Lord Of Heart

If you're not willing to surrender to Jesus Christ, you're not gonna get anywhere with God.


Scripture: John 10:31

Transcript

And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? You doing alright? Well, certainly, I’ll wait for you to answer. My father used to tell me, he said, “Boy, when you ask a question, give people time to answer.” How he pounded that into me. Another one was, “Speak when you’re spoken to.” [chuckle] I was a little shy and I’d hang back and hang my head. He would jack me up about that. [chuckle] Speak when you’re spoken to. He taught me to have a firm handshake and look people in the eye, he said, “Look ’em in the eye boy. Look ’em right in the eye.” [chuckle]

For a man that never went beyond, I guess sixth or seventh grade, he was self-educated and he was a pretty good psychologist. Sometimes when I’d be discouraged and all of that, he knew the value of encouragement. He’d pick me up and sit me on his knee and look at me and give me a hug and say, “I’m betting on you my boy. I know you can do it.” He could’ve had the whole world right then, far as I was concerned. [chuckle] That’s why I stopped and listened for you to answer when I ask how in the world are you.

You and I are in John 10, and our Lord Jesus had been saying, “My father is greater than me, I and my father are one.” He identified Himself as God. Now verse 31 says, “Then, they took up stones, again, to stone him.” They were gonna kill him. Why? Well, because He was violating the deepest of their religious biases and prejudices. “Here, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, strength and mind,” and so on.

Quotation from Deuteronomy 6, familiar to all of them, and here was somebody who’s saying, “I and my father are one. I’m the same as father God.” He was saying, “He that hath seen me hath seen the father,” He said in another place. And this violated then some of their deepest religious feelings. It didn’t make it right that they wanted to kill him but it’s understandable why they felt that way. They were gonna kill him. He said, “Many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of these good works are you stoning me?” And they answered, “For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; because thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”

He had ’em there. He said, “It’s written in your law, I said, ye are gods. If He,” that’s David, “called them gods unto whom the Word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken. Are you saying of Him whom the Father hath sanctified,” that’s Jesus himself, “Are you saying of Jesus that He’s blaspheming, because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of the Father, don’t believe me. But if I do, though ye believe me not, believe the works, that ye may know and believe, that the Father’s in me and I in him.”

They sought again to take Him, but He escaped out of their hand, and went away into the Jordan. Now, what is the point of all this so far as you and I are concerned? Number one, Jesus is God, just as much as God is God the Father or God the Spirit. Number two, the point at which people back off is recognizing Him as Lord and God. You see that here. You see it in your own life. There are people all around who are willing to talk about Jesus and who can speak well of him, but to make Him your Lord, they back off.

It’s as the Indian gentleman said to Hubert Mitchell and Dick Riley as they were evangelizing all night in the airport at Calcutta, Dum Dum Airport, just outside of Calcutta, waiting for Mel Dunlop and for me to get in about 4:00 in the morning. They spent all night long preaching the gospel and this one gentlemen said to them, as they were talking about Jesus. And I think I’m quoting it pretty accurately across the years although it happened in 1948, 40 years ago. But as I remember what he said, as they reported it an hour or so later, he said, “If you say Jesus was a good man and a great teacher, I will be your friend. But if you say Jesus is Lord of all, I will fight you and fight Him until you are both out of India.” That’s what he said.

You see, you run up against it in so many ways. People are willing to talk about God but they’re unwilling to make Jesus Lord of all. And that is the separation point. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man,” that doesn’t leave any loophole does it? “No man cometh onto the Father but by me.” And if you’re not willing to surrender to Jesus Christ, you’re not gonna get anywhere with God. That is the long and the short of it.

If you’re not willing to surrender to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you’re not gonna get anywhere with God. That’s why these people were angry. They didn’t want Christ as the fulfillment of prophecy and the manifestation of God in their midst, they didn’t want him. Later on, they said, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Where do you stand in all of this? Where do you stand? Now, He says, “There’s one thing that will prove to that what I’m saying is true and that’s what I do.”

And I’ve oftentimes told people through the years, let Jesus start to work in your life and you’ll know whether or not the Gospel is true. I’ve had people pray even along this line, “Oh, God, if there is a God. And Jesus, if there is a Jesus, I want you to come into my life. And I ask for this now, I ask you to forgive my sins and to reveal yourself to me, and to live in my life.” And I’ve had people pray that prayer and be thoroughly transformed in their whole outlook because God answers prayers like that.

