One young person, when asked whether she was interested in coming to hear the Gospel, said “I don’t know”. When asked whether or not she believed in God she said “I don’t know”. When I asked about what she thought would happen to her after death she thought for a moment and said “I don’t really know”. My response was “Do you not think these subjects are worth investigating?” You can guess her answer to that question!
A preacher asked someone “Do you know what the two greatest problems are today?” The person responded, “I don’t know and I don’t care”. To which the preacher said, “You’ve got them both!”
Here is the reason why many people in the United Kingdom are not saved: they are wilfully ignorant. They don’t know the Gospel and are content to remain in the dark. The issue is often not primarily intellectual; it is volitional. As the Lord Jesus put it “you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:40).
The Lord told a parable about different types of soil in Matthew 13. Some seed sown by a farmer fell “by the wayside” and this hard and compacted ground meant that the seed simply bounced off and “the birds came and devoured” it (v. 4). Explaining the meaning the Lord continued, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside” (v. 19). And why do many people who have heard the Gospel not get saved? They don’t understand it because they are unwilling to obey it.
One person I have often spoken to about salvation bemoans an inability to understand it. However, when the point is reached in conversation where the authoritative claims of Christ are communicated, there is a noticeable retreat, a self-justification, or a reluctance to yield to Christ. And so, many who ‘don’t know’ how to be saved don’t really care to know. “For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them’” (v. 15).
Some years ago I had twenty minutes of conversation with a young woman who stands out as someone who didn't know but who did care. She had been brought up as a Roman Catholic and had never heard the Gospel clearly until that time. When I mentioned personal guilt, she accepted it without question. When I mentioned the value of Christ’s sacrifice for her she wondered at it. She had “always thought there was something more that had to be done” but, on hearing that Christ had finished the work for our salvation by His sacrifice, she rested all her hopes on Him. By the end of our chat she was saved. Why? She didn’t know, but she did care.
Are you not saved? Have you not heard the Gospel? If you haven’t, search this website for articles that explain it. If you have heard the Gospel but are not saved please do not be careless. You are in an exceedingly perilous position. The Lord Jesus will be “revealed from heaven … in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
Saying “I don’t know and I don’t care” about matters of eternal significance is the height of folly in the light of the uncertainty of the present world. The Gospel is worth investigating. But, before you do so, ask yourself, “Am I willing to respond to the truth? Am I willing to act upon what I learn?” If you are, you will soon be saved. If you are not, you will never be saved without a radical change in your thinking. Don’t be among those who don’t know and don’t care.
