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Comparatively few people have done sins like murder or adultery. A large number of the others consider themselves as being fairly decent. They will not say they are without sin, but they think that there is nothing seriously bad about them, because if you have to call them sinners, then everybody will be sinners! But that is exactly what God says, "There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God" (Ro.3:10,11).

In the essence of sin, there is a choice we make to please ourselves rather than God. For example, these decent looking sinners may choose to tell a lie and escape when they are caught in a delicate situation. They may think this is an everyday affair that people don't even think about twice! But we can see that they were at the same time choosing to disregard God and His ways. That is sin. Looking at it this way, no one can escape conviction, including the pious looking religious people as well as the out and out sinners.

As long as we imagine that we don't really need any salvation because we are not that kind of sinners, the harsh answer from Jesus is that they will be excluded from His salvation (Mk.2:17). It is when the Holy Spirit's conviction cuts into our heart that we become aware of our need for salvation, and when we realise we cannot save ourselves, we look for a Saviour (Ac.2:37).

Friends and relatives who have gone through this conviction and experienced salvation from Jesus are usually very keen that the people they know should also be saved. But many times they come across a block from the others that says they are alright and they don't need any salvation. It is our duty and privilege to share the Gospel, but we can't force them to understand and respond.

So there are many people sitting in churches thinking of themselves as decent people, acceptable to most people, and therefore they assume, to God too. Preaching is needed to expose the fact that in God's eyes, He sees hatred as murder, and looking at women with desire as adultery (Mt.5:21,2227,28). God thought that the small lie that Ananias and Sapphira said was serious enough to deserve death (Ac.5:1-10). Then we will all become convicted in our hearts that we stand as sinners before God.

While churches think of sharing the Gospel with those in faraway places where people have never heard it, sometimes we forget that there are people sitting right in our midst who have not heard it in the right way so as to convict them, even though they have listened many times to what looks like the Gospel, but without the required effect. We who have experienced the truth that has and is setting us free have an obligation to share it with the others.

Such preaching will make us unpopular among those who do not want to look at the possibility that they may not be saved, but assume that 'it is well with my soul'. But we are bound to share it because if we didn't, it will bring guilt upon us.

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