Yield To God

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing Alright? Well, that little greeting establishes the fact that this is indeed once again your good friend, Bob Cook. And I’m delighted for the privilege of sharing God’s Word with you. What we try to do is to put a handle on it so that you can get hold of it for yourself. God’s Word is forever true, whether or not anyone reads or believes it, but it becomes of value when you get hold of it for yourself and apply it to your own life. This then is my objective every time I open my mouth before these microphones, believe me. And thanks for being there. If you weren’t, there wouldn’t be anybody there, would there? Thanks for being part of that listening and praying audience.

Well, we’re in Mark chapter 16. We’d gone through verse 14 where the Lord Jesus appeared to the eleven as they were dining and scolded them because of their unbelief and hardness of heart. We talked about that. Then we went into verse 15, “He said unto them, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.'” Now, what do you mean by the Gospel? There are a number of different scriptures that could be quoted along this line. For instance, in the beginning of the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus, he came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the Gospel.”

That is a great sermon text, by the way, preachers. “The time is fulfilled. No chance to fool around. It’s now or never.” “The time is fulfilled.” This is God’s time for somebody. “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be cut off without remedy. Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” ” Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” All those different verses saying, “Today. this is it.” “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” The word ‘kingdom’ gives you a clue to the proper relationship between a human being and his God. The Kingdom of God. That is to say, a relationship where Almighty God is in control of that life. The essence really of being saved, becoming a Christian, is that you yield your life to the risen Son of God who comes in to dwell by His Holy Spirit and who then has control of your life, the Kingdom of God. How do you do this? Repent ye. It’s impossible to go two directions at once.

There are three Greek words that are translated ‘repent.’ Let me look up and see which one of them this is. One is ‘metanoia,’ which means a change of mind. And one is ‘metamelomai,’ which means change the way you feel about sin and God and righteousness and all the rest. And then one is ‘strepho,’ which means ‘turn around and go the other way.’ Let’s see which one this is. “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Metanoia, change your mind, change your thinking. Think this over and repent and believe the good news of the Gospel. The Lord Jesus approached the Gospel by saying you got to change the way you think so that it’ll change the way you live. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” the Bible says.

Well, there’s that reference to the Gospel. And then I think of another one that is quite familiar to all of you. I’m turning the pages of my big Bible here to go over into 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, and that would be chapter 15, wouldn’t it? You Bible students are way ahead of me, I know. He said, “I declare unto the Gospel which I preached unto you which also you’ve received and wherein you stand by which also you’re saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Now, this is the Gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas,” that’s Simon Peter. “And then of the 12. After that he was seen by about 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part are still alive but some have died. After that he was seen by James then, of all the Apostles, and last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time, and by the grace of God I am what I am.” That’s the Gospel.

What is it? Christ died for our sins. He was really dead. He was buried. He rose again physically, rose again, an actual resurrection. There were enough people who saw Him to give credibility to the fact of His resurrection. Cephas, the 12 apostles, 500 brethren at once, James, the apostles, and then Paul says last of all, “Me too.” The essence of communicating the Gospel is to be able to say not only the historical facts that Christ died and rose again and all of this, but to be able to say, “I know Him. I know Him.” The Gospel is never real in its proclamation unless the one proclaiming it can say, “Me too.”

Small thought here. In what I’ve just told you, you have the key to the banality and the ineffectiveness of many a sermon and many a pastor’s work, because it’s impossible for him to say, “Me too. I met Jesus too.” He may have gone to school, he may know all of the language, he may know how to construct a morning service and perform baptisms and weddings and funerals, but if he doesn’t have in his own heart that burning awareness as the two who met him on the way to Emmaus said, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way and while He opened to us the Scriptures?” If in the heart of the man or woman talking about the Gospel, there’s not that burning awareness of the reality of Jesus, then all talk means nothing. Oh, have that in mind, will you? Make sure that you know Him. Make sure that He’s filling your life with His presence so that when you speak about Jesus you are believable.

