“Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.” (Matt. 5:15) It matters little how much of the Word of God you know, how many of the poor and destitute you have helped, the record of your church attendance is of absolutely no consequence if you do not have the Holy Spirit of God within you. Works are easily counterfeited, feelings can be deceiving, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9)
There are many, many individuals who believe they are saved, children of the Most High God, who are only fooling themselves, they follow their hearts, and not the convictions of the Holy Spirit, they behave in a manner that the church and the world have accepted as what a Christian is to be in this day, polite, kind and caring continuously, but never warning, reproving or admonishing of those items of sin that surround all of us on a daily basis. Embarrassment, no, let’s call it what it is, being ashamed to speak to not only the lost but to all about the sins in their lives has led them onto the path of the “convenient Christian,” one who portrays only the niceties, one who never has to represent Christ in the fullest. They have found the path of least resistance, the path of no contention, they have become more concerned with what people think of them instead of who they are to be in Christ.
They are seeking the praise of men. It is an easy path, this one of God is nothing but love, the path of never rebuking, never reproving, this path of mind your own business. “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.” (Prov. 28:26) The polite, kind, never offending “Christian” is the norm today, to stand for Christ to them is to let the world go its own way, to seek only their own path, to never wander over to the lost soul and tell them that if he continues in his way, he will face eternity in pain, suffering and hopelessness, that just wouldn’t be nice, that to them would not be Christlike. Far too many who are telling the world today that they are believers look around at the situations on the planet, hope for the Lord’s return, but will not even warn their next-door neighbor, much less the man on the street. They are following their heart, not the convictions of the Holy Spirit.
There are only two options here, either they are ashamed of Christ, or they are not saved, argue all you want on this point, but there is no third alternative, if you are saved you are to be obedient, there is not some “special” group of Christians who have been called out to witness to the lost, some unique individuals who have been given the particular position by our Lord to warn the lost of their place in eternity if they do not accept Him. No one has been set apart specifically for the task of reproving and correcting, (2 Tim. 3:16) all who know Christ as Lord are to honor Him in all areas, not hide from their obligations, not to trust in their feelings, not to trust in their own hearts. This is the generation of the “feel good about yourself” Christian, the ones who when they see the dangers run into their churches, instead of to the lost to warn them, in the interest of safety, they pass by those who are plunging head first into the Lake of Fire, praising God along the way.
This is not what the body of Christ is supposed to look like, these are not representative of what the children of the kingdom are to be like, and it is the reason that the Lord has led me to write all these letters. Warning the lost is easy, telling them of His never ending desire that they come to Him in repentance is a piece of cake, warning those whose hearts have deceived them into believing that they are truly saved when they show no fruits of the Spirit, no heartfelt desire to live a life in humility and unquestioning service, that is difficult, that life my friends will be the fulfillment of John 8:45 for you. “And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not.”
It is the word of God that convicts, the heart will deceive you every time. There are few standing on the wall anymore, and there fewer still heeding the warnings of those who are standing on the wall, giving the warnings they have been commanded to give. Most just pass by, living a self-centered, self-serving, feel good about Jesus life. In the most misrepresented sense of the word, many who profess Christ have become pacifists, and not in the terminology of the honor that the word demands, but in a weak, watered-down, feeble and ineffectual way, their words are tasteless, they hold no value, they are fearful of the rebukes of man more than the chastisement of the Lord. Their heart has deceived them into believing that they are serving, when in fact even their salvation is questionable.
There is little strength of conviction in some who call Christ Lord today, they want the rewards of heaven without having to wear the robe of suffering, they desire the pleasures of the kingdom, but not the hard path that is required to arrive there. Their heart is deceiving them, they listen and react to their feelings above the convictions of the word of God. “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matt. 13:23) All of God’s children bear fruit, if you are not bearing fruit, you are not saved, these are the Words of God, not mine.
You can call it what you want, embarrassment, inconvenient, uncomfortable, awkward, but God calls it ashamed, He calls it unprofitable. You have one responsibility in this life, glorify God, if you are only doing so in your words, actions and heart, you are being deceived.
