Fifth indictment, an unbiblical
gospel invitation. We've touched on it a bit. I
want to go further. Look how we do it today. I mean, now listen
to me. The more I've seen this everywhere,
the Calvinist, the Armenian, a lot of them share something
in common. It is this, the same superficial
invitation. They talk a lot of talk about
a lot of things, and then they come to the invitation and it's
almost as though everyone loses their mind. Walk up to someone
and say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Can you imagine telling that to an American? Sir, God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life. What? God loves me? That's great because I love me
too. Oh, this is wonderful. And God's got a wonderful plan.
I got a wonderful plan for my life, too. And if I accept him
into my life, I'll have my best life now. This is absolutely
wonderful. That is not biblical evangelism. Let me give you something in
its place. God comes to Moses and he says
this. The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate
and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness
and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity,
transgression and sin. Yet he will by no means leave
the guilty unpunished. The reaction of Moses. Moses
made haste to bow low toward the earth. Evangelism begins with the nature
of God. Who is God? Can a man recognize
anything about his sin if he hath not a standard with which
to compare himself? If we tell him nothing but trivial
things about God that tickle the carnal mind, will he ever
be brought to genuine repentance and faith? We do not begin with God Loves
You and Has a Wonderful Plan, we begin with a discourse of
the full counsel of who God is. And we tell Him from the start,
it may cost Him His life. After that, we have exploratory
questions. Hey, you know you're a sinner, don't you? That's like
a few years ago, my mother died of cancer. It's like the doctor
walking in on the day and say, hey, Barb, you know, you've got
cancer, don't you? We treat it so superficially. No weight. Nothing solemn. Sir, there is a terrible malady
upon you. And a judgment coming. Because if you just tell man,
sir, you know you're a sinner? Go ask the devil if he knows
he's a sinner. He'll say, well, yes, I am. Mighty good one at
that or mighty bad one, depending on how you look at it. But yes,
I know I'm a sinner. The question is not, do you know you are a
sinner? The question is, is the Holy
Spirit so at work in your heart through the preaching of the
gospel that a change has been wrought so that the sin you once
loved you now hate? And the sin you once desired
to embrace, you're wanting to run from it as though you were
running from a dragon? And then the question, do you
want to go to heaven? This is the reason I would not
let my children go to 98% of the Sunday schools and vacation
Bible schools and evangelical churches. Because some well-meaning
person stands up and says, isn't Jesus wonderful after showing
the Jesus film? Yes. How many of you little children
love Jesus? Oh, I do. Who wants to accept
Jesus into their little heart? Oh, I do. And they get baptized. And they may walk a little bit
because they've been raised in a Christian culture, sort of.
A church culture, anyways. And then when they turn 15, 16,
when they have the strength of will, they begin to break the
bonds. Begin to live in wickedness.
And then we go after them saying, you're Christian. You're just
not living like it. Stop your backsliding. Instead
of going to them biblically and saying this, you made a confession
of faith in Christ. You professed him even in baptism. But now it seems as though you
have turned away from him. Examine yourself. Test yourself.
There's little evidence of any true conversion in you. And then
when they're 24, 25, after college, maybe 30, they come back to church
and they rededicate their life. And they join right in with that
pseudo-Christian morality that encompasses churchianity in America. And in the end, they hear this.
Depart from me, you worker of iniquity! I never knew you! They
said, Brother Paul, you're so angry. Have I not a right to
be? Somebody must be! crying out
for revival, but we haven't even got the foundation straight.
Oh, that revival would come and straighten our foundations. But
would we, while we have open eyes and open ears and have Scripture
in front of us, should we not correct these things? Would you like to go to heaven?
My dear friend, everybody wants to go to heaven. They just don't
want God to be there when they get there. The question is not,
do you want to go to heaven? The question is this, do you
want God? Have you stopped being a hater
of God? Has Christ become precious to
you? Do you desire Him? That's what political theory
is all about, my dear friend. Everybody wants to go to heaven. But men are haters of God. So
the question is not, do you want to go to a special place where
you'll no longer hurt and you'll get everything you want? The
question is, do you want Him? Has Christ become precious to
you? Often if a person prays, they're
told after that, would you like to go to heaven? Well, yes. Would
you like to pray and ask Jesus into your heart? Now, my dear
friend, let me say this. There are people who get saved
using that methodology, but it's not because of it, it's in spite
of it. Sir, do you desire Christ? Do you see your sin? Oh, yes,
yes, I do. Sir, let's look at a few Scriptures
here that lay out for us what repentance looks like. Is the
Spirit bearing witness that this is happening in your life? Do
you see brokenness? Do you see the disintegration
of everything you thought? And now your mind is filled with
new thoughts about God and new desires and new hopes. Yes, I
see that, sir. That may be the first fruits
of repentance. Now, throw yourself upon Christ. Trust in Him. Trust in Him. And then, listen to me, you have
the authority to tell men the gospel, you have authority to
tell men how to be saved, and you have authority to teach men
biblical principles of assurance, but you have no authority to
tell men they are saved. That is the work of the Holy
Spirit of God. But when you take them through
that little thing, did you ask Jesus into your heart? Yes. Do
you think you were sincere? Yes. Do you think He saved you?
