There are billions of people walking this earth today.
Some are saved. Some are lost. Some know they're saved, and some know they're lost.
And then there is the most tragic group of all - - - the ones who believe they are saved, but have never truly been born again.
They walked the aisle. They prayed the prayer. They joined the church, got baptized, and have told everybody they know for years that they're a Christian.
But God sees something no preacher, parent, spouse, or deacon board can see.
He sees the heart.
A Nation of Christians?
According to the Pew Research Center's massive Religious Landscape Study (nearly 37,000 Americans surveyed), 62% of adults in this country identify as Christians.
Sixty-two percent. That's roughly six out of every ten people you pass in the Walmart parking lot.
I'm just gonna be up front with you. I don't believe it. Not for one second.
And I don't need a sociologist to explain why. I just need to look around.
We are a nation that ended roughly 1.13 million unborn lives last year alone. That's around 3,000 babies a day. Yes, that's a 9/11 terrorist attack... Happening. Every. Single. Day.
Here in North Carolina, the ABC system rang up nearly $1.9 billion in liquor sales in a single fiscal year. Money gets tight, gas goes up, groceries go up - - - and somehow the liquor store keeps right on setting sales records.
And election after election, we keep sending clowns to office who seem bent on tearing this nation down to the studs. That tells me we have a discernment problem far deeper than anything a ballot box can fix.
Does that sound like a country where six out of ten people have been born again by the Spirit of God?
I don't think so...
Even Christian researchers are seeing it. The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released its American Worldview Inventory 2026 and found that only 4% of American adults hold a biblical worldview. Among adults attending evangelical churches, it was just 11%. What?!?
Read that again. You're telling me 89% of the people in the pews DON'T hold a biblical worldview?!? Father in Heaven, please help us!
Now, I'll admit... a worldview survey can't see the heart (only God can), and I'm not handing out salvation scores by the percentage point. But the gap between 62 (percentage who say they're Christian) and 4 (percentage of those who claim to hold a Biblically-based worldview) is wide enough to drive a church bus through.
And no matter what any poll says, Jesus already told us how this would go.
Matthew 7:13-14 - "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Many on the broad road. Few on the narrow one. That's the Lord Jesus doing the math, and His math has never once been wrong.
So when a survey tells me the majority of America is Christian - with all due respect to Pew - my Lord said otherwise.
"I Never Knew You"
Just a few verses later, Jesus speaks some of the most frightening words in all of Scripture to people who were absolutely sure they were in.
Matthew 7:22-23 - "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Notice what Jesus didn't say. He didn't say, "I used to know you." He said, "I NEVER knew you."
They had religion. They had activity. They had a profession. What they never had was possession.
A man may convince his preacher that he's saved. He may convince his family. He may even convince himself. But no man has ever fooled Almighty God.
Romans 10:10 tells us, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Not with the lips. Not with the attendance record. With the heart.
People pray the sinner's prayer for all kinds of reasons. To please Mama. To satisfy a worried wife. To get the preacher off their back. To fit in with their buddies at youth camp. To escape an uncomfortable moment at the altar.
God doesn't just hear what you say. He knows what you mean.
Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8 went through all the right motions. He professed belief and was water baptized. And yet Peter looked him dead in the eye and said, "Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God" (Acts 8:21).
The outward stuff was all there. The heart was not.
Double-Check the One Thing That Matters
There are things in life you can afford to be wrong about. You can buy the wrong truck. Pick the wrong career. Make a bad investment. Take a wrong turn and end up a hundred miles from where you meant to be.
But there is one thing you absolutely cannot afford to be wrong about - - - where you will spend eternity.
Isn't it strange? We double-check our bank balance. We double-check that we locked the doors. We double-check our airline tickets three times before we leave the house.
And yet millions of people never once seriously examine the most important matter of their existence.
Paul didn't leave that optional: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Now please hear what I'm about to say. If you are genuinely born again, you don't need to get saved a second time. Jesus said, "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish" (John 10:28).
And God doesn't want His children living in perpetual uncertainty, either. 1 John 5:13 - "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life."
He wants you to KNOW. And you can KNOW. And I want YOU to know!
Your assurance doesn't rest on how strongly you felt that night, how perfect your words were, or whether you can remember the exact date. It rests in Christ, received by genuine, simple, child-like faith.
Settle It Before the Trumpet Sounds
We are living in a world that is turning fast toward the end of days. No man knows the day or the hour, but Jesus left no room for confusion: "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44).
Imagine sitting in a Bible-believing church week after week, hearing the gospel, knowing all the right words - and never personally trusting Christ.
And then the trumpet sounds.
Imagine discovering in that moment that you knew all about Jesus - - - but never actually knew Him.
Maybe something is holding you back. A secret sin. A relationship. Pride. The fear of what people will think. Maybe you've told everybody for 25 years that you're saved, and the thought of admitting otherwise is more than you can stand.
It is time to get brutally serious about this.
It is infinitely better to endure a few moments of embarrassment before men than to enter eternity without Christ.
And here is the wonderful news. You don't have to clean out your closet first. You don't have to straighten out every relationship or fix every mistake you've ever made.
You come to Christ as a guilty sinner who needs a wonderful Saviour. And then, by His grace, He helps you deal with the rest with supernatural courage and grace.
He will never excuse your sin. But neither will He abandon His child while He teaches him to walk in righteousness.
Don't Just Say It. Settle It.
I wonder how many people reading this have a testimony that sounds right on the outside - but deep down inside, they know something is missing.
You smile when people talk about heaven. You nod when the preacher talks about salvation. You may have even told others about Jesus.
But when you're alone, the same question keeps coming back.
"Am I really saved?"
I don't want you to spend another night hiding behind a profession. And I certainly don't want you to miss heaven because you were too proud, too embarrassed, or too distracted to come to Christ.
If you are already His child, rest in His promises. Your salvation is anchored in the finished work of Jesus Christ, not in your ability to manufacture a feeling.
But if you've never truly trusted Him - TODAY is your day. Not tomorrow. Not next Sunday. Not after you've cleaned up your life.
Today.
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13).
Don't just put another prayer on your lips. Place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ from your heart, once and for all, and know that you belong to Him.
Seal it in your heart.
Then YOU will know it, and HE will know it too!