Glen Bond Tabernacle Wed. Nov. 10, 2004 Subject: Will you be identified with Christ? Why am I here? To preach the glorious gospel of Christ. Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. The gospel is the good news that Christ died for sinners. He only died for sinners. We don't read any where in Gods word that he died for the PROUD. We don't read where he died for the self righteous. We dont read where he died for the un-repentant. He died for sinners. Are you a sinner? I don't have anything new for you tonight. All I have is the word of God. It is the same thing you have already heard, over and over. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Your natural heart will not receive the things of God. You can't know them nor understand them. This is one reason why the gospel must be preached over and over. The natural heart won't have it. I hope that the holy spirit will move here tonight and give some of you the ability to recieve and to know some of the things of the Spirit of God. And I know that if you are truly seeking the Lord, you have no idea about what you should do. You are LOST. The word Lost is very fitting for describing a lost sinner. You are LOST. and you don't know of anything to do. And I can only tell you to look to Christ, because salvation is of the Lord. I thank the Lord for saving me. I know that he didn't have to. I could stand here tonight and tell you again how the Lord saved me, but I'm not. I want to talk about you tonight. I want to talk about you who are lost. Our pastor and others have stood here sunday after sunday, and night after night, day after day, telling you how the lord saves a sinner. you have been told to repent. You have been told to CALL on the name of the Lord. You have been told to BEG the Lord to save you. I know nothing else to tell you. I have nothing new for you. So Tonight, I want to know if YOU will be identified with Christ. You who say you want to be saved. Let me ask you, Do you really want to be saved? Will you be identified with Christ? Matthew 10:32,33 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. I just want to praise the Lord that he gave me grace to be identified with Christ. I remember when I sat there in Picayune.... I was cold and dead. And I remember when one of the brethren came there and caused each one of us to speak out. It was time to confess Christ or deny him. I had tried to ride the fence long enough. I had to decide what I was going to do. I want each of you here tonight to decide NOW... if you will be identified with Christ. The natural heart wants to deny Christ. The natural heart doesn't want any part of Christ. If you are lost, you want to deny Christ. You want to say "I'll not have this man to rule over me". (Luke 19:14) ............................................ I want you to think about what Christ did for you and me. He gave up his glory in heaven, came to this earth, took on your sin and my sin, suffered in your place and my place and died for you and me. He did that because he loves sinners. If he did not pay for my sin, I am not able to pay for it, then I have no option but hell. He was identified with sinners. He was not ashamed to be seen with them. He taught them, he ate with them, he went to their homes. He was not ashamed to be seen with sinners. Will you be ashamed of him? Is your old proud heart trying to rise up and make some excuse for not being identified with Christ? ""Well, I don't think that my friends need to know that I want to be saved."" ""Well, the Lord knows that I want to be saved, I don't need to speak out in prayer meeting."" ""Well, maybe I'll speak out next time. I can always say something LATER."" Are these some of your excuses? Do you think that you can get by and be saved with out ever becoming identified with Christ? I don't think you can. I Remember when I didn't want to speak or say anything. That first time that I spoke was the hardest. But each time it got easier. When you once throw Satan off your back, you learn how to do it. It becomes easier each time. You will come to see that once you speak then you will be more able to speak. Your pride will be broken down a little, and you won't be so worried about what someone will think of you. To keep silent is to listen to Satans Lie. You are listening to Satans Lies, and once you get past them you will see that they are lies. When you begin to be Identified with Christ, you come over one of the stumbling blocks that Satan has laid for you. I look back at that time in my life and see that when I began to speak out in the praise and prayer services, That was a turning point in my life. Now I don't know what the Lord will use to turn you to him, but that was one of the most significant things that I saw in my conversion. There was a big difference in my life, and I think that If you will cast off that dumb spirit, you will begin to come to Christ. Now I'm not trying to say that you will be saved just because you speak out in the praise service. No, what I am trying to say is, you are going to come to Christ, or you are going to Hell. Its that simple. You are going to come to him trusting him to save you or you will go to Hell. Lost sinner you are on the road to Hell. I plead with you to put away your pride and self righteousnes and come