THE CROSSROAD OR CROSS-ROADS

By Dr Mark Jackson

(Cont.)
For many people we see that they walk an endless path of religion, ceremony, and tradition, at best all they can offer is a nice ideal, a nice heritage perhaps, but when it comes to salvation, they can offer absolutely nothing. Religion is an endless walk on an endless roundabout of good works, and tradition, it offers nothing of any real worth, nor does it offer any alternative to the many followers it has? Let me tell you that religious works will not get anybody into heaven? The main question then I would put to you is the following, does your religion offer you salvation and an eternity with God in heaven, does your religion offer you an assurance of salvation here and now? Can you say with absolute confidence that you have been accepted by God and are now part of the family of God? Do you have a testimony to tell of all that God is doing in your life, and how He answers your prayers; do you have a personal relationship with the Lord God? We see that there is a sin issue in every person, and this sin issue is what is keeping you from knowing the Lord God. It is this same sin issue that keeps us from wanting to know God, for the human nature is naturally a sinful nature. The Bible states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). How then do we deal with this sin issue? Well man in his vain and worthless attempt at dealing with this has fashioned the many religions that we see in the world, this is what we could call a cover up religion. We see that when the first man Adam had sinned in the Garden of Eden, we see that man tried to hide from God and that he also had tried to cover up his sin, for he made a covering of fig leaves and placed them on himself and also on Eve? And from that very day we have seen how mankind has constantly tried to cover up his sin by the many religions, so are you following a cover up religion? Let me assure you that this path would lead to failure, let me tell you this is the wrong path, its a path that is man made, no matter how well it looks at best its just a cover up. Let me tell you this path will lead you to Hell. Is it going to be the crossroad that leads to a crucified Saviour and eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ, or is it going to be the crossroads that leads to hell. The sin issue will never go away by itself, for many people they think that if they just forget about their sin then all will be ok, now we see that there are many people who would try and run and hide from coming to God, are you one of these people? There are many people who walk life's crossroads hoping that when they die, then the Lord Jesus would just accept them into His Kingdom. After all they have been reasonably good people, they have worked all their life, and have never taken anything from anybody, they see themselves as being good people and not bad like some of the many that are locked up in the prisons. Self-righteousness is a great sin, the fact remains the same, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We must remember that all have been born into Adam, and we must remember that Adam chose to sin and rebel against the commands of God, thus in Adam we are all sinners, and here we have the sin issue. Therefore the Lord God Himself decided that He would deal with the sin issue because He loves His creation so much. So He sent Jesus into the world to bring fallen man back to a loving God in personal relationship with Him. Jesus Himself would achieve this; God would become a man and walk amongst men, teaching, preaching, and healing. Jesus would die upon a cross and for all those that would put their trust in Him, He would grant forgiveness of sins and would be accepted by the Lord God into the family of God. Jesus, the Bible declares is the second Adam, and all those who would accept Him as Lord of all, all those who would come to Him in total repentance, would receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The first Adam sinned, while the second Adam was sinless, we either belong to the first Adam or the second Adam who is Jesus. And thus we see that we are either under the condemnation and sin of the first Adam, which is sin, and rebellion. Or we are under the nature of the second Adam, which is forgiveness, and the love of God. It is the Crossroad then that would lead to a crucified Saviour, it is only the Crossroad that leads to the One True God, it is only the Crossroad that leads to Jesus, and it is Only by walking this road that one would have eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Himself can only deal with the sin issue; no religion can do this, its time to leave the crossroads of nowhere, its time to leave the crossroads that lead to hell, and its time now to walk the Crossroad that leads to heaven.