Pleasant Hill Baptist Church of Quitman MS
Pastor Michael DePhillips
www.forministry.com/39355PHBC
“The Acid test of Salvation”
Matthew 7:20-23
Want to bring to remembrance the time in the early part of the 80’s that gold prices went so high that people started bringing in their gold to sell it. Do you remember when that happened? Almost overnight these stores came up that would buy your gold and they were so busy that you had to stand in line. I had been given a gold ring by one of my aunts and I was really struggling financially so I decided to sell it to buy food. Went down there and found my place in line. Watched as some people came out happy with a fistful of money in their hands and others came out sad. Finally made my way inside and sat down with one of the people testing the gold we supposedly had. The first test they did was what they called the scratch test. They would take a sharp instrument and scratch the gold to make sure it wasn’t just some other metal. Most of the items could pass the scratch test but there was another test you had to sign a release for them to perform. It was called the acid test! They would take a drop of acid that would penetrate lesser metals but if the item you had was gold, it would merely dance on the top of the surface of the gold. I remember how confident I was when my ring passed the scratch test and they wanted to put it through the acid test. I signed my release and they took it in the back to give the test for safety reasons I suppose. My joy was short lived when the man came back and said I’m sorry but we can’t purchase this item. I asked him if it had some gold in it and he said yes but that it was only mixed into the ring. The process of extracting the gold was too expensive for them to purchase my ring.
1 Peter 1:7, “That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
Beloved can I tell you there are multitudes in the church who will draw their last breath on earth expecting to go to heaven when they die and open their eyes in hell. Can’t think of anything sadder than to spend my time, my talent and my money building the kingdom of God and Jesus never know me. Beloved it doesn’t say they tried to prophesy but that they did prophesy in Jesus name! It doesn’t say they tried to cast out demons and devils but that they cast them out in Jesus name! It doesn’t say they thought about doing many wonderful works but that they did many wonderful works in Jesus name but the acid test of salvation revealed that they had never been born into the family of God! These verses in Matthew should scare us to death because Jesus said not a few but MANY! Many shall come to me on that day and will be told, I NEVER KNEW YOU!
Many years ago there was a masterpiece of human ingenuity built in Italy that has marble and granite walls more than seven feet thick in some places. We know it today as the leaning tower of Pisa and for all it’s beauty and craftsmanship it leans today more than 17 feet off center because it’s foundation isn’t able to support the weight of the structure. (IF WE WERE TO SOMEHOW…)
Find it interesting that Jesus closed the teaching in Matthew 7 with an illustration of two houses, believe in my heart that on the outside they identical in beauty, but the each were built on different foundations.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 that there is only one foundation on which the Christian life can be built to defeat the power of sin and it’s the precious cornerstone the builders rejected, the Lord Jesus Christ!
No one is going to heaven except through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said I AM THE WAY not a way among many but the only way! He said I AM THE TRUTH not a portion of the truth and I AM THE LIFE not religion and traditionalism but LIFE AND THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY! No man comes to the Father except through me! Glory to the Lamb of God!
Wouldn’t it pay for us to acquaint ourselves with his instructions on how we get to heaven? Listen to me my friend if you’ve ever struggled or been tormented at night when you lay down to sleep of what may happen to you when you die, you can leave here tonight with no doubt in your mind and something which no demon in hell can ever take from you!
Jesus said I never knew them and he can’t say he never knew us if he ever knows us because he cannot lie, HE IS THE TRUTH!!! You can’t lose your salvation once you really get it but if you ever get it, you’ll never forget what I’m about to share with you tonight!
I was physically born on this earth in New Orleans Louisiana on October 1st 1964 at Baptist Hospital to my parents and they have a record of it in the register’s office of vital statistics to prove that I was born at that time BUT...
I can take you closer to my spiritual birth on Sept. 10, 1995 in a little Baptist church 13 miles east of Amite Louisiana when the Holy Spirit of God grabbed hold of my heart to birth me into the family of God! I can’t tell you what the preacher was saying or what anyone was wearing but I do know this, when the Spirit of God convicts your heart, it is some-
thing that you will never forget!
