By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
The vanity of human sophistication, the shallowness of human pride, the stupidity and arrogance of celebrated human accomplishments, without giving thanks and praise to Almighty God!
All of these are more than enough to bring sorrow and sadness to intelligent human beings and born again Christians and remorse and revulsion to Preachers of the Gospel of Christ.
In His great grace and mercy Almighty God waits for sin-blinded humans to be awakened by His gracious Holy Spirit and in repentance and godly sorrow find their way to His Mercy Seat for forgiveness, cleansing and redemption!
How the heart of God must long for His wayward sons and daughters to return to His loving embrace and to be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
The Evil One – destroyer of mankind – in his twisted, sinister and perverted sense of pride, must rejoice in his cunning victories of enslaving so many unsuspecting souls through temptation, guile and lying trickery. Satan's victories are, however, short-lived as the Coming of Christ draws ever nearer and the LIAR'S damnation becomes a REALITY.
That all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God is evident in the depravity that is the hallmark of this PERVERTED generation which continues in the footprints of countless millions of boastful, hate-filled, greedy and rebellious sons of Adam!
Only an imbecile or hermit who has no knowledge of this generation's perverted beliefs and life-styles, would be unable to know that something is desperately wrong with our Society's twisted culture.
WILLIAM GLADSTONE, Prime Minister and Statesman and one of Great Britain's greatest legal minds in the 19th Century stated: “Talk about the questions of the day. There is but one question, and that is the GOSPEL. That can and will correct everything!”
Jesus Christ is the ONLY HOPE and remedy for this world's ills!
PASCAL SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!
BLAISE PASCAL stated: “For after all, what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity; all in relation to nothing; a central point between nothing and all and infinity far from understanding either.”
He stated: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator made known through Jesus Christ.
The Encyclopedia Britannica says that: “Pascal believed that man's wretchedness is explicable only as an effect of the Fall and that for Pascal as well as St. Paul, Jesus Christ is the Second Adam inconceivably without the First.”
Blaise Pascal believed that the events described in the First Book of Moses called Genesis were actual, historical events! The 'Fall of Man' in Eden plunged the human race into the sin, slavery and death cycle, which is still in effect today. Jesus Christ coming to this earth as the Second Adam, however, meant liberation and freedom for Adam's fallen race for all who embrace Him as their Deliverer and Redeemer!
PASCAL wrote: “For in the end, what is man in nature? A nothing in respect to the infinite, everything in respect to the nothing, a halfway between nothing and all. Infinitely far from comprehending the extremes, both the end and the beginning or principle of things are invincibly hidden in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the nothing whence he has been drawn, and the infinite in which he is engulfed."
CONCERNING FAITH he wrote: “The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This then, is faith: God felt by the heart, not by reason. The two principles of truth, reason and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception.
THE FUTILITY OF MAN!
"What a FREAK is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe. Who shall unravel this confusion?
"Man is only a disguise, a liar, a hypocrite, both to himself and to others."; "How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!" Yet MAN is noble! "The grandeur of man is great in that he knows himself to be miserable."
St. Paul agonized over the plight of the HUMAN CONDITION and points to CHRIST as the LIBERATOR and the 'road to freedom' through the Holy Spirit: “...but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
“Now then it is no more I that do it, but SIN that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
“Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but SIN that dwelleth in me. I find then a LAW, that, when I would do good, EVIL is present with me. For I delight in the LAW of GOD after the inward man: But I see another LAW in my members, warring against the LAW IN MY MIND, and bringing me into captivity to the LAW of SIN which is in my members.
“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this DEATH”. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the LAW of GOD; but with the flesh the LAW of SIN. There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
“For the LAW of the SPIRIT of LIFE in Christ Jesus hath made me FREE from the LAW of SIN and DEATH.” (Rom. 7:14-25; 8:1,2). The BIBLE speaks of three LAWS that affect all mankind. They are as follows: 1). The Law of Sin and death; 2). The Law of God in our members; 3). The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus!
