Mark 1:34…..and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.

According to a 2011 study, there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world. In 2010, the estimated global population was 6.9 billion. That means roughly 32% of the world population claim to be Christian, leaving 68% of the population to account for the remaining religions, of which there are 5 major ones according to http://www.everystudy.com. One of the five religions is Christianity, so, the math for the remainder of religions is clean. 68% divided by 4. Roughly 15% of the remaining population follows to remaining four major religions of the world. The numbers are not exact; there is of course an acceptable margin of error. The numbers are simply intended to show that Christianity is the predominant religion world-wide. that is a comforting statement right? Or is it? Of the 2.18 billion people in the world that profess faith in Jesus Christ, how many actually know Him?

I may shock you to learn that you can go to church, volunteer at the local homeless shelter, and never miss a bible  study and when you die, you will still be sent to hell. The bible tells us that we can only be saved by the grace of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2;8-9: ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast.  Jesus is in the salvation business not us! 

My heart breaks when. in the process of sharing the gospel, someone says to me, “Oh….I get it, your right. But don’t worry, I know God.” Then they proceed to list the may things they do that make them a good person.

Or, they’ll say, “I believe in a ‘supreme being’ and when I die we will have a chat. I’ll get my way.”

My pastor reminds us regularly that we are not out to condemn good people. On the contrary, we need as may good people in this world as we can get.  Unfortunately, good people don’t go to heaven; good people who know God don’t go to heaven either. The truth is there will be many “good” people who won’t be in heaven when we get there. Conversely  there will be many, “bad” people in heaven when we arrive. So what is the difference? Why will there be some mass murderers in heaven while the guy that lived down the street and volunteered every weekend at the homeless shelter won’t make the list? The answer is sin.

 Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Sin is the barrier that separates us from the father. God is perfect man is not and God cannot have communion with an imperfect being.  For those that might say they keep the commandments and therefore are covered, I ask, do you know the commandments? If so, you mean to say you have never broken one? If that is your story then, you’re lying. The commandments are not possible to keep in their totality.  The most striking truth is, if we break one commandment we are guilty of them all.  James 2:10: ¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.  The uncomfortable truth is that we are sinful, we were born into it, and can not escape it. There is no amount of good that we can do to erase it; there is no escape but one.

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.  To those who say they believe in a supreme being or the man upstairs, I’m sorry to say it but that belief and a nickel won’t get you a cup of coffee.  Jesus is the only bridge between humanity and God. His blood, the blood shed on the cross is the only atonement for the sins we have committed. How do you receive the forgiveness of Jesus? by accepting it. there is no thing that can be done to earn forgiveness. What needed to be done has been done already, at the cross.

The striking thing about this weeks verse is the demons knew Him. The minions of the devil himself knew Jesus Christ; of course they did! A pastor of mine once said, “You want to divide a room? Mention the name of Jesus.”

Everyone knows Jesus and everyone has an opinion. Jesus Christ is the single most polarizing figure in the whole of history. Why? Because He demands that we decide what to do with Him. He refuses to be ignored. Why is He so persistent? Because our decision holds the key to where we will spend eternity.God loves you and scripture tells us that  it is not his heart that anyone should perish  Do you know Him? Good. Now accept Him and His eternal gift of life.

Grace & Peace,

LD

*If you would like to know more about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, email me at savedIIserve@gmail.com and let me know! I will be happy to lead you through what the bible says about salvation and accepting Jesus Christ as your savior.*