EXPENSIVE BARGAINS!
DFO1401
19/12/80
--Bargain Counter Religion!
1. THE CHEAPEST THING IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST THING. Bargains frequently aren't worth it & may turn out to be a bigger gyp than the higher-priced real thing. You may even get less than what you paid for in buying a bargain. You may have paid less for it but gotten very much less than if you'd paid a little more & gotten quality!
2. It's like my Mother used to say about eating places: Why go to the "Sign of the Greasy Spoon" & the "Stinky Kitchen" & get cheap junky food that you're not even sure is clean to save a quarter or 50 cents?--Your life is worth more than that!
3. The same goes for anything--clothing, jewelry, food, trailers, cars, whatever. The cheapest is not necessarily the best buy! You may not get your money's worth. The cheapest stuff may be half-price, but one-fourth value, or maybe even worse! That's true of almost everything in life: The lowest-priced thing is not necessarily the cheapest.--It may cost you more in the long run!
4. IT REMINDS ME OF WHAT MY MOTHER USED TO SAY ABOUT BARGAIN COUNTER RELIGION: IT DOESN'T COST YOU ANYTHING. David said, "I will not give unto the Lord of that which hath cost me nothing." (2Sam.24:24) His religion had to cost him something, it had to be worth something.
5. MOST CHURCHES THAT I KNOW OF ARE GYP JOINTS where they're claiming to sell the people valuable goods, worth something that's going to get'm to Heaven, when actually it's a gyp! But the people are willing to buy it because it doesn't cost them very much, it doesn't require much sacrifice!
6. They can go & selfishly live for themselves & never witness, never help others, never help the missionaries, never really give, never really do anything for the Lord, totally selfish, living completely for themselves & for Mammon & giving virtually 99% of their time to their own selfish pursuits & maybe giving less than 1% of their time to the Lord!
7. They figure, "That's pretty cheap religion, doesn't cost me very much. Doesn't cost much of my time, I don't have to pay much money for it, & yet it looks grand & great!" They go to a pretty building & they have pretty services, & they think they're getting a bargain because it costs them so little!
8. AND OF COURSE THE WORST GYP IS BARGAIN SALVATION THAT DOESN'T SAVE YOU & you wind up in Hell when you thought you'd paid your way to Heaven, like a lot of these religionists.--Whether they pay with money or penance or church-going or whatever.
9. It cost a priceless gift to get saved, & that was Jesus & His Blood, & receiving Him for your salvation is the only thing that's going to save you. That's the highest-priced gift anybody could ever receive, the highest cost anybody could pay for your salvation, & only Jesus could do it. Anything less is bargain counter religion that won't save you, & is not even worth what you pay for it!
10. No matter how much you sacrifice & pay for it by your own works, it's cheap, it's too cheap, because you won't get the real thing, & you'll wind up in Hell after all your hard work & all your sacrifice & all the cheap price you paid for it. It still wasn't enough, for only Jesus could pay for it, because the price was too high for you.--You could never afford it.
11. It applies to everything.--No matter what field of life, don't trust bargains. They may not even be worth what you pay for them, especially if they're worth nothing, like bargain counter salvation, which isn't salvation at all!
12. A LOT OF EX-FAMILY MEMBERS & BACKSLIDERS FIGURE, "Why should I pay so much for my religion & my salvation & to go to Heaven & have to give up my whole life & my wife for FFing & my children for the streets & singing & my family & my home & forsake-all for Jesus & live like a foreigner & a stranger in a strange land & forsake all & give everything I've got?
13. "Why should I pay such a big price for my religion when I can go home & have a nice comfortable job, comfortable home, fancy appliances, new car, & live comfortably & go to church an hour a week? I'm getting by cheap! It's costing me very little & I'm reputable in the eyes of the community. Easy believism, easy religion!"
14. But they're going to find out when they get to Heaven, if they get there at all, that it was pretty costly!--Very costly! Because they're going to wind up in everlasting shame & contempt--forever! That's a Hell of a long time & that's a pretty big price to pay for such cheap religion! (Dan.12:2)
15. We give everything we've got but we're going to find out that that was really a pretty cheap price to pay for the reward we're going to get! So we're the ones who are actually getting the bargain! By giving our all we're going to get everything. They're giving almost nothing & that's just what they're going to get! So if you ask me, the price they're paying is more than what we're paying, because they're going to get so little in return!
16. They can be thankful if they make it at all, even get in! And if they do, they're going to suffer everlasting shame & contempt--no crown for their labours, no stars in their crown for souls, nothing! Because they sent up nothing. And that's a pretty big price to pay, the loss of your reward, because of your refusal to pay the price here.
17. They're losing so much, they can't even imagine how much they're losing by their cheap religion that doesn't cost them very much. Well, they're going to find out that they're getting just what they paid for, which wasn't very much.
18. TIME WASTED IS GONE FOREVER, & though it was easy to waste, it can be pretty expensive. Time well-spent may have cost a lot in effort & strength & sacrifice & love & whatever, but when we see what our reward is going to be even here & now as well as hereafter, it's a bargain.
19. We may find out that a lot of the stuff we did & the time we wasted was no bargain. We paid several times what it was actually worth for that pleasure or that time wasted, it was pretty expensive. And this religion some of our backsliders have, when they find out how much they're losing by this easy religion, they're going to find out it was pretty expensive religion!
20. Whereas the people like you & me for whom it has cost everything, when we see what we're going to get in return, are going to figure, "Wow, what a bargain! We gave everything, but what we're getting in return is worth so much more than everything we could possibly give!" That's what I call a bargain!--When you get back a whole lot more than you paid for! Amen?
21. If you pay $1000 for something & it's only worth $100, that's no bargain. But if you pay $10,000 & it's worth $100,000, that's a bargain! It cost you more but it's worth a Heaven of a lot more! PG! TYL! So even if a thing didn't cost you very much, if by buying it you're losing even more than it cost you, it's far more expensive than the thing that cost you everything, but is going to pay you even more.--What are YOU buying?