Taken from The Dawning of Wisdom Part 1 Also available in booklet Knowing Jesus as Lord
One-A-Day 4
Knowing Jesus as Lord
A Daily Checklist
from the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus taught that those who know Him as Lord are only those who keep His commandments. Most Christians gave up the sin pleasures of the world when they accepted Jesus as their Savior, so what commandments is He talking about? Many of us might respond to Jesus like the rich young ruler when he asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus told him to keep the commandments and started naming the Ten Commandments, the young ruler said, "All these I have kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" (Matthew19: 20b KJV) Jesus did find something that was lacking in him that made the young man become sorrowful. He wasn't willing to surrender all to the lordship of Jesus. He had his own ideas of what he wanted to do with his wealth. We, too, can know the commandments, think we are keeping them and yet may be deceived about something we are withholding from God's lordship in our lives.
As Christians, we don't ever want to have the experience of becoming sorrowful because we did not fulfill what the Lord asked of us. The starting point to prevent this is to know how we line up with what the Scriptures reveal to us so that we can do something about it. Jesus said to His disciples, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you." (John 15:3 KJV)
Let us sit once again under the anointed preaching of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount as found in Matthew 5-7 to lift out some specific things Jesus said for us to do or to be. This will provide a practical checklist with which to make a personal evaluation to bring before the Lord in seeking His help.
The verses in the Sermon on the Mount have been separated into meaningful groupings for the purpose of this devotional booklet. Some days the messages are short but no less significant than the longer ones. After the scripture verses, the things we are told to do or to be in those verses are listed and underlined and then briefly summarized. It is important to answer the questions in the checklists honestly and to spend time before God reflecting on the instructions found in the scripture verses. The intent of these checklists is not to bring condemnation, but to bring awareness of what the Lord truly requires of us to bring us into an intimate relationship with Him where we know Him as Lord and are aware that He knows us intimately and individually as His child. If the reader will do this, the Holy Spirit will use this time to bring forth a work of submission to the lordship of Christ.
It is recommended that these daily messages be read in the order given.
Scripture verses are from the New International Version unless otherwise stated.
Day 1
Before we can know Jesus as Lord or Master,
we must first know Him as our Savior.
Romans 10:9-10 says: "that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (KJV)
Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and confess it with your mouth.
According to these scriptures, there are two parts to salvation The first is to believe in your heart that Jesus is who He said He was, the Son of God whom God raised from the dead, and the second part is to confess Him as the Lord Jesus with your mouth.
Many, many people who profess to be Christians have taken the first step. They have heard and they believe, at least in their head. They are believers. But many have not taken the second step, they haven't confessed Him personally as their Lord and Savior. The heart becomes righteous through believing but the door to enter into His lordship is confessing Him with your mouth.
We know that before this happens one must hear the Gospel message, must realize he is a sinner in need of a Savior and must repent of his sins. This is all part of the work of the Holy Spirit and may all happen simultaneously as one hears the message of Jesus, becomes aware of his sins and asks God to forgive him and cleanse him by the blood of Jesus. This is called praying the "sinner's prayer". It is the gateway into the kingdom of heaven. No one enters in but through believing in and confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord. He is the door. Confessing Jesus with your mouth, that is, speaking with words of faith, is the completion of believing in the heart. Believing is essential, but it is only the first part.
Just as one enters into a marriage commitment by speaking marriage vows, so one enters into a personal relationship with Jesus by speaking and confessing who He is. We go into marriage willingly and we go into relationship with Jesus willingly. God will never force anyone to become a Christian but will woo us through the Holy Spirit until we hopefully say "I do".
Once we are in a marriage relationship it is up to us as to what we will make of it. We can head toward wedded bliss, a "so-so" relationship, or even the divorce court. So it is in our walk with God. It can be exciting, fulfilling and vibrant or "so-so", or we can even leave Him. It's our choice. The best choice with the best results, of course, is to let Him be Lord of our lives.
Checklist 1
Have I ever confessed Jesus to be my Lord and Savior with my mouth?
Have I ever verbally and audibly invited Him into my heart?
Can I point to a moment in time and say that this is the time when I made a total commitment of my life to Him?
Can I assuredly say that I know I am born again and will go to heaven when I die because
Jesus died for my sins and cleansed me from all unrighteousness?
If the answer to any of these questions is 'no' or if there is any uncertainty about any of them, there is no better time to take care of it than right now.
Flossie Randels
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