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The World's Most Unwanted Man
-by David Wilkerson
The world's most unwanted man is alive today! He is not dead. In fact, He is very active in our times. He even has family here in New York City . Just the other day I spent hours with Him concerning this message! Many of you also know Him. Without a doubt the world's most unwanted man is Jesus, Son of the Living God!
In Moscow's Red Square there are gigantic pictures of Lenin, Stalin, and other Communist leaders - all draped in red velvet. They ought to hang another picture in Red Square: a picture of Jesus Christ - draped in black sackcloth - with these words beneath it "The Most Unwanted Man in Russia - Jesus!" If you go to England to the halls of Parliament or to the great English cathedrals, you'll see all the pictures of past kings and queens. Some were loved; some were hated. But there, too, a picture is missing. There ought to be hung, where all Englishmen could see it, a huge picture of Jesus, with the caption: "England's Most Unwanted Man!" Or go to Washington, D.C., our nation's capital, and look at all the portraits of past Presidents on Capitol Hill, in the halls of Congress. See the memorials to Lincoln and Washington. There ought to be a special monument built with nothing in it but a picture of Jesus and these words: "This Man Is the True Father of America! He Planted, Watered, and Prospered It! But Today He Is This Society's Most Unwanted Man!"
Let's go a step further into the libraries and classrooms of almost any seminary in America. Listen to the godless, Christ-hating theologians - look at the books of higher criticism, how they delight in robbing and destroying faith. Or walk into the great cathedrals and look at the stained-glass windows with Jesus pictured on almost all of them - then hear their so-called gospel! It is not the real Jesus they preach, but another. Why won't they be honest? They ought to put a bronze plaque under those stained-glass pictures of Jesus that reads, "Unwanted!"
Jesus was born a Jew, but the Jews did not want Him - nor do they now. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). In all their synagogues they studied diligently about His coming! Priests and scribes could quote Isaiah 53. They thought they knew where he would be born and how to recognize Him. They said they lived for the day of His coming - just as the Jew today looks for his Messiah. I read of the murderous plots of the priests and religious leaders and say, "How can they plan to murder Christ, or even Lazarus, when so jealous for the Law that says, "Thou shalt not kill?" Where could such hatred for Jesus come from if not directly from hell? How can the modern-day Jew hate Jesus so much? He is the Son of David - He loved Israel - He came to fulfill all their laws. His heart was set on Jerusalem. He was Jewish Himself and a prophet just like Moses. So why do their eyes blaze with anger and rejection at the mention of His name? Today Jesus probably could not get a visa to Israel! It is likely He would be denied citizenship. They would stamp on his passport "Unwanted!" Indeed, His own received Him not.
We know all too well that the secular world doesn't want Him. Jesus is the song of drunkards. Only in America is the name of Jesus so profaned. He is not the butt of cursing in Russia or China (They curse their ancestors and fallen gods or leaders!). But Americans curse Christ. Roman soldiers mocked Him by putting a crown of thorns on His head. Now this nation mocks Him with great sophistication: movie producers with their best talent and with millions of dollars produce movies about Jesus that are ingenious mockery - mocking His divinity and robbing Him of His Godhead.
Here on Broadway, Jesus is surely the most unwanted man of all. La Cage aux Folles with its homosexual theme, was a challenge to Jesus with a message saying, "This is our territory! We don't want your interference." Times Square Church, right in the middle of Satan's seat (in his national headquarters!), is the biggest threat to his kingdom that Broadway has ever had! Hell is enraged because the devil knows a multitude will be wanting to run to Jesus. Even in the theater district, with the plague of AIDS and all the emptiness, Jesus has come to Broadway. There is now a church planted by Him with a people whose cry is, "We want Him! We will have Jesus!" We are saying to New York City, to the drug pushers, to the pornographers, to the movie and Broadway producers, and to the powers that rule: "You may not want Him, but you can't keep Him out!" How the angels must rejoice to behold in the middle of America's largest city - in the heart of its crime and sin and its hatred for Jesus - hundreds now gathering in the name of the Lord. How they must cry for joy, "They want our Lord! They want Him!"