Jesus told a religious man named Nicodemus that we must be born again. Being born again isn’t reforming your old nature but is a change so radical that it can only be described as being born again from on high by the Holy Spirit of God. Let’s turn to John 3:1-8 (read)
Now for all the things we may put stock in like whether somebody reads their bible and can quote the bible, paying their tithes, going to church and just being a good person: Jesus said we must be born again and it’s a work of the Holy Spirit. You don’t just make up your mind to be born into the family of God because unless God draw you through His Spirit, you can go to hell with a bible in your hand.
(UNCLE MEB)
John 16:7-9,13 (read) Most of the people in the church have just volunteered for this thing we call church but it’s something the Holy Spirit must arrest you for and book you into the family of God.
NO CONVERSION WITHOUT CONVICTION! YOU MAY CHOOSE NOT TO BELIEVE ME, BUT I COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING WORSE THAN TO DIE EXPECTING TO GO TO HEAVEN AND BE CAST INTO HELL FOR AS LONG AS GOD LASTS!
Are there signs to a physical birth on the earth?
a seed is planted and begins to grow in the womb
over time there is evidence of pregnancy as growth occurs
in the fullness of time a strange thing happens to signal that it’s time for the baby to be born and it’s unlike anything the woman has ever experienced before
Labor pains came on my wife’s body when it was time for our children to be born and it was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Am I telling the truth ladies? Now I may have never experienced physical labor pains but I can tell you a little about the Spiritual Labor Pains the Holy Spirit laid on my heart when it was time for me to be born into the family of God.
There are just as many signs to the Spiritual Birth Jesus talked about…
the seed of the word of God is planted in our heart
evidence is revealed to us over time that everything may not be right with us because we don’t have the peace other people talk about, we don’t have the confidence that the pastor keeps preaching about and we become sure that God is trying to deal with us
Now don’t dismiss it and try to pull out your church membership or a baptism certificate or a list of things you’ve done for God believing that’s all you need. If the Creator of the Universe sends his Holy Spirit to deal with your heart you listen to him tonight because you can fool everybody in this place tonight but you can’t fool Jesus! Don’t you leave here tonight lost in your sins if God deals with you. It doesn’t matter how old you are… it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been coming to church… it doesn’t matter what position you hold in the church because there is no conversion without conviction! NO CONVERSION WITHOUT CONVICTION!
If the blessed Holy Spirit lays His labor pain on your soul you listen to him! It will be like a weight on your heart for your sins as He loads your heart with guilt for your sins. The Holy Spirit won’t come to you saying there there now baby everythings gonna be alright don’t you listen to that mean preacher. Beloved I wouldn’t pull one hair from my head to lay a burden on you but I tell you what I will do… I’ll put my 300 pounds under you to try and help you be born into the family of God because I know what you’re feeling right now.
I couldn’t get any rest until I got right when the Holy Spirit laid the burden of my sins on my heart. I couldn’t argue him down by my giving, my talent used for him.
I was the Youth Director and Brotherhood Director of Friendship Baptist Church but I was lost as a goose in a hailstorm because my life wouldn’t pass the ACID TEST OF TRUE SALVATION, I HAD NEVER BEEN BORN AGAIN!
Unlike anything I’d ever experienced but I’ll never forget it and you won’t either if you’ve ever experienced it. My Uncle Meb is in hell tonight but he never forgot the conviction of his sins and the time Jesus tried to save his soul.
Do you know what the dead would tell us? I believe that if the pits of hell opened for just a moment that the dead would speak to us of trusting Jesus so that we won’t come to this same awful place that they are. I believe that the dead in hell would scream to us to go to their families and tell them about Jesus so they wouldn’t one day hear their loved ones screaming in hell with them. I believe that the dead in hell would tell us not to waste the same opportunity for salvation that we have right now because in hell you will never forget the time God tried to draw you to himself to forgive your sins, but the memory of your rejection will haunt you forever!
Are you under the conviction of the Holy Spirit right now for your sins? Will you come to the Lord and be born again? You’ve tried to do it yourself but the Holy Word of God says it’s a work of the Holy Spirit and you must come when he deals with your heart. Will you come?
