Saved or Self-Deceived?

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. 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?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21-23

This passage of scripture is one of the most sobering in all of the Bible. It should be a wake up call to everyone who claims to be a believer in Christ. The truth is that many professing Christians believe it is easy to be a follower of Christ. Say a little prayer, say you believe in Jesus, and you have acquired your ticket to the train bound for heaven. Nothing can be further from the truth. Your salvation cost God the suffering and death of His only Son. Our salvation cost us everything. It means we die to, self, our pride, and our expectations. Jesus told us to count the cost before we followed Him (Luke 14:25-34). Jesus also warned us that we would be hated because of Him (John 15:18-19), suffer for His sake (1 Peter 4:12-14), persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12) and we will have trouble in this life because we belong to Him (John 16:33). I know what some of you are thinking, “Wow pastor that sounds terrible.” But praise God if you are a believer in Christ you can say as Paul, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

In the midst of all that we will go through in this life, we experience the peace, hope and joy of our salvation in Christ. Knowing that we can say with the Apostle Paul, For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

GLORY!

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark