Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
LIVING ON THE EDGE OF HELL
If there is one thing that I know, it is this: that God delivers men and women from the clutches of sin and shame. Every new believer comes to Christ in the same fashion. It has been said that the foot of the Cross of Christ puts every one of us, rich and poor, old and young, or educated and uneducated, on a level ground.
The Bible says in Romans 3:10-12, "… there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, … there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Not even one of us can stand before God and declare our own worthiness. It doesn’t matter if you are millionaire living in a mansion, or a working stiff who barely can squeak by from paycheck to paycheck while struggling to make ends meet. It doesn’t matter if you are short, fat and not the best looking person around or if you are a tall, slim type that could model for Hollywood. The fact is that none of us are worthy of Heaven and all of us must fall on our face before God in repentance and surrender our lives to Christ if we want to make Heaven our eternal home.
God came down to earth, leaving the throne of Glory, to come and die for you and I. Jesus shed His own blood, willingly, so that we could find a way to be in the presence of God and live. I say again, that it is a level playing field for all who would come to Christ.
Thank God for all of you who are saved and have the Lord Jesus living in your heart. Thank God that one day you answered the call of the Holy Ghost as He gently tugged at your heart and begged you to come to Christ. Salvation is such a wonderful experience.
But, the question I have for you this day is this; where are you living right now? Are you as close to the Lord now as you were the day you were saved? Has your relationship with Jesus grown stronger or has it grown weaker? I find that there are far too many people, who claim to love Jesus, and yet they are living on the edge of hell itself.
In the Bible Jesus uses the example of earthly marriages to teach how the relationship of the church and Christ is supposed to be.
Those of you that are married, are you closer to your spouse now than you were the day you were married? Has your love grown at all? Have you come to know your husband or your wife in a greater measure than you knew them on the day of your wedding?
I don’t care if you have been married for a long time or for only a few days, your relationship with your spouse should be changing. You should be learning new things about them everyday and your love should be getting deeper and stronger every day.
Earthly marriages should grow stronger and couples should change into something different than they were when they were single. Now they think about the same things, plan for the same future, and desire to be together all the time. If that’s not the way your marriage is going, then you need a checkup from the neck up and you had better spend time on your face before God asking for His help because you are headed for the divorce courts before long.
The problem with earthly marriages is the same problem that is so prevalent in the lives of Christians around the world. That problem is one of personal commitment to either your marriage partner or to your God. Every relationship, whether with your friend, your spouse, your children or with the Lord Jesus Christ, rises and falls based on the amount and quality of our commitment to that relationship.
Half-hearted commitments lead to half-hearted marriages and to a half-hearted salvation. Half-hearted marriages are not marriages at all and are destined for failure. Half-hearted commitments to Christ are not commitments at all and half-hearted salvation is not even salvation. God wants your all or nothing at all.
How long do you think your earthly marriage will stand if either or both of the spouses don’t really care if the marriage stays together? Of course, that marriage won’t last very long. Well, what makes us think that a half-hearted commitment to Christ is going to get us into Heaven? There are far too many people who think that they are going to Heaven and yet they live lives of little or no real commitment to Christ. These folks are living on the Edge of Hell!
Examine your own life this morning. How much real commitment to Jesus Christ is in your life? How much time have you spent in getting to know the Lord in a deeper fashion? How often do you stop to pray and then take time to listen for the voice of the Lord? How many days do you go without trying to get to be more like Jesus?
My friend, if you go days without end without being around your family then get ready to lose that family! If you go for days without speaking to your spouse or talking to your kids, or letting them know that you care and that you will be there for them – then understand that someone else will be talking to them and it won’t be long until they will follow that one who seems to really care.
Too many of us think that money and things, or providing a good lifestyle proves our love. Money and toys, houses, or other possessions are not living things and they cannot take the place of the touch of your hand, or your hugging arms or the ability to look into your eyes and your heart and see you giving that love and commitment with your time and life to those that you love.
Go ahead, neglect your family, chase your dreams, and then watch as you lose the very thing that you want the most. Our world is filled with those who will give up what they want most of all just to have what they want right now!
Our salvation can be examined in this same light. On one hand we claim to love the Lord and we show our love for Him by attending church when its convenient, or when we are feeling good, or when it doesn’t interfere with what we want to do.
We claim to love Christ and we claim to want to be like Jesus and to spend eternity in Heaven but we live so close to the world that sometimes it’s hard to see Jesus, much less hear from Him.
Christians think that they can be around old friends from their former party life and still remain strong. It doesn’t work that way. God delivers us from our old life and then we turn around and jump right back into the miry clay and get stuck over and over. God takes us out by His power but we go back in by our own power and God will not force us to serve Him.
I’ve seen too many people who once loved the Lord with all their heart and then they began to slowly slip away until they finally began to live on the Edge of Hell. They began to fall away slowly at first. Perhaps it was only missing church a little more than usual. Then it was the neglect of Bible study and prayer. In fact, they went for weeks or even months and never even talked to God. Then they would begin to hang around their old friends and sooner or later, they would be smoking again, cursing again, and finally they would turn their backs on the Lord and go back to their old life completely. These folks are living so close to the Edge of Hell that they could probably hear the screams of the damned souls if they would only slow down enough to listen closely.
How quickly we forget the warnings from the lips of Jesus that are recorded in His word…
Luke 11:23-26, "He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first."
