The Unsaved Christian
If you would, open your Bible to Matthew 7. During a Sunday school lesson, a child learned about how God created human beings. The child became especially focused when the teacher explained how Eve was created from Adam’s ribs. Later in the week, the boy’s mother saw him lying down on the floor, so she asked him what was wrong. His reply was priceless: “Mom, I have a pain in my side—I think I’m getting a wife.” For the next couple of weeks, we are going to look at the state of many Christians today. This 4-week series will have the following:
The Unsaved Christian
The Spiritually Dead Christian
The Lazy Christian
The Burned Out Christian
Today, we will be looking at The Unsaved Christian. A problem that is throughout the United States, especially in the South. Let us look at Matthew 7 starting in verse 21.
READ MATTHEW 7:21-23
Here we see the saddest words ever said in human history. Can you imagine going
before the king of kings and you are fully expecting to walk the streets of gold in
Heaven and God looks at you and says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
Sadly, these are the words that many will hear when that day comes, and it is the
reason we are looking at it today. The battle between Cultural Christianity and
Biblical Christianity. The number one religion in the Southern United States is
Cultural Christianity and Cultural Christianity is nothing more than a religion that leads to hell.
Cultural Christianity can be defined as nonreligious persons who adhere to
Christian values and appreciate Christian culture. This kind of identification may
be due to numerous factors such as family background, personal experiences, and the social and cultural environment in which they grew up. Basically, Cultural Christianity is a religion full of people who have more than likely attended church for most or all their life. They are people who have spent every Sunday at church for as long as they can remember. A lot of them even serve in some capacity in the church. The difference between a Cultural Christian and a Biblical Christian is that a Cultural Christian has a lot of head knowledge about God where a Biblical Christian has a lot of heart knowledge about God.
Did you know the largest mission field in the United States is in the south? Not up North full of unbelievers. Not out west where many have never heard the Gospel, but in the land called the Bible Belt. Back when I first started as the Youth Pastor here, I took the youth on a trip to Orange Beach for a summer conference. At the conference, the speaker Dean Inserra, who is the author of this book, told a story he experienced as he was leaving the seminary he attended as he was about to head to plant and pastor his first church. He was in the parking lot of the seminary, and he was loading his stuff into his car and one of his friends was packing up getting ready to head to northern California to pastor a church there. Dean said he remembers feeling so guilty because he was going to Tallahassee, Florida right below the Georgia state line and not too far away from Alabama and was right in the heart of the Bible Belt while his friend was going to a place like California that was full of unbelievers. Dean began talking to his friend about going to California where his friend looked at him and said, “It is much more difficult to pastor a church in the Bible Belt than it is in California.” He said “In California, it is simple. Either you are a Christian or you are not. In the Bible Belt, many people think they are a Christian, but have no concept of the severity of their sin, necessity of repentance, message of grace, or the overall message of the gospel. They think they are just fine with God and God is fine with them because they are not atheists and have been to church before as a kid or have been to church most of their lives.”
I want y`all to let that story sink in. The Bible Belt is full of people who never missed VBS as a kid and even faithfully took their kids or grandkids to VBS every summer, people who never miss a Sunday morning service, and people who are even sometimes involved in the church, but it is the hardest place in America to pastor a church or preach the Gospel. That is because of what I mentioned earlier. Cultural Christianity. It sounds Christian on the service, but it is nothing but Christian by culture rather than Christian by conviction. The true gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be found anywhere in the equation. In fact, Cultural Christians are not atheists at all. They would even get offended if they were called or labeled that. They do not oppose Christian beliefs. They believe in God. They take their Christian traditions seriously like prayer in school, nativity scenes, against abortion, and Linus reciting the story of the birth of Jesus Christ during A Charlie Brown Christmas. Songs like “Amazing Grace” are known from memory, but why grace is amazing or what grace even is, is something that cannot be explained. With Cultural Christians, God is often referred to as “the man upstairs.” Billy Graham once said this:
“The greatest mission field in the world is not the foreign field or the home field; it is the mission field of the membership rolls of American Churches.”
The greatest mission field in the entire world is right here in our own backyard... our churches. That is not because we are full of unbelievers, but because we are full of lost people, and we do not even know it. Listen folks, Cultural or Unsaved Christians are not Christians at all. Listen to what the Bible says in Luke 18:9-14:
“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you; this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
God does not judge us by how we measure up to other people, but rather God`s standard that He judges us by is Himself. This belief, the Cultural Christian, is nothing new to our time. Here we are in the time of Jesus, and we have them here also.
Here in Luke 18, we have two people: the pharisee and the tax collector. Pharisees who were held to such high regard for their devotion to the Lord. We are even told that they had the first five books of the Bible memorized. Y`all, I cannot even remember what I ordered at a restaurant 10 minutes after I ordered it. That is how much devotion these people had.
