Reject!
Someone had just recently moved to a new community and a certain neighbor decides to welcome him to the community. He and his wife buy their favorite food and go to extreme care in preparing the food then they invite him over for dinner. When the new neighbor sees the food he says, “ no, I don’t want to eat that”. How would they feel? The food was the best and they didn’t even know the neighbor, they were simply doing the neighborly thing and befriending him. Even if the food wasn’t the best the neighbor should not reject it. The man and his wife didn’t owe him anything; out of the goodness of their hearts they were giving their best to him.
No one likes to be rejected or to have an act of kindness despised.
The word reject is a strong word. The Oxford dictionary says it means to refuse to accept. N. a rejected person or thing. It is an especially hard word for the one who is rejected or the owner of a thing that is rejected. In many cases there is just cause for the rejection; the product was not up to set standard of quality, or the person is rejected because the person does not meet the approval of the interested party. When there is just cause for the rejection, the pain to bear it will be considerably easier. The one who is rejecting is judging the object or the person unfit or not suitable. Whenever they do so unfairly or have not properly considered things in a good manner, it is not good, at all.
The measure of wrong in rejection depends on who is giving, how good the gift is, the motive for giving and the state of the one who is rejecting. Sometimes the rejection is not so obvious, they manage to cover up their distaste for a while, but eventually it becomes evident. A cruel rejection took place at Calvary when they nailed Jesus the Holy Lamb of God on the cross. The gift of our Heavenly Father was the most precious gift of all and it was given in the greatest manifestation of love the world has ever seen. The gift was given for the very undeserving race of Adam who was dead in trespasses and sins. This rejection was obvious; they openly manifested their hatred for Jesus and crucified him. However that is not the end of the matter; Jesus our Lord raised from the dead and has been exalted by our heavenly Father, all power in heaven and earth has been given unto him so that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The same one, who was rejected and now is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is still offering forgiveness of sins and eternal life unto all those who will believe in him and repent of their sins. Today many people are guilty of a worse rejection than the ones were who crucified the man from Galilee.
It is worse because when Jesus rose from the dead it became manifest that indeed he is the Son of God. It also is worse because even though he was rejected by man, he is still willing to redeem us from our sins. It is worse because the first rejection was done openly but today many are singing hymns, paying tithes, doing many religious works in his name, but failing to come to repentance of their sins. Jesus continues in his open invitation unto mankind, “whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
“Gospel sinners” are the worst kind of sinners because they keep hearing the call to repentance but they keep putting it off thinking, I am not ready now but Jesus is merciful therefore I will wait and someday I will repent. Indeed Jesus is merciful and he doesn’t want any to perish. They fail to see how serious it is to reject such a lovely gift from the creator of heaven and earth. They also fail to see how unworthy they are to receive such a pardon for their life filled with sin. Adam and Eve were put out from Gods holy presence because of one act of disobedience. The sins of many today are piling up week after week, year after year. God would be absolutely just to condemn anyone of us for one single sin. Some have sinned grievously against God doing the vilest things; however their worst sin is in rejecting this glorious offer of eternal salvation. They seem to think that God is their servant and when they need him they will ring the bell and he must come running. This attitude reveals that their faith and understanding of God is lacking and every time they reject him their own hearts will become harder and harder.
Indeed God is merciful but do you think their rejecting him will not have an effect? God will not be mocked; he is forever the same He changes not, however the one who rejects the holy Son of God may come to the place that Esau came to. We have been forewarned in the word of God. Heb.12: 16,17
“Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have
inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears.” Jesus’ mercy was still the same but
Esau could not repent; his own unbelief and rebellion had hardened his heart. In
the beginning he could have easily repented but he rejected our Lord too long
and brought condemnation on himself.
Jesus is still calling all sinners to come unto him, “whosoever will let him take the
water of life freely.” Rev.22:17 This a very great invitation please don’t reject it.