I got a well-deserved rebuke many years ago from a person who was either an atheist or agnostic, he didn’t know which, he said. We were on board ship. I remember I had taken this boat that ran from Los Angeles to San Francisco overnight. I don’t know if it still does, because this was back in the ’40s. But at that time there was a ship there that went from Los Angeles to San Francisco overnight. So I was in the middle of a string of meetings and I thought, “Oh, I’ll take a boat and get a good night’s sleep, and awake refreshed.” Well, after dinner I was strolling the deck and I made the acquaintance of this gentleman, and found out that he was, as I said, either an atheist or an agnostic, he didn’t know which but he certainly was not in any mood to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So I thought, “Well, I’ll share it with him.”

And so I talked to him about Christ, and I talked to him about being saved and all of that. Suddenly he broke in and he said two things that I shall always remember. One thing he said really cut me down. He said, “Whenever you talk about your Jesus your voice takes on a different tone.” He said, “Why aren’t you natural when you talk about Him?” And it revealed to me in that moment that maybe I was trying too hard to put something across instead of sharing a wonderful person. Then the other thing he said which I shall always remember was this, “I don’t wanna be somebody’s convert.” And he was swearing as he said this, I’ll clean it up for the benefit of the listeners. But in using profanities, “I don’t wanna be somebody’s convert.” He said, “I just want somebody to care about me.” And this, of course, is the cry of the human heart everywhere, “Looking for somebody to care about me.” “Come see about me,” is the cry that you hear everywhere.

Well, I’m glad to tell you that the Lord Jesus Christ does care about you, and the closer that we walk with Him the more we care about you as well. I have to tell you that when I’m speaking, even on these messages, all I can see is a microphone in front of me but my heart sees people, people who have to pay the rent, and people who have a sick child, and people who have a straying husband, and people who have in-law trouble, and people who have job trouble, and people who are sick with some kind of incurable disease, or people who are crippled by arthritis, or people who are lonely and forsaken. People… Oh, I can feel in my heart now how some of you feel and I pray that God may minister even now to your need where you are, beloved.

But as I say, the closer you walk with the Lord the more you care; the farther you walk from Him the less you care, that’s the way those things work. So I do remember the remark of that man and so as we stood there on the deck of the coastal steamer, by the rail, talking, he said, “I don’t wanna be somebody’s convert. I want somebody to care about me.” Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you. And not only does He care but He’s able to do something about it. He’s able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. You have a Savior who not only cares about you but who also is able to do something about the situation when you commit it to Him. There is no situation so hopeless but that my Almighty Savior can take hold of it and make something out of it for His glory. Believe it and act on it, beloved, even today.

The Gospel, “Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again. He was seen by many people.” Last of all me too, I know Him also. Shortly after he was brought to faith in Christ, Stuart Hamblen was telling us, this would be back in the ’40s, I guess, or ’50s, ’40s. He was telling us that he’d been on an airplane seated next to a man who had no time at all for the things of God. So, this man was saying, “Do you actually believe in a God? Can you believe such stuff?” And Stuart, in his booming voice, he said, “Why, of course, I believe in God. I talked to Him this morning.” [chuckle] Well, you philosophy majors may say that was begging the question, but therein, in that very statement, lies the essence of real communication of the Gospel. For if you’ve met the Lord and walked with Him, and heard His voice, and felt His tender touch upon your life, you’re gonna be able to communicate to others the glad good news that Jesus is alive and that He’s waiting to come in to the waiting heart. If you’ve never received Christ as Savior, why don’t you invite Him in today?

I love Revelation 3:20, don’t you? “Behold, I stand at the door.” Our Lord Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me.” Our Lord Jesus is waiting for you to invite Him in to your heart house, and He’s knocking at your door. Would you let Him in today? Would you invite Him in? Right where you are, if you can, just take just a moment to bow and say, “Lord Jesus Christ, come into my heart, make me a child of God, make me all that I ought to be, make me a servant of the Lord, live your life through me, forgive my sins and save me now.” Pray that prayer, invite Him in and when you do, He says He will come in to your life. What a difference it will make. If any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creation.

Dear Father today, may we be real in our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. I ask in His name. Amen.

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