"Where are God's Saints?" by Shane C. Montgomery

  Do you ever feel like you just might be the last true Christian in your town? I bring this up because today my son and I spent three hours at a local 4th of July festival here in our city. We took 1,500 Gospel tracts with us to hand out, this was our third year doing this, last year we gave away over 400 tracts and ran out just over 90 minutes. So this year we made sure we brought plenty of tracts so we could spend several hours tracting and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.


But this year was different, the crowd was a little lighter than normal, instead of the usual 15,000 people milling around downtown, there might have been 5,000 if that, maybe less. But we were determined to rid ourselves of every last tract in our bags. After three hours of non-stop witnessing, we had just about approached every person there, not the small children, we do not like to give the Law of God to young children, anyone under 12 or so that is, they are just to young to comprehend original sin and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
So, minus the little folks, we talked or attempted to talk with every adult and teenager present. After three hours we left, we still had 14, 937 tracts left over. It took us over three hours to hand out 63 tracts! Never before have we had such a poor reception from people anywhere. We do the same thing every Halloween, this is very difficult because you have to interact with people who are busy keeping their little ones reigned in and people are moving everywhere at high speeds. But even then we normally will give out a couple hundred. Yet today was different, today was hard. We began with optimism, we prayed prior to entering the festival, we were polite, warm, friendly, outgoing, we felt His spirit with us as we went from person to person, yet we were greeted so harshly, so coldly. People were not receptive to hearing the Gospel at all. 63 people took tracts and many of them spoke with us, they were nice and listened to what we had to say, we tried not to keep them longer than five minutes so as not to be rude.

These people were warm and open to hearing the Gospel, but the vast majority were just plain nasty toward us, throwing the tracts back into our face, refusing to take one, cursing at us, snubbing us, turning their noses up at us for bothering them. Many of these people said what we hear every time we go out witnessing, that being "I am already a Christian, I don't need this!" or my other favorite... "I am already a Christian, I don't appreciate you telling me the Gospel, I already know it!"

I have to be honest hear, when someone shares the Gospel with me, I love it! I can not hear the good news enough, I certainly do not get offended. So what gives? Is it that these people are hypocrites and are not truly saved? Yep, is it that they are members of a local mega church that preaches "Ten ways to better control your finances?" Instead of hearing the Gospel and God's Will for our lives, they are hearing sermons on "How to improve your marriage" No wonder they are offending when they hear the Gospel, they have never heard it before, they believe church is a place you go to feel good about yourself, a place where you are the center of attention and not Christ. A place where man is exalted and praised instead of Christ.

A true Christian loves God's Word, a true Christian loves God's Commandments, a true Christian hates the things God hates and loves the things God loves, and a true Christian can't help but smile when someone mentions the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Where to begin with a city so morally bankrupt? Where do you start with a people so self-centered? Where do you start with people who have been raised in the church, a false church led by false teachers, but a church non the same. Where do we start?
We pray, we plea, we show them love, we show them Christ...... yet they worship self instead of the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.

On any given night in our county you can find a "Revival" taking place in a local church. So why so many confused, hypocritical Christians? Because we do not need a man made Revival, we do not need man trying to build up their local church, filling the pews anyway possible. Getting them to walk through the door is not the answer.

What good does it do getting them in if we are going to feed them a watered down gospel, one that taste good but has no substance? How does that make true believers? Why force the Holy Spirit? Can we mass produce believers? Of course not, all we can do is witness, share the good news of Jesus Christ and pray that God will move in their lives. Pray that God will send His Holy Spirit to save those that are yet lost in their sins.

We do not need more Revivals, we need a Reformation! From top to bottom, we need sound, Biblical preaching, we need edifying teaching, we need the Word going forth into the lands. We need men and women, empowered by His Spirit, bold witnesses, men who fear God, but fear no man. We need men and women to stand up and proclaim the One True Gospel and to decry all the false ones being mass produced on Sunday mornings. We need a return to the Sacraments, The weekly observance of The Lord's Supper and regular Baptisms of believers and the children of believers.

We need a nation wide return to "Lord's Day Worship" and a departure from "Sunday Morning Entertainment" We must return to the things of God, a return to reverence and respect, a return to prayer. A return to family devotions and rearing our children in the Word. We must return to singing doctrinally sound Hymns and Psalms, and leave the new Rock/Pop, hip, modern worship music, bring back the organ or piano and forget about the praise band. Stop bringing singers on stage to entertain the flock and lets start singing hymns together as a congregation.

My son Brandon and I were treated harshly today for sharing the Gospel, at least 90% of the people we spoke with denied Christ today. They thought they were denying us, but we are nothing more than messengers. Christ was the one whom they dismissed, we are nobodies. We are not important, we were simply being obedient to Our Lord and Savior. They were not cursing us, they were not snubbing us, they were not being rude to a father and his son...... they were being rude to The Father and The Son. You know, the Father that gave them life, blessed them with children, food, air to breath, a home, a job, the physical and mental abilities to work and provide for themselves and their families. The Father that sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross for many of them. And the Son who lived a sinless life, was obedient His entire life, who laid down His life for His elect. The Father and Son who loves them and does not desire that any should perish, but that all shall have eternal life.

I am not bitter, it is a sin to hate, I hate none of these people who acted so crudely. I will pray for everyone of them tonight. I doubt they will do the same for me. Never the less, the day was not a loss, 63 people heard the Gospel, thousands refused it, but 63 did not. Whenever the Gospel is preached, God is Glorified! I will pray for the 63 tonight as well. I will pray that God saves them. That, in His Glory and for His Glory, He saves these 63 people, and for no other reason that His good pleasure. Soli Deo Gloria