Are You LOST?

"6 REASONS PEOPLE ARE LOST AND NEED SALVATION"


1. They are lost because of their rejection Of biblical revelation.

Ps. 19:1-4
"The ​​heavens declare the glory of God;
And the ​​firmament ​1shows ​​His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their ​​line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world."

Rom. 1:18-23
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and 7Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”



2. They are lost because of disobeying their own conscience.
Rom. 2:14-16
“for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”


3. They are lost because of their relationship to the world.

Eph. 2:1-2
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the 1course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience”

James 4:4
“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”

1 John 5:19
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

4. They are lost because of their relationship to Satan.

2 Cor. 4:4
“whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

Col. 1:13
“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,”

1 John 3:10
“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”


5. They are lost because of their relationship to sin.

Gen. 2:17
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Jer. 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?”

Rom 5:12
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”

Rom 7:14
“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

Eph. 4:18 – 19
“having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”


6. They are lost because of their relationship to God.

Eph. 2:12
“that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

1 John 5:12
“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

STAND FIRM - In The War

Sorry for the delay in the final installment of the “Stand Firm” teachings but nevertheless, here we are at the final chapter. So far we have discussed standing firm in God’s Word and standing firm in the world. This last topic is a little similar to the last one because it involves standing strong in the midst of unbelief and persecution but to take it to another level, we are to stand firm in the WAR. Yes, we are at war. I want to open with some verses that you may be familiar with but I think it sets the tone for our lesson. It is from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.

Ephesians 6:10-17
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”

This verse is speaking of the spiritual war that Christians fight everyday. Well, honestly everyone is fighting this war, except those that do not have Jesus Christ as their Savior are just fighting on the wrong side and don’t even know it!

I like how Paul tells us to put on the WHOLE armor of God; truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation and The Word of God. Without all of these things, we don’t stand a chance against Satan and his cronies. We say we have faith but yet don’t read the Word or we read the Word but yet have no faith or we think we are saved and don’t read the Word, have any faith and don’t really know the gospel. I think you get the picture. We need to have all of these things in order to survive the war.

But while we are definitely in a spiritual war (I like the term, “invisible war”) we can be in other wars as well. I have a good friend who is in Iraq and is literally in a war. I was in Desert Storm awhile ago so I know what it is like to be in a physical war as well. But you may be dealing with other wars: addictions, marriages, relationships, financial battles, children, etc. God’s Word assures that we have the ability to survive and win these battles as well. We just have to trust in God and sometimes it takes more than just saying “Okay God I trust you” because honestly sometimes we just don’t really mean it do we? We say we trust God but then we pick up that six pack we know we shouldn’t or we ask God to help our financial situations and then we go charge more debt to our credit cards!

The bottom line is we are asking God for help but we are not letting him help or worse yet, we don’t really want His help. We would rather hang around in our sin and feel sorry for ourselves. John 3:20-21 comes to mind dealing with this. Jesus said, “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

You see when we sin, sometimes it is easier to just hang around in darkness and use our struggle as an excuse without really submitting to God. We can even fool ourselves into thinking we are saved and that God will just turn a blind eye to our sin because “He understands our struggle.” In reality we need to repent, turn to Christ and get on with our lives serving Him and leave our past behind!

If this offends anyone, I am sorry if you are offended but I cannot apologize for what God’s Word says. I care enough about you to share it with you.

In Exodus, Moses had a tough job. He rose to power over his own people, killed a guy and ran away and then when He was old, God told him to go back and lead His people out of Egypt. Now these people he eventually led away were tough to deal with. They were always complaining and whining and wanting more (anyone have kids???) Anyway, Moses was always pleading to God on their behalf and when they reached the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his army bearing down on them, you know they were freaking out!

Moses had the faith of God and knew they would be delivered when all hope seemed to be gone. Listen to what he told the Israelites:

Exodus 14:13-14
“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

They only needed to “be still.” All they had to do was to stand and watch the glory of God. Maybe you just need to “stand still” or maybe you need to “stand up” and get serious about the war that you are fighting. Maybe God is not helping because you are not letting Him. Or maybe some of you just need to “kneel down” to the Creator of the universe and submit FULLY to Him.

What ever wars we are fighting, we need to “Kneel Down” first to the feet of Jesus Christ and surrender all to Him and then we need to “Stand Up” and “Stand Firm” in God’s Word and glory in His grace and mercy. I leave you with a verse of encouragement from James the brother of Jesus:

James 5:8
“You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

Amen and God bless and Come Lord Jesus Come!!