THE GOOD NEWS

THANK YOU FATHER.

Pray that the Lord deliver us from evil and pray that His Word be honored and revered by all men.
Pray for the officers who fell victim to gunfire in Detroit, Michigan this past weekend as well as for the peace of mind and faith of their families and fellow officers.

Preach The Word.

The Lord Jesus went about teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom.

What was the good news?

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

What does that mean?

Does it mean out of fear you say you are sorry, stop sinning and confess Jesus as Lord because the world will end at midnight tonight?

No

To Repent means to come and learn the truth about God's righteousness.
Matthew chapter 5:17-48 The Lord Jesus teaches what repentance is.

The Lord Jesus teaches what was taught in the law of Moses and accepted as righteousness.
The things that men were required to do in order to be considered righteous.

Then Jesus gives the good news that He has fulfilled that law in His coming, for every man who believes on His authority to do so.
To truly repent means that you have received Christ as your righteousness.

When you are born again it is Christ and not your deeds that make you righteous, your deeds now become righteous only as a result of His righteousness in you.

The kingdom at hand meant that God Himself had come to fulfill the law on our behalf.

Jesus went about and asked men to come and follow Him, He didn't demand or force obedience because that would have been grievous.
The Lord invites us to eternal life.
We don't follow God out of fear but out of love, understanding and reverence.

We follow Jesus to the degree and level of our understanding of His love for us.

Let me type that again.

Men follow Jesus to the extent and level of their understanding of His love for them.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation(the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.
1John 4:9,10

Without this hope men are ashamed and the ashamed man hides from God, he doesn't run to Him.
Genesis 3:8-10

It's not sin that hinders a man from following God, the thing that limits a man from being saved is him not understanding that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:5-8

It's not sin that separates it's the shame behind the sin that separates.
But hope makes us not ashamed.
Why?
Because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts.
One example would be the woman caught in the act of adultery.

I am not married to Kevin simply because I love him, I have not stayed married to Kevin just because of my obedience to our covenant commitment, children, or financial reasons.

I don't do for Kevin out of fear or threat of losing him.

I am married to Kevin and will be because I understand the extent and level of his love for me.
The faith to stay with Kevin is birthed out of me knowing that he loves me.

How do I know that Kevin loves me?
Because Kevin has demonstrated his love for me in caring for and providing for me.
For putting under his own desires so that I might have.

Love, it's not a feeling, it's a knowing.

It's the same with the Father.
This is the kingdom of God coming to you when these words are preached:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must Christ Jesus be lifted up:
That whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.

He that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already.

Why is a man condemned?
Is it because he isn't obedient enough?

How do you measure obedience from one man to the next?
You can see the fruit on the tree and fruit is a godly response.
You can't see the obedience of man, because you have no idea if what a man is doing was after God or his own idea.

Do you think that you can measure another man's obedience?
Do you think that the measure of your love for God is apparent in something that you do outwardly?

It is in how we love one another, but you say I show my love for people by feeding them, babies the world feeds people.
I'm not saying don't feed people, I'm saying that we have to be distinguished from the world in some way.

We can't say that we love God more than our neighbor simply because we are in the platinum group of charity givers on our job?

Please do not be as arrogant as to believe that you can measure another man's obedience.
Men look on what is apparent to the eye, but God examines the heart and motive.

We can do things so that we are exalted in the eyes of people, saying, "I helped do this or I bailed them out"

This is disobedience to God, knowing right and not doing right, condemnation is not believing on Christ.
John 6:29 is obedience.

A man is condemned because he has not believed on the Authority of Christ to forgive and redeem him of sin.

The scriptures, the record of Christ and His sacrifice were written that we might have hope.
This is the faith that you continue in, don't ever be moved away from the hope in the gospel.
Don't be moved away from the good news by believing that it's something that you can or must earn.

It is by grace.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for.
What is our hope for?

Our hope is in The Grace of God through Christ being the fulfillment of the law.
How is our hope established?
By hearing and understanding the gospel.

What is the gospel?
That God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

The devil doesn't care if we preach prosperity, how to get out of debt, how to lose weight, have better homes and relationships because the world is teaching those things.
As long as we stay away from preaching that God loved us so much that He sent His Son Christ Jesus who is God to save us.

This is the banner and the stamp on any ministry.

Let this understanding mark your faith, that the former regulation was set aside because it was weak and useless and it could not keep you from sin, and a better hope was introduced In Christ, by which we are now able to draw near to God because In Christ we are not ashamed.

The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind because it is impossible for God to lie, Christ is the guarantee. Hebrews 6,7,8.
This is not so because I say so, it's so because God said so and He it is impossible for God to lie.

The true Christian does not force or try and make people trust In Christ, they simply give the truth and the Holy Spirit works in the hearts and minds of the people.

The sower sows the Word.
1John 4:10-21
This is the truth, the good news.
To repent would be to examine what you have heard and then weigh it up against what is written.


LOVE Y'ALL :)
SEEK IT OUT.
the good news