Ivan C.

🚨‼️There is something terribly wrong with a Christianity that can fill a church building on Sunday morning but cannot produce a Christian willing to tell his neighbor how to be saved on Monday afternoon. A fellow can explain the stock market, argue politics, discuss football statistics, and tell you everything wrong with the world, but ask him to explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and suddenly he develops a terrible case of lockjaw. Romans 1:16 declares, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” The trouble is not that the Gospel has lost its power. The trouble is that too many Christians have lost their willingness to proclaim it. You can invite a sinner to church, give him a Bible, introduce him to the pastor, buy him lunch, and make him feel like the most welcome person in the county. Wonderful! But if nobody tells him that Christ died for his sins, was buried, and rose again the third day, you have given him everything except the message that can save his soul. The Gospel is not a church advertisement, a personality contest, or a religious membership drive. Paul said, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord” (2 Corinthians 4:5). A man can learn the name of every deacon in the church, memorize the service schedule, and know where the coffee is served, yet still die and go to Hell without ever understanding salvation by grace through faith. And don’t tell me you need another twenty years of Bible study before you can witness. Study your King James Bible! Rightly divide it! Learn sound doctrine! But don’t use the Bible you claim to believe as an excuse for never opening your mouth. The woman at the well did not graduate from a theological institution before telling people about the Man she had encountered. Philip did not turn the Ethiopian’s question into a six-month correspondence course. He “preached unto him Jesus” (Acts 8:35). You may not know how to answer every objection, but you ought to know how to tell a sinner that Jesus Christ died for his sins and that eternal life is received through faith in Him. You don’t have to know everything about the Bible to tell somebody about the Saviour. But if you know the Saviour and never tell anybody, what exactly are you waiting for? One day your earthly opportunities will be finished. Your arguments will be over, your possessions will belong to somebody else, your reputation will fade, and all those important things that consumed your attention will look remarkably small in the light of eternity. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ will still be true. Acts 16:31 will still say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” You cannot save a soul. You cannot purchase a soul. You cannot manufacture the new birth by clever arguments or emotional pressure. But you can tell a lost sinner about the One who shed His blood and rose again to save him. The greatest tragedy is not that Christians lack opportunities to speak about Christ. It is that so many have a mouth full of opinions, a shelf full of Bibles, a heart full of excuses, and never seem to find the words to tell somebody how to get to Heaven.