the Holy Spirit of God. In my first 32 years I had blasphemed Jesus often in my life, I had stolen and lied when it suited me, I had been vengeful and unforgiving towards anyone who crossed or disrespected me. I had often been threatening to liberty takers and if they didn't back down then I was often the first to attack. My language had been foul my behavior often arrogant and sometimes very rude. Girlfriends had never been able to trust me to be faithful, I had been through a divorce that was my fault due to my unfaithfulness. In all this I had always seen myself as a good guy because I would often defend the weak from bullies, and I had respect for the innocent often trying to defend them if they were being picked on. I loved my close mates. I loved my mum and dad and my family and I loved animals, so because of these few decent qualities I prided myself as a good man.

Now it still amazes me considering all the bad things that I had done, the moment I turned to Jesus, Father God received me. I mean I used to work unknowingly for the devil himself. I used to argue against the bible that says that most people will end up in hell and eternal punishment because of their sins. I used to tell people that everyone goes to heaven just by believing in God, I used to say there was no need for repentance and faith in Jesus to go to heaven. I would be at funerals trying to comfort the bereaved by gently saying everyone goes to heaven, don't worry. I used to enforce my beliefs or rather back them up by telling people of when I died in a motorcycle accident with my two friend when I was only 18 years old. I would explain how I had walked away from the point of impact totally unaware that I was no longer in my physical body. I would tell how the almighty had spoken to me out of a dark cloud that filled the sky and how God had put me back in my body and in doing so He had given me my life back. I had reasoned. Well I had done all these things wrong all these sins but I had still experienced the afterlife so I thought that it goes without saying that everyone will experience the afterlife. With this knowledge I had become filled with pride believing that I knew better than the bible so I was a real tool. A tool for the devil to comfort people and make them feel safe in their sin and unbelief in Jesus.

Considering how many people I had misled with my nice safe, live how you like and still go to heaven message you would have thought that Jesus would have just turned a deaf ear to my cry's for help and forgiveness. If anyone deserved to be sent to hell and the lake of fire then I did, and therefore If Jesus saved a wicked man like me then you are not to far from God, God's arm is not to short to save you. If you were to truthfully call out to Jesus to save you then Jesus would. The bible says that after death then that person would face Judgment. Their life will be judged by the almighty according to all the things that they had done and said and thought while st they were alive in the earth. Now that puts everyone in trouble on Judgment day doesn't it. Imagine all your sins being exposed before the Holy Christ who is your final Judge. Well I am grateful to God that in the bible it says that its not the almighty's Will for any man or woman to die in their sins and face the Judgment and to be cast into the lake of fire. It says in the book of Timothy in the bible that it is God's Will for all men to be saved and to come to the truth. So this means you. God wants you saved and God wants you to come to the knowledge of the truth. God's truth that he wants you to know is all found written in the fascinating pages of the Holy Bible. To get you started God wants you to have faith in and to begin to trust in the person found in the bible who is the truth.

The truth from God to mankind begins with the person who is the truth and his name is Jesus the Christ otherwise known as the promised Jewish Messiah. Jesus said about himself in the book of John in the bible. "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father (Father God in heaven) except through me". This means that understanding who Jesus is according to the Holy Scriptures in the bible is of paramount importance. Jesus was worshipped as a baby when the bible is crystal clear, worship is only for God. Jesus received worship all through his time here on earth when worship is only for God. In Johns gospel its plain that the unbelieving Jews wanted to kill Jesus because of the sin of blasphemy. In so many words they said. This man Jesus is acting like God, and we don't believe he is God so he deserves the death penalty. Jesus forgave peoples sins in an eternal way so that they could then enter heaven when they eventually passed away. Jesus is seen in many Scriptures as a man who acted like the almighty. No where in the bible does Jesus say anything like don't worship me worship God only. Jesus disciples are seen and recorded in the book of Matthew as worshiping Jesus when he had risen from the dead after he had payed the final sacrifice for all our sins on the cross. In the first chapter of the book of Hebrews God's Word makes it plain that God the Father calls Jesus God. Even more interesting is that the verse that calls Jesus God is actually a prophetic verse from the book of Psalms in the old or first testament. Yes the Jews of the old testament times, the hebrew speaking Jews reading the book of Psalms in the hebrew language could see that the coming and promised Jewish Messiah was in fact going to be known as God.

