“…The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness;…”

Ezekiel 33:12

The man who is wicked, the man who lies, cheats, and steals, and lives like the devil, and focuses everything on himself toward number one, Is it possible for that man, the second before his heart stops beating to say yes to Jesus Christ and be saved? Is it possible to live a Godless, wicked, rebellious, sinful life and be saved at the end? Do you believe that? Yes, it is possible for God to forgive a whole life of rebellion and bring that person in the Kingdom at the last minute, and that’s a great blessing. People get saved at the point of death, and they say it is just deathbed religion. I don’t care what you call it, if they’re sincere they’re saved. The warning right here is, you’ve been a Christian for so long, you’ve lived for God for the longest time in your life, and then suddenly you turn to self, and the Bible says, if “he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die”. The truth is, there is no time off for bad behavior for God’s people. It is never appropriate for God’s children to live rebellious lives. And the warning is, your past righteousness is not going to mount up to anything. People have the prevalent view that when we get to heaven there’s going to be a big scale there, and we’re going to put man’s good works on this one, and man’s bad works on this one, and which way it goes determines heaven or hell. Of course this could not be farther from the truth. I submit to you, there is no collected merit. There is no accumulation of good for the people of God to get you into heaven. You can have 50 years of your life totally committed to Christ, and you can die in utter rebellion. You say “i don’t like that”, i don’t like that either. That’s why “keeping on, keeping on” is important. We need to hang in there. We need to persevere unto the end (cf. Matt. 24:13).

People say, “God is not fair (cf. Ezek. 33:17)”. But the truth is, we live in an unfair world, and we get so used to an unfair life that we start projecting it on the righteous God. The Jews were precisely on that dilemma; their whole world has caved in. Their temple was gone. their priesthood was gone. Their promised land was gone. Their promise of a Davidic king was gone. God had taken away everything and they say it’s not fair. They accuse God of violating His trust with them. And God says, “Not so!, you did not keep our arrangement. You wanted the blessings without the responsibility. You wanted the good without the times of service. You wanted the promises I gave, but you didn’t want to live the life that I told you to live”. And these people are saying God’s not fair. You know, when you think about it, the just thing for God to do was really destroy this whole race of ingrates and covenant-breakers and start over. That’s what he should have done. If you want to get on merits with God, we are all in big trouble. If you want to get on what we deserve, on what your rights are, we’re all in deep trouble, deep trouble. None of us merit, or have rights that we can stand before God. We all deserve to die! But praise be unto God, our God is a merciful God. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live (cf. Ezek. 33:11). The wonderful thing about our God is, soon after He has exacted judgment, He promises blessing and restoration for the repentant sinners. God will redo. Trust Him. Repent, and He will put it back together. Hallelujah!

#human-merit