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If I Had One Last Message To Give To America
Scripture taken from Matthew 24 and Luke 16 and Romans 1.
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The scripture talks about the Lord Jesus, and records much of what He said. One of those incredible recordings of Scripture is over in the 24th chapter of Matthew’s gospel. And I want to bring your attention this morning to verse number 44. Jesus said these words; “This is why you must be ready because the son of man coming at an hour is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Jesus loved referring to Himself as the Son of man. In fact, many believed it was His favorite saying about who He really was. Son of man is a phrase that means that He was both fully God, and fully man.
91-year-old Billy Graham announced recently, picked up by national and international news that he would like to preach one more time. His family said that it would probably never happen, but Graham said I would like to preach one more time. I wonder after all the times that he has preached, and after all these years that he’s been on the sidelines, in his home serving God, encouraging those that would come to see him, and obviously having a deep ministry of intercessory prayer, what would he say to America and to the world?
That made me ask the question, I wonder what others would say men of greatness who have pastored or led churches, or preached in churches across this land of the world today? Many of those men don’t have the privilege to live to be 91. Many were snatched out of an early, or a midlife type of ministry, and the Lord called them and promoted them to heaven. In fact, most of us never have the privilege of knowing when we are going to die. But I wonder if those men had one more shot, what would they say to America, and what would they say to the world?
It reminds me of the 16th chapter of Luke’s gospel when Jesus was talking, and giving an illustration of two men; one who was rich, and one that was poor. The poor man died and went to heaven. He didn’t go to heaven because he was poor; he went to heaven because he was rightly related to God. The rich man died, and he went to hell, Jesus said. He didn’t go to hell because he was rich; he went to hell because he was not rightly related to God.
The Bible says that the rich man was absolutely in much torment. It talks about hell. He gave descriptive language about how hell was fire, and burning, and torment, and pain. And the rich man begged God, “Would you please send someone to my five brothers who do not know You, because I do not want them tormented in this flame even as I am?” In fact, he said send the one who all he did was eat the crumbs off of my table. The one who is with you now named Lazarus. This poor man who was rightly related to you, send him, and they will believe him because he was raised from the dead. But Jesus said, listen, they have the law, and they have the prophets, and if they will not believe the law and the prophets; they will not believe someone even if someone came to them from the dead.
Eternity was always on the heart of Jesus. It’s on His heart today. Eternity was talked about over in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that we read from just a moment ago. In fact, the entire chapter kind of gives to us a prelude of some of the events that are going to, uh, show and indicate that the Lord is close to coming. In Matthew chapter 24, verse number 6, he says, “You’re going to begin to see these things, but then He says these words, he said, “But the end is not yet.” Meaning there is more to come.
Then He talks more about several more things that are going to happen, and then in the 33rd verse of that same chapter, Jesus, I believe, was referring to the nation of Israel. He was talking about how Israel was all of sudden going to bloom again, meaning that Israel was going to become a nation of which it did in 1948, and Jesus said this generation will not pass away, and he said they will see the coming of the Lord, and He said right now at that moment Jesus will be at the door. He is near even at the door.
Verse 36 warns us all that even though signs of the times will exist, we never need to assume that we would know the day, nor the hour, and Jesus said concerning the day and the hour in verse 36, He says, no one knows.
In verse 42 Jesus said you better be careful even though you don’t know the Lord, an when the Lord is coming, He said these words, He said, “Be on the alert.” And then Jesus said in verse number 44 that we read from a moment ago, He said, “You must be ready.”
When you look at all of Matthew 24, what do you come away with? The end is near. The urgency is upon us. We need to be ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Because of that, I ask myself this question this week: If I had one last message to give to America, what would that message be? Here is that message.
First,
1. There is no other way to God than through Jesus Christ. [APPLAUSE] America needs to hear that message. We live in a day and time in which religious pluralism is running at an all time rapid pace; meaning, that we believe that there are many paths to God. Plural. That He is not the only path to God. Jesus said over in the gospel of John, in chapter number 14, Jesus said in verse 6, He says, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus was really clear. There are not many paths to the Father. There’s only one path to the Father. I am that path. I am that way. I am that truth. I am that life. And there is no other way other than through Me. That’s the hope of the world. That’s the hope of this nation. And if I had one last message to preach to America, I would say there is no other way to God than through Jesus Christ.
