Many of you would like to
know Jesus and would like to get close to Jesus. You would like to have Jesus
in your heart and you would like to have salvation but you face many obstacles.
What are they?
The Bible teaches that pride
keeps more people from Christ than any other sin. The sin of pride. Pride is
taking the glory that belongs to God alone and keeping it for ourselves. The
Bible says God resisteth the proud but give grace to the humble.
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
James 4:6(KJV)
Jesus said we are to become
His little children to be converted.
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3(KJV)
2. Idolatry
Creating a god in our mind or
anything that replaces God in our lives. It keeps us from Christ. Idolatry
happens when we idolize ourselves, we idolize man, we idolize material things
and all of these things become false gods. The Bible says these who commit
idolatry shall have their part in the lake of fire.
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Revelation 21:8(KJV)
The Bible says thou shall have no other gods and shall not make any graven image nor bow down thyself to them.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exodus 20:3-5(KJV)
3. Worldliness
The interest or pleasure of
this world. There are many of us who are selling our soul for a little bit of
this world. Suppose you have all the gold, oil, diamonds, and all the wealth of
the whole world and all the degrees of education and lose your soul.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 16:26(KJV)
The Bible says we need to give
up the wrong things that are in the world, the lust, greed, hate, prejudice, and
the materialism part of the world that’s wrong. We have to turn from those
things when we come to Christ.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15(KJV)
4. Secret sin
Our families and friends may
not even know about our secret sins but we know. Most of all nothing is hid
from God and He is speaking to us about our secret sin. Perhaps we have been
battling with the hidden man of our hearts with the secret sins. Confess them
to Christ, come to the cross and bring those secret sins before the Lord and
surrender everything to Him.
In the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Romans 2:16(KJV)
The Bible says God will judge
every secret things whether good or evil.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14(KJV)
5. Self Righteousness
Is another thing that keeps
people from Christ. They have a very good opinion of themselves and their own
character and yet are not cleansed from their filthiness of their hearts.
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
Proverbs 30:12(KJV)
Saying we are good when we
are bad. Saying we are good but actually we are sinning, breaking God’s law.
Confident of one’s own righteousness.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