The tax collector would be the complete opposite. A pharisee is thought highly of and respected, but the tax collectors were often looked down upon and hated. Tax collectors were known for stealing from and taking advantage of the poor people. They were known for taking extra money from people that they did not owe. Those were the tax collectors back then. We have the highly regarded pharisee and the complete opposite looked down upon tax collector. Both came to the temple to pray. The good of the good and the bad of the bad. We see the pharisees prayer here, but can you imagine the mindset of the pharisee here? “Here I am the esteemed religious man. I fast twice a week. I pay my tithes and offerings. I go to the temple regularly. At least I am not like some people and steal from the poor and overcharge people. Yeah, I am doing pretty good.” Look at the very next word after the pharisees prayer.
“But”
That simple three-lettered word can have a powerful impact. “The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy BUT I have come that you may have life.” But. We can tell from that there is about to be a major contrast and turn around here.
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
See, the Pharisee prayed to look good and to make the tax collector look bad, but the tax collector prayed from his heart to get right with God. He knew what the Pharisee was saying about him was true. He did not deny it. He did not argue it. He did not try to justify it, but rather he instead came clean to God and asked for forgiveness. Listen folks, it is not how we measure up to other people, it is how we measure up to God. We have all sinned. The Bible tells us that. We are all stained by our sins. In this moment in the temple, instead of getting forgiven for his sins the Pharisee measured himself up to the tax collector and he said “Yeah, I am doing pretty good,” but the tax collector measured himself up to God and said, “God have mercy on this sinner.” This Pharisee here is an Unsaved Christian. So, the question is, how can we know for sure if we are saved or not? Here are 6 things that true, Biblical Christians do:
1. If you are saved, you will have a desire to worship God
James 3:9-12 says:
“With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”
You cannot be a true born-again believer and not worship God. It is not possible. If you have truly been transformed by the blood of Jesus Christ, then every part of you should long to praise the one who has set you free. I told y`all this last week or the week before but sitting or standing there with your hands folded and reading a screen is not worship. Singing praises and singing from your soul like that hymnal says is worship. This next part might hurt some of your feelings, but that is for the men also. Singing and worshipping is not just for the ladies or children to do. That includes the men also. Folks, it does not have to sound pretty. We were not called to sing good; we were called to make a joyful noise and praise the King. Mrs. Stacie Moore can testify right now that all I can do is make a joyful noise trust me. See, we are called to make joyful noise because it keeps our focus and praises on the King. It is okay to stand up when everyone else is sitting. It is okay to clap. It is okay to lift your hands. It is okay to shout “Hallelujah.” True, Biblical Christians praise the Lord.
2. If you are saved, you will read the Word daily
Psalm 1:2 says:
“but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on His law, he meditates day and night.”
When it says the law, it is referring to the Bible. We should be meditating or studying the scriptures daily. That is what a true Christian does.
Listen, if you only hear from the God`s word on Sunday morning when a preacher is preaching, that is a problem. We live in a world today full of evil, darkness, and sin. It seems that everywhere you look there is some form of sin or evil happening. Ephesians 6 makes it clear to us that we are at war. A war against the devil. Ephesians 6 also tells us that the Bible is a weapon against the devil and his schemes. Listen folks, we can find an answer for everything we face today in the Bible. How can you survive in this modern-day war if you are not using your main weapon? You cannot. Listen, there are a lot of people out there hurting right now from depression, anxiety, suicide, and many other things and everything they need to be at peace and have joy and fulfillment is found right here in God`s word. A true, Biblical Christian will read, study, and meditate on God`s word daily, because without it we are lost.
3. If you are saved, you will pray daily
Matthew 6:5-6 says:
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room, and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Notice how it says, “when you pray” and not “if you pray.” Jesus says here that all true, Biblical Christians pray. We must pray daily. Prayer directly connects us to God.
Our day should start and end with prayer and we should be praying all in between. I am sure that Stacey and Mike Wallace can testify to this, but working in the education system increases your prayer life. I am telling you I have to constantly pray and ask God to calm me down before I lose it. I seriously think about writing a book about the wild adventures and stories that happen there and titling it “You Ain`t Gonna Believe This” because unless you work in the system you probably will not believe it. But seriously, there is power in prayer. Prayer can change lives. Prayer can change circumstances. There is power in prayer. There is a reason I have been talking about prayer a lot over the past 2 months that I have been the Interim Pastor. Yes, we should pray privately and by ourselves, but there comes a time when we, the Body of Christ, must band together and lift our voices together to the King. True, Biblical Christians should long to be in communication with God, and that is what prayer does.
4. If you are saved, you will tithe regularly
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 says:
“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
This is another big one. Whether you realize it or not, you are blessed. Even on your bad days when you are struggling financially, you still have more than most of the world. God gives us more than what we need or what we deserve. The least we could do is give back to Him. A true, Biblical Christian tithes regularly because they want to further and advance God`s Kingdom. When you tithe to this church, it is helping us fund ministries designed for outreach. Ministries like the Children`s Ministry that hosts several events throughout the year that help the children learn about God. Ministries like the Youth Ministry where we go and try to reach the teenagers of this current day where everything and everyone is popular except for God. Ministries like the Senior Adult Ministry where they have events that draw senior adults in. We are told to tithe joyfully. Joyfully give back to see that the Kingdom of God is advanced throughout the world.
