There was a young man who set his sights on a pretty young Christian lady. He was not a Christian and expressed no interest in becoming one. He quickly worked out that everyone would prefer that the young lady marry a Christian, so he told the church that he wanted to be baptised. He attended church with his new bride initially but found reasons to let her go on without him. Soon he took her and their new baby out of town on weekend trips and later, as more children arrived and grew, enrolled them in sports programmes on Sundays. No one had much to do with church from that time forth. His deed was done!
There is no happy ending to what I am about to write; None!
In Jesus’ parable of the Sower, “the seed that fell beside the road” (Mt.13:4), was in fact the Word of God that wasn’t allowed into hard hearts. Satan snatched it away.
It is easy for us to imagine that these are the hearts of people we don’t know, but that can’t be so. Jesus is talking about anyone who refuses to abide by his Word. People who hear and say, by word and by action, “No thanks!”
*This is the atheist, agnostic, and anyone else who rejects Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world.
*This was Pontius Pilate when he dismissed Jesus with, “What is truth?” (Jn.18:38).
*This is the Rich young ruler who turned his back on Jesus and went away “grieving; for he was one who owned much property. (Mk.10:22).
*This was the group of men who yelled at the top of their voices as they dragged Stephen out of the town to be stoned to death (Acts 7:57-58).
*This is the Christian who sits in church for decades discouraging brethren in the name of ‘truth.’
*This is the brother who sits next to his wife in church every Sunday who expects to be heard, though he doesn’t have a spiritual bone in his body.
*This is the family that says, “You don’t have to go to church to please God.”
*This is the preacher who has been taught by God and man that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, but openly preaches against it.
*This is the church that knowingly hires him.
To sum up, it is the person, inside or outside of a church building, who refuses to repent!
“So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin” (Jm.4:17).
John Staiger
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