Comfortable, because we have become accustomed to.
Change offers opportunities, we are not forced to change or to grow by the Almighty, but the opportunity to is there. Here at its foundation is how we can determine not only if we ourselves have truly been born-again, but those we meet who claim to serve the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God as well.
“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:20)
“A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” (Matt. 7:18)
It is not a changed life that reveals one who has become hid in Christ my friends, it is a changed life that brings forth fruit to the glory of God.
Remember that.
Wicked people can be changed into good people by any number of ways, whether it be by internal modification, the exertion of their own free will to modify their lifestyle, or external pressures from others, friends, family, members of the physicians of the mind, legal forces, even age can be the catalyst for one to leave behind the pleasures of wickedness and become that which society will now accept into their midst.
This does not mean they are saved by grace through faith.
There are untold numbers who sit in the pews of churches every Sunday morning who fit these truths. The form of godliness they presume themselves to have, and will even profess at times, is not because they are part of the vine, for there is no fruit on that branch that exalts the name of the Most Holy One.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” (Matt. 7:19)
These are those who still live in and for the world, who still seek to please men above the Living God because they are baptized, because they repeated the words they were told to say, because they do not forsake the assembling of themselves together. Because they are not who they used to be. They have changed. Good people on the wide path to hell.
They have in their own minds produced fruit, but by their own works, by their own self-will, by changing themselves for the better.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” (Matt. 23:27)
These become comfortable and see no reason for further change, for further growth, the initial act was performed, they are now in their minds accepted by the Most High and have done all that was required of them. The pews are filled with them, the world is filled with them, and for years, even decades, they will remain comfortable.
Totally deceived and with no fruit of the Spirit whatsoever.
You meet them on a regular basis, knowledgeable about the world and what it is doing, but not in the Word and will of God. Just as comfortable in the world and with those who live in and for it as they are in the company of the assembly. The tares, who believe because they are in the company of the wheat, are therefore as the wheat.
My friends, they have deceived themselves so thoroughly that they can even exhibit the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 at will. But never to the glory of the Most High, never to lift up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to the loss of all else, but solely for the purpose of the continuous comfort of their deceived minds that they are now one of the good people.
If you have truly been born-again, when you meet them, you will recognize them. Speak the truths of the Scriptures to them, and if past personal experience is of any value to you, prepare yourself to be hated by them.
