“But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 10:33)
Going to church and singing the songs does not make a Christian, sitting there and listening to the sermon, shaking hands, giving hugs, smiling and paying attention with your Bible in your hand does not make you a child of God.
Speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ for the glory of God as part of your normal day-to-day conversations with the people you know and meet is one of the surest signs of a born-again believer, and it is also one of the rarest people you will meet.
Many like to think they are saved, they believe the profession of faith they made before they were baptized is the fulfillment of our opening verse, but they are in reality no more saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ than those who are the fulfillment of Matthew 15:8, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” They may attend to the conversation that you have with them about the Lord, Spiritual matters of the Scriptures, but they will in no way initialize that conversation, not with you, not with the stranger on the street, not with those they attend church with.
The action of attending church is the basis of their salvation in their eyes.
Many God-fearing men going back centuries have known this fact, that the majority of people who claim to be Christians are not, and this has always been one of the main determining factors, they do not initialize conversations with anyone about the Lord Jesus Christ. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matt. 7:22) Those that this verse speaks of are those this letter is written about, not only those who cast out demons, who did all that they thought would be pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, but those who also deceived themselves by performing the supposed obligation of not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, who attended those extracurricular events, while never once seeking the lost, never initializing that conversation about the One they claimed to love with even those they hold dearest to them.
These have played the part so well that they have even deceived themselves.
You know this person, and so I ask you this question, have you asked them, “Why do you not speak of the Lord to those you meet?” If it is because you do not want to offend them, then you will also have much explaining to do on your day of accounting. They will call you judgmental, a hypocrite, you will be seen in their eyes as the Pharisee at the wall. They will become defensive, combative and probably not seek you out for any conversation of any kind ever again. And then they will die in their sins.
You do not need to go very far to fulfill Matthew 16:15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Your local church is close enough, the people you meet each day, even some of the members of your own family, most of the people you know who claim to be saved are not. They are kind, loving, polite, they are good people, but they are not saved people.
I could be wrong here, but I do not think so when I say that there will not be one person that will stand before the Lord to give an account of how they served Him in this life that He will say to, “Why did you not speak about me to others?”
If your name is professed by the Lord Jesus Christ before the Father and His angels it is because you are in heaven, if it is not, it is because you are in hell, for you did not do so here.
That which we love, that which we adore and treasure is what we initialize conversations about, we do not wait for others to do so. Look honestly back on your life, which of these two groups do you belong to?
