View Article CLAIMED AND KEPT

CLAIMED AND KEPT

(from the Breath of Life Series by C. D. Brooks)

transcribed and edited by Derek Morris

Our subject tonight deals with a question that is so vital, I don’t know how to impress you with its importance. Friends, please do this, for your own sake. When you came in you were given a blank piece of paper. We wish you’d use that piece of paper to write down the scriptures we give you, and any notes you might like to take. You’re going to hear things from night to night as you continue attending that you perhaps have not heard before and you need to check to see if I’m telling you the truth. Do you know, one of the reasons there’s so much confusion in the Christian church today is folks just sit and swallow everything that preachers say? Now, you don’t know me, so check and see if it’s there. And if it’s not there, you don’t have to believe it.

The vital question we’re going to look at this evening is this: How do you become a Christian and after you’ve become one, how do you remain one? I want to deal with that tonight, and I tell you up front, I want to be as simple as possible. We as human beings are in a great dilemma. A life and death dilemma. The Bible says in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death” and Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” How many have sinned? All. So we all are in the same predicament. We’re heading down a one-way street, and unless we can find a solution to our dilemma, we have nothing to look forward to except eternal death.

Is there a solution? Yes. Thank God there is! The Bible says that there is help freely available to us through Christ Jesus. Do you want to know the solution to our dilemma tonight? Then I wish you’d write these texts down. Romans 2:4. The Bible says, “It is the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance.” Here we see the first step in accepting the help that Jesus offers: repentance. What is that? It is sorrow for sin. It is becoming disgusted with a rebellious life. But it isn’t that only; it is a turning away from sin. You have not repented until you’re ready to stop. Now, if repentance is wanting to do right and giving up wrong, I have just read to you that it is the goodness of God that leads you to that. I’ve had people come to me who thought they had gone beyond hope, and they would say to me, “Derek, I want to be a Christian, but I don’t believe I can be saved.”

I said, “What did you say? You want to be a Christian?”

“Oh, yes! I do.”

I said to them, “You can’t even want to be a Christian without God.”

Here is another; please write it down. Philippians 2:13. The Bible says, “It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Now, I’d like to put that in everyday English. It is God who works inside of you to want to do right. It’s only through the presence of God in our lives that we can even want to do right. I’m not special up here. If we can be true to God and to His Word, it’s only because of the grace of God. We have nothing to boast about. If God turned His head, all of us would do what everybody else is doing.

Let me give you one more conclusive text. John 6:44. The Bible says (and Jesus himself is talking), He says, “No man”--how many men? “No man can come unto Me except the Father which has sent Me draw him.” Is that clear? You can’t even want to do right. You can’t even desire to follow the Lord. Those impulses that come up inside of you that say, I want to go to prophecy seminar tonight rather than go to a show or to a disco, that desire to come out here and listen to the Word of God is the Holy Spirit working with you. You ought to thank God that He is getting through to you. Amen? God is working, because of His desperate love for you. He hates sin, but thank God, He loves sinners. He wants us all to be saved, and it is His Spirit wooing us and speaking to us that causes us to desire to do the will of the Lord. That’s repentance: when you’re ready to quit.

I’ve got to say this: Any religion that offers forgiveness without offering victory is worse than no religion at all. Do you want me to tell you why? By repeating sin you harden your heart and you burn your conscience out, and if you keep that up long enough you will drive the Holy Spirit away, and then you cannot be saved. I’m glad tonight that the religion of Christ not only pardons me but causes me to walk straight in the future. I’m glad that Jesus not only forgives my sin but He gives me the victory over that sin if I put my trust in Him. You can live right by the power of God. You can’t live right by willpower. You can’t live right by self-determination. You can’t live right by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. You can’t live right through behavior modification. But you can live right through the power of the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to do what the Devil has you doing. You don’t have to be a slave to the Devil. There is victory in Christ. Would you say Amen?

