I Was Lied To — Were you?

Photo by Violentz

A man recently drove to the White House and requested to see President Obama. He told the security guard that he knows President Obama and wanted to go into the White House and visit with him.

The man said he knew everything about President Obama, he knew where he went to elementary school, what his favorite meal is, and what car he used to drive.

The security guard replied and said that he could not let him in to see President Obama.

The man said wait, I even know the names of all of President Obama’s family members, and even where he used to live.

By this point the security guard was frustrated and had heard enough. The security guard told the man, “It doesn’t matter how much you know about President Obama, the only thing that matters is if President Obama knows you.”

I’m sure you have figured out by this point that I made this story up, but there is a lesson here that may affect where you spend all of eternity. You see, it doesn’t matter how much you know about Jesus. It doesn’t matter if you can recite the entire Bible from memory, or even if you “believe” in Jesus.

The Bible says in James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” So, just by saying that you believe in Jesus or God isn’t enough to save you from the judgment that is to come.

It also doesn’t matter how many times you attend church, or even if you repeated a prayer one time. Look what the Bible says in Matthew 7:22-23.

22“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

These verses make it clear that there will even be people on judgment day who say that not only did we believe in You, but we even preached and performed miracles in “your name”. It appears that these aren’t just church attenders, but people who put their “faith” into action.

Even though they did all their works in the name of the Lord, look at what God tells them on judgment day. He says, “depart from Me, I never knew you.”

It really doesn’t matter if you say you know Him, all that will matter is if He knows you. Does He know you?

The Bible gives several tests so that we can examine ourselves to see if we truly know Him, and if He knows us. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul encourages the church to examine themselves and see if they are in the faith. “⁵ Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves….” Here are a couple of tests:

1. Do you keep His commandments? 1 John 2:3-6 says, “³ Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. ⁴ He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵ But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. ⁶ He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” So, we can know that we know Him if we keep his commandments and obey His word.

2. Do you practice sin? 1 John 3:9-10 says: ” ⁹No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. ¹⁰By this the children of God and thechildren of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

If your confidence is resting in a prayer that you repeated one time in your life, and not on Jesus Christ, please spend some time in the Bible and examine your faith. You see, I was told my entire life that if I just repeated one little prayer then everything would be fine on judgment day. By God’s grace He showed me that….