Does God Matter To People At All?
Matthew 7 Series - Part 4

This is part 4 of the Matthew 7 Series. These articles are concerned with Matthew 7:13-29 and how the soft-marshmallow approach of the last several decades is failing us. It is past time to stop acting like Pharisees and start to act like Jesus, Paul, John the Baptist and Moses. It is important to read this series in order, especially the first three parts.

I just don't get it. People who claim to be Christians, claim to follow Christ, claim Christ saved them don't seem to care about Christ at all. What is that? Have the NPCs taken over the church in America? It looks like it.

A friend and fellow staff member at a church I left asked me what was my motivation to leave. She knew I'd had problems with some less than Christian people on the staff. But they weren't the reason, (although that did make it easier.) We had many, many frank discussions before. So I thought I could tell her the truth. I explained that I could no longer be part of a church that knowingly teaches against scripture, especially the words of Christ. I could not be part of an organization that teaches heresy as gospel and demonizes the real gospel. I can't be part of a church that claims to be following the Holy Spirit while spitting on scripture, which is from of the Holy Spirit. I cannot be part of a church that teaches from books written by heretics, especially those that are proud of their heresy and proud to tear down scripture. I didn't even get into the rampant scriptural ignorance at all levels, especially the pastors at that church. I had tried to influence things back towards God and scripture, but things got increasingly worse and my pearls were trampled.

Matthew 7:6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

My friend's response was she likes what the church does. That's like being warned that hundreds of people are being killed at an amusement park because the management is deliberately making it harmful and replying that they think that amusement park is a lot of fun. Churches that teach people to follow a fraudulent Christ are just like that hypothetical amusement park. But it's not the body they are killing, it's the souls of the people they mislead. I'm sure ancient Rome was a lot of fun with all the hedonism and debauchery. What we like shouldn't be our standard. God is the standard for any Christian, and scripture is the yardstick God gave us.

Matthew 7:13-29 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-and great was its fall." When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

People like to break that passage up into small sections and deal with a small part separately. That makes it easier leave out the parts they don't like. It also makes it easy to mislead people into thinking they aren't related. The quotation above isn't even the whole passage, just the last of it. But reading these verses together it is clear this is a single teaching. Read it again. Read it a third time. Is it becoming clear? A lot of people will stand before the bema seat, (judgement seat,) and will be shocked when Jesus the Christ tells them they are strangers and to depart from Him. They will not enter Heaven, leaving them only one other destination which is hell. People who build their house on sand are the ones who follow their own made up religion, or the fake gospel a wolf in sheep's clothing taught them. They reject the real Savior for their fake Jesus. That is the wide gate that leads to destruction. That is not the narrow way, the house built on rock, the way, the truth, and the life. That is not Jesus.

It makes me sad to see this. I have tried to witness to hundreds of self-justifying self-proclaimed "Christians" that are obviously in open rebellion against God to anyone who reads their Bible for what it actually says. And every one of them has rejected any scripture that contradicts them, no matter how I try to reason with them. I've had "Christians" on social media block me when I present scripture that contradicts their delusions. They all chose their false gospel for a fake one that makes them feel good about their rebellion. I don't think that false good feeling will be a comfort in hell.

Non-Christians and real atheists are way easier to reach. I've had many who were willing to honestly engage on the subject. Some have later become Christians themselves. But people who falsely think they are already saved don't care what scripture says. They don't care what God said he hates and loves in scripture. They won't listen because they are sure they are right. They don't care that they are doing what Paul blasted the Corinthian or Galatian churches for doing. They don't care that they violate the clear teachings of Jesus in scripture. They don't care that they are spitting on the Holy Spirit by rejecting His word while falsely claiming their own thoughts and feelings are from the Holy Spirit. They use the fact that there is no perfect church as an excuse to openly defy God's instruction and do what they want to do. They embrace heretics and attack those who tell the truth.

I have no idea how to reach these people. They are comfortable in their delusion. It makes me want to cry that nothing gets through to them. The research by Barna shows there are at least 208,000,000 of them in America. It would be enough to make me despair if it wasn't for the hope of Christ. But their blood will not be on my hands. It will be on the hands of the frauds who call themselves pastors and teachers that didn't confront them or even misled them. But ultimately their blood will be on their own hands. They had scripture to guide them and rejected it. They will stand alone before the bema seat of Jesus. And they may be surprised when Jesus says, "I never knew you." But they shouldn't. They ought to know better. And that is the problem.

Luke 16:27-31 And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house- for I have five brothers-in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' But Abraham *said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"