“…Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do…” Ezra 4:2
I’m a Christian too! As I was sharing my faith with the other person these words quickly came bubbling to the surface. But as we continued to talk it soon became apparent that their definition of Christianity was very different than what God’s Word says it is. There is a great evil in our world today, one that sits just below the surface, prowling like a lion. A deceiver, a liar, a bundle of falsehoods that are easily sold to the masses. A new definition of Christianity. One muddied and living in a parallel world somewhere between reality and lies. I’ve met many people that have declared to be Christians, yet when I ask about their faith, they cannot truly tell me what a Christian is. What does it mean to be a Christian in the year 2021? In Ezra chapter 4 we see the Israelite remnant returning to Jerusalem from exiled slavery in Babylon and as they return they begin to rebuild the temple of God. As the building begins the neighboring peoples drop by to offer their assistance. And why would they offer to help build the temple of the God of the Israelites? Well, because they serve the same God. They proceed to tell the Jews that not only do they worship Yahweh, the God of Israel, but they also offer sacrifices to Him. The only problem? There was no altar anywhere around as required by God in His Word upon which to offer sacrifices. Also, there were no Levite priests to offer the burnt offerings on the altar as required by the Word of God. Oh, and also, they forgot to mention that God wasn’t the only god they worshiped. Yeah, they had quite a few other gods they worshiped, idolized, and prayed too in vulgar and immoral fashions. Ooops, lying by omission. You see, just as our world continues to do, these people redefined what it meant to scripturally follow God. They bent the rules just a little bit to better fit their selfish desires. And as it turns out later in the chapter, their intentions were impure from the start. They only sought to disrupt and stop the building of the temple. And after much maligning, slander and outright lies, they did indeed get the building of the temple of God halted for a period. Today, if you call yourself a Christian you must be able to quickly and easily tell people what that means according to God’s Holy Word. And you should be able to quickly and easily determine if the other person you’re talking to is a Christian or not. God tells us in the gospel of Matthew that false prophets will come to us like wolves in sheep’s clothing, as ravenous as wolves, looking to devour. Beware. Understand the following sentences carefully. A Christian is one that has placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Jesus is the only Son of God that was born of a virgin, lived a perfect sin-free life and then died on a Cross as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. He was raised by God the Father three days later, a triumph over the eternal death of all sin. Any that believe this and call upon His name in faith will be saved from their sins by the grace of God. They will then be baptized as a public profession of their faith, just as Jesus was Baptized. A Christian follows Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. A Christian believes that the Bible is the very Words of Almighty God. A Christian believes that you can pray directly to God the Father through the work of Jesus upon the Cross. A Christian believes that when your physical body perishes from this planet that your next breath will be in Heaven, with your Maker, where you will spend eternity. And each of these is only possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Folks, hear this clearly, if any of these components are absent, the person is not a Christian. You are not automatically a Christian because your parents were Christians. You are not automatically a Christian because you go to church. You are not a Christian because you do good things. You are not a Christian because you are American. You are only a Christian because of what your decision is with Jesus Christ. Today, beware of the wolves in sheep’s clothing that only seek to delay or halt the work of God. They will say they are Christian. They will talk the lingo, listen to the right music, and even carry a big Bible with them. They may even go to your church. But all that matters, all that means anything, all that God looks at…is what you do with Jesus.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Romans 3:23-25a
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