It is time now for all persons everywhere to repent, especially the Christian people, because Jesus is coming soon. In fact, the Judge now is at the door of our hearts. If we will allow Him entrance into our heart He will purify us so we can offer an offering in the righteousness, love, and holiness that the Lord requires.

Christ eventually will be made the Center of every creature and every thing in the universe. In the present hour He must become central in His Church. God will insure that Christ is made the Center of attention in His Church, but it will require the flames of Divine judgment to bring this about. Man is at the center of the churches of today.

You and I can walk with God in the present hour. We can overcome the world. We can, through Christ, become a hundredfold conqueror. Let's do it.

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. (Matthew 16:27)

The Scriptures teach that saved people are rewarded according to their works.

We leave the world and enter the family of God by believing in Christ and being baptized in water. By faith in the atonement made on the cross of Calvary we receive forgiveness of our sins. But we are rewarded in the Kingdom of God according to our behavior in the present world.

It is one matter to have our sins forgiven. It is another matter to lay hold on the eternal life that is in Christ and to enter the fullness of the Kingdom of God—now, and when the Lord appears.

When addressing believers who had experienced the forgiveness of their sins the Apostle warns them concerning the relationship between their behavior and their entering the Kingdom of God.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (I Corinthians 6:9,10)

Paul is speaking to saved, Christian people—the saints in Corinth and Ephesus. He is informing them that a person, Christian or not, who behaves in a sinful manner cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

It is difficult for us to understand the above passage because we have been taught that the Lord Jesus "did it all" and our main task now is to wait to die and go to Heaven.

But there is a difference between having our sins forgiven, on the one hand, and becoming a new creation through Christ, on the other. The Kingdom of God comprises victorious saints who live in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The believer who continues in worldliness, in the lusts of his flesh, and in his own self-will, is not living in the Kingdom of God. He is walking in darkness.

To be continued.