He died!
The Father gave His Son.
When you say things like,
"Jesus died," shouldn't you stop for a moment or...something?
I mean, He died. He really died.
And it was His blood shed on that tree,
that's the only reason the black filth of your sin can be washed away.
That blood on that tree.
The slaughter of the Son of God.
And that Man, that God, that Man, Christ Jesus rose again from the dead.
And on the 40th day He ascended up to the right hand of His Father,
and for the first time in all the history of history,
a man walked up to the doors of heaven and cried out what we find here in verse 7,
"Lift up your heads O gates and be lifted up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in"
And all of heaven behind those doors are in utter shock and silence and wonder.
Finally a brave one lifts his head and begins to speak, "Who is this King of glory?
Who DARES speak to these doors?
No man has ever dared come this far or lay his hand to the latch of this wall.
Who is this King of glory?"
And then all of a sudden the Lord, the Messiah, the Christ,
the Son of God, the Man for us, cries out,
"The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads O gates, lift up your heads, lift them up O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in"
And in the first time of all time, those doors opened for a man.
He walked through those doors and every thing that has ever been made fell on its face.
"All hail the power of Jesus' Name;
l et angels prostrate fall, bring forth a royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all."
"Crown Him with many crowns."
This Lamb upon the throne.
And I can just see Him now walking up to His Father BOLD,
it was His right, climbing the steps of this throne that would make Solomon's throne look like paper mache,
and sits down without even asking permission.
And looks at His Father, not as a question, but as an affirmation, and says, "Father, it is finished!"
And the Father says, "Son, it is finished indeed."
This Jesus whom you crucified, God has made Him both Lord and Christ of all.
Don't think I will even ask you even ask you to make Jesus Lord of your life,
that's the most preposterous thing I could ever tell you to do.
Jesus Christ IS Lord of your life.
Whether you serve Him or not, whether you bless Him, curse Him, hate Him, or love Him,
He is the Lord of your life because God has given Him a Name that is above every name
so that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow and tongue confess that He is Lord.
Some of you will bow out of the grace that has been given to you,
and others will bow because your knee caps will be broken by the One who rules the nations with a rod of iron.
But I'll not apologize for THIS God of the Bible.
I come from a long line of men, most of them buried,
but all of them well received in glory,
who thinks not about the opinions of men or the way the rest of the evangelical community is going to walk.
I want you to know there is a God in heaven,
and He is worthy of all praise and glory and honor and He DEMANDS such from you.
And He has made it possible in His glory, in His love,
for you to come to Him, and He cries out, "All who are thirsty come and drink,
all who are hungry come and eat.
Why do you spend your money on that which will not satisfy?
Come and drink from me," He says.
Wine and milk.
Based upon the sure mercies of David I will treat you good.
For my ways are not your ways, they're higher than your ways.
As the seed grows because water is poured upon it,
My word, My promise will not fail" [Isaiah 55:1-3, 8, 10-11].
He commands everyone in this room to repent of their sins and believe the gospel [Mark 1:15],
to seek Him while He may be found.
"Brother Paul, can I be saved?"
I don't know.
Let me ask you a question.
Maybe you came here tonight,
you came, someone invited you, the only thing you've been doing is looking at your watch wondering,
"When is this going to be over?"
your mind has been wandering,
you could care less, Christ means nothing to you, no more than when you entered into these doors,
then my answer to you is, "No you cannot be saved."
At least not now.
Because you have no repentance in your heart,
no brokenness over sin, no brokenness over the price that was paid for you that you might live.
But maybe you're saying, "Brother Paul, I came in here tonight,
I had no intention of listening to anything."
But maybe during the worship God caught your heart and you began to think on eternal things,
and maybe as you heard the gospel preached
you became aware of your sin and your vileness before a holy God,
and then you heard about Christ and your heart leaped with joy,
and you said to yourself, "I'm the vilest of creatures, is there hope for me?"
YES there's hope for you.
You have repentance, at least the seeds of it in your heart,
now you lack one thing: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved! [Acts 16:31]
You shall be saved!
You shall be saved.
For all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved [Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13].
And of all those who have believed in Him,
none of them are disappointed [1 Peter 2:6, Romans 9:33, 10:11].
But know this, the clock is ticking and time is fleeing and death and hell are moving.
Christ will return. People tell me, "I don't care, He's not going to return for 1,000 years."
Maybe so, but you're going to, inside of 25, 50, 60 years
everyone in this room is going to see Him.
Either you're going there or He's coming here, it really makes no difference.
You will see Him, you will stand before Him.
He's coming and when He comes it will be both wonderful and absolutely terrifying.
As one preacher said, "I have good news and bad news.
The good news is God is here.
The bad news is God is here."
It depends which side of the line you're standing on.
He will come, He will burst forth from this sky,
and the greatest and mightiest of men and all their armies,
one glimpse of the One who rides that horse,
they will cry out for mountains to bury them.
You see you need to understand His sovereignty and power is such
that He sits over everything with absolute sovereignty.
And if all the created universe,
angels and men, demons and devils, all turned against Him to fight
they would have no more strength than if one of them, the weakest of them stood alone against Him.
They'd have no more strength than a mite beating its head against a piece of granite.
You will be judged,
and if your name is not written in the Lamb's book of life you will be found
lacking, and you will be cast into hell.
And don't buy into this mess that says heaven's heaven because God is there
and hell is hell because God's not there.
No my friend, hell is hell because God IS there.
Hell is the pure flaming wrath and justice of God.
Have you not read,
"And the smoke of their torment ascended up in the presence of the Lamb" [Revelation 14:10-11].
It isn't the devil who rules over hell, it's God who rules over hell.
You say, "Well I've never of such a thing."
I know, that's your problem.
That's your problem.
Repent, believe the gospel.
The best thing I can do for you now
is turn you away from men and turn you to God.
Seek the Lord till He has saved you.
Seek the Lord.
Call upon Him.
Believe in Him.
But know this,
if tonight something happens in your life and you believe that God has saved you,
I want you to know something,
it is not just tonight that is necessary to give you assurance that God has saved you.
Because if you think God saved you tonight
but you walk out of this church building and you do not begin to change,
and you do not begin to grow in grace, and you do not begin to grow in the things of God and desire,
and you do not continue walking with Him,
but you fall away like so many others, know this, you got nothing here tonight.
The evidence of your salvation is not that one time in your life you prayed a prayer,
the evidence of your salvation is that
you continue walking with Him,
and that He who began a good work in you finishes it.