Romans 3 makes it very clear to us.  “We’ve all gone astray,” the Scripture says.  “The wages of sin is death.”  When I talk about death, I’m not talking about natural cessation of life, I’m talking about spiritual death, which is separation from God and a candidate for the wrath of God.  That wrath will come upon all disobedience, all who live in rebellion toward God.  And whether it’s overt rebellion and hatred, or it’s turning our back and living lives of independence—that’s one of the great rebellions.  “I retain the right to my own life!”  Jesus said, “If you’re going to receive My eternal life, you must forfeit lordship of your life, and make Me Lord”; amen?  “If you’re going to come after Me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me.”  He said, “If you do not love me more than mothers and fathers and houses and lands and wives and children and, yea, your own life also, you are not worthy of me.”  You see, tragically, people want to sign a covenant with God but have a clause that negates that role of submission.  We want to know God as our eternal fireman, who will save us from the flames of hell, but we don’t want to know Him as Lord.  That empty tomb demands that you bow your knee.

He is King of kings and Lord of lords.  If you believe that Jesus is risen, it necessitates that you accept Him and know Him as Lord and Savior, praise God!  Peter was asked one time by Jesus, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man, am?”  Matthew’s sixteenth chapter.  And they said, “They believe that maybe you’re John the Baptist, one of the prophets…”  He said, “Who do you say that I am?”  “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  He said, “You’ve been blessed to receive that revelation.”  He said, “It’s not a revelation that’s obtainable through flesh and blood, through natural circumstances.”  You can only come to that truth by revelation of God the Father.  If we know that to be truth, we’re a blessed people.  For God to have opened our eyes to recognize Jesus for who He is.  It’s a gift of God, and it’s available unto all.  For God is not willing that any would perish, but that we would all come to eternal life; amen?  Think about that.

I remember my first encounter with the Living God.  I was eight years old, raised in a household of pagans.  I had no knowledge, zero knowledge of God, who Jesus Christ was.  So many alcoholics in our family tree.  And one day I was walking home from school, and I can see it like it was yesterday.  It was stereotypical.  You would’ve thought it was Mayberry and that I was Opie.  But as I was walking on my way home, and I had a stick and was running it along a picket fence.  “Click, click, click, click, click.”  And there was a lady out front.  And she said, “Would you like to come and join us?  We’re sharing some Bible stories.”  And I said, “No, thank you.”  “Click, click, click, click.”  “We have cookies.”  I changed course.  I went in with a number of other young children and this lady, on a flannel board, proceeded to place this big red heart up on that flannel board.  And then on one side of that heart she put the devil and the other side the Lord.  And she told the story about the warfare to gain the hearts of humanity who had been born into sin because of the original sin of Adam.  I learned that we’re not sinners because of what we do.