Riding a Jesus Bandwagon on the Highway to Hell

We'll gather around tonight friends. I have a message you're not going to want to miss. It's a message that every single one of you is going to have to deal with because it might deal with you.

I'm going to talk about a bandwagon tonight. You know what a bandwagon is? A bandwagon makes a lot of noise and draws attention to itself. It is at the head of the crowd and demands recognition.

It strives to be heard above all others as it pounds its drums and toots its horns. All over this town tonight people are on some kind of bandwagon promoting their cause. Some are promoting socialism.

Some are promoting atheism. Some communism. Some are promoting Mormonism.

Some are promoting Scientology. They're promoting some world religion out there tonight. Some religious cult or another.

Some are promoting social issues like the gay agenda. But just about everyone is promoting some kind of something on a bandwagon and they want your attention. Do you know friends that there are even people out there who promote the Jesus bandwagon? They're on a bandwagon wanting you to jump aboard and get their Jesus even though they don't know anything about who Jesus is.

That's true friends. Do you know what a lost church member is? A lost church member is someone who was riding a Jesus bandwagon on a broad highway to hell. And that's the title of my message tonight friends.

Riding a Jesus bandwagon on the highway to hell. Maybe this message I'm giving tonight is about you even if you are the chairman of the deacons. If you were deceived friend and on your way to hell even as a church member wouldn't you want to know about it? I sure would.

I wouldn't want to go to hell. Hear me now. I'm here to warn you this evening not to go to hell.

Hell is a horrible place of smoke, darkness, heat, misery. It's a burning region of punishment for sin. My Bible calls it a lake of fire.

A lake that will engulf you in its flames forever and ever. It's a prison of outer darkness. People are on a bandwagon for Jesus today and they will tell you how much they love their Jesus and you need to accept Jesus too.

They love to live within the church and socialize there, make friendships there, sing about Jesus there, hear sermons about Jesus there. They enjoy the collective noise of Christianity as they ride on a bandwagon on their way to hell. They enjoy the fellowship found at church and some of their closest friends go to church with them.

For many their lives center around their church activity much like a country club would center his life around a country club. A country club member would just live at the club all the time. When I was a member of a country club all my golf buddies were there.

All my social and business contacts were there. I was at my club six days a week with sometimes even seven times a week with brunch on Sunday. Many people live for church that way and what they can get out of it.

But they don't live for Jesus and his glory. They know nothing about a conquering Christ who must be king. They know nothing about Jesus as Lord.

They've never been awakened to their lost condition. Never have gotten a good look at their own rotten hearts. Never been under Holy Spirit conviction.

Never have exercised true repentance towards God by hatred of their own sins and a forsaking of them. And these deceived individuals have never gotten savingly to Christ for pardon of sin. But they're still on the bandwagon for Jesus.

They'll tell you all about them. Some of them are even pastors, but they're lost and they're going to hell. But they rest upon a good opinion of themselves and a long track record of service.

They're on a bandwagon for Jesus and they make a lot of noise. They can tell you all about when they gave their heart to Jesus, but Jesus has never been their Lord. They cut them in halves and took the half they wanted.

The one that will bring them to heaven. But they won't take the one that will get in the way of their daily living. And it's the Living Lord.

So they sit on a rotten foundation of carnal security that's ready to break at any moment and send them crashing down into a devil's hell. True conversion, friends, is Christ living, breathing, reigning, fighting, and conquering in the soul. Hear me now! A born-again believer has the principle of life implanted in him, wrought by God, by the Holy Spirit, whereby God has removed the stony heart and made it a heart of flesh sensitive to him.

And this will produce a life that pants after holiness. Hear me now! Holiness. Jesus must be your Lord.

You can be lost and on your way to hell inside the church as much as outside of it. But lost people don't know the danger they're in, the great peril that they sit under. They're blind to their danger.

Listen to this story, friends. Listen to what happened to me. Years ago, I was staying at a friend's house in Florida, and I was in the guest bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, getting ready to retire for the evening.

I had just removed my golf shirt when I felt something drop on my neck and began to crawl down my back. It was a giant palmetto cockroach. These cockroaches are two inches long, and they got wings.

They can fly. They like to live in palm trees. Evidently, as I sat on that bed, I didn't notice that directly above me, crawling on the ceiling, was a big cockroach.

It was suspended directly above me, and as soon as I took off my shirt, it dropped down on my bare neck and back. People live in willful ignorance of the horrible wrath of God that continually hangs over them, ready to drop down at any moment. They sit in a stupor of carnal security, completely unaware of a large, dangerous tarantula on the ceiling above them, ready to fall down on their neck at any moment to poison them.

But there's a great danger and peril of dying outside the blood of Christ. Some of you have just been playing church and living in church with an empty religious profession, riding on a bandwagon for Jesus on a broad highway to hell. You don't know him savingly, and worse than that, he doesn't know you.

