Last week, I talked about this man-made class and the division of the saints, the believers, and the disciples. Many in the church have falsely communicated, if not said outright, that believers receive the gift of salvation and that the disciples are either in the ministry or those looking for extra credit as overachievers. Jesus gave the Great Commission to make disciples, not subjective believers. We should know who belongs to God or the devil by their fruit, not their statement of faith or their truth.

I am giving an abstract view of the gospel so that your salvation does not rely on the cunningness of words but on the grace of God in Christ Jesus. In God's power, one is saved and not through intellectual understanding. The concrete gospel in John 3:16, Romans 10:8-10 and many other scriptures is good and leads us to the One and only Savior Jesus. But many are hearers of scriptures and not doers, so they stop with the reading of the scripture and do not do what it says to do. They think they have eternal life in the scripture they know but will not go to the Savior the scripture speaks of.

Jesus did not come to earth with a warrant and a guilty verdict of man's sinfulness. Jesus came to save, not judge. Jesus came to save those with a godly sorrow and a contrite heart. Jesus did not come to save those who have an admission of guilt but lack godly sorrow and a justification for continual sin.

Many people in prison and jails across this nation today have confessed their guilt but have no sorrow for what they did. These sinners claim their guilt, justify why, and then pay the time for the crime, waiting to get out to continue life on their terms. Like many baby Christians, they are not justified in Christ Jesus as if they never sinned but self-justified in their sin—an admission of sin but no repentance. Yes, I'm guilty of breaking the law, but I am justified in why I did it and continue it! Like the adulterer who blames his wife for cheating, my wife wasn't fulfilling her duties, so I had to go outside the covenant to meet my needs. The husband admits his guilt and then justifies it.

Most Christians have done just that; they made themselves at home in this fallen and falling world. We have taken a bite out of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, just like our first parents. Instead of heeding warnings that our life is a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow. We have put away our tents and camps to no longer take the pilgrimage with Abraham, looking for a better city to come, the New Jerusalem. We instead settle where we are and look to reform what we have.

God gives us a glimpse of what He has for the humble, and the devil comes right away to give us a glimpse of what we can have in a micro-moment. It is often the same vision but a quicker timeline because we are without patience and want it now. Instead of worshipping God through serving Him only, we bow down in front of the god of this world and serve ourselves.

So, we Christians have made this world our home. We reform, refurbish, and renovate. And in doing so, we forget we are in this world but not of it. Instead of seeking God for His will to be done, we plan alongside the world for our will to be done over the seventy or eighty years we believe we have. We are not seeking God to redeem our time but living our time as if we have all the time in the world. We don't need to redeem the time if God doesn't have a definite time to return. There is a set time even if there is a slight delay.

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. – Luke 13:22-27

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, - 1 Timothy 4:1-2

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, - Hebrews 3:12-14