Do You Worship God?

The Bible was not written simply to give you academic information about God. It was written that you may know God today in a personal way. The Bible is the believer's guide to worship God. The Bible is like a menu in a restaurant. "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good" (Psalm 34:8). To taste and see is to worship God personally.

Worship God through prayer and praise. The Bible teaches you how to worship God. It's important to understand that worship is a personal encounter with God. It's more than speaking and singing words from memory. Opening your heart to God is true worship. Worship is not a monologue. It's praising God and listening to God with your heart (Hebrews 3:15).

Believers experience God through worship (John 4:24). Understand that worship is our personal response to God's love and goodness in Christ. Worship God daily with your songs of praise and prayers of thanksgiving. Surrender your body, will, and emotions to God through worship (Romans 12:1-2).

Experience God with others in public worship, family prayer, and small groups. Hearing testimonies of how others have experienced God is helpful. Be encouraged in your faith. Trust God to work in your life, as you encounter Him in daily worship. Praise God that He is working in you for your good and His glory, "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

What Is God's Wrath?

"He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" (Rev. 19:14-16). Jesus our Lord revealed the love of God at His first coming. He reveals the wrath of God at His second coming. Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ receive the love of God. Those who reject God's Son in unbelief and rebellion receive the wrath of Almighty God.

The winepress is a symbol of the wrath of Almighty God. God will totally crush all those who live in rebellion against Him. Their defeat is swift and complete. In Bible days a winepress would be found at a vineyard. Grapes were harvested and thrown into the trough. They were crushed as the grape juice flowed into another trough. That symbol pictures the total defeat of God's enemies.

The Son of God shall reveal divine omnipotence on earth. He strikes the nations with the sword of His word. He rules with a rod of iron. Those symbols reveal that Jesus our Lord has all power in heaven and on earth. Jesus has the words on His robe, "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 

Jesus shall come with the armies of heaven. That includes the redeemed of the Lord, as well as holy angels. Those who are redeemed wear clean white robes. That symbolizes the righteousness of the saints. Jesus has taken away all our sins and given us His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). The redeemed of the Lord witness His victory over all the enemies.

The Son of Man

Jesus is referred to most often in the New Testament with the terms Lord and Christ, followed by the Son of Man. That title comes from the Old Testament prophecy of Daniel. He wrote, "I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man was coming with the clouds" (Daniel 7:13). Elsewhere in the Old Testament only God is mentioned coming with the clouds of heaven (Psalm 104:3; Isaiah 19:1). Son of Man refers to a  divine-human ruler. That is the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of Man in the New Testament more than any other title. He was referring to the title in Daniel's prophecy of a coming Messiah. In the Gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man sixty-nine times. In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses the same title for himself twelve times.

As the Son of Man, Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God. He taught about the kingdom of God and demonstrated it in signs and wonders. As the Son of Man, Jesus had authority on earth to forgive sins (Mark 2:10). He forgives every believer's sins. He died to pay the penalty for our sins. His resurrection proves it. That is the Gospel of the Son of Man.

Jesus will return as the Son of Man in clouds of glory to rule with dominion in the everlasting kingdom of God. "Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14).

What Is God's Mercy?

"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (Romans 9:16). God shows mercy, not earned by our efforts, because "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs." Our will power and efforts can never save us. God's mercy in Christ for our salvation.

God's mercy is in Christ crucified for our sins. That is to say, the sacrificial death of Christ satisfies the demands of God's holiness and wrath against our sin. God's just wrath is satisfied for sinners who trust in Christ alone for mercy and justification. "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2).

God's mercy takes away our sins through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7). Mercy transforms our lives. God's mercy changes our hearts to change your lives. Only God can change our hearts. The word heart is a symbol for our inward nature. That's the mind, will, and emotions.

God's mercy transforms and renews our minds (Romans 12:1-2). Such a change enables us to repent. The word "repent" comes from two Greek words. Meta means change. Nous means mind. God's mercy leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

Why Are All Not Saved?

"For this is good and acceptable to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4). God desires all to be saved from death, judgment, and everlasting punishment. God sent His Son into the world to make the one and only sacrifice which is sufficient to save all (John 12:32; 1 John 2:2). Then, why are all not saved?

Not all will come to "the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). Jesus said, "I am the truth" (John 14:6). The Spirit of truth uses the word of truth to bring us to the one who is the truth (John 16:13; 17:17). God will not save anyone who rejects the truth. Those who reject the truth, believe the lie. They perish, "because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

Not all will trust in Christ. None who sincerely trust in Christ will be turned away (John 6:37). No one who believes in Him will be disappointed (Romans 10:11). God's call to salvation is for all nations, Jew and Gentile (Romans 1:16; Acts 1:8). The gospel of Christ is freely offered to all.

Not all will repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31; 17:30). This speaks of our responsibility. Those who refuse to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are responsible for their own just condemnation (Luke 13:3, 5). All who repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ will be saved (John 3:36; Acts 2:37-39).

Is Jesus Your Lord?

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). Is Jesus your Lord? If so, you believe that Jesus is risen indeed. Therefore, you confess Jesus is Lord.

Jesus risen from the dead is the singular most important doctrine in the Christian faith (1 Corinthians 15:17). The salvation of every believer rests upon the resurrection of Christ. It's the miracle you must believe to be saved. Confessing Jesus as Lord is the earliest confession of the Christian faith. It focuses upon the resurrection of Jesus as our confession of faith.

If you are willing to confess Jesus is Lord, then the Holy Spirit convinced you (John 16:7-11). The Holy Spirit illumines your mind and brings you to repentance, a change of mind, concerning the resurrection of Christ. Then and only then, you will truly confess that Jesus is Lord, because you know the truth personally. "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).

Believing the gospel and confessing from your heart that Jesus is Lord means you are saved. The word saved means to be delivered from the condemnation and judgment of your sins. Also, it means to be delivered from the wages of sin which is death (Romans 6:23). To be saved is to receive eternal life through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus is your Lord, you are saved.

How Is Christ in You?

The Christian life is Christ in you (Colossians 1:27). The Spirit of Christ, also known as the Holy Spirit, indwells every believer (Romans 8:9). Upon believing the gospel of Christ, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, "having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13). The Holy Spirit is in you with the abiding gifts of faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

The Spirit of Christ is in you with the gift of faith. It is the faith of Jesus Christ. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). The Holy Spirit abides in every Christian with the gift of faith. It is faith from Christ and faith in Christ. Faith is trust, confidence, and reliance upon Christ.

The Spirit of Christ is in you with the gift of hope. It is your hope in Christ. The Holy Spirit brings hope in Christ. It is the hope of glory, which means the hope of the believer's glorification. Everything you are, or hope to be, is in Christ. We are "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).

The Spirit of Christ is in you with the gift of love. It is the Father's love for us in Christ and our love for Christ. Love is a gift of the Holy Spirit and the greatest evidence of Christ in you. Without the love of Christ, there is no real and true Christian life. Christ in you is the love of the Holy Spirit in your heart (Romans 5:5).