{"id":30,"date":"2026-04-01T19:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/?p=30"},"modified":"2026-07-26T19:12:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:12:23","slug":"the-gospel-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/2026\/04\/01\/the-gospel-message\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel Message"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bible describes God in heaven as holy. Holy just means perfect. Now it&#8217;s really important to understand that God can&#8217;t let anything imperfect into heaven (Matt 7:21). Otherwise it won\u2019t just be Heaven. The Bible also says that all of us have a body and a soul (Matt 10:28) At death, our body is either buried or cremated, but our soul which is the real you, lives on forever either in heaven or hell. So unfortunately, we\u2019ve got a bit of a problem because the Bible says that if we\u2019ve just broken one of God\u2019s laws, for example if we lied once, cheated once, hated once, just once. Like we all have, lets be honest! Then our soul becomes imperfect and cannot enter Heaven. Do you know anyone who has never broken any of God\u2019s laws? The answer is obviously NO. So here is our problem. All people have broken God\u2019s laws. Therefore, all people have imperfect souls. So at death, your soul could either go to heaven or hell, but to get to heaven you must have a perfect record. And none of us have one. Then sadly all of us must be headed to hell. Now that might seem harsh if you ask the question, \u201cHow could a loving God create a place like hell, and send someone there? So let us look at it this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Think of someone you love very much. Now imagine that person is brutally murdered, the police catch the murderer, and the murderer pleads guilty in court. But to your horror, the judge says, \u201cThis is a very bad thing you\u2019ve done. But because am a loving judge, am just going to let you walk.\u201d You would be very angry, wouldn\u2019t you? Why? Because you know that when someone breaks the law they must be punished. Otherwise there is no justice. So you see, hell is not a <em>love <\/em>issue, its a <em>justice <\/em>issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lets consider three questions to help us understand why there is got to be this place called hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Have you ever told a lie in your life? Well, the answer is surely yes. Even though a so called white lie. If you\u2019ve lied once, then you are guilty of being a liar.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have you ever taken anything that is not yours? For example have you ever gone to work late and left early and got paid for it? Have you ever used the office photocopy or telephone without asking permission? Or knowingly taking an office pencil home? This is stealing of course. Most people have taken something that is not theirs, which makes them guilty of being a thief. Now do you think God is going to let a bunch of thieving liars like us into heaven? Not likely, because if he did, he would be the same as the unjust judge who failed to punish the murderer of the one you love. We can\u2019t have it both ways. But many people say, \u201cwait a minute, am a good person..and there is a big difference between lying and stealing and murder. I never murdered anyone\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But whats interesting is what Jesus redefined murder. He said that if you hated a person in your heart, you\u2019ve murdered them in your heart.(Matt 5:22)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here is the last question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Have you ever hated anyone? The truth is, everyone has held hatred or anger towards others in their hearts. Which in God\u2019s eyes makes us guilty of murder. So you see this is the bad news. For the sake of justice, there has to be a place called hell. But there is good news, and this is where Jesus Christ comes in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most significant thing that distinguishes Jesus from everyone else, is that he is perfect.Unlike us, he is not broken any of God\u2019s law, so he has a perfect record, a perfect soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Picture the scene before Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago. Jesus looked forward in time and saw you here today. He turned to God the Father and asked Him. \u201cFather, I love the people in the world, and I don\u2019t want them to go to hell for breaking your laws. Is there a way for them to be forgiven?\u201d God the Father looked at his Son and said, \u201cJesus, there is one way. Go to earth, and become a human being, but live a perfect life, then die a cruel death on the cross to take the punishment that the people in the world justly deserve for breaking my law. When you do this, I can make it possible for them to be forgiven the day when they ask you to exchange their imperfect record for your perfect record.