You see in the first book in the bible the book of Genesis in the first chapter in the first verse it says. God created. Now the hebrew word used here for God is not singular but plural. It could be translated as God's created. The reason why the translators used the word God and not God's is because right through the bible its easy to see that there is only one God of all creation and that its the God of Israel. So why can this word God in the first part of Genesis be also translated God's. The answer is found mainly in the new testament as it reveals to all that God is a triune eternal being. Yes One God in three equally divine persons. Further revealed as Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Now when we think of the Holy Spirit we find that after a careful study of the Holy Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is God. One Scripture that proves that the Holy Spirit is to be called God is in the book of Acts. So we are able to understand from the bible that there is God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. This is why right in the beginning of the bible we can see the first light of who God really is. One God in three persons known as the Godhead. The Holy Spirit brought the Word of God to the old and new testament prophets, and this is how the written Word of God in the bible originally came about. The Holy Spirit will only pass on what comes from Jesus and Jesus will only pass on what comes from the Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. This means that when a person sins against God or man or woman then the Holy Spirit shows the person their wrongdoing. A sinners conscience will begin to trouble them and as their sins mount up then that person can begin to feel very unhappy with what they are doing. This can in some cases lead a person to become so unhappy that they suffer depression. They may start to feel guilty and they may wish to change. The Holy Spirit reveals our sins to us for our own good, because ultimately we need forgiveness form God for committing them. Do you ever feel guilty over the bad things that you have done ? Does your conscience trouble you taking away your happy ness ? Do you sometimes feel down and don't even know why ? Have you ever thought that you seem to be on a slippery slope down into an even more evil lifestyle ? Ever felt sometimes that something evil has taken over you ? Well Jesus wants to set you free and give you life to the full in God. A righteous Holy and much more enjoyable life. Not a life without problems but an incredible life with the almighty helping you though them. And lets not forget that the almighty can do anything accept lie, so you can also expect the miraculous. Yes miracles in your life.

The Holy Spirit reminds people of what Jesus said and what the rest of the Holy Scriptures say. Also the Holy Spirit leads people to Jesus. And that no one can come to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation unless the Holy Spirit first draws them first. So amongst other vitally important things that the Holy Spirit does we need to treat the Holy Spirit with the same respect as Jesus and the Father because if we blaspheme the Holy Spirit then Jesus said that this is the only unforgivable sin. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit would mean that the Holy Spirit would not draw that person to Jesus and therefore the person would be left in their sins with no way of being saved. You see according to the Holy Scriptures people are so sinful that left to their own devices they would never want to turn to God. So its God the Holy Spirit who is therefore needed to grant repentance to the person and in doing so, convict of sin, present Jesus in the Gospel message, and lead people to Jesus for them to call out to him asking for forgiveness. Its the Holy Spirit that leads a repentant man or woman to Jesus for them to begin to honor Jesus for who he really is. Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus is the great I AM. Now consider for minute, Is this you. How many times in your life have you thought of yourself as being the boss, the guvoner. Have you ever thought that your opinions are the most important. Well to a greater or lesser degree when you think your opinion is the only one that counts then you are acting like the boss, your thinking I AM right about this. Well in future you would show great wisdom to first find out what the real I AM says about the subject. God is the only truly wise one. The Holy Spirit shows us our sins not to just leave us to feel guilty and depressed, but for us to listen to God's Word the bible. In the book of Acts God commands everyone everywhere to repent, turn from sins and turn to Jesus and to follow him, and to live under his Lordship.

Now sadly many, in fact most people resist the Holy Spirit all their lives and justify their sinful behavior. And in doing so they refuse to come to Jesus for forgiveness and new life in Christ the savior. Jesus instructed people to choose the narrow road to heaven and not the wide road to hell. Jesus in his love revealed that he himself is the door or gate to the entrance of the narrow road. I am the door to life Jesus said. When you read the bible you can see that Jesus was saying you can come in and go out onto the narrow road and find good pasture. The narrow road is in fact the high road to heaven and all the exceptional blessings of God are found by the people who travel it by faith. The wide road is the choose your own way and it leads to death, the Judgment. and then the eternal lake of fire. On the wide road are all the religious people in the world who do not believe the bible as the word of God and therefore haven't listened to the Holy Spirit, and therefore haven't turned to Jesus calling on him to save them. In the Holy Scriptures in the book of John in John 3 vs 1-7. Jesus says that for any person to go to heaven in other words to enter the Kingdom of heaven they must become born again of God's Holy Spirit. So simply put all the people who stay on the wide road are the people who aren't born again of God's Spirit. These are the lost ones who refused to listen or more importantly repent and believe in Jesus and what he taught,

Jesus saved me and healed me in April 1990 one of the first things that amazed my friends was that for the first time I didn't want a girlfriend. For me this was unknown. I have always had one or more girlfriends on the go at one time. I remember having a conversation with a very close friend of mine named Lee. I was saying to him that girls had always been a weakness to me and that God was going to strengthen me in this area by me getting used to not having a girlfriend and just relying on Jesus to bring me the right woman when the time was correct. Lee agreed with me. At the start I still hung around all my old friends but to be fair they all began to slowly get fed up with hearing about God in my life. I was giving thanks to Jesus for this and giving thanks to Jesus for that, for everything and it was all a bit much for them. I remember my friend Lee around his house questioning me asking Stan you don't have to give thanks to Jesus for everything do you.