Even the "religious world" doesn't want Him. I believe Jesus is most unwanted by backslidden, corrupt church leaders, by liberal church organizations, and by compromising, lust-ridden Christians. There is a Jesus-idolatry in religion today that is as real and as ugly as the idolatry of Baal and all the other idols of ancient Israel. They have forsaken the real Jesus of holiness, the Cross, repentance, and separation and have carved in their imaginations another Jesus. Their Jesus is just like them - condoning their sins with nothing but words of brotherhood, love, and unity. They have put the name of Jesus on a very corrupt and evil image of their own making. It is not Christ's gospel and it's not the real Jesus. They use the right terms, but they do not worship the Jesus we know. Paul warned of those "that... preach another Jesus... another spirit... another gospel..." (2 Corinthians 11:4).
I can't name a single major "Christian" record company that really wants Jesus. They have become Wall Street-type money machines, using the name of Jesus as a sales gimmick! We get upset by movies like The Last Temptation of Christ which mock our Lord; but even worse are these "Christian" record producers and book publishers who crank out rock and punk. They are manipulators and modern-day money-changers. In fact, there is nothing religious about it at all. New Age music and humanistic theology are all creeping into the Christian bookstores. Some of these stores are becoming the biggest pushers of ungodly trash in America. Their record sections come right out of hell and most of the books are pulp, saying nothing! It's all business. We don't need to complain about Jewish businessmen profiting off Jesus' name at Easter and Christmas. Evangelicals profit on His name 365 days a year! Jesus is not wanted by these hucksters. It's the dollar they want! Thank God there are some exceptions, some bookstores that refuse to compromise.
You say, "Oh, but thank God for our church. We want Him - we haven't made Him unwanted. We've welcomed Jesus and desired Him with all our hearts!" But think of that terrible moment when most of the Lord's disciples went back and followed Him no more because the Word was too hard. Jesus turned to His disciples, to the twelve, and asked, "Will you go also?" Doesn't it warm your heart to hear Peter say, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68)? Yet in the last hour even the twelve "all forsook him and fled" (Mark 14:50). Isaiah said, "He is despised and rejected... we hid as it were our faces from him.... All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way... " (Isaiah 53:3,5). The prophet uses the term "we." We despised Him. We rejected Him. We hid our faces from Him. We all went our own way. Think of the multitudes of backsliders, of those who once walked with Him. They are now hiding from Him and don't want to be in His presence.
Some of you reading this walked away and have gone your own way. You turned on Jesus and even now you don't want Him.
My message here is really about the rejection Jesus suffers from those who claim to want Him the most.
Ask most anyone calling himself a Christian these questions:
Do you want Jesus?
Do you feel your need of Him?
Do you desire to know Him better?
Nearly all of them would answer, "Yes, I really do want Him."
Let me explain what I mean by "wanting Jesus." I am speaking of a consuming desire - a yearning to let Him be all to you.
"...The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early..." (Isaiah 26:8-9).
The prophet is speaking of a longing and a hungering after Him - even in the middle of the night! It means seeking after Him with a crying, yearning heart.
"I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to taste... I am sick of [faint for] love... My beloved is mine, and I am his... By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth..." (Song of Solomon 2:2,5,16 and 3:1).
This is wanting Jesus! He consumes the thoughts night and day. He becomes the very meaning of life.
Let's look at this matter of loving Jesus and endeavor to find out how much we really want Him.
"If... thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (Deuteronomy 4:29).
Hell will be full of people who will be saying all through eternity, "But I really did want Jesus. Deep in my heart, I needed Him!" And they won't be lying; they really did have a desire for Jesus. But there was always someone or something else they wanted more. Are you hooked on someone or something? Is there some kind of evil thing that has your heart? We must learn that Jesus is a jealous lover. He will not allow another love to corrupt our love for Him.
To continue reading...