\u201d Jesus willingly agreed, and 2,000 years ago, he came to lay down his life for us, to pay the price for all of God\u2019s laws that we\u2019ve broken. And there is no greater love than when someone lays down their life for another. But there is still something that we must do to be forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are three major events in everyone\u2019s life. There is birth and death. Ultimately, we have no control over these. But the third major event is the day we ask Jesus Christ to forgive us. When we ask Jesus to give us his perfect record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now there are some popular misconceptions about this, but in the Bible God\u2019s gift of forgiveness is clear. We are not forgiven by being Christened, or baptized, or confirmed. Not even by praying occasionally, or going to church, or by believing in God, or by trying to be good. These are all good things, but none of them give us forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus said that there are two things that we must do to be forgiven. The first, is that we must be willing to turn away from anything we know is wrong in our life, and say sorry to Jesus. Now notice the word willing. There may be some things in your life that you feel powerless to give up in your own strength. Like addictions, or habits or other complicated things. That&#8217;s okay, because God will help us as long as we are willing and want to turn away from those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second thing we must do is surrender to Jesus. Now surrender means this. If God made you, and the entire universe that surrounds you, don\u2019t you think He deserves to be the central part of your life? Surrendering to Jesus is when we acknowledge Him as our Saviour and humble our lives to him in service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you were born, its as though God opened a book about your life. Now bear in mind, God sees everything you do. He knows every attitude, every thought, every motive and every action. Every time we break just any one of God\u2019s laws, it\u2019s written down in that book. You can imagine by the end of our lives, there is a whole library written against us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But when you turn and surrender to Jesus, something incredible happens. Its like Jesus takes your book, and stands on top of a cliff and tears all the pages, the whole record of the things you\u2019ve done wrong, and he throws them into the deepest sea. He promises to never remember those things again. Jesus then takes a copy of his perfect record, which you\u2019ve asked Him to give you, and places it inside the cover of your book with your name on the spine. That book is then stored, like a precious library book in heaven. The miracle is, that your book is not touched again between the point you asked Jesus to forgive you and death, even though at that time you may make mistakes, and break God\u2019s laws again. Becoming a christian, doesn\u2019t instantly make you perfect, nor does it mean to say a quick prayer and return to your old ways. Remember, God forgave you forever when you asked for Jesus\u2019 perfect record. All He asks is that you surrender everything to Him and let Him daily refine you from your wrongdoing. When you die, you will go before God on judgement day and God will command his angels to get your book. He will look inside that book and say, \u201cthis person was perfect\u201d. You will probably say to Him, \u201cNo I wasn\u2019t, I broke your laws, don\u2019t I justly deserve to go to hell?\u201d And Jesus will say to you, \u201cfor the sake of justice, you do deserve to go to hell. You did break my laws and some you broke many times. But you my beautiful child have my perfect record which I gave you when you turned and surrendered to me on earth and I forgave you. Welcome to heaven\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That is why Jesus is so amazing. He made it possible for everyone in the world, regardless of what mistakes we made, to be forgiven and to one day enter heaven. But say you never turned and surrender. Think about what would happen. When you die you will go before God at judgement. And God will say to you, \u201cam sorry, I can\u2019t let you enter into heaven. I have to send you to hell. You never asked me to forgive you. I loved you so much that I tried six ways to get through to you\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, I died on the cross to take your punishment. Second, someone explained to you in a simple way that you could be forgiven. Third, there were churches throughout the world, some were good, and some I was ashamed of. You could have found the good one. Fourth, I gave you a conscience so you could tell from right and wrong. Fifth, I created a world around you that was so awesome, how could you not wonder about me? And finally, I rose from the dead to prove that I was God, and that everything I said was true, but you still did nothing. Am sorry, I can\u2019t let you into heaven, I have to send you into hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So how about you? If you die tonight, where will you go. Remember, to get to heaven you need a perfect record, which you could never have unless you asked Jesus to give you His. To receive his free gift you only have to do two things. First, be willing to turn away from the wrong in your life. And secondly, surrender to Jesus. Unless you do these two things, its impossible to be forgiven. And at death, its impossible to get into heaven. Which is so sad because this is the very reason Jesus died for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bible describes God in heaven as holy. Holy just means perfect. Now it&#8217;s really important to understand that God can&#8217;t let anything imperfect into heaven (Matt 7:21). Otherwise it won\u2019t just be Heaven. The Bible also says that all of us have a body and a soul<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/2026\/04\/01\/the-gospel-message\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34,"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/34"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasthourministries.co.tz\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}