Rejection of Jesus As Lord

The Apostle Paul spoke of himself as a prisoner of the Lord. In Ephesians, Paul states, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord. That's how the old boy viewed himself, as a bond slave, or prisoner to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I fear today, friends, not many of us live under the lordship of Christ. As a matter of fact, we live in a day, friends, where Jesus has rejected his Lord. We live in a day, friends, where God has been legislated right out of society.

And the consequences of this is that we live in a day, friends, of violence, where blood fills our streets, where our teenagers are hooked on drugs and booze and sex, and they don't believe in the God of the Bible. Most of them are avowed atheists. Our pulpits teach nice little messages to soothe our agitated minds rather than pierce our consciousness by preaching about hell and its fires and the bloody cross where a savior died for sin.

The church houses are houses of entertainment rather than houses of prayer. And we live in a day, friends, where the average church member does as he pleases and cries out against any authority of God in his or her life by yelling with the same crowd that crucified the Lord of Glory, We will not have this man reign over us. So society goes on to hell while the church expands her campus.

But listen to me, friends. The lordship of Jesus Christ cannot be ignored. You must throw down your shotgun of rebellion and bow to him who has power to cast into hell.

Did you know that to have saving faith means absolute surrender to the lordship of Christ in your life? Did you know that salvation means that self is dethroned and another enthroned there? The Lord Jesus Christ. But I repeat, we live in a day of the rejection of Christ as Lord. And look around us, friends, and see where that has gotten us.

We live in a dry time. Why aren't we seeing revival? Why do we not have a Whitefield or a Moody among us today? Why is your average church so dead? Why? I believe the answer is that we have grieved the spirit of God away from our midst by all our worldliness and foolishness. The church was never meant to be a comedy club or a rock concert venue.

What we need today is what we do not have, and that is the presence of God in our midst. So in his absence, we have to make our own noise and work ourselves up in the flesh and call it church on Sunday morning. Listen to me, friends.

I believe God gets serious with those who get serious with him, Are we willing to go deeper with him no matter the cost? Are we willing to turn our sanctuaries back into nights of desperate prayer? Are we willing to give up our favorite TV show and spend that time on our knees and in our Bibles? Lip service is cheap. God is observing our hearts. How badly do we want to see revival? How badly do we want to see our young people saved? How badly do we want to feel the power of God in a meeting again? How badly do we want to rescue the perishing before they drop into a devil's hell? I believe our actions, or non-actions, will speak for us.

We can't go on much longer in this country playing church on Sunday morning and survive. Why doesn't God destroy us all right now? I don't know. Maybe it's because he's still in the business of saving souls, even if we aren't.

Heaven help us. Let us pray.