and fall at the feet of Christ begging for mercy. Oh, won't you come. I want to speak to the children also. You young children, do you want to be saved? You children, have you sat here and said to yourself, "He's not talking to me, he's talking to some of the grownups". I'm talking to you tonight. Do you want to be saved? Do you want to go to a hell that will last forever? You children, listen to me, there is going to be a lot of children in hell. Do you want to be one of them? Do you want to spend all of eternity in Hell? No, you don't want to spend eternity in Hell, but you don't want to come to Christ either. But unless you come to Christ for salvation, you will. Don't think that because you are a child, you will be exempt from Hell, and you won't have to go there? Is that what you think? Are you willing to wait until you die to find out if you are wrong? You children, you older ones that have been sitting here year after year, If you keep putting off and putting off, if you never find time to seek the Lord, you will die and wake up in Hell. I never wanted to seek the Lord, I had plenty of things that I wanted to do. but one day I came to a place where I HAD to seek the Lord. I didn't want to, but I came to see that I MUST. I still wanted to do other things and not seek the Lord, but I had to stop doing all of these other things, and seek Him. And then I began to see that I couldn't seek him. I didn't know how. It was a difficult time, but you cry out to the Lord, and HE will help you. ------------------------------------------------------------- Tonight I just want to plead with you who are lost to turn to Christ. Won't you plead with Him to save you. Beg him to save you. I sat under this ministry a long time, and I heard message after message, and time after time, I kept throwing the message over my shoulder. I kept thinking that I knew what message I wanted. I knew How the Lord saves sinners. and I was just waiting for him to come with that one special message (that I was waiting for) and when I would hear it I would be saved. I wanted to sit and do nothing, and all the while, say that I wanted to be saved. Is this what you are doing? Are you coming here out of your do-nothingness and just waiting for the Lord to save you? If you are, you are going to have a long wait!! Now I don't want you to think that I am just railing on you. I'm not. But I do want you to stop and think. Are you making any kind of effort to come to Christ? For a long time, I was just doing nothing. Look at Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. The Lord says "come now and let us reason together". Are you coming to him in prayer, and reasoning with him? or are you just going on in your daily life, doing nothing, and waiting for the Lord to save you? Is this what you are doing? ...Nothing?? This is like a lazy man sitting at home, wishing he was rich, yet he will not get up and do any kind of work or try to get a job. He does nothing to try to achieve his goals. But he keeps on saying "I want to be rich". Is this what you are doing? Saying "I want to be saved" and doing nothing to work toward that end? I'm not railing on you, I know what a lost sinner does, I was once lost, I'm telling you this because it is what I did, and NO, It is NOT how the Lord saved me. He did not save me in my state of doing nothing. You are going to plead with the Lord, or you will not be saved. His word says to "come"... and let us reason together. Do you see that word COME? That means to get up and turn away from where you are now. Leave that behind, and come to Him. If you didn't have to COME, his word would have said only ..."Let us reason together". Or perhaps it would say "Stay and let us reason together". But it says COME... and you are going to have to COME to him. Come means to "draw near to". You must draw near to Christ. This is what is preached every sunday here. You must draw near to him, but you can't take the world with you when you do. That is one of the things that he will reason with you about. Over in Matt it says: 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He says again, COME... Over and over in His word He says COME... Draw near to Christ. That's what it means to come. Won't you come to Him? Don't be afraid that he will cast you out. because he says that "whosoever cometh onto me, I will in no wise cast out." Adn again he says in Luke 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Then lets look at that word ... NOW... Come NOW, and let us reason together... NOW means "At the present time" At THIS present time. Don't wait till tomorrow, don't wait till later, do it NOW. If you are concerned about your salvation, don't even wait until I am through speaking, do it NOW!!! .... NOW. Come and reason with the Lord about your soul. Don't delay, you may not have another opportunity. Come now and let us reason together. What does it mean to reason? To reason together? This is not a definition, but this is in the dictionary where I looked up "reason" and this is what is said about reasoning: Reasoning is occupied with ideas and their relations. It is often a natural process, by which we form conclusions which have greater or lesser degrees of force, and which may be strengthened or weakened by subsequent experience. What this