If you are sincere in seeking God, He’ll meet you. “Draw near to God, and He’ll draw nigh to you,” the Bible says. Pastor McCarrell used to say, “If you get definite with God, He’ll get definite with you.” Your doubts will be dissolved. This whole problem of backing up and gagging at the idea of letting Jesus run your life will be solved when you invite Him in by faith, and see what he begins to do in your life. Invite Him in by faith and see what He begins to do. People are afraid of that. They think, well, if I become a Christian, He’ll make me a missionary and send me to Nigeria. No, not necessarily. He could but not necessarily.

God has plans for you that fit into the general framework of your life. See? Don’t be afraid of what may happen. Take the story of the demoniac who lived there in Gadara. He was full of demons, not just one, but many. And his condition when they, the demons, were in control was, he was naked, he was violent, he was restless and nobody could hold him or subdue him. And the Lord Jesus threw the demons out of him, cast them all out, and some changes occurred.

When the townspeople came to hear about all this, they looked at this man who had been full of demons. They found he was quiet now instead of restless. They found he was clothed, I don’t know who loaned him some clothes but somebody did. He was clothed instead of naked. And they found him perfectly at peace instead of being violent. Would you say that that was a good change? Would you say that was a change for the better? Well, I think you’d have to say that, wouldn’t you? Were those changes good changes? Yes, they were. Did Jesus do the man good? Yes, he did. Can we infer from that, that when Jesus makes a change in your life, he will do good things for you? The answer’s yes, you can infer that.

God says, “I know the thoughts I think towards you. Thoughts of good, not evil.” And we know. Paul says in Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good,” G-O-O-D. Good. “For them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” See, the backup point with the unsaved heart is: I’m afraid, I don’t want this man to rule my life, I don’t want this savior to be my Lord. I don’t want to acknowledge that Jesus is God, and that He’s the messiah, that He’s the redeemer, that He’s the one God sent to reveal God to me and to forgive my sins.

I don’t want to do that and I’m afraid if I do that there’d be some changes I don’t like. Look around you and see. Did you ever see anybody that knew Jesus that was sorry that he became a Christian? Read the Bible and find out, was there anybody that ever met Jesus that was sorry he met him? Only one that I know of, and that’s the one that rejected him, the young man that was so rich that he wasn’t willing to give his life to Christ. It said, “The young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” He let his money get in the way of his salvation.

But the blind people who had their eyes opened, they were glad. The lame people who began to walk, they were glad. The deaf man who could now hear, he was glad. The mute who was now able to speak, he was glad. The lady who’d been sick for many years and touched the hem of Christ’s garment and was healed, she was glad. The paralyzed man who’d been sick for 38 years, he was glad when Jesus changed things in his life.

Well, you want to think about that in the context of your own life? What is it that you’ve been backing off from? What is it that you’ve approached just so far, and then you said, “No, not me.” What is that? Why don’t you turn that over to the Lord Jesus Christ? Let Him take control of your life. Here’s what you do. Pray, “Lord Jesus, the best I know how I give you by faith control of my life, I invite you in. And I pray that you’ll be my Lord and my savior. Thank you for hearing my prayer.” You talk to him like that, and He’ll answer you. Do it now. Do it today. “The Father is in me,” said He, “And I, in Him.”

Everything you need to know about almighty God is wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you open your heart to the Savior, you receive a passport into all the secrets of God’s world. “The secret of the Lord,” the Psalmist said, “is with them that fear Him. And He will show them His covenant.” God shows you things, He doesn’t just tell you. He shows you. There’s a difference, isn’t there? The learning process is when someone shows you. The informing process is when someone tells you.

God shows you the way He works, the promises He makes, the covenants that He keeps and the wonderful person that He is. The secret of the Lord. Would you open your heart to Christ today, and let the Holy Spirit come to dwell in your life? The Holy Spirit indwells the heart of every believer and wants to fill your life with Himself. Let the Lord Jesus become Lord of your life, let Him start to develop God’s plans through you and see for yourself the blessed, wonderful, delicious joy of being led step by step in the purpose of God.

Dear Father today, oh may we walk close with Thee, may the Lord Jesus be enthroned in our hearts as Lord of all. And may Thy divine purpose be worked out for His glory, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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