Are you willing to do what it takes because you believe it?
If you ask most people who identify as a Christian, they will most likely have some rudimentary understanding of “faith” and on a smaller scale, know something about how it is important Salvation by Grace is.
Biblically, born again is synonymous with being a Christian or a follower of Christ, and even though they all mean the same thing, some terms like born again carry a modern society stigma. More often than not, self describing Christians have little understanding of the Bible, but someone had likely introduced them to the Biblical doctrine that states that it is through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that a person can be saved for a life in heaven.
I assert, most people who claim being a Christian will have a lesser understanding of what is meant by “conviction” and the relationship between conviction and their faith. Faith becomes a black box because there is little understanding of Biblical truths and the character of God as illustrated in the Bible.
You can go to church, sing the songs and listen to the pastor preach. Those things do not secure your salvation. Have you been called by faith in Christ, and if you have, are you convicted?
There’s a conviction by the Moral Law that brings you to repentance and to Christ as Savior, and there’s a conviction of your beliefs as Christ as Lord afterwards. Same word, difference meanings.
Let’s focus on the second condition that results in conviction. “Conviction” corresponds to how much trust you have in what you I have faith in, and the ultimate question is, how much am I willing to act on that trust. Most people will not learn what is expected to live a life of faith, trusting in God, trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior.
I can state most people will not find the Way with logical certainty because Jesus spoke plainly about the wide path that leads to destruction and the narrow path the narrow path that leads to life. Christ further revealed that even devout religious people, even those who do works in the name of Christ will be turned away in the final judgment because there was no relationship.
There will be both tragedy and justice when Christ faces you in judgment and declare that He “does not know you, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7). I hope that will not be you.
This may seem like an uncomfortable issue to most people who attend church. More people are concerned about the actual mundane tasks that litter our lives on a daily basis.
Consider the matter of eternal salvation. People sit on a belief in Christ as Savior and consider the matter of salvation resolved. Then they go to church and mark time, sort of like spiritual vegetables. They may even volunteer to help others in various sundry ways, and then live a life that is in practice and ritually different from the rest of society, but never get to know Christ.
And then what? In this post I will NOT explore the “why” and the trends suffered by congregants in the modern Western church think like this, but what is missing?
I can’t think of any mind game exercises to help a person truly commit to the spreading of the Gospel, in the manner of the alarm that would light the fire of urgency to get out of a building that is about to explode.
God gave humans freedom of choice, this is a key component of love: you cannot force someone to love you. Plus, don’t we all have a reason to not give up our current ways of thinking? We are prone to wanting to be right, it dictates our behavior and habits that we’d rather not give up. Yet in order to seek the truth, we need to test our assumptions.
Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the Father of the U.S. Navy nuclear power program, would interview every single officer who had volunteered for submarine duty. He had many tests he would administer to prospective U.S. Navy submarine officers and a simple one was placing a salt shaker at the dinner table. If a candidate added salt before first tasting his food, that was grounds for rejection from the program.
Admiral Rickover emphasized the importance of being open to new information and not being trapped by assumptions, stating, “Sit down before fact with an open mind. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion.” (wikiquotes). That weakness could spell disaster in running a nuclear power plant or in losing control of an underwater tactical situation.
I think of that recent video of the Nigerian pastor standing in the open grave of persecuted Christians, screaming with conviction at the West to do something to stop the brutal genocide of Christians by their anti-Christ neighbors. For most observers, this can seem still distant fight. The problem is this leader begging for help is not screaming to save you from hell, he’s screaming to save other people who are suffering and dying en masse. The preconceived notion may be that as Christians in a “safe” country do not need to fight the a growing threat while it is still small and death feels far away in both time and distance.
While Nigeria is on the far side of the world from California, the hate that the innocent Christians are experiencing there exists in around the world though is smaller but growing concentrations and with incompatible laws. As I mentioned on a prior article, the United States was founded on Christian principles and the people of the United States, by and large, whether they appreciate it or not, enjoy the benefits of a Judeo-Christian law-abiding conscience. Common sense dictates two things: It’s to our peril to import an incompatible ideology into our country, and; two, we need to reassert the importance of our Christian foundation and heritage, subsequently, and more to the point of this article, Christian pastors and men and women need clarification on the importance of their roles in the Church, which in effect, is a complete knowledge of the Gospel and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Supreme Judge of the Universe.
Keep this in mind: You could singlehandedly eradicate persecution, rescue the Christians in Nigeria, and bring all the bad people to justice and completing all of that will NOT save your soul.
Only one thing provides eternal salvation.
World turmoil, until it strikes home, doesn’t seem to cause one to begin cutting through the real though fragile nature of comfort that many Americans enjoy now. It is imperative to understand that Supreme and Final Judgment is awaiting everyone on a specific time known only to God.
As a Christian, we should be acutely aware of the truth that, though we may suffer and be persecuted, the most important action is to secure ones eternal destiny, and that is hinged upon a clear understanding of the Gospel. This does not mean that we should not fight, now and in this life, for the persecuted and the rights of the innocent, but true comfort and security exists for those who believe in the eternal glory of God and resurrected life in His Kingdom.
We all have a destiny with death and judgment, the outcomes are clear and presented clearly in Scripture.
Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead. – Acts 17:30-21
Fear of the Lord
It may come down to how much you “fear” God, both in a good way and in the worst way. Be prepared to broaden your understand of the western concept of “fear’. Or as Rickover warned, “Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion.”
Proverbs and the Psalms warn us:
God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him – Psalm 67:7
The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline. – Proverbs 1:7 (True wisdom only comes from God).
Oh, fear Yahweh, you His saints; For there is no want to those who fear Him – Psalm 34:9
But the lovingkindness of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children – Psalm 103:17
And do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell – Matthew 10:28. This is proof that there is plenty of hell and judgment in the New Testament that the heretics will not emphasize. The people who have the license to speak of hell rarely do. Jesus spoke about it plenty – because He warns with the truth.
The one warning that may cause you to reconsider your soft position on evangelism is this impactful witness of Jesus:
19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 But a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.22 Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you are not able, and none may cross over from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I am asking you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” – Luke 16:19-31.
A key point of the message is, once one ends up in hell, then they will fully understand the urgency in which to share the Gospel. If I recall correctly, John MacArthur described the mental state of a person in hell as a fully functioning conscience, with full knowledge of how the moral law that was intentionally ignored.
This is a pretty harsh truth that Abraham declares: ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”
Maybe even if the rich man himself returned from the dead, albeit briefly, to warn his own family, his family would still not believe him. That’s is an astonishing indictment of people who have hardened themselves to the Gospel message and the warning of eternal hell.
You neither need nor want to wait until the point of no return to repent from sin and seek the mercy of God through Christ. Right now, It costs you nothing but your own pride and self-righteousness to accept the Grace and mercy of God.
I exhort you, even if you become a closet, yet genuine, follower of Christ, like Nicodemus (John 3),you will be persuaded.
Although material wealth is not a sin, a believer guided by the Holy Spirit will be drawn towards Christ and the Body of Christ, which causes ones hearts to do what pleases God. Seeking God’s will is a path that separates one from the obsession and servitude to the world and evil.
Jesus life and ministry was prophecied through the Old Testament and was, like all important divine actions, historically heralded by a prophet, John the Baptizer, warming up the people for One greater than himself.
Jesus was extremely clear that He is the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but throughMe. (John 14:6) is but one of many passages where Jesus declares or implies He is God. The religious Jews certainly understood what He meant, but because they refused to believe the Truth they considered this declaration as blasphemy, this became the key reason they sought to kill Him.
At the same time, God’s used, you may even say, orchestrated, the stiff-necked religious Jews’ sinful acts as part of God’s Sovereign plan which required a perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of humans. Christ suffered God’s wrath and died for our sins so that we do not have to suffer the punishment we would otherwise deserve. Then after 3 days in the tomb, He was Resurrected to life, defeating death.
Christ became that perfect sacrifice, and only Christ’s Righteousness imputed upon each of us can save us from God’s wrath and an eternity in hell.
Repent and Believe.
May the Faith you receive from God be blessed with great conviction to serve God’s will for your life and to declare the Gospel to those who are not yet saved.
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel from the late Pastor John MacArthur, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
ACT LIKE MEN a short talk given by John MacArthur (click on the link)
All quoted excerpts have footnotes removed, usually from Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), sometimes from New International Version (NIV), on rare occasion the Amplified Bible (AMP).
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8-3-24