Now, having felt the desire to live right, the second step is confession. What is that? Confession is getting on your knees in private and telling God about your sin and asking Him to forgive you and give you the power to live above it. Someone has said that real repentance is a u-turn on the road of life. You were heading one way on the road of life, and now the Lord has turned you around. You were heading towards hell and now you’ve turned and you’re heading in the extreme opposite direction. It doesn’t mean you won’t make a mistake now and then. But it does mean that you are now committed toward heaven, and having come to that, you get down and talk to God who is a friend. Oh, my friends, let me tell you about Him tonight. It’s a pleasure to tell you about Jesus. Christ didn’t come all the way down here and die because He doesn’t love people. Jesus didn’t come down here to condemn you either. Some of us think of Christ as a policeman or a sheriff who’s just watching and meddling all the time to see if He can catch us wrong, so He can condemn us. My dear friends, if Christ only wanted to condemn us, He wouldn’t have to do anything. We are born condemned. The Lord’s not trying to see how many people He can punish. He’s not trying to see how many folk He can send to hell. He’s trying to see how many are willing to go to heaven. So think of Him as a Friend, and when you get on your knees you can talk to Him openly, and the thing I love about Jesus is when you tell Him all your secrets He won’t put your business in the street.

A young man came to me some time ago and said, “Derek, is it true that God sees all you do? And hears all you say?”

“Of course that’s true,” I said.

“Aha,” he replied. “If He already knows what I’ve done, why do I have to confess? Why tell Him if He already knows?”

Well, that’s a good question. My answer is this: Confession is not informing God. Confession is God’s way for you to get rid of the load of your sin. Confession is like an apology; you’re getting it off your chest. Confession is clearing the air between yourself and an offended God. Confession is not informing God. It is letting you know that you acknowledge your condition and you want to come to Him, the only One who can help. That’s why you confess. If you’re a liar, tell Him you’re a liar. If you’re an adulterer, tell Him you’re an adulterer. Whatever your problem is or has been, talk to God frankly about it, but talk to Him knowing that His one interest in you is to take your sin away and save you in His kingdom. Would you say Amen? Talk to Him knowing that it is He who made you want to talk about it. He’s already reached out to you in love, so talk to Him and don’t be afraid.

Now, if we do all that, how do we know that God has heard us? Well, He’s not going to call you on the telephone and say “Hello, this is God; I want you to know I heard you.” He’s not going to write you a letter that the mailman will deliver. Then how do I know? The word is faith. What did I say? Romans 10:17. Please make a note of it. The Bible says, “Now faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” So you’ve got to have faith in the right thing: faith in the Word of God. Well, what does it say? I John 1:9. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Proverbs 28:13 says, “Who so confesses and forsakes his sins shall have mercy.”

            Ladies and Gentlemen, I could go on reading the Bible to you. But whenever God speaks that’s enough. The Bible says God cannot lie. The Bible says it’s impossible for God to lie. The Bible says that He’s not a man that He should lie. So if the Bible says God will forgive you if you confess your sins, it is so. We’ve got to have faith. Faith is knowing God sits on the throne. Why? Because He says it is so. Faith is knowing God hears prayers? Why? Because He says He does. Faith is knowing that God is able to answer prayer. Why? Because He says He can. When you pray with that kind of faith, things happen.

When Jesus was here He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind. He cleansed the leper. He did all of these things. But always He said, “According to your faith be it unto you.” Or He said, “Thy faith has made thee whole.” Not His faith, yours. Now, my faith cannot answer your prayers. You’ve got to trust God. The Lord said if you confess your sins, I will forgive you. You’ve got to believe what God says, and the minute you reach out in faith, it is done.

