Allow me to preach from God's creation of the heavens and the Earth. God created the Sun for the greater light of the day and the stars and the moon for the lesser night light. The Sun is a star but much brighter and is the star that gives Earth life. The stars are angels that have been given their light to serve God and His kingdom, which are the inheritors of salvation, us. The moon has no light but only reflects the light of the Sun and has a dark side that receives no sunlight. Again, the Sun is Jesus. The stars are the angels, and the moon is the fallen man.

Many people have come into the presence of Jesus in His earthly ministry, and our day of churches walked out shining with the glory of God because of what they heard. And you would think, indeed, they have been born-again and love God. But as the moon circles around the Earth and the Earth circles the Sun, we see an awful dark side of man. And here, we begin to make up our doctrines by observing man's behavior rather than the timeless Word of God.

We forget Moses, who, just like us, fallen and in need of a born-again experience, saw the things of God on that mountain and came down shinning with the glory of God, a light so bright that a veil was required among the people.

You were auto-enrolled in discipleship school when you became born-again in Christ Jesus. There is no waiting period where Jesus is Savior; then, one day, He becomes Lord, and then you become His disciple. Salvation without Lordship is a manmade doctrine or religious construct based on the intention of the will with no regard to internal change or the eternal Word of God. The outside remains dirty because the inside didn’t change. But the person seems sincere in their words and declarations but are not concerned with a dirty diaper. And there are who are changed in a moment and are concerned about their outside but are left in their burial clothes as Lazarus was until Jesus commanded them to change him. Many believers are neglected because that have not been told the need for discipleship.

Paul, an apostle, tells us several times not to argue over words as they do not lead to righteous living. So, rather than be a word police when I hear someone say Jesus is my Savior but not yet my Lord, I let them define what they say before redirecting appropriately.

Last week, I talked about this man-made class and the division of the saints, the believers, and the disciples. Many in the church have falsely communicated, if not said outright, that believers receive the gift of salvation and that the disciples are either in the ministry or those looking for extra credit as overachievers. Jesus gave the Great Commission to make disciples, not subjective believers. We should know who belongs to God or the devil by their fruit, not their statement of faith or their truth.

I am giving an abstract view of the gospel so that your salvation does not rely on the cunningness of words but on the grace of God in Christ Jesus. In God's power, one is saved and not through intellectual understanding. The concrete gospel in John 3:16, Romans 10:8-10 and many other scriptures is good and leads us to the One and only Savior Jesus. But many are hearers of scriptures and not doers, so they stop with the reading of the scripture and do not do what it says to do. They think they have eternal life in the scripture they know but will not go to the Savior the scripture speaks of.

Jesus did not come to earth with a warrant and a guilty verdict of man's sinfulness. Jesus came to save, not judge. Jesus came to save those with a godly sorrow and a contrite heart. Jesus did not come to save those who have an admission of guilt but lack godly sorrow and a justification for continual sin.

Many people in prison and jails across this nation today have confessed their guilt but have no sorrow for what they did. These sinners claim their guilt, justify why, and then pay the time for the crime, waiting to get out to continue life on their terms. Like many baby Christians, they are not justified in Christ Jesus as if they never sinned but self-justified in their sin—an admission of sin but no repentance. Yes, I'm guilty of breaking the law, but I am justified in why I did it and continue it! Like the adulterer who blames his wife for cheating, my wife wasn't fulfilling her duties, so I had to go outside the covenant to meet my needs. The husband admits his guilt and then justifies it.