5. If you are saved, you will share the Gospel
Matthew 5:14-16 says:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
We all know that Children`s Church song “This little light of mine, I am going to let it shine.” If you truly have the light of Christ, you would be shining that light for everyone to see and telling them about Jesus. You should have that burden to see that everyone you know experiences that same redeeming and healing salvation that you did. True, Biblical Christians have this desire to see that everyone gets saved because they know that everyone will spend an eternity somewhere. If you had the cure for cancer, you would not stay quiet. You would tell everyone on planet Earth how to be cured of cancer. Listen folks, you have something much better than the cure for cancer... you know the cure for sin. The cure for cancer could save someone's Earthly life, but the cure for sin will save someone's eternal life. That is why I preach on it so much. People you encounter every day will spend an eternity somewhere. One day, they will depart from Earth and go to either Heaven or Hell and you may be the only chance some of these people have to hear the Gospel and make it to Heaven. True Christians spread the Gospel.
6. If you are saved, you will love other believers
1 John 4:20-21 says:
“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
You cannot hate others and love God. You cannot. Every single person was made in the image of God and made in His likeness. To hate someone else is to hate God. To love God is to love others. That includes those who:
Believe differently than we do
Vote differently than we do
Live differently than we do
Date differently than we do
We were never called to support sinful actions, but we are called to love them either way. Many people have turned away from the church because its love has gone cold. If they are atheist, love them anyway. If they are a Democrat, love them anyway. If they smoke or drink, love them anyway. If they are homosexual, love them anyway. We are called to love each and every person no matter the circumstances because Jesus still loves us no matter the circumstances. True love is unconditional. True Christians love other no matter the circumstances.
Look back at Matthew 7.
READ MATTHEW 7:21-23
There`s an old phrase that says, “it is not what you know but who you know” and it rings true for these Cultural Christians. They know about God and who He is, but they do not KNOW God. WHAT you know does not matter but WHO you know most certainly does. Look at what Jesus said here in Matthew 7. Let us look at it from a modern perspective.
Didn't we say grace before every meal?
Didn't we vote our values?
Didn't we believe prayer should be in schools?
Didn't we go to church every Sunday?
Didn`t we believe in God?
Didn't we get all misty eyes during worship?
Didn't we give money to the church?
Didn't we own Bibles?
Didn`t we want America to return to its Christian roots?
Didn't we stay loyal in our marriage?
Self – righteous is a term that is thrown around a lot, but it can be best described as the belief that your own personal works can justify you before God. Self –
righteousness says that you are good enough or you can be if try hard enough and
because of this, a lot of people act as if they do not need saving.
Like there was in the time of Jesus, there`s a lot of people today saying “didn`t we?” when they should be saying “didn`t He?”
I want y`all to understand something here… there`s going to be a lot of surprised
and confused people when it comes time to meet Christ. They`re going to get to the throne and they are going to be all excited for what God has to say to them and
They will be thinking about finally entering Heaven after waiting all that time and
They will have this huge smile across their face until God looks at them and says
“Depart from me, I never knew you.” This might shock a lot of you here, but
There are going to be a lot of regular church attenders in hell. There will be many deacons and committee members in hell. There`s going to be a lot of choirs
directors and piano players in hell. There will be many music ministers and youth pastors in hell. There will be many preachers in hell. Just because you go to church every time the door opens, does not mean you are going to Heaven. Just because you serve in an elevated position within the church does not mean you are going to Heaven. Just because you serve on multiple committees does not mean you are going to Heaven. Jesus made it very clear that if you want to make it to Heaven, you must know and have a personal relationship with Him. That is the only way. John 14:6 says:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life and nobody goes to the Father except
through me.”
I want to ask you something today. Do you know that you know that you know that if you died today, you would go to Heaven? Do you have that real and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or do you come to church because we live in the south and that is what you are supposed to do. Being a Cultural Christian makes you just as dead as someone who does not know Christ at all. We are not promised tomorrow. God never promised us time, but He did promise us an eternity if we have that relationship with Him.
I want y`all to understand something today. Going to church every Sunday does not make you saved. We are sinners and have been stained by sin and sitting in a pew week after week does not wash that stain clean. Only Jesus Christ can wash that stain clean. If Jesus has not washed the sin clean from your life, then when you depart from this Earth you will spend an eternity in Hell. Today, are you really saved? Do you have that heart knowledge of Jesus, or just that head knowledge? Cultural or Unsaved Christians are not Christians at all. Maybe today you realize that you know about Jesus, but you do not know Jesus. Let today be the day that changes.
Let us pray.