Matthew 12:43-45, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."
Those warnings should act as huge STOP SIGNS for any Christian who begins to slip away from their relationship with Christ!
Many of us were caught up in lives that were hell on earth! Some of you were into alcohol, or drugs, or sexual immorality. God lifted you out of that slimy pit of sin that you were powerless to leave. He set your feet on the solid rock and saved your soul from certain death, and yet we neglect Him and think that we can still make it on our own.
I don’t think that any of us really choose to not follow Christ. Satan begins to come to us in our moments of weakness. In those times of trouble, heartache, sorrow, or sickness, when we are hurting and need help, that’s when Satan will bring your old friends around. That’s the time when he knows that you are most likely to stumble and fall and do something that you would not do at any other time.
The old desires begin to come back as temptation enters into your heart to convince you that just one puff, just one fix, just one drink and I will feel better. Little do we realize just how far that one little thing can take us. Sin will always take us further than we want to go and then leave us in the pits of despair again.
If we continue down that road, our whole life, that Jesus has been blessing, now begins to come unraveled. How many lives of Christians have been destroyed because of one little sin? How many homes are broken and divided? How many little children don’t have mom and dad around the way that God intended? How many moms and dads cry themselves to sleep wondering what happened and why did this have to happen to me?
I tell you that Satan is out to kill, steal and destroy every good thing in your life – your family, your home, your job, your church and especially your relationship with Jesus.
Stop for a moment and quit thinking about the few good times you had living a life of sin and start thinking about all the bad things that resulted from your sin. Now multiply those bad times by seven and then try to imagine how terrible that life will be in the future if we turn away from the Lord. The guilt feelings are much stronger now. The sorrow that we will face will be far more hurtful. The suffering and loneliness will be much intensified. The hopelessness will be greater than ever. And, worst of all, if we try to come back to the Lord, it will be much harder the next time because sin will have such a stronghold on us that it will be nearly impossible for the Holy Spirit to reach us.
God help that Christian who lives on the Edge of Hell and plays with Fire from the Pit!
If you value your family; if you value your salvation; if you value any good think in your life, you better stay close to the Lord or Satan will surely destroy those things in your life!
Thank God that He knew how weak we humans are in times of stress. Jesus knows that we are prone to failure and that we often stumble and fall. That’s why Jesus made a way for us to come to Him and seek forgiveness.
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:"
Hebrews 4:15-16, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Jesus will not interfere with your power to choose. He will never force you to do what is right. He will not knock the glass of alcohol out of your hand. He won’t grab the pill or the needle from your arm. He won’t stop the profanity from leaving your lips. He will let you do what you want to do. But, thank God, He makes a way for us to come back to Him.
I don’t know whom God is speaking to through this message but I do know that He is speaking to someone because He would not have given me this message if He didn’t mean it for somebody.
I cannot look into your heart! I don’t know where you stand with God! I can tell when people begin to slip away by their commitment level to the church, to prayer and to Christ by their attitude, but I don’t really know their heart, but God does know your heart and He is speaking to you right now.
I’m not going to soft soap this message for anyone. God is here, standing in front of you. The Holy Spirit has already begun to draw you and to tug at your heart. He has already told you whether this message is for you or not and now its decision time!
What will you do with Jesus Christ?
Will you continue to ignore the warnings and walk away from God?
Will you turn your back on Jesus and go back into your old life?
Will you let the unclean spirit back into your life and then let that spirit bring seven more of his unclean spirits with him?
Are you going to put everything dear to you in jeopardy?
Are you going to yield to temptation and let Satan destroy every blessing that God has given you?
THE CHOICE IS YOURS AND GOD WON’T FORCE YOU TO MAKE THE RIGHT ONE – YOU MUST DO THAT ON YOUR OWN!
It’s time, right now, to quit living on the Edge of Hell and step over into the full commitment of living for the Lord! It’s all or nothing. God will not settle for second place and He will accept nothing less than your whole heart!
Jesus has promised that if we will come to Him, confessing our sin and asking for forgiveness, that He would be faithful and just. He will forgive your of your failures, faults and sin and He will place your feet back on the rock.
It is not God’s will for your life to come to ruin. He has promised you life and life much more abundant. He has promised you so many blessings that you can’t even contain all of them. He has a plan for your life that is wonderful and happy and fulfilling. Will you give all that away?
If you just stand there and refuse to answer the call of God then God will have little choice but to let you go but that decision will carry some terrible consequences and they won’t be long in coming!
God’s rod of chastisement will begin to come against you and troubles will increase, temptation will increase and they will only grow worse until we either hear the voice of God and obey Him or we slip away completely into a life of sin.
Turn to God right now! Repent of the sin that has already happened! Don’t be worried about what others may think – they are probably just as guilty as you are and they are fighting the same as you to decide whether to come to Christ or not!
Who cares what other people may think. Let them think what they want! Your soul, your family, your home, your peace and joy are at stake!
Don’t let Satan keep you from coming clean before the Lord right now!
This is the time that God has ordained for you to come back to Him. Don’t let it slip by!
Today, right now, is the time to make it right! There is no promise of tomorrow and even if tomorrow does come, are you willing to take the risk of losing it all?
It’s time to quit living on the Edge of Hell!
It’s time to step over into the fullness of the blessings of Christ and commit your life and heart back to God and really mean business with Him!
