Why hasn’t the world been reached
yet in 2022?
I just do not get it. Millions
upon millions of church people, pastors, Christian businessmen and women,
millionaires, billionaires, all under the same commission and command from
Jesus to take the gospel to every nation and impact the people with the message
of the Cross, and yet there is hardly a scratch made on many countries,
including some of our western so-called ‘Christian’ nations who have forgotten their godly heritage.
I just discovered that I could
print the entire Bible for less than 0.25 pence per copy when ordered in sufficient
quantity! Furthermore, with all of the communication technology available to us
now, with satellites, social media, the worldwide web, and much, much, more, we could
do what we are called to do.
There has never been a time like
this where amazing and outstanding opportunities are in front of us to tell the
world of the love of God:
And perhaps there has never been
a time so desperate since the days of Noah for proclaiming both a grave warning
and a glorious promise to any who will believe.
There is not a single verse in
the Bible where we are instructed or encouraged to try and get people to come
to church. Yet, for most pastors and congregations alike, the greatest efforts
made for attracting people to the message of Jesus is to try and get them to
come along on Sunday, or to some other programme, in a building that to most people
is cringe-worthy and embarrassing.
The command of Christ is to go.
Go, leave home, leave your rituals and stain-glassed windows, leave your
religious habitations, leave your comfort-zone, and take the message to the
world.
The world will not come to us. We
must go to all the world. The harvest will not walk into our cathedrals or
chapels any more than corn will walk into the farmer’s barns.
The harvest is out there; outside
of the ‘worship band’, outside of our get-togethers, and outside of our
performances and ‘spiritual’ huddles.
We go to the world to buy our
food, to find the latest phone, to buy a new jacket or shoes, to sit in a fancy
restaurant and enjoy the company of our friends; but when did we go into the
world to tell the people about the coming judgment and the love of God toward
sinners?
“Oh, we don’t want to talk about ‘judgment’ and all that old-fashioned stuff”, I hear someone say.
“God is love and he
loves everyone", is the standard new moto for church people.
However, the Bible says that God is angry
with the wicked, and his wrath is revealed from heaven. (Romans 1:18) If men and women do
not repent and come to Christ, they will stand before the judgment throne of
God and find their eternal destiny in the Lake of Fire. Now, you can tear those
pages out of your Bible and choose not to believe them, but the truth remains
truth and will not lie. (Revelation 20:15)
John 3:16, someone has said, is
the gospel in a nutshell. ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.’
We all know that verse so well
and it rolls off the tongue easily; but did we ever consider the words and the
whole message? Yes, God so loves the world, and he gave Jesus to come and save
us if we should just believe in him. However, let us never forget the other
bit, the ‘should not perish’ bit. The
whole world is condemned already and headed for an eternal hell. This word ‘perish’
is speaking of the everlasting misery and torment of hell. God loves us, and if
we believe, we shall not perish.
The gospel is the lifeboat that
goes out onto the raging sea of sin and evil, of misery and pain, and offers a
way back to God and rescue from certain eternal horror.
If we really believed what God
says in his word, then surely our hearts would be all taken up with going out
there into the night and diabolical storm of destruction, into the sea of
misery and woe that is dragging millions to hell every day. If we truly
believed that heaven and hell are real, our consciences would not allow us to
sit back and do nothing.
If we truly believed, then a
passion would grip our hearts and drive us to do all that we can to seek the
lost and show them the way to God.
Noah was told by God that
destruction and judgment were coming to the world of his time, and unless people
repented, none would be saved. He spent the rest of his life building an ark to
save whoever would listen to him. Every tree he cut down, every nail he
manufactured, every bang of his hammer or thud of a tree falling, shouted, ‘Believe
or perish!’
And what do we do? We sit in
church singing some modern inharmonious choruses, listen to the preacher
telling us how to achieve success and get personal blessings, do some mingling
afterwards chatting about football or other worthless and unspiritual gossip,
then go home, grab some lunch, and hit the local shops.
We are happy enough to spend some
money on the new sound system for the church or the new chairs. We do not even
mind having to go along to an extra meeting once a week if we really must. We
might even respond to a special appeal by the minister to give a donation
toward some refuges that are looking for support, but how much of our income,
how much of our savings and treasure do we use to go into all the world and spread
the gospel? How much time do we give to reaching the lost?
We have time for everything we
want to do. We have time for business, time for pleasure, time for holidays, time
for sports, time for social media and all the trivia; but how much time do we
have for the Great Commission of Mark 16:15?
There are enough resources and
more than sufficient mountains of money in the bank accounts of church-goers and
Christian businesses to launch the biggest gospel outreach the world has ever
known.
When you leave this world you
will not be asked how successful you have been. Your business projects and
accomplishments will hold no value there. Your academic qualifications will retain
no merit in eternity.
The questions that will be asked
are, “What did you do with Jesus?” “What did you do with his gospel?” “What
treasure have you stored up in heaven?”
You might be the richest believer
on earth right now, and if indeed you do get to heaven, you may end up being
the poorest among us all.
The greatest treasure that any of
us can lay up for eternity is the souls of men and women, and boys and girls, whose
lives have been touched and transformed through our obedience to go into all
the world and proclaim Jesus the Saviour.
Oh, I wish that I had some
like-minded and passionate people who would do what is needed to reach out across
the nations and proclaim the good news, no matter what the cost or how
challenging the vision!
I have met many who promised,
many who claimed to be sold out to the gospel, many who started on the right
path, but very, very, few who today who are focused and truly engaged in what
they once said they would do.
‘But the people that do know
their God shall be strong [courageous], and do exploits [produce effectual
results].’ (Daniel 11:32] In actual fact, that word ‘exploits’ is not
necessarily there. The text actually says, ‘The people that do know their God
shall be strong, and do.’
You can have a dream and even a
vision, but until you do, all you have is the talk.
It is not in the talk, neither in
the promises, nor even in the intentions of the heart, but in the doing.
The doing is the going; and the
going is the doing.
Pilgrim Warrior 2022
