"Lord of all or not at all"
Matthew 7:20-23
(Prayer: Hebrews 1:14 and 1 Peter 1:12-13)
A few weeks ago we began a journey together beloved through this blessed Word of God to discover and dig out the truth of how a soul is really saved from a devil’s hell by the blood of Christ Jesus. It has been a personal journey for myself as the Holy Spirit has revealed to my heart and mind the reality of when I was saved from a devil’s hell and that before September 10, 1995 the Lord Jesus had never known me. Even though my life stank with religion and with righteous works that were in the eyes of God nothing more than filthy rags, there had been no salvation of my eternal soul. I had simply joined something without feeling the convicting power of the Holy Ghost nor being led to the place of Repentance by that same blessed Holy Spirit. Over the last two weeks we’ve studied in depth those two needed elements in anyone’s salvation and over all our excuses the Lord Jesus still says, NEVERTHELESS! Nevertheless I tell you it is for your benefit that I go away because if I go not away the COMFORTER will not come but if I go I will send him unto you and he will reprove the world of sin, righteousness and of judgement. Of sin because they believe not on me…
Beloved I had all the religious baggage but I didn’t have Jesus and he did not know me because he had not yet written my name in his blood in his book, the Lamb’s Book of Life! I had a baptism certificate and some obscure day in my past when I tried to do the right thing and identify my life with Jesus but I wasn’t saved then. They told me I was and they may have all believed I was and even I believed I was until God showed me I had never felt conviction and responded to that first work of the Holy Spirit by repentance towards God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit! I had birthed something in my flesh that had no power upon it to transform my heart and mind. I had a church that would have said I was a fine member who gave my time and my talents and my money but Jesus never knew me! Someone might have gave witness of the great works I had done as a Youth Director, Brotherhood Director and even as a Sunday School teacher but Jesus never knew me! I had been baptized in the summer of 1981 after an event at a Youth Camp but had simply gone down a dry lost soul and risen from the water a wet lost soul with no ability to shine in the darkness of the great work that hadn’t yet been done in my heart. SHINED NO MORE LIGHT FOR CHRIST JESUS THAN A WET MATCH ON A STORMY NIGHT AND EVEN THOUGH THE WORLD MAY HAVE SAID I WAS SOMETHING, JESUS NEVER KNEW ME! HE NEVER KNEW ME! IF I HAD DIED BEFORE SEPTEMBER 10, 1995 EXPECTING TO GO TO HEAVEN I WOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN INTO A DEVIL’S HELL!
Beloved I believe with every fiber of my being that the devil’s done chewed off all his fingernails from worrying about what this preacher is going to do with what God has shown me! Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 that there is a war being fought in the heavenlies between spiritual forces and wickedness in high places withstanding the glorious work of God and the Christian. Do you ever consider the power of the light that is shined in darkness when we just get honest with God and listen to what he tells us? I believe the devil was in the phone booth calling 911 last Sunday and the Sunday before that as people, good people who weren’t saved but had tried, good people that would give you the shirt off their backs or cook you a meal if you were hungry, they were good people but the devil ran screaming when the listened to the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit and got saved! JESUS KNOWS THEIR NAME NOW BECAUSE HE WROTE IT DOWN IN HIS BOOK! I BELIEVE THAT! I KNOW THAT HE KNOWS ME! DOES JESUS KNOW YOU?
"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night and the OVERCAME HIM BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND BY THE WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONY AND THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH."
Revelation 12:10,11
There is a trembling in the ranks of spiritual darkness and wickedness because one nobody Baptist preacher listened to God and shared his testimony, the truth of his testimony with the flock, to set free 14 souls from a devil’s hell and break the bondage of a false gospel and a lie. Satan may have whispered and pouted and cried and throwed him a fit but God won again! Jesus won again! The Holy Ghost won again! Satan did everything he could to try and keep them and convince them they were alright but God won out and Jesus knows your name! Give him praise and glory!
This has also been a corporate journey in the church as men and women have simply followed the leading of God and responded when they were shown their true condition. Thank God that we’re brothers and sisters in Christ now and my only wish is that Brother T had been here to see it. I wish that we could have heard him laugh and praise God but I know that he’s watching us from heaven right now and he’s keeping updated. I can hear him now as an angel came up to him and said, Brother T did you hear about all the people getting saved in your little church. Why no, how many and who? Oh angel you don’t say! You don’t say!
In 1875 William Booth preached a prophetic message of the greatest danger facing the 20th Century church of believing a false gospel that had no power to transform the heart and mind. He worried that we would hear and believe a gospel that preached…
Conversion without Conviction, Regeneration without Repentance, Salvation without Lordship and would eat up heaven but not also believe in the reality of hell. That seems to be a pretty good introduction to the message today and I want to preach what God has given me about the 3rd part in a 5 part series about the truth of salvation. With the help of your prayers please and the leadership of the Holy Spirit I want to preach a one point message today of
NO SALVATION WITHOUT LORDSHIP or as I have entitled it, Lord of all or not at all so call it what you will but above all listen to God speak through this servant today and don’t you leave here on your way to hell if God moves your heart. You may never have another chance! You may live longer than anybody here today but you may never be stirred by the Holy Ghost again to move you into the presence of Christ Jesus. At the end of this message in just a few short minutes from now we’re going to give you the chance to be saved if God moves you but beloved if he moves on you strong enough before then, you just stand to your feet and come take me by the hand and we’ll do everything in our power to bring you to Jesus right then. Don’t you wait if the Lord moves you!
First beloved to have salvation by the blood of Christ Jesus it is necessary to also make him the Lord of your life. James 219 says to those of you who say I believe in God so that must be enough. "Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well for even the demons believe and tremble." Just believing in Jesus isn’t saving faith beloved any more than coming to church makes you born into the family of God. Just believing in God isn’t enough to get you into heaven any more than your church membership will get you in.