If you die outside of Christ tonight, he will say to you, away from me. I never knew you. Take him away.

Take her away. Take him away to the place prepared for the devil and his angels. The worst injustice modern evangelism has done to God in this generation is to insult him by shrinking him down to man size and lying to people by telling them Jesus is helpless, impotent, as he stands helplessly at the door of the sinner's heart like an insurance salesman with his hat in his hand, hoping you'll let him in.

He's just knocking there. But that's not the Christ of my Bible. That imagery and that verse out of Revelation is about Christ, shut out of the modern apostate church.

But that verse has been hijacked by modern evangelists as they've shrunken Jesus down to their imbecilic level. Jesus must be Lord. Jesus is reigning Lord.

Salvation occurs, friends, when self is dethroned and another is enthroned there to rule and reign the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel has rights and claims on a person's life. Let me tell you about the Christ of the Gospels.

Let me tell you about Jesus. Jesus came down here so we can go up there. He stepped out of heaven and emptied himself of his glory to be born of a woman to live as a man.

He came into this world doing good, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, feeding the hungry, giving rest to the weary. Jesus, the friend of sinners. He even raised the dead to life.

Yet what happened? Wicked men cried away with him and nailed him to a cross. First they stripped him and then they whipped him. They blindfolded him and then slapped his jaw, saying, who smote thee? Then they placed a purple robe on him and a crown of thorns on his head and a reed in his hand and they bowed to him like a mock king and they mocked him and then they got up and spit in his face one after another.

Then they led him away to a place called Calvary where they crucified him on a cross between two criminals. They stripped him naked and humiliated him and then pounded nails into his innocent flesh. They drove nails into his hands and feet as they fastened him to that ignoble cross.

Onlookers walked by and made fun of him. They cried, he saved others. Let him save himself.

And then they held their bellies and just laughed and laughed, but they were the ones who needed saving. When the world hates Jesus, he still is hated today. But when all was against him, his love flowed out to a world of guilty sinners.

He prays, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Look at that blessed man on the cross, friend. Look at that bloodstained Savior from sin.

You don't need to get on a bandwagon to ride for Jesus, but you must come to him and believe on him for forgiveness of sin. He is your only hope of staying out of a devil's hell. Hear me now.

I'm here to warn you not to die in your sins under a false profession. You don't want to go to hell. I was a lost church member myself for years.

I know what I'm talking about. I was deceived by the modern gospel. Don't go to hell, friend.

It's a horrible place of burnings. Listen to the cry of the lost in hell. From Isaiah, we read, the sinners in Zion are afraid.

Fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Listen to me, friend. The damned in hell are suffering in torments at this very moment.

They're weeping. They're gnashing their teeth. Weeping speaks great loss and deep grief.

Gnashing the teeth signifies great anger and regret. The damned in hell are screaming and shrieking their lungs out tonight. I'm hollering to you at the top of my lungs tonight.

Don't go to hell, friend. I'm here to warn you. You must get to Christ.

You must get an interest in him. Look at that man on the cross as he says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me.

Look at his bleeding hands and feet. He says, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Listen, friends, the gospel of the son of God is for the thirsty, the hungry and the weary. Let me ask you here tonight, friend. Are you weary of your sins? Are you hungry for God? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come to him and believe on him for pardon of sin.

You must get to him and get your sins under his blood for forgiveness of sin. Jesus has power to save the real gospel has power to save. He can save even you.

He can save the biggest sinner in this town tonight. If that person will humble themselves and come to Christ and own him, look at that bloodstained savior for sin. He is the remedy and refuge for sin.

Jesus is the pearl of great price. He's worth selling all for friend to come and gain him. Look at his outstretched arms, beckoning you to come to him.

He says, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men onto me. The cross is the place where wicked men sought to get rid of him. But by his death, it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all human now flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own them as their savior and Lord.

Are you a sinner? Are you a lost sinner? Then come to Christ, but he must be your Lord. You must come and throw down your shotgun of rebellion at his nail pierced feet and submit to him, submit to his rule and reign over you. He gave us all at Calvary bearing the curse and becoming sin for us.

How can you hold back anything from him? You come to him in complete surrender and bow to a sovereign Lord. He is Lord. He is a sovereign Lord of absolute authority.

He shed his blood for sinful man. I'm going to sing a hymn friend. I want you to come to Christ as a saying, he may be striving with you tonight.

The door of mercy may be open to you. Jesus said, I am the door. Listen, friend, if God's been dealing with your awake and soul, don't delay.

If you've been riding a bandwagon on your way to hell, it's time to get off it now and come, come in surrender to this living Lord. If God's been dealing with you, then you come to Christ as a saying, give your role to him. He is Lord.

He is Lord. He has risen from the dead and he is Lord. Every knee shall bow.

Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord.

He has risen from the dead and he is Lord. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He is Lord. He is Lord. He has risen from the dead and he is Lord.

Every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.