Only a remnant of mankind will be saved in the last days. How do we know this? Because God has told us so. Whether we are part of the remnant or not is one hundred percent our choice. God can’t have made things simpler for us.
What are we? We are sinful, filthy rags. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. We can’t even by the power of our thoughts cause our hearts to beat once more or our lungs to take another breath. God is life. God gives us life. God is patiently extending our wretched existence on the hope that we will demonstrate that we will exercise our freewill to choose Him.
The most effective deception we can convince ourselves of is that we do not need to trust and obey God. We do this through our religious ideas and traditions. It isn’t outright debauchery that will deceive the majority of mankind. Mankind will be deceived in the name of Jesus doing seemingly good things. There is a way which seemeth right to a man but the end thereof is DEATH!
This life is all about choosing whom we will serve. We will either reach our last moment on earth bearing the seal of God or the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast looks pretty good to us by worldly standards. Jesus tells us that many people bearing the mark of the beast will come to Him saying that they have done many religious things in His name.
Mathew 7: 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Those aren’t my words. That’s not my opinion. That’s not my interpretation. Those are the words of the only begotten Son of God who came to this world to get our attention so that we might have an opportunity to escape our sinful existence. It’s up to you to choose to take those words seriously or not. Please do!
The only way for us to be saved is to have a serious change of perspective. Jesus calls this being reborn. We must choose to die to sin and ALLOW Jesus by His spirit to transform us. We can’t transform ourselves. Only Jesus can do this for us and He is standing at the door of our hearts anxiously waiting for us to say, “Yes, please come in and make my heart white as snow by Your righteousness.”
We demonstrate the true condition of our hearts by how we regard each and every word of God. Not a single word can be disregarded without revealing that we put ourselves in a higher place in our own minds than our Creator. We disregard God’s Word by adding to or taking away from what God has revealed. That’s how we edit the Word of God. That’s how we reject the Word of God. We create our own version of God’s Word to appease our sinful nature rather than letting God’s Word convict us to accept the free transformation offered by God through His Son.
It takes some effort on our part to know God’s Word and it’s improbable that we will come to understand it all in our lifetimes here. All we must do is sincerely submit ourselves to God and allow His Holy Spirit to lead us. God will lead us to a right understanding for our individual situations. Our job is not to reach the destination but to keep putting our foot in the direction that God leads. It’s a journey. It’s a race. God will win the race for us. What we must do is choose to run the race on God’s terms.
We have the capacity to reject God and according to God most people will reject Him. It’s a serious matter. Accepting God is the simplest option. It takes a great deal of effort and fancy thinking to reject God. We reject God with our own philosophies and traditions that seek to spin the truth God has revealed into something that tolerates our sin. God didn’t send His Son to tolerate sin. Jesus came to overcome sin. All we have to do is to let Him.
Satan’s deceptions are designed to make us feel good while we reject God. Satan does this by making things look religious and by using the name and Word of God, but in a dishonest way. God’s Word empowers us to reveal and withstand Satan’s deceptions, but we must use it faithfully if it’s going to do us any good.
God is not looking for us to obey Him because it makes sense to us. God wants us to choose to obey Him because He is God, because He is truth and life. The test for us is whether we will obey Him or not thereby revealing whom we serve.
Abraham was given the hardest test of faithfulness to God. Abraham knew God’s voice, God’s Word. The test for Abraham was not in knowing God’s Word but in doing God’s Word. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, God created a test that could only be passed by refusing to apply Abraham’s own understanding and desires and instead simply obeying God because He is God. Obedience to God is the test of who our God is. If we love Him, we WILL obey Him.
How many times have we heard that obedience is just legalism? How many times have we heard that because we are sinful that we can’t keep the commandments of God? These are lies. These are lies that come from the same place that convinced Eve that the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil was good for food. Eve knew God’s Word. Eve simply chose to entertain the idea that she knew better than God, that God’s Word had to make sense to her before she would obey it. Eve made herself her own god which is to reject her Creator as her God. Adam was not deceived at all. Adam knew God’s Word and recognized that Eve had disobeyed God. Adam’s sin was to desire Eve more than to desire his Creator. Both Adam and Eve chose to make their own thoughts and desires more important than God. We face the same fundamental situation now in the last days. This has been the essence of the entire great controversy in Heaven and mankind’s sinful existence on this world. Who will be our God?
God says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” He means it. We will be judged by our obedience to God’s Word. (John 12:47-48) We are sinful. We do and will make mistakes, sinful mistakes. What God is looking for is whether we will genuinely make Him our God and our test is belief in and obedience to His Word. God made His Word flesh that it might dwell among us. God could not have done any more to give us the chance to demonstrate if we will respect Him as our God.
The seventh-day Sabbath was originally established as a time to commune directly with our God. Sabbath is a deep and rich part of our relationship with God, but in this life our keeping of Sabbath will be a demonstration of who our God is. God said to keep the seventh day holy. Will we, or will we not? How many people have rationalized away obedience to God’s Word regarding Sabbath? Many.
Like Cain, many people will worship the true God at the right place and the right time but will do it their own way. Satan’s greatest deception will be found at church.
God says that if we don’t believe that Jesus is His only begotten Son that we will perish. (John 3:16) How many people have accepted the false philosophy that Jesus is not really the literal Son of God? Many. We choose to allow ourselves to be deceived by not investing in personal knowledge of God’s Word. We are easily persuaded by tradition and philosophies of men that contradict God’s Word in order to find acceptance and benefit in the world. God says to live spiritually, not worldly. A father by definition pre-exists his son. God is a father. Jesus is His Son. God says that He is a father. Jesus says that He is a Son. The trinity doctrine which dominates religion in this world denies that God is a father and that Jesus is a His Son. The trinity doctrine asserts that God and the Son have co-existed without beginning, that the father did not pre-exist the son. That makes God’s Word a lie. That makes God a liar and Jesus a liar. The test for us is whether we will believe God’s Word or not. It’s a bit ironic that Eve was deceived by determining that the forbidden fruit was good for food. It made sense to her. The trinity deception doesn’t make any sense at all! Why would anyone believe such a ridiculous idea? Mankind has gone to great lengths to reject the Word of God, the truth of God. Mankind is rejecting God. This is the fruit of the mark of the beast.
Who is your god? It’s your choice. God tells us that if we reject Him we reject life. It’s pretty simple. Will we obey God or not? Will we believe God or not? All you have to do is open God’s Word and read it for yourself. Your test will be whether you believe it and obey it. You do not have to rely on anyone else’s interpretation. It’s your own interpretation that matters. Will you sacrifice eternal life by stubbornly refusing to apply the basic intelligence to use language that God has gifted you with?
This world is reaching the pinnacle of sinfulness and God has told us that He won’t tolerate sin much longer. One of the realities of sin is that most people will choose to live by worldly standards and will reject their Creator as their God. You don’t have to be one of them! Choose life! Choose this day whom you will serve. You and everyone else will know your choice by whether you obey God or not.
The last days will be like the days of Noah. The Bible tells us that people were doing sinful things like eating, drinking, building and getting married. What’s so terrible about those things? What’s wrong with those things is that they are done for personal satisfaction rather than seeking to submit to and obey God. Don’t miss the boat.
To willingly forfeit eternal life and all that God has provided for us in Heaven will be the clearest declaration of who our God is. God’s judgement will be to honor your choice. Choose wisely.