Is making a decision for Christ necessary?

This idea is quite foreign to many people.  They actually believe that they are Christian,  because they are not Jews,  Mohammedans or Buddhists.  They simply presume that they are Christian because they are born into a Christian family, or they are born in a Christian country.  

They believe that the Lord Jesus came to this earth to die and that He died for the sins of the world. 

They believe the Apostles creed, that most churches  teach parrot fashion, along with their statement of  faith. 

There are also people who  firmly believe that if they can repeat the  "Lord's prayer"  that it will definitely get them into heaven. 

This is a great delusion and a big lie because the Bible clearly teaches us that we are to make a decision for Christ before He will become our personal Saviour.  

The Lord Jesus will only become our Saviour  when we, ourselves, invite Him, to come into our lives. 

In  Revelation 3:20  we see a picture of  a door.  

That door to our hearts:  

The Lord Jesus Christ is standing at that door, and He is knocking, because He longs to come in. 

"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 will sup with him, and he with Me."  

Have you heard the Lord Jesus knocking at the door of your heart?  

Will you invite Him to come into your heart?

Chorus:

He did not come to judge the world,  He did not come to blame;
He did not only come to seek,  It was to save He came;
And when we call Him Saviour,  And when we call Him Saviour,
And when we call Him Saviour, THEN WE CALL HIM BY HIS NAME.

Amen!

Are you able to say, The Lord Jesus is my Saviour?

We need to appropriate Christ and His salvation  personally.  

We are not only to acknowledge that we need a Saviour, but in our hearts,  know that we need to be  delivered from sin.  

We all desperately need a Saviour because 

Romans 3:23  "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."   

God is willing to reconcile all who  come to Him in genuine faith,  through the Lord Jesus Christ,  believing  that  He is the only way to be reconciled to God.  

Romans 3:24-26  "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;  To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness, that He might be just,  and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus."  

The Lord Jesus Christ paid the penalty of our sin. 

God knows every heart, we cannot act in His Presence. 

When we truly  believe  -  we place all our trust  in Him  -  and take Him at His Word.  

We know that we are reconciled to Him because we have been delivered from sin. 

Our hearts desire is to live for Him, to walk in the light of His Word to us as He is the light in this dark world of sin and when we walk in the light, as He is in the light, it clearly reveals to us our sin and our  hearts becomes sad, with godly sorrow and we we confess our sin.

"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death [2 Corinthians 7:10).

Here we find God’s definition of repentance  -  real repentance. Repentance is a change of mind. As far as I can tell, the only repentance God asks of the lost is in the word believe. 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!

What happens when one believes? 

There is a change of mind. 

There is a turning from something to Someone. 

Listen to what apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: 

"… how ye turned to God from idols …" (1 Thessalonians 1:9)  -  

that was a change of mind. 

How did it come about? 

They first turned to Christ.

When Paul had come to them, he hadn’t preached against idolatry, he had preached Christ to them. 

And they turned to Christ. 

But they were idolaters.

So when they turned to Christ in faith, they turned from their idols, and that turning from idols was repentance. 

God wants us to emphasize Christ. 

When people respond to Christ, there will be a turning from their old unbelief to belief in Christ Jesus.

However, God does emphasize repentance for the believer if they are going in the wrong direction, living in sin. For him there is to be a turning, a repentance. 

A lot of people simply shed tears, which may not indicate true repentance. That kind of sorrow is the sorrow of the world and works death. 

True repentance is godly sorrow, which "worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of"  -   that is, repentance without regret.

Apostle Paul commends them for the fact that they truly repented.

"For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth. And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things" (2 Corinthians 7:14–16).

Deep within each heart of almost every person is a longing to be perfect, 

to be like the Lord Jesus, who is perfect. 

We long for the day when we too will be glorified, just as He is glorified. 

Most people want a plan for their lives while they are here on this earth. 

Many long to be absent from the body and present with the Lord Jesus. 

BUT, while we are on this earth, we have this blessed hope and we are able to hear our precious Saviour's loving voice  through the apostle John, say to us 

1 John 2:1  "My little children, these things write I unto you,  that ye sin not.  And if any man sin,  we have an advocate with the Father,  Jesus Christ the righteous:"

I myself,  longed to be absent from this present body of mine. 

I have to admit that I do long for our Lord to come, and I do call out to Him to fetch me and take me home. I long to be where He is, to sit at His feet and learn of Him who is my Saviour from Hell. 

But I can understand in a very small way what apostle Paul meant when he said  

Hebrews 12:1-2  "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,  and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and  let us run with  patience  the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus,  the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Just to know that I am seated in Him in the heavenlies,  gives me strength, His strength, to go on and keep the faith, to keep on giving out the Word of God,  the best I am able to in Christ Jesus for He is my inspiration and to pray for the lost, to come to the  Lord Jesus Christ for true  salvation, true faith in Him.

The apostle Paul could say that even though he himself longed to be present with Lord,  it was better for him to be on earth so that he could offer his body as a living sacrifice to God and in so doing,  he went into the world each new day to tell the world 

that the Lord Jesus is the only Saviour of the world.

and that without Him, as our own personal Saviour, we

will one day go to a lost eternity  -  banished from God forever, in Hell. 

The Bible clearly tells us that we have to make salvation personal. 

The personal pronoun is prominent in the Word of God.  

Here are but a few examples that I would like to quote:  

The Lord is my Shepherd (Psalm 23).  

The Lord is my Light and my salvation (Psalm 27).

O God Thou art my God (Psalm 63).

The apostle Paul wrote

Philippians 3:8-14   "Yea doubtless,  and  I  count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom  I  have suffered the loss of all things,  and do count them but dung, that I  may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that  which is  through  the faith  of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect:  but  I  follow after,  if that I may apprehend  that for which also I am apprehended  of  Christ Jesus. Brethren,  I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,  forgetting  those things that are behind, and  reaching forth  unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in christ Jesus."

Without the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour,  life is quite meaningless. 

Without him we can do nothing. 

God has created us for His praise, His honor and glory.  

He has done  everything possible  to get to the door of our hearts and He is patiently knocking. 

He will not ever force His way into our hearts, we have to invite Him to come in and to dwell with us.

We have to tell Him that we want Him to abide inside us.

Just picture Him standing there with a lamp in  His hand knocking. 

He is the light of this dark world. 

And He wants to light up your life. 

He wants you, to fulfill His purpose in this world.  

Will you come to Him right now and receive His gift of salvation?

Behold Me standing at the door, 

And hear Me pleading evermore,
With gentle voice:  Oh heart of sin,
MAY I COME IN,  MAY I COME IN?

Chorus.

Will you turn and seek the Lord?

Chorus.

Come believing!  Come believing!
Come to Jesus!   LOOK AND LIVE!
Come believing!  Come believing!
Come to Jesus!  LOOK AND LIVE!

REST ON HIS UNCHANGING WORD.

Amen.   

We read  in the book of the Revelation 3:14-22  that the church at Laodicea,  was a very prosperous church but the professing Christians of that church were proven  to be Christians in  name  only. 

One can just imagine how shocked they were when  the Lord Jesus told them  that they were  "wretched,  miserable, poor, blind and naked:"  

These people had no idea that they needed a Saviour.

He longs to come into your heart.  

Polite conversation will not deceive Him.  

He asks for much more than a nodding acquaintance.  

Open the door of your heart and ask Him to come in.  

Once inside, He will be your personal Saviour.  

No one else can take this step for you.  

Christian parents, ministers, pastors, teachers  and  friends can only lead you to the Saviour, but  you, yourself  have to draw back the bolts and turn the handle.