The message by Paris Reidhead, "If you agree"... wow, good stuff! I typed up some of it for interested people...
An Excerpt from the sermon If You Agree by Paris Reidhead
The call is to yoke yourself to the sovereign will and purpose of Christ. Now therefore the Eklesia, that is, His people, are the people who have heard His call. It has been a call from something, to something. It has been a call from self-will, from ruling one's own life, from living to please oneself, to gratify oneself; living under the government and direction of one's own whim and fancy to an entirely new government. No longer I, but Thine. Not My will, but Thy will be done. This is the call. It is a call to turn one's back upon one's past and commit one's self to Christ as the Governor of the future.
And so His people are a Called People. They have been called by Him, but they have [also] been called to Him. This is a call to Christ. Not a call to a church, not a call to a doctrine, not a call to a ceremony or a ritual. It is a call to a Person. "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Tragically there are those today who are trusting in the plan of salvation for rest. They have learned the truths concerning the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection of Christ. And they have learned that men who believe in these truths are saved. And so they have responded to the call of truth and they have come to truth, and they have received truth. They have intellectually consented to truth but they have stopped there. [There's] has been a call to truth and not to a Person. The plan of salvation does not save; it instructs one to the Savior, but salvation is in a Person. "He that hath the Son hath life." It did not say, he that has the words,'he that hath the Son' has life but, 'he that hath the Son hath life."
Years ago down South we had an experience of an invitation being given, a man coming forward. A personal worker [was] assigned to talk to him. He asked his name and his address and what he came for. The man said, to be saved. And so the personal worker opens his bible to that verse, he that hath the Son hath life. He said, do you believe that? The man said, I do, and he wrote down Saved and said, Now are there any questions you might have before I give this card to the pastor? The man said, Yes, there's one question. You asked me if I believe that verse; I guess it said, 'he that hath the Son hath life,' and I do. Now there's just one question, what I'd like to know is how do you get the Son?
You see, he made the mistake, this personal worker, of thinking that because the man believe in the verse he had the Son. But the man who came knew that there had been no change in his heart nor in his life. Salvation is not in a scripture verse, it's not in a doctrine, it's not in a decision. It's in a Person. And so it is a call to the Person of Christ. It is a call not only to come to Him, but it is a call that results, when properly answered, in His coming to them. It is Christ in you! Not Christ above you, or around you, before you, beside you, or behind you. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory! |