Why is it that some folks have such a hard time having faith in God? After all, we live by faith every minute of the day. We don’t even know what the next minute is going to bring, do we? You came into this hall by faith. You sat in those seats by faith. You didn’t know that those chairs wouldn’t collapse and break your back, but you sat in them. You had to have faith to believe that whoever built that chair made it strong enough to hold you, even if you weigh more than you ought to weigh! And look up there. All that stuff could come crashing down on your head and kill you, but you have faith that they must have built it right. You didn’t see them build it, but you sit here! Go home, and eat dinner, by faith. How do you know your wife didn’t get mad and put poison in it! The end of every month, pay your bills. Write out a check, put it in an envelope, stick a little old stamp on it and drop it in a blue metal box on the corner of the street. But you have faith that the postal service will deliver it. We live by faith. And yet when it comes to trusting God, we think it’s smart to question. I’m not interested in those who won’t believe. I’m interested in people who will believe. The Lord is working on the hearts of people. I’m convinced that all of you here tonight believe in God. If you do, say Amen. Then if you do, believe all the way. Let yourself go with God. Stop holding back. If you confess your sins, He will forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Turn your back on your old way of life. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and ask Him to come into your life and take control.

When we do that, we become Christians. God forgives us, for Christ’s sake. He says, I’ll take away your ten years of lying and I’ll give you credit for ten years of My Son’s truthfulness. You’ve been fooling around for ten years; I’ll wash it away and in the place of it I’ll put the purity of My Son Jesus’ life, so when I look in the books of Heaven, your record is clean. All I see there is the righteousness of Jesus, the goodness of Jesus, the purity of Jesus. Thus God can be just in offering us eternal life which rightfully belongs to Jesus. In Christ, all the blessings of heaven are ours. Would you say Amen?

While Jesus was dying there on the cross, God the Father looked down, and there were two thieves, one on either side of Him. Finally, one of those thieves peered out through his dim eyes and saw the place of the dead: The place where his own body would be thrown to be burned on the city dump of Jerusalem. Suddenly it struck him, like a dart to his liver, that after all his riotous living he was heading for the trash-heap. The desperation in his soul caused him to look around for help. As he looked around he saw the mob, the frightened disciples, the travelers. But none of them could help him. So he looked toward the cross in the middle and when he did, his eyes fell on God. He saw Jesus Christ in His purity. He saw Jesus Christ in His honesty and in His innocence. And when He looked at Christ, it could be that he remembered something he was taught as a child. From the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah said that the Son of God would come. His name would be Emmanuel, and that He would be bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace would be upon Him. As that thief began to think in his desperate hour, he began to put it all together. Somehow faith sprung up and said: this must be the Lord. That thief turned toward the cross in the middle and he cried out, “Lord, remember me when You come in Your kingdom.”

I want to pause to tell you something about that thief. He called Jesus “Lord.” Now, everybody I see would like to have a Savior. What they don’t want is a lord. A lord is somebody who tells you what to do, and you do it. A lord is somebody that you allow to be in charge of your life. A lord is somebody that gives you commandments and orders and you obey them. When that thief looked at Jesus he didn’t just say “Savior.” He said, “Lord. I’m willing to turn my life over to You, if You’ll take me. And remember me when You come in Your kingdom.” And Jesus stopped dying to hear that sinner pray. He turned to him immediately and said, “I’m telling you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Jesus didn’t say, “How many Sabbaths have you kept lately?” Jesus said, “You’re going to be in the kingdom.”

Now, wait a minute. We have a problem. Jesus said, unless a man repent and is baptized, he cannot go to heaven. Now, that fellow repented, but he didn’t get baptized. He was on a cross. And yet Jesus said, “I’m going to save you.” Is Christ violating His own Word? Let’s go back to the day the Jesus was baptized. He was walking down to the river Jordan. John the Baptist had been preaching that he was a forerunner of the Messiah. One day John looked through the crowd and saw Jesus coming. He said to that crowd, “Behold, here He comes, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” Jesus walked down into that river and asked John to baptize Him. John said, “Lord, I’m not worthy. You don’t need baptizing. I need to be baptized by You.” And Ladies and Gentlemen, that was true. Because baptism symbolizes dying to sin and rising to walk in a new life. Christ had never sinned and He didn’t need baptizing. But Jesus said to John, “Suffer it to be so that I might fulfill all righteousness.”

