Surrender to Jesus

Surrender to Jesus


By P. Hickmott



"Let the whole house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36.

God has had to do with every person. There are millions, thousands of millions on earth today, and God has had to do with every one. People talk about family control. God has had to do with every living soul that's come into this world. And He holds their breath in His hand, including yours and mine. He has given abundant witness to His existence in the creation all around us, whether people admit it or not. He has given you a witness to Him in your conscience.

So here we are today, as persons that are responsible to God. He will have to say to everyone sooner or later - to you and to me, and to every man. Not one is going to escape. It says "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after death the judgment". Are you ready for it? Are you ready to be ushered right now into the presence of God? How many people today have reached the end of their life span, and their opportunity for blessing is over for ever? We must face it, and every man will face it sooner or later, that all things are naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. God has given Jesus a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father's glory. Someone has said, You do it voluntarily or you are eventually compelled to do it. Don't leave it until that day. Join the myriads who rejoice in the place that God has given Jesus.

So Peter preaches this gospel to the Jews that had crucified the Lord, and He's telling them, 'I don't want there to be any doubt in your minds that God has made this Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ'. How have you treated Jesus up till now? Have you come into line at all with what God has done with Him? He wants you to come fully into line with what He has done with Jesus. As I look around this room, we hardly need to cover the ground that Jesus was, and is, a divine Person, one of the Godhead, and He came into human form, and He lived a perfect life, and He went to the cross. I don't think we need to emphasize that, but I would like to emphasize, to stress, that God has made Him Lord, and you and I had better do the same. You say, you preach Jesus as Saviour. Beautiful! And He is! But the beginning of an entrance into living Christianity is to accept Him as Lord.

So persons in the gospels that came into blessing fell at His feet, or at His knees. You remember Peter: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord". I don't think we can argue with the fact that the Christianity of many of us (and it challenges me to say it) is half-hearted, and lacks living vitality, because somewhere along the road, I have never accepted Jesus as Lord, absolutely. You can't argue with the laws of this country, traffic laws or any other laws, and pretend they don't exist, because God has put them in place. How much less can you argue with God about where He has placed Jesus! He has made Him Lord! Oh, to convey that, and I could do it better if I had faced it better myself, but to arrive at it at least in your mind, that His authority over you and me is to be absolute and without question. It will transform your life.

So Peter presents Him, the crucified One, as Lord. And God would appeal to us tonight to come to this point in our minds, that He is to be supreme in your life, because He has been given the highest place in glory already, and one day He will have it on earth. Have you ever repented? I don't mean that you admitted you were wrong when you were in trouble, or that you said "sorry" when you were found out. God is sending out His urgent message for you to surrender to Jesus. The hymn says, "Oh, surrender now, yield to love divine". You and I, by nature and by act, are wretched, lost sinners. Not only guilty because of our sins, but lost because of the race we belong to. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. And He wants you to acknowlege it with an honest heart. God would surround you with every advantage in order that you might come to the feet of Jesus. The Bible says that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. The hardened and impenitent heart is spoken of in that verse.