means, when we get right down to it, is "Get Honest" before you can get honest with the Lord, you must think about what it is that you are asking. I know that when the Lord was dealing with me, I thought that I wanted to be saved, but the Lord showed me that what I wanted was the world, and did NOT want to be saved. I had to admit this to Him, and ask for his mercy and grace to overcome it. and this is only one of the many things that I had to own up to. The fact that I was able to see that I did not want to be saved was brought about by the grace of God. As I began to get honest He began to show me what I am. You have to get honest, ask the Lord to help you get honest. When you reason with the Lord, you tell him what you think. Then you meditate on his word, and he will speak through his word. Not verbally, but he will cause you to find a scripture that will mean something to you, and He will give you faith to believe it. You come to him and reason saying, "Lord, I want to be saved." Then you read and meditate on his word, and you find that he says, "come". You come and reason with Him again and say "Lord, I don't want to come. Please help me to come." (If you are honest, this is quite likely what you will say) Then you may find in his word, 2 Chron. 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. This is how the Lord works in the heart of a sinner. Now don't think that the lord will give you these verses. He may give you these, but he may likely give you others. The Lord showed me verses that I had never heard. I don't know what the Lord will give you. I am just trying to give an example of how the Lord dealt with me. Now as you get honest with the Lord, he will begin to show you what a sinner you are, and lead you in the way that you know not. And that verse says that HE will LEAD you... You must FOLLOW him. You must forsake your thoughts, because you are going to think, "I need to see myself as a sinner" or "I need to experiance repentance, I have not come through repentance yet" or "I need more faith, I need my pride broken, I need to be humbled, or this thing or that". NO!, you must forsake your thoughts. You follow Him. You continue to plead with him to lead and guide you, and you continue to reason with Him. Don't try to tell the Lord how to save you. The Lord will give you repentance when He wants you to have it. And it's quite likely you won't even know it when He gives it to you. I didn't. After the Lord saved me, I thought "Oh, no, I have never repented, I can't be saved, surely I am still lost". Let me tell you like this: If you are seeing the road markers along the way, then you are on the wrong road. This is the first time this road has been travelled, there are no road markers. If you are going along looking for repentance, you are either on the wrong road, or you have a long wait, because you won't find it. Salvation is coming to Christ, not coming to repentance. Salvation is of the Lord. You are not going to get it anywhere else. You must come to him for it. The Lord will give you the amount of repentance that He wants you to have, at the time that he wants you to have it. when he shows you what a sinner you are, he will show you how much He wants you to see, and when he wants you to see it. Forget about repentance and beg and plead with the Lord to save you. Lost sinner, don't ask the Lord for these things, these are the things of God and are none of your business, until He gives them to you. We don't find in Gods word, "Seek ye for repentance while it may be found" NO! We find "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found". And I tell you to seek the Lord, Call upon him while he is near. I just wish that I could tell you something that would cause you to turn to Christ. Call on the Lord... You must call to HIM. He is waiting for your call. All through the bible we read of the people calling on the Lord for deliverance from some problem. There is never anytime where the Lord says "Well I think They might need to be delivered soon, so I will go ahead and deliver them now. I know they have not called on me yet, but they will later." No, we don't find this type of attitude in the bible. In fact it is contrary to what is taught in the bible. Ezekiel 36:37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; Our Lord knows what we need, he knows the problems that we face, he knows that we need HIS help. He is waiting for us to call on him to do it. We don't see the Lord coming to our rescue befor we ask. We MUST ask before He will help us. Then what happens when we ask? When we call on the name of the Lord? Psalms 107:6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. If you are not in trouble, you will not CRY unto the Lord. When a sinner begins to seek the Lord, he is not in trouble, and he does not CRY. When I began to seek the Lord, I did not see myself in trouble. I started seeking the Lord because I had been TOLD that I was in trouble, and I began to believe what I was told. When the Lord began to deal with me, Then I began to see that I was in trouble. It was the Lords dealings that caused me to see that I was in trouble. When I saw that I was in trouble, then I began to CRY unto the Lord. Read that 107th chapter of Psalms. He never delivers before he is asked to help.