The Salvation of Christian Faith - By Jim Tharp

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)

This divinely inspired writer is instructing the Hebrew Christians, most of whom were seeking to make the change from obeying the laws of Moses to now learning to live by faith in following Jesus Christ and His instructions for living the life of faith. He begins Chapter 1 by expressing the necessity of a strong faith for overcoming the challenges of evil in the world and the weaknesses of our own humanity. Let us take this Scriptural command as seriously as this “great cloud of witnesses” did. But, let us not forget that we are also told to “Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

OUR ETERNAL DESTINY - By Jim Tharp

“I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11)
In this Scripture in Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, believed to be the most brilliant man of his time, reminds us that God has “put eternity in our hearts.” I believe he is referring to the awesome responsibility our Creator has placed upon mankind as free moral agents to carefully choose their course in life. He is also reminding his readers that the Creator expects us to prepare not only for this life, but also for the one to come—which is eternal!

I hope all who read this are blessed with an awareness of an inner instinct—a moral and spiritual realization—that death will not be the end of us. The Word of God warns us in Hebrews 9:27 that we shall die, “but after this the judgment.”

Anthropologists have been reporting for centuries that in nearly all cultures there exists a haunting belief in life after death. Australian aborigines pictured heaven as a distant island beyond the horizon. Polynesians believed they would go to the moon when they died. Native Americans believed they would go to their happy hunting grounds. But the anthropologists did not report about any moral or spiritual preparations required for their safe arrival to the island, the moon, or the hunting grounds. But we should all be thankful to our Holy, Gracious, and Merciful God that we have the Living Word of God (our Lord Jesus Christ) and the Written Word of God.

OUR GRACIOUS, LOVING, ETERNAL GOD - by Jim Tharp

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5)

“Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.” (Psalm 33:8-15)
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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” These opening words of John’s Gospel in the New Testament remind us somewhat of the opening words of the Old Testament in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This first statement in the Old Testament reveals the origin of the universe, followed by scriptures that tell us about the origin of mankind and the origin of sin. Then, the New Testament reveals God’s plan of salvation for anyone who would repent of sin and believe in Jesus Christ as the Word, who is Jesus Christ the Son of God.

In John 1:1, “…the Word was with God” means that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as the Word are both eternal Beings! “In the beginning” has to do with the beginning of creation by our Heavenly Father and our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this message today I want to share what I believe we learn from our Bible about (1) Our Omnipotent God of Creation; (2) Our Omniscient God of History, and (3) Our Merciful and Loving God of Salvation.

1. Our Omnipotent God of Creation
We all need to realize that before anything was created our omnipotent God had existed forever. He created all things and is greater than all that He created. We understand from the first chapter in Genesis that the earth He created was not yet ready for man. So, the Holy Spirit (God) “. . . was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light; and there was light.’” (Genesis 1:2-3)

In due time, God created man; “. . . the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7) Let us carefully consider the Biblical meaning of “the breath of life.” In Genesis 7:22 we learn this means that man has been given “the spirit of life.” We are not immortal, but after death we shall not cease to be. After our death we will learn more about who we are and what we are. We certainly shall know whether we are in heaven or in hell!

2. Our Omniscient God of History
A Christian theological professor used to write on the visuals for those of us studying for the ministry that “History is HIS-STORY!” For humanity’s survival and success for their time on earth, our Creator requires that we observe and obey the laws of nature and His Holy Word. Good parents who love their children feel responsible for their education. They seek to help them understand at a certain point just what they want to do in the way of a vocation and how to prepare for it. But so few parents take seriously their responsibility to teach their children the importance of both knowing who God is and considering what their Creator would have them be and do. Blessed is the person, whether young or old, who believes the Scripture that God made the heavens and the earth. Even more blessed will he or she be who believes that God has a purpose and place for every individual. Since God is creator and ruler of the world, He is concerned that every one of us find our place in it.

3. Our Merciful and Loving God of Salvation
Our Eternal God of Creation, omnipotent and omniscient, foreknew that Adam and Eve would disobey His command and fall into sin. God also knew that Satan would defile a great number of the fallen angels and train them for warfare against all that the Eternal Creator had in mind for the human race. For two entire dispensations there has been the clash of two kingdoms—the kingdom of evil led by Satan and the Kingdom of God.

But the Triune Godhead, with love, mercy, and compassion for the lost human race, had a plan for the salvation of anyone who would respond to His love. Sinners would be convicted of sin, convicted of not being righteous, and convicted in a judgment. This conviction is a warning about their rejecting Jesus Christ as God’s only plan for their salvation. (John 16:8; Revelation 20:11-15)

This plan of salvation would be a costly one, as we read in John 3:16-19. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Dear readers, I appeal to you as an old man now seeking to continue sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am no longer able to travel the world and preach the Gospel, but I will write Gospel messages for as long as God keeps me alive and able. I plead with both believers and unbelievers to seek the Lord in these last days of this Church dispensation. None of us knows when Christ will return to rapture His believers and take us home to Heaven. Christians, we are warned by our Lord that the last-days signs He predicted should cause us to search our hearts and make sure we are ready for the Second Coming. Both believers and unbelievers should take seriously how Jesus warned us to be ready in Luke 21:36: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Believers, be ready! Unbelievers, prepare to meet Jesus! Thank God, it is not too late now, but tomorrow may be too late!

Believers, please join me in prayer for a mighty spiritual awakening that God’s Holy Spirit will resurrect dead churches and awaken unbelievers to become convicted of sin with a burning heart and faith to repent, believe, and trust Jesus Christ as Savior. Repentance and faith in Christ bring about the born-again experience, adoption into God’s redeemed family, and empowerment by the Holy Spirit within them to live the Christian life and be ready for death or the coming of Christ.