I don't know. Of course He saved you, because
you were sincere, and He promised that if you asked Him to come
in, He'd come in, so you're saved. And they walk out of the church
after five minutes of counseling, and the evangelist goes to Denny's
to eat, and the man is lost. The man is lost. an unbiblical
invitation. If they ever doubt their salvation,
again, here we go again. If they ever doubt their salvation,
well, let's go back to a point in time. Was there ever a point
in time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come in? Yes. Were you
sincere? I think so. It's the devil bothering
you. And if they live without growth, even in the context of
a church, without growth, in continued carnality, no fear,
we blame it on the lack of personal discipleship, And we write it
off as the doctrine of the carnal Christian. The doctrine of the carnal Christian
has destroyed more lives and sent more people to hell. Do
Christians struggle with sin? Yes. Can a Christian fall into
sin? Absolutely. Can a Christian live
in a continuous state of carnality all the days of his life, not
bearing fruit, and truly be Christian? Absolutely not. Our every promise
in the Old Testament regarding the New Testament covenant has
failed, and everything God said about discipline in Hebrews is
a lie. A tree is known by its fruit. When we work with men in conversion,
I have seen preachers who understood much about the things of God,
but when they come down, even after an exemplary gospel presentation,
they will enter once again into this methodology. Let me give
you a story and then we'll go on to the next indictment, but
a story that is one of the most precious moments in my life as
a Christian. I was preaching in Canada just
just actually they told me is like 30 kilometers from Alaska.
There are more grizzly bears in the town than there were people,
really. There was a little church of about 15, 20 people and I
was preaching. And right when I got up in the
pulpit, this mountain of a man walked in. In his 60s, early
70s, but just a mountain of a man. He could have whipped every one
of us in this building. And as I preached, as I saw his
face, I just threw everything away and started preaching the
gospel. He was the saddest human being I've ever seen. Just gospel,
gospel. And when I got done, I walked
right from the pulpit to Him. I said, Sir, what's wrong? What's
troubling your soul? I've never seen a man so sad
and downhearted in all my life. And he pulled out a manila envelope
and it had some x-rays which I couldn't understand. But he
said this, I just came from the doctor. I'm going to die in three
weeks. That's what he told me. Now I
have lived all my life on a working cattle ranch. You can only get
there by float plane or riding horses across the mountains and
all this stuff. He said, I've never been to church.
I've never read a Bible. I believe there's a God. And
one time I heard somebody talking about some guy named Jesus. He
said, I've never been afraid of anything in my life and I
am terrified. I said, sir, did you understand
the message, the gospel? He said, yes. Now what would
have a great majority of preachers done at that moment? Well, would
you like to ask Jesus to come into your heart? That's what
they would have done. I said, sir, you understood it?
He said, I understood it, but is that it? Is that just? He
said a child could have understood that in anybody. Is that all
it is that I understand it? And I pray or. I said, sir, you're
going to die in three weeks, I have to leave tomorrow, I will
cancel my plane ticket and we will stay here over the scriptures,
wrestling and crying out to God until you are either converted
or you die and go to hell. And so we began. I began in the
Old Testament, New Testament, every verse of Scripture dealing
with the promises of God regarding redemption and salvation over
and over, time after time, reading John 3.16, praying for a while,
crying out to God, questioning the man regarding repentance,
regarding faith, regarding assurance, working till Christ be formed
in him. And then finally, just exhausted
that evening, there was no breakthrough. There was nothing. And I said, sir, let's pray.
We prayed. I said, sir, read John 3, 16
again. He said, we've read this a million
times. I said, I know, but it's one
of the greatest promises of salvation. Read that text again. And I'll
never forget, he had my Bible on his lap and those big mountainous
hands of his. And he said, OK. He said, for
God so loved the world that he gave up. I'm saved. I'm saved. Brother Paul, all
my sins are gone. I have eternal... I'm saved!
I said, how do you know? He said, haven't you ever read
this verse before? What was going on? A working
of the Spirit of God! Instead of those little tricks
you try! What, you want to go eat? What,
you think preaching is the spectacle and after that you go back to
the hotel? No, after the preaching is when the work begins. Dealing
with souls. People come forward in meetings,
they're counseled by someone who shouldn't be counseling.
Five minutes, they're given the card to the pastor and the pastor
says, I would like to present to you a new child of God. Welcome him into the family of
God. How dare you! If you are going to present him,
say this, this man tonight has made a profession of faith in
Jesus Christ. And because of our fear of God
and our love for the souls of men, we will now be working with
him to make sure that Christ has truly been formed in him,
that he truly has a biblical understanding of repentance and
faith and great assurance and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's
what we're going to do. Look what we've done. I plead
with you, look what we're doing. And this is not some cult, this
is us. Stop it. Stop it.