The World's Most Unwanted Man | World Challenge
-by David Wilkerson
The world's most unwanted man is alive today! He is not dead. In fact, He is very active in our times. He even has family here in New York City . Just the other day I spent hours with Him concerning this message! Many of you also know Him. Without a doubt the world's most unwanted man is Jesus, Son of the Living God!
In Moscow's Red Square there are gigantic pictures of Lenin, Stalin, and other Communist leaders - all draped in red velvet. They ought to hang another picture in Red Square: a picture of Jesus Christ - draped in black sackcloth - with these words beneath it "The Most Unwanted Man in Russia - Jesus!" If you go to England to the halls of Parliament or to the great English cathedrals, you'll see all the pictures of past kings and queens. Some were loved; some were hated. But there, too, a picture is missing. There ought to be hung, where all Englishmen could see it, a huge picture of Jesus, with the caption: "England's Most Unwanted Man!" Or go to Washington, D.C., our nation's capital, and look at all the portraits of past Presidents on Capitol Hill, in the halls of Congress. See the memorials to Lincoln and Washington. There ought to be a special monument built with nothing in it but a picture of Jesus and these words: "This Man Is the True Father of America! He Planted, Watered, and Prospered It! But Today He Is This Society's Most Unwanted Man!"
Let's go a step further into the libraries and classrooms of almost any seminary in America. Listen to the godless, Christ-hating theologians - look at the books of higher criticism, how they delight in robbing and destroying faith. Or walk into the great cathedrals and look at the stained-glass windows with Jesus pictured on almost all of them - then hear their so-called gospel! It is not the real Jesus they preach, but another. Why won't they be honest? They ought to put a bronze plaque under those stained-glass pictures of Jesus that reads, "Unwanted!"
Jesus was born a Jew, but the Jews did not want Him - nor do they now. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). In all their synagogues they studied diligently about His coming! Priests and scribes could quote Isaiah 53. They thought they knew where he would be born and how to recognize Him. They said they lived for the day of His coming - just as the Jew today looks for his Messiah. I read of the murderous plots of the priests and religious leaders and say, "How can they plan to murder Christ, or even Lazarus, when so jealous for the Law that says, "Thou shalt not kill?" Where could such hatred for Jesus come from if not directly from hell? How can the modern-day Jew hate Jesus so much? He is the Son of David - He loved Israel - He came to fulfill all their laws. His heart was set on Jerusalem. He was Jewish Himself and a prophet just like Moses. So why do their eyes blaze with anger and rejection at the mention of His name? Today Jesus probably could not get a visa to Israel! It is likely He would be denied citizenship. They would stamp on his passport "Unwanted!" Indeed, His own received Him not.
We know all too well that the secular world doesn't want Him. Jesus is the song of drunkards. Only in America is the name of Jesus so profaned. He is not the butt of cursing in Russia or China (They curse their ancestors and fallen gods or leaders!). But Americans curse Christ. Roman soldiers mocked Him by putting a crown of thorns on His head. Now this nation mocks Him with great sophistication: movie producers with their best talent and with millions of dollars produce movies about Jesus that are ingenious mockery - mocking His divinity and robbing Him of His Godhead.
Here on Broadway, Jesus is surely the most unwanted man of all. La Cage aux Folles with its homosexual theme, was a challenge to Jesus with a message saying, "This is our territory! We don't want your interference." Times Square Church, right in the middle of Satan's seat (in his national headquarters!), is the biggest threat to his kingdom that Broadway has ever had! Hell is enraged because the devil knows a multitude will be wanting to run to Jesus. Even in the theater district, with the plague of AIDS and all the emptiness, Jesus has come to Broadway. There is now a church planted by Him with a people whose cry is, "We want Him! We will have Jesus!" We are saying to New York City, to the drug pushers, to the pornographers, to the movie and Broadway producers, and to the powers that rule: "You may not want Him, but you can't keep Him out!" How the angels must rejoice to behold in the middle of America's largest city - in the heart of its crime and sin and its hatred for Jesus - hundreds now gathering in the name of the Lord. How they must cry for joy, "They want our Lord! They want Him!"