Three and a half years later He was on the cross and a thief cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus could have said, “I would, if you could only be baptized.” No; Jesus said, “I’m going to save you.” Well, what about baptism? “I’m going to give you credit for My baptism.” Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s why it’s called Amazing Grace. I’ve been to the bedside of dying men and women. I remember a man who was dying of cancer. No possibility of being baptized. He began to weep and he told me the mess he’d made of his life. I said to him, “Sir, we don’t have time to discuss all that. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”

He said, “I do”.

“Are you willing to surrender your life to Him?”

“I am.”

“Will you believe what He says, that He’s able to save to the uttermost?”

“I do.”

I said, “Sir, if you believe that, let’s pray together, confess your sins, and then you are a child of God.”

When I left he had a smile on his face. A few weeks later I got a letter from his wife. She said, “Thank you for bringing hope to my husband. He died this morning, but he died with peace in his heart, and I know that he only sleeps until that great resurrection day when Jesus comes.” Praise the Lord. By faith in Jesus, all his sins were washed away and the righteousness of Jesus was credited to his account, written alongside his name in the books of heaven. And God will do the same for every sinner who repents, confesses his sin, and accepts Jesus as His savior and Lord. Would you say Amen?

But what about the second part of our question? Once you’ve become a Christian, once you’ve given your life over to Jesus, how do you remain one? We want not only to be claimed by Jesus, but we want to be kept by Him, isn’t that right?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I want you to get this, because many people give their hearts to the Lord and then get discouraged and give up simply because they are sorry to discover they are not angels! Just because you give your life over to Jesus and are claimed by Him, you’re not perfect. Don’t look for a halo. You’re still you. And you’ve got to grow in grace. And as you grow, you get stronger and stronger and you overcome more and more.

But Lord, how do I receive the power to grow in grace?

Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you.

And what will that do for me Lord?

It will make you more and more like Jesus. Through Christ you can grow in grace. And it’s not just for me and a select few. It’s for whosoever will. The most rotten sinner in this auditorium tonight can be forgiven, claimed by Jesus, and have that power in his life. Jesus loves to save men and women, and the worse you are, the more He is glorified when He saves you. He loves saving people. He begins the process, and He finishes the process. And He keeps you all along the way. That’s why Paul said, He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.

As Christians, we need to pray for the power of Jesus in our lives every day, because Jesus said, “Watch and pray, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). The flesh is what? Weak. How many of you have flesh? Say Amen. And the flesh is what? Weak. So we need to be in an attitude of prayer at all times that the power of Jesus would be in our lives.

Jesus said when you’re walking through the day and you’re tempted because your flesh is weak, what should you do? That’s right. Pray. Well, what kind of prayer should you pray? A desperate cry for help, because you’re in trouble. Don’t wait until you get home to pray. Pray right then and there! Do you have to close your eyes? Not really. I prayed one day while driving a car that was out of control, going airborne off the side of a mountain. I had both eyes open, wrestling with the steering wheel. Never did I pray a greater prayer than I did that day. And the Lord answered that prayer. Well, should it be a long prayer? One day Peter was walking on the water, and he started to sink. The Bible says, “And Peter, beginning to sink, cried, “Lord, save me!” If Peter had tried to pray a long prayer like some of these pretenders pray, he would have drowned before he could say “Amen.”

Now, I’m trying to be practical, folks. When you’re in trouble, when you’re being tempted because your flesh is weak, all you’ve got to do is cry, “Lord, help me!” And the Lord can help you. Would you say Amen? Now I’m going to tell you a secret and I hope you remember it as long as you live. You cannot sin and pray at the same time. So the minute you’re in trouble, cry out, “Lord, stop me. Save me. Help me.” Now prayer without faith is what? Dead. And faith without works is what? Dead. So when you pray, you’ve got to believe. And then you’ve got to do some work. You’ve got to move away from that temptation, and you’ve got yourself a victory through the power of Christ.