God promises His people that if we will meet His conditions, He will send the great revival we need. We read this in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” The church will be restored to greater spiritual life, and the same Spirit who revived the church will draw many unbelievers to repent and trust Christ as Savior and Lord. For whosoever believes in Jesus Christ shall not perish; those who do not will regret it eternally. Thank God, it is not too late! Today is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time! Anyone can either pray alone or call a believer and pray the sinner’s prayer. Believe in Jesus to be forgiven and find peace with God, and the power of the Holy Spirit within you will help you live the Christian life. May God bless you!

Note: All Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.

THE LOVE OF GOD - by Jim Tharp

“...God is love.” (1 John 4:8)

The apostle John is declaring in our text above that the primary nature of God is that of agape love: spiritual love, holy love, sacrificial love, Christian love. In John 3:16-18 (NKJV) we read what is known as the golden text of the Bible: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Love should be the hallmark of anyone who claims to be a Christian. This is what Jesus required of His followers. Every congregational church in the world should be an example of love. It was said of the early church, “Behold, how they loved one another!” It was the plan of our Lord Jesus Christ to have a loving body of believers called out of sin, selfishness, and worldliness; redeemed by the blood of Jesus; and filled with the Holy Spirit to love, pray, worship, and reach out to help others. In Acts chapter 2 we read about the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, when thousands had been convicted of sin and had trusted in Christ as Savior, and “all who believed were together and had all things in common.” (Acts 2:44).  The next verses record that they were “continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness, ...praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”  

I have been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ now for 73 years, and it has been my privilege to be the pastor of nine churches in five different states here in the United States over a period of 43 years. Seven of those nine churches measured up to standards of that first Christian church in Jerusalem. I regret so much that I did not see the love and caring, the devotion to Christ, and the members living in the power of the Holy Spirit in those other two churches.

The love of God is the most powerful love in the whole world. But we cannot ignore the reality of the power of evil in the world. Jesus warned His followers to beware of the treacherous tricks of Satan to break in on us to weaken, damage, or destroy our influence on a lost world. The love of God in a born-again Christian is meant to be attractive, appealing, and desirable. It worked in the early church, and I saw it working in seven of the nine churches that I have been privileged to lead.

VIOLATING “THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH” - by Jim Tharp

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except
through Me.” (John 14:6, NKJV)

When Jesus declared to His disciples that He was “the way, the truth, and the life,” He realized they could not grasp all that this meant. So, He went on to promise in verses 16 and 17 that He would pray the Father and He would give them another Comforter (Helper), called “The Spirit of Truth.” Please consider that the term for “comforter” in Greek is “parakletos,” meaning an advocate or one who is assigned to explain on another’s behalf. So Jesus is here telling His disciples—and us—that He is sending the Paraclete (the Holy Spirit) to become His and the Heavenly Father’s agent here on earth to convict us of our sins and to help us repent and trust Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.

The Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of Truth,” who helps unbelievers hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and feel convicted of sin to the extent that they feel the need to repent and believe in Jesus. We read in I Corinthians 2, verse 12, (NKJV): “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

Unfortunately, many will miss Heaven and be lost throughout eternity because they grieved the Holy Spirit while He was calling them to repentance for sin and trying to help them place their faith in Jesus for saving grace! As a 16-year-old boy, I remember the night, when upon hearing the Gospel, I felt my need to repent for my sins. For several minutes, I almost ignored His urging. But how thankful I am that I finally felt the urge to believe in Jesus. I got out of my seat, walked down that aisle, and knelt at the altar where I confessed my sins and invited the Spirit of Jesus to come into and transform my heart, and change my life. And, I thank God that many others have also allowed the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sins and help them place their faith in Jesus.

REKINDLING THE FIRE - By James Tharp

In Luke’s Gospel, chapter 12, verse 48 (NKJV), we read that Jesus said to His disciples, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” Jesus also spent a great deal of time preparing His disciples to be ready for the pouring out of His Holy Spirit of power upon them, which would be after His death, resurrection, and ascension. In fact, following His ascension, He commanded His disciples and other believers to go back into the city of Jerusalem and begin praying for the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit upon on them. And they were also commanded to not go out trying to preach the Gospel until they had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the secret of the Christian’s power! Remember, Jesus prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit as His first concern on the day of His baptism before taking up His ministry. In Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 3, verses 16-17 (NKJV) we read: “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’.”

Jesus knew that His coming to earth would be a battle from the time He began His ministry up to his death, resurrection, and ascension. He knew that He must be filled with, empowered by, and constantly obedient to the Holy Spirit to experience the power essential to complete His mission of preparing for the salvation of any penitent believer.

Jesus gave warnings to His believers that they would become the target of evil forces in their efforts to follow Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, we receive the Holy Spirit in our new birth experience of salvation, but too many fail to go on to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Millions of nominal Christians in our churches today are seemingly comfortable in their religious indifference and care little about hearing a call to a powerful Christian life available to anyone who will meet the conditions for being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Preparing for Spiritual Awakenings - by Jim Tharp

In Luke’s Gospel, chapter 3, verses 4-6, (NKJV), we read:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Spiritual awakenings in the church are called revivals. From the beginning of the Church, God has chosen to keep His church alive by renewing believers with fresh faith, fresh fire, and fresh devotion—with fresh stirrings of the Holy Spirit in believers who have grown week, distracted, or spiritually indifferent. Revivals are new beginnings of obedience to the Word and will of God. Pastors and elders in every congregation should remain sensitive to the spiritual condition of the members of their congregations in order to know when to call the church to meet God’s conditions for a fresh spiritual awakening.