I would say to every one of you here this morning morality will not get you there. Religion will not please God. Any form that man ever presents to God is insufficient, and incapable of providing you only what Jesus can provide you. Only Jesus can provide your sins being forgiven. Only Jesus can provide His presence in your life. Only Jesus can present to you eternal life in a place called heaven when you died. There is no other way to God than through Jesus Christ, the Lord.
I hope today that before you leave this campus that you will come to a point and a time in your life, and you will come, and you will make Jesus Lord and Savior of your life. If I had one message to give to America, it would not only be comprised of that component, but it would also be comprised of something that is very, very much on my heart here today.
2. Be unashamed to identify with Jesus Christ. We live in a culture today that is very intimidating. A culture that looks down upon you if you claim to be Christian, a culture that mocks, makes fun of many of us who know Christ. The tendency is to back away, to shy away, to not be unashamed to identify with Christ. But you know what? If you are unashamed to identify with Him, you will never be caught in shame in not identifying with Him.
The Apostle said these words over in the book of Romans, in the first chapter, and the 16th verse. He said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes.” And it doesn’t matter what their religion is, what their nationality is, what their background is, to everyone who believes, who will identify with Him, who will be unashamed to identify with Him, will be changed by the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is the following: Jesus died for the sins of the world, and died for your sins as well. He was buried, and on the third day He was raised from the dead. The Bible says that is the gospel.
That gospel has the power to change your life, and that gospel, and the association of it with Jesus should never be something that you are ashamed of in your life. I ask you today, could it be that you’ve never come to Christ because you are ashamed to do so? Could it be that, that your own personal reputation will send you to hell versus being unashamed, and give your life to Christ, and come to God by faith in Him today? Could that be? Are you going to let any pride factor, any element of your life keep you from being that, that disciple of Jesus that Jesus wants you to be? I challenge you today, be unashamed to identify with Christ.
There are many of you here today, you already know Christ as Savior, but you’ve never even followed the Lord in baptism. You could make a thousand excuses for why you have not, but I’ll tell you the ultimate excuse is, is one reason why you’ll have it, you’re ashamed to do it. You’re ashamed. Don’t ever be ashamed to identify with Christ in baptism. In fact, scripture teaches that that is the way you identify with Christ. When you walk in that water, you are literally testifying I chose Jesus Christ to save me from my sins. I am walking away from my past life. I am walking into a new life, and my life will never be the same because of what Christ has done in me.
Tonight I’m going to baptize at the foot of those incredible crosses rain or shine. If you have never been baptized by immersion, and you know Christ as Savior, I pray that you will come, and let me baptize you tonight to the glory of the Father, and that you will be unashamed in identifying with Jesus Christ! And I want to say to every one of us that know Christ today, and we’ve done that, don’t ever hold your head in shame while others scoff at our Savior and make fun of us for our faith. You be bold, and courageous, and stand strong for the Lord Jesus, and for the gospel.
If I had one last message to give to America, I would say these words:
3. Wake up. Wake up! Another way to put it, get a clue! I love this nation. I am passionately an American. I love red, white, blue. I love apple pie. I tolerate baseball. But I’m a full-blooded American. But let me make it really clear to you today, America needs to wake up. America’s asleep. I could talk all day long about how we are asleep politically. It’s a shame we have gone to sleep that much politically. But I’m not going to go there because you see I, I, I really don’t think that’s the ultimate hope. If you’re involved in it, thank God, we all need to vote. We all need to get involved to whatever level we possibly can that is orderly, right, and Christian. But I want to make it real clear the future of this nation will not be determined at the ballot box, or who is in the White House, but what happens in the church house will determine what happens in this nation.
And the way, and the reason America is so asleep is because of one bigger issue than that. The church is asleep. The church is passive. The church is bored. The church yawns, and we need to get right with God. Get our hearts on flame, aflame for God again, and let the Lord Jesus wake us up! That’s what needs to happen! Do you realize over in the book of Romans in the 13th chapter Paul talked about this day, this moment when we’re nearing the Lord’s coming, he says in verse 11, “Besides this, knowing the time it is already the hour for you to wake from sleep, for now our salvation,” meaning Jesus, “is nearer than when we first believed.” In other words, He is nearer to coming today than when you first came to Him as Savior and Lord. Therefore, you had better wake up! And not be caught slumbering, asleep, and bored in your faith! May God help us to wake up.
