GPS
Global Positioning System......The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The system provides critical capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world.
Most of us have used one of these when we are lost, or to keep from getting lost.
There is another GPS, that we can use in the spiritual realm, and that is (GPS) GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
Let's look at God's plan of salvation
Acts 2;38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Rom. 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
God has a plan for you, and me , for our salvation.
You see, we were all at one time lost, and undone without God or His son.
I was lost, and God saved me. Like the psalmist says in Psalms 40:2
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings
When I first became a Christian, there were people asking me if I wanted to here about the abc's.
I found out that this meant,,
1. (A) admit that you are a sinner
2. (B) believe in your heart, that Jesus died for you
3. (C) confess to Him your sins, and repent.
Someone once said,,"Repent, believe, and Christ receives.
What is repentance?
The American Heritage Dictionary says, "to feel such regret for past conduct as to change one's mind regarding it." Vine's says, "A change of mind that involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God. Always, in the New Testament, repentance involves a changing of the mind for the better and always of repentance from sin
The word "repentance" has gotten a bad rap over the years, as if it is a negative thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Repentance is the most positive thing that could ever happen in your life. When you repent, you turn from sin to God. This is not a negative experience! When God calls you to repent, He doesn't shake an angry fist at you, He opens His loving arms to you
I want you to see that repentance is turning from sin to God:
1 Kings 8:47-48 (NASB) if they take thought in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent and make supplication to Thee in the land of those who have taken them captive, saying, 'We have sinned and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly'; 48 if they return to Thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and pray to Thee toward their land which Thou hast given to their fathers, the city which Thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for Thy name;
Here we see that repentance is returning to God. Ezekiel says that it is turning away from sin:
Ezekiel 14:6 (NASB) "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.
Repentance - turning from our sin to God - requires that we realize we have disobeyed God. We have violated His law, offended his moral purity, tried to cast off his yoke of authority. This only happens when we stop deluding ourselves that what we are doing really is not so bad when compared to others. It requires that we admit we have turned from God to sin.
Believers, we all have times in our lives when we need to repent, to turn from sin back to God. This should be obvious. Repentance is something that should be ongoing in our lives.
Acts 17:30 (NASB) "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent,
Repentance - turning from sin - is a prelude to holiness. Walking in holiness begins with repentance
Although some of our troubles are not the result of our own sins, the fact is that most of them are. Through our sinful behavior, we make major contributions to our misery.
Galatians 6:7-8 (NASB) Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Repentance means that we stop blaming other people for our problems, and we begin to take responsibility for ourselves. Sin is a choice. It's always a choice. You can't blame it on your parents, or your personality, or your nationality, or your situation, or on what the other guy did to provoke you
David, could easily blamed Bathsheba, when they commited adultry.
He could have said,"Bathsheba shouldn't have been up on the rooftop, taking a bath.
But instead, he blamed himself, he took responsibility for his wrongdoing.
In Psalm 51:2-4, David says,, 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest
WE must confess with our mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in our heart, that Jesus died for our sins.
WE must believe in our Heart, that Jesus died for our sins, and that is trust, and faith.
Faith. What is it? "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarded of them that diligently seek him," Heb. 11:6. Since it is impossible to please God without faith, and God certainly will not receive into His eternal presence anything that displeases Him, we must have faith to abide in His presence. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," Rom. 10:17. When the gospel is preached to a sinner and it finds a responsive attitude from the sinner,
Belief, by the gospel, the sinner comes to believe that Christ can and will save him. (3) Trust. When the sinner knows that God will reward him, and that Christ will save him, he is led to trust Christ to save him by surrendering himself wholly into His hands. Repentance furnishes his attitude toward the world of sin, while faith furnishes his attitude toward God and Christ, and the two together cause him to surrender passively into the care and keeping of the Holy Spirit: he being thus prepared, the Holy Spirit begets within him the new life; then, he is saved; he is passed from death into life. He has the same kind of life that is in God, his Father, which is eternal life.
There are two important points in Romans 10:9, which says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” The first is the Greek word translated confess. It means to acknowledge or agree. It’s a compound word whose roots mean to speak together, or to say the same thing. When we confess that Jesus is Lord, we’re agreeing that He is who the Bible shows Him to be, the one who came to die for our sins.
The second point is believing that God raised Him from the dead. After the resurrection Jesus ascended to the Father to sit at His right hand. Since Jesus took upon Himself all the sins of mankind, and since sinful man cannot exist in God’s presence, the fact that Jesus is with the Father is proof that the penalty for all the sins of mankind were paid at the cross. If even one of our sins remained unpaid Jesus would still be in the tomb and we would be without hope.
The word “believe” means to be persuaded that something is true. We have to be persuaded in our heart that Jesus came to die for our sins and that the resurrection proves His death was sufficient to pay for our sins in order to be saved. It’s this belief that justifies us. (To be justified is to be made righteous in God’s sight.)