The first law came to us through the Fall of Adam, when his sin was imputed to the Human Family. The second law is the Word of God in our members, our conscience that tells us right from wrong. It is a little bit of God within us for He has put eternity in our hearts. (Eccl 3: 11) And the third law is the Holy Spirit Who has freed us from the power of darkness and is living within us!
The Bible says: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom.3:23); “The wages of sin is death but the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6: 23)
On the Futility of Man, BLAISE PASCAL wrote: “Picture a number of men in chains, and all condemned to death; each day some are strangled in the sight of the rest; those who remain see their own condition in that of their fellows, looking at one another with sorrow and without hope, each awaiting his turn. This is the picture of the condition of man."
JEREMIAH lays out in no uncertain terms the condition of man's sinfulness and EZEKIEL gives us the answer to this serious problem: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer.17:9)
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgements, and do them.” (Ezek.36: 26, 27)
HOW TO GET OUT OF THIS MESS!
KING DAVID cried out for mercy after his GREAT SIN: “Have mercy upon me O God, according to Thy loving kindness...Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquities...For I acknowledge my transgressions... Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean...Hide Thy face from my sins..Create in me a clean heart, O God...Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy Salvation...” (Psalm 51: 1-12)
GOD'S WORD states: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot est, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:20)
Realizing the utter foolishness of trying to justify himself to the Almighty, JOB prays for mercy: “I know that Thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not.
“Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak: I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and REPENT in dust and ashes.” (Job 42: 1-6)
THE BIBLE assures us of God's LOVE and COMPASSION: “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
“Much more then, being now justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath (Hell) through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Seeing a drunken man stagger down the street, BILLY SUNDAY stated: “There, but for the grace of God go I.” Billy Sunday, the great American Evangelist who won several hundred thousands to Christ in the 1920s, had been a Big League Baseball player.
He heard a gospel preacher on the street and although he had been drinking with his team mates, followed the street preachers to a Mission where he gave his heart to Christ. He testified later: “I literally staggered into the Kingdom of God.”
Here is a powerful old Gospel song that has blessed people for many years. It is called 'I claim the Blood'. For more than fifty years I have had the privilege of preaching the precious blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ to cleanse, forgive, save, heal, deliver and protect from all the power of sin, fear, sickness and demon spirits!
I have have made a habit of daily pleading the BLOOD of Jesus Christ over myself, my family, those who call for prayer and for the Ministry. You can do the same.
I CLAIM THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST!
I have a source of strength when I am weak,
That takes me through when life is pressing me.
I have a source of power from above,
I'm covered over by a shield of love.
I claim the blood Jesus shed on Calvary
Those precious bloodstains were made
there just for me,
For all my sin, my sickness and my pain,
When I need healing, I claim
those precious bloodstains.
I do not know how others make it through,
Who never go to Calvary as I do.
For there the healing cleansing
stream still flows
With peace that only His redeemed can know
JOSHUA made his appeal to Israel: “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth... Choose ye this day whom you will serve.” Then he gave his personal testimony: “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24: 15).
JESUS CHRIST said: “I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE and no man cometh to the Father (and to Heaven) but by Me.” (John 14:6); “Him that cometh unto Me I will in wise cast out.” (John 6: 37)
ST. JOHN stated: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36). “He that hath the Son of God hath life and he that hath NOT the Son of God hath not life and the wrath of God abideth on him.” (1 John 5:12) Amen.
It is beyond me that anyone would turn such a grand offer from the God of the Universe who has shown toward us such magnanimous, unconditional LOVE, MERCY and GRACE!
And what makes this all so ridiculous and tragic is that so many supposedly intelligent people would be drawn toward the TEMPTER who has nothing to offer them but DEATH and DAMNATION. And even worse to join with the NINCOMPOOPS who parrot the Liar's propaganda!
I suppose Mark Twain was right when he said: “Truth is stranger than fiction!”