When you make your decision to follow the Lord, don’t worry about how things will be two years from now. You might be dead two years from now. Matthew 6:34 says, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” So wake up in the morning and say, “Lord, thank you for a new day. Keep me today.” Don’t worry about next month. One day at a time. If you worry about two months ahead, you’ll get discouraged. One day at a time. If He keeps you one day, He can keep you two. If He keeps you two days, He can keep you a week. If He keeps you a week, He can keep you a month, and on for the rest of your life. One day at a time.

The problem is some folk don’t want to be kept. They don’t want to give up sin. I heard it said that some people run from temptation; others crawl away, hoping it will catch them. They don’t want victory. They’ve got precious little sins they love. They don’t expect to give them up. They want to walk the fence. They want to hold on to the Lord with one hand and the world with the other. It can’t be done. The Bible says, “He that is not for Me is against Me.” Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters.” And I’m saying to you tonight, it’s time to stop compromising, fooling yourself, telling yourself it doesn’t matter. It does matter. Jesus is coming soon. It’s high time to get right with God. What do you say?

Don’t tell me how bad you’ve been. I can read you the names of harlots, prostitutes, in this Bible who are going to be in heaven. I can read you the name of a man who killed another man to take his wife, and yet that man is going to be in heaven, because he repented, gave up his sin and surrendered his life to Christ. The Bible tells me about a prodigal son. He ended up in the pig pen. That’s where you end up when you go away from the Father. But one day he came to himself, the Bible says. He decided, I will arise and go back home. That man was out there in his misery. Sometimes God lets you get in a fix, just so you can see where sin leads. While he was out there, every time the pig would grunt, the grunt would say, go home, young man. Every time he swished in the mud of the pig pen the swishing of the mud seemed to say, go home, young man. So the lad set his garbage down and slowly turned his head toward home and warmth and friendship and peace and daily bread. And the father was waiting with outstretched arms! If the prodigal could make it, you can too.

Christ is able to save you. He earned that right on the cross. If it wasn’t worth it, He wouldn’t have suffered and bled and died for you. I want you, in your mind’s eye, to go to Calvary now, and see what the Lord had to go through in order to work it out and open up the portals of glory for sinners like you and me. We have all sinned. If you knew what I’ve done, I couldn’t look you in the eye and preach tonight. But I want to tell you, I can look you in the eye, not because I’m good, but because Christ is good. He took my sins away. Set my feet on a rock to stay. That’s the kind of Jesus I’m talking about tonight. And He’ll do it for you. Let’s go to the screen.

You can make it folks. You ought to say Amen to that. You’ve been hounded and harassed by the Devil, but you can make it. That’s the gospel tonight. Jesus has opened up a way for you. You can make it. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you in the heavenly city, and someday soon He’s coming to take you home. The gates of that city are going to swing open. The saints are going to go marching in. Ladies and Gentlemen, who are these people? They are rotten, no-good sinners who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We’re going to glory to be with Jesus. That’s what lies just ahead, and it’s ours by faith, because Christ has opened the way. I want to be saved. I want to go to that place where the tree of life is blooming, where there is rest for the weary. Somewhere in the sweet fields of Eden God’s people can get together. I want to see you there. I want you to see me. I want to shake your hand in the kingdom. Most of all Jesus wants to see you there. Jesus died that you might be there. He shed His precious blood that you might be saved, that your sins might be washed away and that you might have power to live for Him. My question tonight is: how many of you want to accept what Jesus has done for you and want to be saved in His kingdom? If you do, I want you all to stand with me right now as we pray.

O Father in heaven, it’s a thrill to talk about Jesus, and what He can do for a sinner. O dear Lord, look at these people. These are Your people. They’ve come out here, led by the Holy Spirit. Bless them, Lord. Write their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And blessed Lord, give us power to live for You. Give us the desire to follow You all the way. We beg it in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.