Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
This is one of my very favorite passages of Scripture. Each time that I see a clock, I am reminded of familiar Bible passages. For example: When I see “9:11” I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 911, about time and chance happening to all. When I see “2:20” I am reminded of Galatians 2:20 that says Christ liveth in me. And when I see “6:33” I am reminded of Matthew 6:22, about seeking God's righteousness. What does that mean? Most preachers get the interpretation of this Bible verse very wrong. I love that the Bible has a built in dictionary and commentary, defining and explaining itself. Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” I love that Bible verse!!!
If you want to go to Heaven dear reader, then you absolute must have God's imputed righteousness. The Greek word for “imputed” means “counted.”
Romans 4:4-7, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”The Greek word for “imputeth” in verse 6 is the SAME exact Greek word used for “counted” in verse 5. So we can use imputeth and counted interchangeably. God counts a man's faith in Jesus Christ for righteousness. In other words, you don't need any personal righteousness of your own to get to Heaven, and it is a good thing, because you and I have no righteousness to offer God. Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Dear reader, Christ not only died for your sins, He died for your righteousness too! The reason why is because our human righteousness is filth to God. Christ died for all mankind, to pay for our sins.
It is rare to hear neo-evangelicals preach about the imputed righteousness of God. As I just showed you from Romans 4:4-7, a man's childlike faith in Christ is counted by God for righteousness. That is, God imputes His gift of righteousness to us in response to our faith in His only begotten Son (John 3:16). We are saved by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, not our own! Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
You see dear friend, you don't have to turn away from your love of sin to get to Heaven, or quit your sinful bad habits, you must be totally 100% absolutely PERFECT! Obviously no human being has ever done that except Jesus, who didn't have a human father. God Himself was Jesus' biological Father. Jesus was born into the world by a supernatural virgin birth, which is the only time such a divine miracle has happened, or ever will happen, in the history of human civilization. Luke 1:35, “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” There has only been one virgin birth in history, Jesus.
Please understand that the Roman Catholic church is a religious and theological cult. Catholics are errantly taught that Mary, Jesus' mother, was born without original sin from her conception. First of all, the term “original sin” is not even found in the Bible, it is a wicked fabrication of Roman Catholicism. Second, Mary was a guilty sinner just like you, me and everyone else. Mary was a needy sinner, so she needed to put her trust in Jesus as her personal Savior too, or else she absolutely would have went to burn in Hell day and night forever, without rest or hope. Luke 1:46, “And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Mary called her own biological child, Jesus, “my Saviour.”
Mark 7:9, “And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” That perfectly describes the Roman Catholic cult. It also perfectly describes the deadly cult at Bob Jones University (BJU) today, who are the fountainhead of the corrupt Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort Greek text, upon which the Devil's modern Bible revisions are all based and influenced. In fact, the Jehovah's Witness' cult, who strongly deny the deity of Jesus, were one of the first groups to embrace the corrupt Greek of Westcott and Hort, because that text brutally attacks the deity of Jesus and the Godhead (aka, Trinity). The modern Bible perversions have been translated from the SAME corrupt Greek text of Westcott and Hort as the JW's New World Translation (NWT).
Dear reader, I cannot warn you enough to RUN away from the modern Bible revisions. They may seem easier to understand, and in many cases will be because of the updated English; however, Satan has cleverly managed to undermine all of the modern versions by attacking Jesus' deity, obliterating the Godhead, corrupting what it means to repent to be saved, et cetera. The modern Bible revisions are deadly! In such cases that the Word of God has been changed, corrupted and turned into a lie, they may seem easier to understand when in fact they are now IMPOSSIBLE to understand, because the truth has been compromised and corrupted into a lie. For example: Look what the Easy-To-Read Version (ERV) has done to pervert Mark 1:15. Although seemingly easy to understand, it is not longer THE TRUTH. So in reality the Bible has become IMPOSSIBLE to grasp and understand, because it is a lie. The Devil is a beautiful liar!
Dear reader, you need God's righteousness to go to Heaven. Thankfully, it is very easy and free to obtain God's righteousness. Romans 10:3-4, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The moment that you place your trust (i.e., confidence, faith, reliance) in the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ crucified on a cross, buried and bodily resurrected from the dead three days later, you are immediately and forever born-again. What saith the Scripture? ...
1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
There you have it, THE GOSPEL. I didn't see anything in their about giving up your sinful bad habits? Did you? No, you didn't either. Nor did I see anything in that Scripture passage about getting water baptized, surrendering one's life to serve Christ, counting the cost and paying the price, living a lifestyle of repentance, inviting Jesus into your life, following Christ, making Jesus the “Lord“” of your life, running the Christian race faithfully, changing your life, publicly confessing the name of Jesus, nor anything else. Boy, I'm out of breath...lol. Seriously, the Apostle Paul was given this Gospel directly from Jesus Christ Himself. Galatians 1:11-12, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Amen and amen!
The counterfeit gospel of "Lordship Salvation" is being preached today is after man, not Jesus Christ! Here is a wonderful sermon by my ministry friend, Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, teaching us why Lordship Salvation is NOT the Gospel...
Why Lordship Salvation IS Wrong!
The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.
Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty!
Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.
Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.
If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?
We must stay true to the simplicity of the Gospel!! Repentance regarding salvation is a change of mind from unbelief to belief!!! We must earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).
Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do.
So please be on guard against today's plethora of hellbound false prophets, who will come to you disguised as preachers in sheep's clothing, teaching that YOU must forsake YOUR sinful past ways, and YOU must surrender all to Christ as Lord, and YOU must live a changed life from now on, hating YOUR sins. Do you see that their false plan of salvation always focuses on what YOU must do?
God's free and simple plan of salvation is something entirely different, in which CHRIST paid for our sins through Calvary's cross. CHRIST shed His precious blood to wash away our sins forever. It was CHRIST alone who paid our debt of sin, and not anything that we could ever do that gets us into the Kingdom of God and Heaven! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!!! Remember, the true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.
There are only two types of religion in the world: DO and DONE. You either believe that YOU must DO something to get to Heaven (e.g., turn from your sins, surrender all to Christ as Lord, follow Jesus, live a lifestyle of repentance, do good works, et cetera); or else you believe that Christ has already DONE it all for you on the cross. I'm in the DONE boat with Jesus, how about you dear friend? God only saves those who are trusting to be saved, He doesn't save anyone who is trying to be saved. Salvation is received, not achieved. Do you have God imputed righteousness, which is by God's grace through faith alone in Jesus alone?
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