Have you ever read something in the Bible for the first time and just had to take step back? I remember last summer when I was reading through Matthew for the first time and I came across the passage where Jesus said "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matt. 10:34 ESV)." What? I thought Jesus was all about peace and love? And then Jesus proceeds to talk about how he came to divide and "that whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Matt 10:38 ESV) I can remember meeting up with Billy just after reading that passage still in a state of shock. That moment drastically altered my idea of who Jesus was and my idea of what it meant to follow Christ. God taught me that there are things in the Bible that I might not want to believe are true, but I have to die to self and take ownership of them because they are "breathed out by God" (2 Tim. 3:16).
The message that I want to present today is another one of those lessons. It's something that I don't want to believe and that honestly scares me, but I know that it is truth. So before reading any further I just want to encourage you to pray for God to reveal truth to you through His Scriptures. Like Peter says in his second letter this is not a "cleverly devised myth" that I have made up "no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:16-20 ESV). You don't have to take my words seriously, but I beg that you take the Word of God seriously.
Matthew 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'
This passage of Scripture has been on my mind for quite some time, because it terrifies me. People are going to die and come to the judgement seat fully expecting to spend eternity in heaven with God, but God is going to turn them away to a place of utter darkness of weeping and gnashing of teeth. People are going to see God and be completely shocked when God tells them " I never knew you," and it is going to be to late for them to do anything about it. We can create a false sense of salvation for ourselves. Sin and our hearts are that deceitful. That scares me.
In America we are part of a church that in my opinion is far too comfortable telling people that they are saved. We tell people if they pray this prayer then they are saved. I don't see that in Scripture. And even if we aren't that extreme we still live like we can have the world and add Jesus like is some sort of accessory we can choose to take with us wherever we please.I heard someone say the other day what scares him the most is "that the road to Hell isn't even marked Hell, it's marked Heaven." We see the reality of that everywhere. People living lives in darkness deceived that they are in the light. Yes the Bible says to confess and believe (Romans 10:9), but it also tells us to count the cost saying if "any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:25-34) Have we ever sat and really thought about this verses and our own salvation? Do we present a gospel to others that presents this same message? Because in reality the gospel is not about us, it is about God and His glory.
1 Peter 3:18
18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Christ died to bring us to God. Too often we idolize the gifts of the gospel and forget that Christ died above all to bring us to God.
So what does this have to do with the immediacy of the gospel? Everything leading up to this is meant to urge us to "make [our] calling and election sure" ( 2 Pet. 1:10) to "examine [ourselves] to see whether [we] are in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5). I don't want people to doubt their salvation, because the Bible in 1 John 5:13 tells us that we can be sure. But at the same time John in that very same book also tells us that if we go on sinning we walk in darkness, if we don't obey His commands we are liars, if we hate our brother we are liars and the truth is not in us.
If we are liars we know it. And truthfully there might not be much time left for any of us. Our lives on earth could end at any minute, but we tend to live as if the opposite were true. The story in Matthew 8:18-22 has been weighing heavy on my heart lately. A man walks up to Jesus and tells him he will follow him wherever he goes.When Jesus replies that "the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" another man speaks up and says "let me first go and bury my father." Jesus responds not just by saying "leave the dead to bury their own dead," but he also leaves. He doesn't pursue the man and try to convince him of anything he just leaves. Jesus lets him have the desires of his heart, and we never know the end of the man's story.
I think too often we have this same mentality when approaching the gospel. We have a checklist of stuff that we need or want before we follow Jesus, because we don't treasure Him above everything else. We have not counted the cost. The truth is this isn't Biblical and we need to be aware that our time here is short and that our lives could end at any minute. Honestly we might not have another moment later in time to decide to follow Christ, because we cannot guarantee our next breath. The gospel's message is urgent. It's about dying to self right now and picking up our cross daily to be a part of something better so that we will be able "to enjoy God and glorify Him forever". I know our culture chooses to ignore death and even attempts to hide it, but as Christians we should see the hope and gain in the end of earthly life and the beginning of an eternal life with God.
Along with everything else I want to stress the importance of spending time along with God and in His Word. Yesterday I listened to a Francis Chan sermon titled "The Most Important Lesson I Could Ever Teach." It was all about how the most important lesson he ever learned and could ever teach is how to read the Bible. I completely agree with him, because things drastically changed in my life when I began reading the word for myself last summer, I actually started following Christ. My prayer for anyone that reads this is that God will put a desire in your heart to read the Word and to desire and take ownership of His truths no matter how uncomfortable they may be. God will change your life if you come to His Word searching for truth it's a promise in Scripture, and I have seen the fruit of it in my life.
Isaiah 55:10-11
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
2 Corinthians 6:2
2For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
Philippians 4:9
9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Romans 3:22-26
22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
2 Corinthians 6:2
2For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
Philippians 4:9
9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Romans 3:22-26
22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
