
                                     Attention!

                                Is Christ YOUR Lord?

               We do not  ask, Is Christ  your "Savior," but  is He, really
          and  truly,  your  LORD?    If  He  be  not  your Lord, then most
          certainly He is not your  "Savior."  Those who have  not received
          Christ Jesus  as their  "Lord," and  yet suppose  Him to be their
          "Savior," are deluded,  and their hope  rests on a  foundation of
          sand.    Multitudes  are  deceived  on  this  vital  point,   and
          therefore, if the reader values  his or her soul, we  implore you
          to give a most careful reading of this little tract.
               When we ask, Is Christ your Lord? We do not inquire, Do  you
          believe in the Godhood of Jesus of Nazareth?  The demons do  that
          (Matt. 8:28,  29) and  yet perish  notwithstanding!   You may  be
          firmly convinced of the Deity of Christ, and yet be in your sins.
          You may speak  of Him with  the utmost reverence,  accord Him His
          divine  titles  in  your  prayers,  and  yet be unsaved.  You may
          abominate those who traduce His person and deny His divinity, and
          yet have no spiritual love for Him at all.
               When we ask, Is Christ your LORD, we mean, does He in  every
          deed occupy the throne of your heart, does He actually rule  over
          your life?  "We have turned every one to his own way" (Isa. 53:6)
          describes  the  course  which  all  follow  by  nature.    Before
          conversion  every  soul  lives  to  please  self.   Of old it was
          written, "every man  did that which  was right in  his own eyes,"
          and why?  "In those days  there was no king in Israel."   (Judges
          21:25)   Ah! that  is the  point we  desire to  make clear to the
          reader.    Until  Christ  becomes  your  KING, (I Tim. 1:17; Rev.
          15:3), until you bow to  his sceptre, until His will  becomes the
          rule of your life, SELF dominates, and thus Christ is disowned.
               When the Holy Spirit begins His work of grace in a soul,  He
          first convicts of sin.  He shows me the real and awful nature  of
          sin.  He makes me realize that it is a species of insurrection, a
          defying of God's authority, a setting of my will against His.  He
          shows me  that in  going my  "own way,"  (Isa. 53:6)  in pleasing
          myself, I have been fighting against God.  As my eyes are  opened
          to see  what a  lifelong rebel  I have  been, how  indifferent to
          God's honor,  how unconcerned  about His  will, I  am filled with
          anguish and horror, and made  to marvel that the thrice  Holy One
          has not long since cast me into Hell.  Reader, have you ever gone
          through this experience?  If  not, there is very grave  reason to
          fear you are yet spiritually dead!
               Conversion, true conversion, saving conversion, is a turning
          from sin to God in Christ.  It is a throwing down the weapons  of
          my  warfare  against  Him,  a  ceasing  to despise and ignore His
          authority.    New  Testament  conversion  is described thus:  "Ye
          turned to God from idols to serve (be in subjection to, obey) the
          living and true God."  (I Thess. 1:9)  An "idol" is any object to
          which we give what is due alone to God--the supreme place in  our
          affections, the moulding influence of our hearts, the  dominating
          power of our lives.  Conversion is a right-about-face, the  heart
          and  will  repudiating  sin,  self,  and  the  world.     Genuine
          conversion is always evidenced by  "Lord, what wilt Thou have  me
          to  do?"    (Acts  9:6):  it  is  an  unreserved  surrendering of
          ourselves to  His holy  will.   Have you  yielded ourself to Him?
          (Rom. 6:13)
               There are many people who would like to be saved from  Hell,
          but who do not want to be saved from self-will, from having their
          own way, from a life of (some form of) worldliness.  But God will
          not save them on their terms.  To be saved, we must submit to HIS
          terms.  Listen to His terms: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and
          the unrighteous  man his  thoughts, and  let him  return unto the
          Lord (having revolted from Him  in Adam), and He will  have mercy
          upon him."   (Isa. 55:7)   Said Christ, "Whosoever  he be of  you
          that forsaketh not all that he hath (all that is opposed to  Me),
          he cannot  be My  disciple."   (Luke 14:33)   Men  must be turned
          "from darkness to light, and the power of Satan unto God"  before
          they can "receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them
          which are sanctified."  (Acts 26:18)
               "As ye have therefore  received Christ Jesus the  Lord, walk
          ye in Him."   (Col. 2:6)  That  is an exhortation to  Christians,
          and  its  force  is,  Continue  as  you  begin.  But how had they
          "begun"?  By receiving "Christ Jesus the Lord" by surrendering to
          Him, by subjecting themselves to  His will, by ceasing to  please
          themselves.    His  authority  was  now  owned.  His commands now
          became their rule of life.   His love constrained them to a  glad
          and unreserved  obedience.   They "gave  their own  selves to the
          Lord."  (2 Cor. 8:5)  Have you, my reader, done this?  Have  you?
          Do the details of your life evidence it?  Can those with whom you
          come into contact see that you are no more living to please self?
          (2 Cor. 5:15)
               Oh my reader, make no mistake upon this point: a  conversion
          which the Holy Spirit produces is a very radical thing.  It is  a
          miracle of grace.   It is the enthroning  of Christ in the  life.
          And such conversions are rare indeed.  Multitudes of people  have
          just sufficient "religion" to  make them miserable.   They refuse
          to forsake every  known sin--and there  is no true  peace for any
          soul until he does.   They have never "received Christ  Jesus the
          Lord."  (Col. 2:6)  Had they done so, "the joy of the Lord" would
          be their strength.  (Neh. 8:10)  But the language of their hearts
          and lives (not their  "lips") is, "We will  not have this Man  to
          reign over us."  (Luke 19)14  Is that your case?
               The great miracle  of grace consists  in changing a  lawless
          rebel into a loving and loyal subject.  It is a "renewing" of the
          heart, so that the favored subject of it has come to loathe  what
          he loved, and the things  he once found irksome are  now winsome.
          (2 Cor. 5:17)   He delights "in the  law of God after  the inward
          man."  (Rom. 7:22)  He discovers that Christ's "commandments  are
          not grievous" (1 John 5:3), and that "in keeping of them there is
          great reward."  (Psa. 19:11)  Is this your experience?  It  would
          be if you received Christ Jesus THE LORD!
               But to receive  Christ Jesus the  Lord is altogether  beyond
          unaided human power.  That is the last thing which the  unrenewed
          heart wants to do.  There must be a supernatural change of  heart
          before there is even the desire for Christ to occupy its  throne.
          And  that  change,  none  but  God  can  work.    (1  Cor.  12:3)
          Therefore, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found."  (Isa. 55:6)
          "Search for Him with all your heart."  (Jer. 29:13)  Reader,  you
          may have been a professing  Christian for years past and  you may
          have  been  quite  sincere  in  your  profession.  But if God has
          condescended to  use his  tract to  show you  that you have never
          really and truly "received Christ Jesus the Lord," if now in your
          own  soul  and  conscience  you  realize  that SELF has ruled you
          hitherto, will you not now get down on your knees and confess  to
          God your self-will, your rebellion against Him, and beg Him to so
          work in you that, without further  delay, you  may be enabled  to
          yield yourself completely to His will and become His subject, His
          servant, His loving slave, in deed and in truth?
                                                                 A. W. Pink