Lee was giving me a cup of tea at the time, I said yes Lee the bible says give thanks to God in all circumstances. I went on to thank Lee for the tea, and without pause I said thank you Lord. All my friends had known that I had developed a drug problem since my injured left shoulder had stopped me weight training a few years before. But now as a Christian I was no longer taking illegal hard drugs anymore and this must of been a real surprise to my friends. I still had problems with smoking puff, I would buy some and then regret it, I would be saying sorry Lord Jesus please deliver me from this, please forgive me. There would be times when i would through what i had away and then go looking for it again when i was roasting. I had just bought some drugs to smoke and as I was driving through Romford going round my friends house I heard Jesus say to me "Do you love me ?" I had placed my puff of my dash board and as I looked over to it then I heard the Lord speak to me again. "Do you love me ?" I knew that in the bible I had read that Jesus said "If you love me then you will obey me". I know what God was saying, Jesus didn't want me buying illegal drugs or smoking them.

As I drove down the main road I reached out and grabbed the lump of puff and through it out the window saying to the Lord. Of course I love you Lord. I drove of victoriously and went and told all my friends what God had said and what I had done. So I stayed straight all night and just gave thanks to the the Lord. I had a great night and then as the early hours came upon us, we all went out and began to go home. I was diving back on the same road in the early hours. Suddenly I experienced an over whelming desire to smoke a joint, I have some cigarettes and some rislers. I began to battle in my mind over the whole thing. I remembered Jesus speaking to me and me telling God I loved him and through my puff out of the window. Where did I chuck it entered my mind. I started to slow down thinking, no I don't smoke it any more, drive on and go home. I found myself shamefully parked up awkwardly on the open empty road. I had got out of the car and I was bent over examining the road surface looking intently for my puff. I was in such a battle with my conscience, apologizing to Jesus as I became even more intense in my search. After around 5 minutes I was suddenly aware of a car pulling up near me, as I looked up and to to my surprise I heard a police officer say to me. "What are you looking for sir ?".

Well what could I say, I should have told the truth but I didn't. I turned and said I lost my keys officer. The police man said ok do you need help looking for them. No its Ok I said and he waved and drove off. I was feeling so bad, me as a new Christian now even lying when I serve a God who can not lie. I quickly got back in my car and just drove off home repenting to the Lord asking for forgiveness. The Lord I remember said to me that sin begets sin. Jesus forgave my sins and filled me again with God's unconditional love. For a number of years I think nearly 4 I struggled with smoking puff. I was always repentant, I was asking Jesus to take the desire away from me every day. Even though I wasn't living an upright Christian life I just couldn't shut up about Jesus healing my left shoulder and saving me. It wasn't always like that because when Jesus first saved me I was so aware of the importance and weight of God's message that I was too frightened to tell anyone. I was scared of messing it up by loosing my temper with anyone who laughed at me. You see I had been such a proud person and had never liked liberty takers, especially those who would take the mickey out of me. I had been very short tempered and quick to turn on men who were not fully respectful. The occasional fight had become a way of life to me.

So you can imagine with a history like this I had reasoned that I had better not tell anyone. I realized right from the start that I had only one person in my entire life that had told me about their experience with Jesus saving them. I remember thinking. Chances are If I was to tell someone then I probably would be the first to tell them. If I didn't show perfect love if I didn't demonstrate patience with their unbelief, and if they laughed of worse then I needed to remain loving even unto death, if they attacked me then I was not to retaliate but continue to demonstrate Jesus love to them. Any failure on my part would only drive them away from God thinking either there is no God or there is your Christian for you. I realized that my message to them about Jesus saving me and that God wanting to save them was maybe their last chance to turn to God and that if I messed up then they may die in their sins face Judgment before Christ only to be condemned eternally to the lake of fire. So anyway this was my thinking. God had given me His amazing love for the people in the world but I kept my salvation in Jesus a big secret for the first 7 months. Strangely or perhaps it wasn't so strange within those first 7 months we had some Christian missionaries come from afar and train in my gym Stan's Gym. I must have felt comfortable talking with one of them and the young man after listening to me said Stan you are born again and I remember acknowledging this and thanking Jesus for saving me. The missionaries went after a few weeks and never returned. Now its worth knowing that we had never had Christians come and witness in Stan's Gym before.