“But why do you call Me ‘Lord Lord’ and not do the things which I say? ~Luke 6:46. I was contemplating this yesterday and I got to thinking about the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ in particular His final command (“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” Mark 16:15). Then it occurred to me I’m 42 years old not far from turning 43 I calculated the days I have now walked the earth 16,604 days and I have looked back, I can’t think of even one time someone directly shared the gospel of our Lord with me. I have heard many preachers profoundly preach the gospel; I have listened as many a Sunday school teacher expound on the gospel of our Lord. I have sat in small group bible studies were everyone in the group professed Jesus as Lord and we all discussed the gospel, but I can’t think of even one time that someone that did not know me or my spiritual state one on one share the gospel with me or even ask of my spiritual state. So then I asked myself, how many Christians are there? In the United States 51.3% of the population call themselves Protestant Christian; there are 16,228,438 members in the Southern Baptist convention. So ½ the population of America claims to be gospel believing Christians who profess Jesus as Lord; Jesus said “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” ~Mark 16:15” yet no one has personally shared the gospel with me. It seems that there is something wrong! Jesus said “But why do you call Me ‘Lord Lord’ and not do the things which I say” ~Luke 6:46. What are the odds that 50% of the population were out sharing their faith as Jesus commanded, having 16,604 opportunities to witness to me and yet no one has, I cannot even begin to contemplate that, I have a statistics calculator and the odds are so huge that it just give me an error message. I can’t possibly be the only one! The only way that this is possible is if the number of Christians sharing the gospel has to be very small, not 50%, not even 1%, but a fraction of 1%; Which completely clarifies some things for me.
Jesus said “Not everyone who says to Me ‘Lord Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven will enter” ~Matthew 7:21. Am I suggesting some sort of works righteousness, certainly not; “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast ~Ephesians 2:8-9. We are all sinners and what we all deserve for our sin is death in Hell but God not wanting us to perish provided a way to save us, and that way is Jesus Christ, for all who believe (have faith) and profess Him as Lord. To call Jesus Lord means that He has total authority over your life, if He is your Lord you do what He says to do, period. He bought us with a price and that price was His very life, He was punished for us, He was bruised for us, He bleed for us, and He died for us. The Apostles began most of their Epistles with these words “a bond servant of or Lord Jesus Christ” meaning that they knew their lives were no longer theirs, that they belonged to God, they were purchased and Jesus was their master and servants obey their master.
I was like everyone else, not sharing my faith until the Lord woke me from my slumber at the end of 2009. One day while reading His word I read this; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and Prophets.” ~Matthew 22:37-40. As I was praying and thinking about this it hit me like a ton of bricks; to love the Lord is to do what he says, and to love my neighbor is to warn them of the wrath to come. How do I do that? “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” ~ Mark 16:15.
Mike Peek
Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ
