This Same Jesus

This Same Jesus

Acts 1: 10-11

"This same Jesus."
Let us study these words.

"Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

There are those who believe that God selects men and endues them with power denied
to the rest of us.
I do not believe that.
That would make God a respecter of persons.
We can say that there are some men who God uses more mightily because they make
a more definite surrender to the Lord.

I believe that each of us can be used just as greatly and effectively in our smaller spheres
in the service of the Lord as Spurgeon, Moody, or Billy Graham, if we make the same
commitment to God.

Christians today can be used just as fully and mightily in the service of the Lord as were the apostles,
if they pay the same price for the same power.
There is not enough of that same power today.
The channels of our lives are choked and the power of God is not flowing through us.
We must swing the doors of our hearts open and let the God of glory enter!

This same Jesus is still the only Saviour.
"There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

This same Jesus is the only Saviour for lost souls.
His precious blood is still the only possible agency for salvation.

It is the same cross, the same gospel, and the same message.
This same Jesus is still the only Saviour.
Without the slightest hesitation we can still point men to the Lamb of God, and still cry,
"There is power in the blood, power in the blood!"

This same Jesus still has the same work to do that He started to do that, which He
commanded His disciples to do that He wants us to do.
This work is to rescue souls out of sin into salvation out of darkness into light.
Thank God for this great work!

We do not have to ponder or to question or to debate or to investigate what
Jesus wants us to do.
We have but one task and one work and one plan -- to preach the gospel to every individual
on the face of God's earth.
All else is secondary.

Again and again Jesus repeated the mission for the Christian -- the mission for the church:
the making of disciples.
How clear it all is!
How definite!
How powerful – to concentrate and consecrate all our energies in the one driving objective
of rescuing the perishing -- of caring for the dying -- of snatching them in pity from sin and the grave.
We must zealously strive to accomplish God's work in God's way!
I am terribly afraid that we are, like Martha, troubled about many things, and forgetful
of the most important thing.

Christians of today are hard, busy workers.
  • We have more organizations.
  • We have more conventions.
  • We have more reports.
  • We have more records.
  • We have more standards to reach.
  • We have more places to go.
  • We have more resources.
  • We have more things to do than any previous generation.

    We forget, however, the supreme purpose of our activity.
    Instead of attacking Satan on the major battleground, we waste our energies and ammunition
    in unimportant skirmishes.
    We must recognize our senseless and superficial busyness.
    Let us refuse to be occupied with nonessentials no matter how attractive they may be.

    These other things are necessary.
    I am not minimizing them.
    But it is altogether possible to pay so much attention to the machinery that the
    product (missions) is forgotten.
    The machinery is required, but in religious work the less of it, the better.
    The Holy Spirit will do more to call out, train, organize, and empower us than
    all our so-called experts.

    We must concentrate on preaching Christ -- on witnessing.
  • When we do, our Sunday school will grow.
  • Our church attendance will increase.
  • Our financial needs will be amply supplied.
  • Our membership will be consecrated.

    Disturbances will be minimized.
    The tides of compassion, of concern, and of consecration will sweep away grumbling,
    unrest, dissension, envy, and a host of other problems which disturb our churches.
    A witnessing Christian is a separated Christian.
    A witnessing church is a sanctified church which is free from the entanglements of a mad world.

    We must lead our church, our Sunday school, our membership in the one direction of witnessing
    to those without Jesus for Christ.
    Souls saved by Christ will grow and glow and go!
    We must keep the needs of those who are perishing and dying without Christ before us constantly!
    We must fire them up with a burning anxiety for the hell-bound multitudes without Christ.

    This same Jesus still has the same organization!
    More accurately Jesus still has the same "organism" through which He has done
    and is doing in these days, and will continue to do the same work.
    The church of the Lord Jesus is the evangelizing agency of the Lord Jesus Christ.
    The church was built by the Lord Jesus Christ to go to the ends of the earth to make disciples,
    to baptize them, and to teach them to observe all things of the Lord.
    It is almost impossible to be an effective and fruit bearing Christian outside of the church.

    You cannot be loyal to Christ without being loyal to the church.
    Throughout the centuries of Christian history, the church has been Christ's instrument
    for the telling of the story of salvation.
    As you love the Lord, and as you are concerned for the souls of men, let your life be dedicated
    to the building up of the church of the living God.

    May God really impress this next thought upon your souls!
  • Not only is this same Jesus the same and only Saviour.
  • Not only does He have the same work for us to do that He did long ago.
  • Not only does He depend upon the same organization to which we are to attach ourselves
        in order to do that work.
  • He also demands of all who are Christians the same things He demanded of His apostles.
  • He demands the same things that He has been demanding of all regenerated souls since then.

    There is no exception -- no escape -- no excuse!
  • The work is the same.
  • The workers are identical.
  • The procedure is to be the same.

    Do you want to know the demands of Jesus?
    Let Jesus tell you: "If a man love me, he will keep my words."
    That is the first requirement.

    If you are a child of God, born again, washed in the blood of Jesus, you must demonstrate it
    by keeping His commandments.
    How are you going to keep His commandments unless you know them?
    Therefore, you must spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years studying the Bible.
    You must know The Word of God.

  • It must throb in your heart!
  • It must sing in your soul!
  • It must ring in your mind!

  • You are a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem.
  • You are a pilgrim on the road to Heaven.
  • You are an ambassador for the King of kings.
  • Your conversations both in word and in deed must be savored with the aroma of Canaan.

    In the Bible you will find your roadmap -- your code of ethics -- your guide to eternity.
    Every problem that you face has an solution in the pages of this divine Book.
    Let the Bible be your food by day and your thought by night.
    Believe it! Love it! Live it!
    Lift it up to meet the needs of others all about you!
    The first demand of Jesus is that we keep His commandments.

    The second demand of Jesus is this:

    "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things
    shall be added unto you."

    What does that mean?
    It means just this -- give the kingdom of God preference in your home, over your business,
    over your pleasures, over your friends, and over everything in your life.
    What is the kingdom of God?
    I'm not sure that any of us knows all that the Kingdom of God involves, and I doubt
    that any one of us will know until we get to Heaven.

    This one thing I do know -- every part of the program of the church that is Scriptural
    and spiritual is part of the program of the kingdom of God.
    We are not seeking the kingdom of God:

  • If we are absent from Sunday school.
  • If we are absent from the preaching of the Word.
  • If we do not give of our means to advance missionary interest to the ends of the earth.
  • If we do not do our best to win the lost.

    Paul became all things to all men that by all means he might save some.
    In seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we must consider no effort too great,
    no task too exacting,
    no expense too costly, if it will enhance the glory of our Saviour, and if it will deliver souls
    from the pit of hell.

    In the third place, this same Jesus demands that every single one of us -- men, women,
    and children – go into the harvest field to reap the golden grain of precious souls.
    We must bring precious souls to His pierced feet.
  • He will use us in this supremely exalted and greatest of all earthly tasks.
  • He will empower us for it.
    The Holy Spirit will go before us, will go with us, will remain after us to use our humble witness.

    I believe that every Christian knows that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us and lets us
    live for this one purpose -- to witness for Christ!
    We must win others to the Lord Jesus Christ that they might have eternal life.
  • This same Jesus is still the only Saviour.
  • This same Jesus still urges us to do the same work.
  • This same Jesus still uses the same organization.
  • This same Jesus still repeats the same demand.

    All over our world churches, preachers, and all of God's people are meeting the requirements
    of the Lord Jesus Christ and by His mighty power are winning glorious victories for the Lord Jesus Christ.
    There are many Christians and churches that are battering down the gates of hell.

    This same Jesus is being received today by needy, dying souls all over the world.
    Those who are here today can receive Jesus as their Saviour.
    Throw away your alibis!
    Forget your excuses!
    Get right with God!

    Meet God's conditions and you will see such a manifestation of God's grace that will cause
    all of us to know that this same Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

    This sermon is by Dr. Harold L. White.

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