Now church I’ve got a word for you today, and I want you to hear this word. Before you go pointing your finger at part of America that still believes that killing babies in the wombs of momma is okay, and before you use your long, obnoxious nose to look yourself down at those who believe this about marriage, or don’t believe this about marriage, you had better as a church of Jesus Christ wake up and begin with your own sin in the house of God! That’s what we had better do!
And when the church gets its own act together, and we become the salt again, then those things will all of a sudden become influenced like never before in a positive direction. We need to wake up.
And if I had one last message to give to America, to the church of America, I would say these words:
- 4. Finish the task of taking the gospel to the nations of the world. Finish
the task of taking the gospel to the nations. The book of Ezekiel is a very challenging book. It is one that really is at times very difficult to understand, and to comprehend. But Ezekiel said something concerning warning those who do not know God, and then not warning those that do not know God, and what God thinks about all that. And today I want to read just a verse for you in the book of Ezekiel, in the 3rd chapter, in verse number 18 the scripture said these words, “If I say to the wicked person, ‘You shall, you will surely die,’ but you do not warn him, you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life, that wicked person will die for his inequity. Yet,” God says, “I will hold you responsible for his blood.” In other words, his blood will be on our hands because we have not gone to warn him that Christ is the only way, and he needs to come to God!
We need to become very, very committed to finishing the task of taking the gospel to the nations. And we have nations, people groups, right here in Northwest Arkansas that are absolutely, absolutely empty of gospel presentation, and gospel message. We have people that look a lot like you and me today, and they have yet to ever hear the gospel being given to them in their own language. Even the way you look where we live.
I ask you today does our church even have a plan, a strategy, to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in Northwest Arkansas? And if we don’t, why don’t we? We are responsible. We are accountable, and when it’s all said and done, I do not want the blood of the lost in this region being on my hands! We are responsible to take the gospel to our own nation, to the nations in our own region, and to the nations around the world.
If you were to look at the New Testament, especially the book of Acts, and you were to compare the church of today, and the church of the book of Acts, there are so many things that are not similar, so many differences and variances occur. It’s frightening. I could go down on a long list of those, but I want to center in on one that I think is the most glaring. Here it is. The church in the New Testament was very committed to being urgent in their task. And those of us that are Christians and a part of His church today in America, the urgency is limited to gone.
We all act like, live like a bunch of agnostics, or a bunch of atheists, like it’s all going to work out, or there’s nothing really into this thing whatsoever at all. Well I want to tell you today, where is the urgency? Where is our urgency? Our urgency to be what God wants us to be? Our urgency to be awake and on fire for God? Our urgency to present the gospel of Christ to every person in this region, every person in the world, and every person in the world, in America and the world? Where is the urgency?
When I looked at my generation this morning, I will never forget that song Pass It On. That’s my generation. I came to Christ as a result of the Jesus movement. I came to Christ in the early 70’s, and I remember standing around the campfire with a group of Christian young people who were on fire for God singing it only takes a spark to get the fire going. And soon all those around. I remember. I remember it well. I could literally sing the entire song with you. I leaned over to my daughter-in-law today and I said, “You know what? That song changed church music.” And she had never even heard that song.
But you see, back in that day versus today, I remember as a boy preacher, and as a boy born-again believer, and as a young college student, and a young preacher; I remember going home at night, on Sunday nights, wondering could this be the day that the Lord returns? Could this be the night that the Lord returns? I mean preachers would get up and they would preach with urgency, and with intention, intensity, and call people to radical living, and call people to live for God, and call people to holiness, and now all we want to do is feel good! And we’re yawning ourselves to sleep, embarrassing the name of Jesus Christ! And the urgency is gone. And that’s where we feel good, felt-need preaching takes you. But when the word of the Lord is proclaimed as the word of the Lord, and we hold high the promise of His coming, it alters dramatically the way we live, what we say, and what we do in our lives.
May God do it again somehow, some way, may God…
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