Even the "religious world" doesn't want Him. I believe Jesus is most unwanted by backslidden, corrupt church leaders, by liberal church organizations, and by compromising, lust-ridden Christians. There is a Jesus-idolatry in religion today that is as real and as ugly as the idolatry of Baal and all the other idols of ancient Israel. They have forsaken the real Jesus of holiness, the Cross, repentance, and separation and have carved in their imaginations another Jesus. Their Jesus is just like them - condoning their sins with nothing but words of brotherhood, love, and unity. They have put the name of Jesus on a very corrupt and evil image of their own making. It is not Christ's gospel and it's not the real Jesus. They use the right terms, but they do not worship the Jesus we know. Paul warned of those "that... preach another Jesus... another spirit... another gospel..." (2 Corinthians 11:4).
I can't name a single major "Christian" record company that really wants Jesus. They have become Wall Street-type money machines, using the name of Jesus as a sales gimmick! We get upset by movies like The Last Temptation of Christ which mock our Lord; but even worse are these "Christian" record producers and book publishers who crank out rock and punk. They are manipulators and modern-day money-changers. In fact, there is nothing religious about it at all. New Age music and humanistic theology are all creeping into the Christian bookstores. Some of these stores are becoming the biggest pushers of ungodly trash in America. Their record sections come right out of hell and most of the books are pulp, saying nothing! It's all business. We don't need to complain about Jewish businessmen profiting off Jesus' name at Easter and Christmas. Evangelicals profit on His name 365 days a year! Jesus is not wanted by these hucksters. It's the dollar they want! Thank God there are some exceptions, some bookstores that refuse to compromise.
You say, "Oh, but thank God for our church. We want Him - we haven't made Him unwanted. We've welcomed Jesus and desired Him with all our hearts!" But think of that terrible moment when most of the Lord's disciples went back and followed Him no more because the Word was too hard. Jesus turned to His disciples, to the twelve, and asked, "Will you go also?" Doesn't it warm your heart to hear Peter say, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68)? Yet in the last hour even the twelve "all forsook him and fled" (Mark 14:50). Isaiah said, "He is despised and rejected... we hid as it were our faces from him.... All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way... " (Isaiah 53:3,5). The prophet uses the term "we." We despised Him. We rejected Him. We hid our faces from Him. We all went our own way. Think of the multitudes of backsliders, of those who once walked with Him. They are now hiding from Him and don't want to be in His presence.
Some of you reading this walked away and have gone your own way. You turned on Jesus and even now you don't want Him.
My message here is really about the rejection Jesus suffers from those who claim to want Him the most.
Ask most anyone calling himself a Christian these questions:
Do you want Jesus?
Do you feel your need of Him?
Do you desire to know Him better?
Nearly all of them would answer, "Yes, I really do want Him."
Let me explain what I mean by "wanting Jesus." I am speaking of a consuming desire - a yearning to let Him be all to you.
"...The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early..." (Isaiah 26:8-9).
The prophet is speaking of a longing and a hungering after Him - even in the middle of the night! It means seeking after Him with a crying, yearning heart.
"I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to taste... I am sick of [faint for] love... My beloved is mine, and I am his... By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth..." (Song of Solomon 2:2,5,16 and 3:1).
This is wanting Jesus! He consumes the thoughts night and day. He becomes the very meaning of life.
Let's look at this matter of loving Jesus and endeavor to find out how much we really want Him.
"If... thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (Deuteronomy 4:29).
Hell will be full of people who will be saying all through eternity, "But I really did want Jesus. Deep in my heart, I needed Him!" And they won't be lying; they really did have a desire for Jesus. But there was always someone or something else they wanted more. Are you hooked on someone or something? Is there some kind of evil thing that has your heart? We must learn that Jesus is a jealous lover. He will not allow another love to corrupt our love for Him.
To continue reading...
The World's Most Unwanted Man | World Challenge
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