Look with me at Mark 1:21-25 (read) WHERE WAS THIS LOST SOUL AT? BEFORE JESUS SHOWED UP IN THAT CHURCH, DID ANYONE ELSE KNOW THAT MAN WAS LOST AND ALSO DEMON POSSESSED?
Look also at Mark 5:1-7 (read) What was the testimony of this demon called Legion? What condition was this man’s body and soul in before he met Jesus that day in Gadarea? What happened to him once he finally was set free by the one called Jesus?
YOU’LL NEVER BE THE SAME EITHER WHEN HE REALLY SAVES YOU BECAUSE HE’LL ALSO BECOME YOUR LORD! You won’t do the things you used to do, you won’t love the way you used to love, you won’t say the things you used to say! It’s a life changing experience and you’ll never be the same! My grandpa used to say even the old dog on the back steps will know you’ve been saved because you won’t walk out there and kick him anymore!
Second thing to say about the born again experience is that the Lordship of Christ is a death unto yourself. The old man has to die for the new man to take his place. I find it funny that all those in the word of God who truly knew Jesus considered themselves to be BONDSLAVES TO CHRIST because of the great salvation they had received. They became servants to all by humbling themselves the way Jesus said we would if we followed him. Paul went so far as to say, I have become all things to all men in hopes that some of them might be saved and OBEDIENCE is the character trait most missed in those who say they’re Christians today. We don’t like that word but until we OBEY HIM and give all of ourselves to him, we can’t really be sure that we have been known by him. Not saying in any way shape or form that you must do something to earn your salvation but instead I am saying that because of your salvation YOU WILL DO SOMETHING THAT OTHERS WILL SEE AS EVIDENCE OF THE MARVELOUS WORK DONE IN YOUR HEART. ( I want to share just one example about the great salvation that is evident in Louise Hare’s heart)
Let’s find out how we respond to salvation and Lordship. First there must be an intellectual agreement in your human mind that accepts the reality that Jesus died for your sins on Calvary. We realize that he died an actual, excruciatingly painful death on a rough hewn cross perched on top of Golgotha’s hill. He died there and we put him there! I put him there! My hands gripped the hammer and drove those nails in his precious hands and feet. My hands forced that crown of thorns into the flesh of his brow and my arms drove the spear into this side. Calvary must become PERSONAL! Let’s go to Calvary this morning if we can… Here he comes…the others scream and twist and fight like mutilated animals but not Jesus, he lays himself upon the cross and offers his hands and his feet. He gave himself for you beloved because he would rather die a death you deserved than to see you die with no hope of salvation. When he cried out… IT WAS YOUR SINS AND MINE LAID ON HIS SINLESS HEART!
Do you believe Jesus actually died for you? Next we must receive him into our hearts and let him in. John 1:12 and also Revelation 3:20 (read) Have you let him into your heart? When you let him in the first thing the Holy Spirit is going to do is some housecleaning and if you refuse that cleansing you’ll wind up in worse shape than before you ever tried to get saved. Jesus said that when a demon is cast out of a man he leaves seeking rest in the dry places but finds none so he decides to return to the home he left and when he gets there he finds it clean and swept and bring 7 demons more wicked than himself to set up house and the condition of that man is worse than it was at the first. I believe this happens because many want to be saved from a devils’ hell but not many want to make Jesus LORD OF ALL! Lordship is the right of the Son of God because he died to save you. LOOK AT THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 3:7-19 (unbelief was the main cause) Need to first settle the issue of what you believe about Jesus death on the cross and then you must receive him into your heart.
And finally you must completely Trust him with your life. Ephesians 2:1-10 and also 3:7. When you completely trust him, the Holy Spirit changes you under the Lordship of Christ.
1 John 5:12 (read) Beloved I know that right now you can know if you’re saved or if you’re lost by answering only four questions.
1. Have you at any time, any place, under any condition ever felt the convicting power of the Holy Spirit on your heart?
2. When you were convicted by the Holy Spirit for your sins, did you respond to that conviction by repenting of your sins toward God?
3. Have you turned from your sins and trusted Jesus making him Lord of your life by believing in his death, burial and ressurrection?
4. Have you confessed your salvation before men unashamedly giving Jesus the glory for what has happened in your heart?
Now I want you to know this beloved, if you can’t answer with a yes to all FOUR of these questions I wouldn’t put much faith in the fact that you were saved and you shouldn’t either. You know the greatest weapon in the devils armory is to give us a little bit of religion but not let us enter all the way into the family of God. He’ll do that to you! He lies and whispers in your ears that you don’t need this but the voice of God is screaming to you right now that Jesus doesn’t know you! Listen to God today! Believe God today! You can be saved if you’ll only yield and submit to the Holy Spirit this morning. You may never have another chance to be saved if you refuse to respond to him today. Remember the people in Matthew 7 this morning because they thought they were alright but had accepted a lie born in the pits of hell to keep them from the kingdom of God.
I don’t know what you got when you got saved but I know what the Lord did to me. He moved in on my life and just started shaking me! Shook me up and turned me around and I loved and still love every minute of it. Jesus is my Savior and my Lord so he has the right to do anything he chooses with me doesn’t he? They didn’t have to send no committee to my house to find out why I wasn’t coming to church because the Holy Spirit saw to that! They didn’t have to send over the Bible police to inspect my bible to see if I had been reading it because I was hungry for the word of God and you know what I get hungry everyday, don’t you? When Jesus really comes into our life as Savior and Lord he makes us hungry for more of him and thirsty for his righteousness doesn’t he?
Am I the only one God’s been messing with?
Make Jesus Lord today! He’ll save you and you’ll never be the same!
