Daily devotion – walking out on Christ
Every now and then I hear the very sad news that someone is no longer walking with the Lord. They are not going to Church anywhere and have basically ceased any commitment to Christ. When I hear this my heart breaks as a believer and especially as a pastor. For making such a decision is the most dangerous and disastrous thing any person can by choice carry out.
Questions come to mind immediately, but such a decision is not made on the spur of the moment. It has begun a long way back and due to the non-reading of the Bible, no prayer and sporadic fellowship with a Church, it simply has just been a matter of time until the ‘journey’ ends!
So, we must go to the Bible for some answers and the Apostle John gives us the most poignant of texts to assist us with as to why people do such a thing.
1 John 2:18 Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. 19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
In 99.9% of such cases these people had a religious experience only and have never been born again, repented of their sins, sought God’s forgiveness, and received His grace. They have no understanding of what Jesus Christ did on the Cross for them and thus no connection or relationship with Him. Jesus has never been their Lord nor their Saviour.
Religion runs out of gas, wears out, and you are left with the same emptiness you had prior to becoming religious.
John tells us that not everyone who is part of an assembly, a Church is necessarily a member of the family of God.
For one of the ‘evidences’ of true Christian life is a desire to be with the people of God. People who stop attending or cease being identified with the Church of Jesus Christ, you will find attended Church rarely.
1 John 3:14 – 14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.
When people share the same divine nature – 2 Peter 1:4 – and are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit – Romans 8:14-16 – they want to enjoy fellowship and to share with another!
But the ‘counterfeit Christian’ mentioned in 1 John 2 did not ‘remain’ in the fellowship.
They went out. This doesn’t imply that “staying in the Church” keeps a person saved; rather, it indicates that remaining in the fellowship is one evidence that a person is truly a Christian.
Jesus in teaching His parable of the Sower – Matthew 13:1-23 – makes it clear that only those who produce fruit are truly born again.
The people in view in 1 John 2: left the fellowship because they did not possess the fruit of true life and the love of Christ was not in their hearts.
What will happen to such people after the rapture of the Church, and they are left behind?
Two things will follow – either their hearts will grow harder towards Christ, or we pray that they will finally come to a true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and finally receive Him as their Lord and Saviour.
But who would want to risk that and at that hour also knowing that the Tribulation has begun, and one will have to die for their faith?
Matthew 7: 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’