A Rebel at Heart

I submit to you, friends, that the Bible is the Word of God, and the Word of God has this to say about man and his natural condition. In Job 15, 16, the Bible declares, How much more abominable and filthy is man with drinketh iniquity like water. A man can't get enough sin to be satisfied.

He lusts after iniquity like a dog drools over a steak bone. His eyes are full of lust. His heart is a pit of vipers.

In Jeremiah we read, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And man, our Bible declares, is dead in sin. For we see in Ephesians 2, 1, And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

The Word of God paints a pretty bleak, dark picture of man and his natural state. In Psalm 51, David speaks of man's natural condition. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

It pretty much says that every mother's son comes into this world born a rebel. A rebel who's committed treason against a sovereign. The only place where man can be reconciled to this offended sovereign is a place called Calvary.

And while there at the foot of the cross, as he beholds a bloody, crucified Christ, he must meet a holy God at one road. And that road is the road of repentance. No repentance, no pardon for sin.

No repentance, no justification. No justification, no heaven. But no heaven, no Christ.

A man who dies in his sins enters a Christless eternity. Unless you repent, ye shall all likewise perish, Jesus declared. And that means to perish in a burning hell of torments and misery.

For God commands all men to repent. Acts 17.40 declares, In the times of this ignorance God winked at, But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. That's his demand for you right now, friend.

The hardest messages I've had to preach in churches were the ones on man's duty of repentance. Because that's where the war is. That's where the battle is fought.

That's where the good deacons will fight you tooth and nail. I've had deacons stare me down in the face with hatred in their eyes after I preached hard on man's duty of repentance. Repentance states that you are a rebellious sinner who's committed treason against a sovereign king.

And you, in your natural condition, stand under the condemnation of a holy God. That this is true, friends, we see in John 3.18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. If you don't repent, you are on your deserved way to hell because you're born a rebel.

You need to be born again through the new birth. And the only way you're going to get a thrice holy God to accept you into his pure heaven is if you are perfect. Now, I know some of you think you are perfect, but your spouse could tell us otherwise.

God requires perfection to get into his holy heaven. And you, sir, you, ma'am, you, young man, you, young lady, are not perfect. But instead, you're a rebel at heart.

Despite your outward religious profession, it can be proved that you really hate God and all things holy. You just like being a Christian so long as you're in control. You went out and found yourself a little God who won't get in the way of your daily living.

And that's the God you serve. But he's not the living God of the Bible who is angry with the wicked every day and who demands utter subjection to his rule. You must repent or just go on to hell, even if you are the chairman of the deacons.

You have a throne set up in your heart, and on that throne sits three persons, me, myself, and I. And you're not going to let anybody tinker with your throne on which you sit and rule there when someone disturbs you or something doesn't go your way or to your liking. Then Katie barred the door because there's going to be hell to pay. You are often angry.

Your disposition's often sour unless you are getting your way. Now here, where Christ comes in, Christ says, either you repent or you go to hell. Christ's first sermon was on repentance.

The twelve disciples went out preaching that men should repent. The apostle Paul said that God commands you to repent and to repent immediately. Man's duty is to repent.

And if you won't, surely you'll be bound hand and foot and cast into a devil's hell. Why? Because you are a rebel at heart, born to be wild, to go your own way and do as you please. Why? My Bible even says that so.

In Isaiah we read, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And that's what sin is, friend.

It's going our way when we know it isn't God's way. The reason you are on your way to hell is that you're not willing to have Christ as Lord. You love your own way and you refuse to submit to King Jesus by way of repentance.

But if you're going to get saved, friend, then self must be dethroned and another must rule there, the Lord Jesus Christ. You must come to the foot of that cross and believe upon a bloodstained Savior. You have to repent.

You can't have Christ without repentance. You must throw down your shotgun of rebellion at the pierced feet of a sovereign. Christ is a king and he sits on a heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross.

And the only way you and your rebellion against God can be saved is to get under his blood for pardon of sins through exercise and repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's a false teaching out there that says otherwise. It says that repentance isn't necessary in the part of salvation, that all you have to do to be saved is to believe.

Well, there are devils in hell right now who believe and some of them are deceived seminary professors. You were born a rebel when Adam's sin was imputed to you and you came into this world with poison in your blood and the only remedy for that sin-sick malady is the person of Christ Jesus. But you must get under his blood, friend.

To be born from above, you better repent, sinner, or I'll see you at the judgment and I won't have your blood on my hands because you won't be able to stand there before the judge of all the earth and say you were ignorant of such matters. You have been warned to flee from the wrath to come. You must repent or just go on to hell.

Let us pray.