Crosstalk: December 31, 2018

The guest on this edition of Crosstalk said something that should serve as a wake-up call to everyone. He said that we can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive, but if we’re wrong about our faith, we will pay for that mistake forever and ever.

Mike Gendron is responsible for that statement. He’s the founder and director of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministry. Mike was a devout Roman Catholic for 34 years and was taught to rely upon the authority of the church above all else. He searched the Scriptures and was amazed to find that what he read in Scripture contradicted the teaching and tradition of the church he had been a part of for so long. He trusted Jesus as his Savior and now the Bible has become his sole authority in all matters of faith.

What are the most terrifying words anyone could ever hear? Mike noted that those words were spoken by Jesus Christ. He said, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me.’ Jesus went on to say that not a few, but many will hear those words, many that call him ‘Lord’.’ Christ is speaking here about professing Christians who’ve been deceived regarding life’s most critical issue and that concerns what one must do to be saved.

These words of Jesus will be communicated on the day of judgment. In response, many will say that they did do all these things in the name of Jesus but Jesus will tell them that they never departed from iniquity. So what people are trusting in is the religious works they’ve been doing rather than what Christ has done.

The apostle Paul gives a warning/exhortation in II Corinthians 13:5. He says, ‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?’ Paul was writing this to the church in Corinth, exhorting them to make sure they had genuine, God-given, saving faith.

Mike noted that in Matthew 7:22-23, where Christ gives his warning, he’s talking to people that are boasting about everything they’ve done in the name of Jesus. They’re even calling him ‘Lord’. So salvation is not based upon what we do, but instead upon what Christ has done.

Sadly many people, when asked about salvation, will mention what they’ve done, haven’t done or what they are doing now to please God. In James 2:10 it says that if you keep the whole Law perfectly yet stumble at just one point, you’re guilty of breaking all of it. So until a person can be saved, they must first be convicted to realize that they are a sinner on death row. They need to find a substitute that can die for them and that substitute is Jesus Christ.

As this Crosstalk progressed, Mike explained the hallmarks of a false convert, how these traits can be corrected, the professors of Christ vs. the possessors, and much more.