Most Tragic Person in the World

There are people in this world who have tragic lives. When you look at them, they are an object of pity. There are tragic people all over this world who are refugees chased from their own country by military coups.

And I look at pictures of all the starving children in the world and it breaks my heart that food's been given, but corrupt government officials in third world countries keep food supplies from these desperate and tragic children. And I see the lives of the tragic and the homeless, the poor and the infirm. Why, all the pain and suffering of human tragedy makes this planet we live in the crying planet for all the tears that have fallen could surely fill every ocean.

But there is a person who stands out from these tragic individuals more than the rest. I believe, friends, that the most tragic person in the world is the person who thinks they are saved, and they are not. They are totally blind and ignorant to their lost condition.

I believe the most tragic person in the world is the church member, if I may so speak, who upon facing the Lord of Glory in eternity walks up to Jesus with a big smile on their face and says, Lord, Lord, I've done this for you and that for you while I was on earth. And the Lord Jesus looks at him and replies, Away from me, I never knew you. The title of my message today, friends, is The Most Tragic Person in the World.

And my text can be found in the book of Matthew in chapter 7. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. Let's look in our Bibles and see this tragic person spoken of by the Lord Jesus. Let's look first at verses 13 through 14.

Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His Holy Word. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Let me pause here, friends. Our text states in no uncertain terms the conditions for salvation. These are the demands of the Gospel, spoken of from the lips of Christ of the Gospels, the Son of God, who suffered and died and rose again, and who sits at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross.

Here in this passage, Jesus declares that the vast majority of mankind, the majority in every generation since Adam, lived their lives on the broad road to destruction. They bought and sold and lived and died, crawling over each other's backs on that broad road to hell. Jesus said, Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way.

Straight meaning you have to strive to get through it with great difficulty, and narrow meaning single-minded, seeking God earnestly, intent on being truly saved. Sadly, too many swallow an easy-believed Gospel and casually walk an aisle to accepted Jesus they know nothing of and make an empty religious profession and join the church believing that church membership is salvation. But they've never come under Holy Spirit conviction.

They've never been awakened to their lost condition and to their great danger of dying in their sins and being bound hand and foot and cast into a devil's hell for all eternity. Now, let's continue with our text as seen in verses 21 through 23. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Let me pause for one brief moment, friends, to call your attention to the very next word to fall from the lips of Jesus. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not sung in the choir for you? Have we not handed out tracts for you? Have I not sat on a deacon board these many years? Have I not given my money to you? Have I not preached sermons for you? Well, that's the modern translation, friends, but let's get back to our text. 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.

Yes, the most tragic person in the world is not the homeless, or the poor, or the infirm, but the person who thinks they are saved when they are not. The most tragic person in the world is the unconverted church ramrod, the rich and powerful person in a church who has the reins of the pastor in his hands and holds the church's future in his hands. When he dies and stands before Christ, he will be shocked to hear the words fall from the Savior's lips, depart from me, I never knew you.

The most tragic person in the world is the unconverted church deacon who sat in authority in his church year after year and who dies in his sins only to hear, away from me, I never knew you. The most tragic person in the world is the hard-working pastor who thought he was saved but found out too late that he was never saved at all and all his sermon messages were just works that needed to be repented of, that he was the man whom Jesus spoke of in the parable of the blind leading the blind. The most tragic person in the world is the unsaved evangelist who has for years tallied up all his decisions for Christ from all his meetings and he learns that he was an instrument for evil rather than good as he made his hearers more hardened in their sins by giving them false assurance.

I pity the unsaved head of the denomination who is looked up to for leadership and who exercises great influence and he dies in his sins only to realize he has heaped up only wood, hay and straw through his long and popular church career. And it's sad and tragic, friends, when I think of all the good church members who were faithful in serving their church in some capacity for most of their lives only to learn upon death and eternity that they never knew the Lord Jesus personally so they should not be too surprised to hear him say to them I never knew you. Yes, the most tragic person in the world is the unconverted church member who lived their life under the cloak of a religious profession and had religion without Christ.

Why, that's the biggest cry from hell right now. Oh, why am I here to suffer in these flames? I'm a Baptist. I did this for you, Lord.

And I did that for you. Oh, Lord, why can't you hear me? Oh, why? Somebody help me. Help me.

I'm burning alive in these flames. Somebody help me.