What the Gospel Is and Is Not: Clarifying Essential Gospel Issues

[Music] I mean I'm sharing today about what the gospel is and what it is not and there's a reason why I made this presentation for you today I got a email from a man in Colorado Springs who's been all over that town trying to find a church that preaches the gospel and hasn't been able to do so and suggested that part of the problem is that they don't realize that what they're preaching isn't the gospel they think actually literally think it is and he says do you have a message that deals with these issues that I could just have to give to people and I thought well I I said I preached the gospel every Sunday but I don't think I've ever in one explain what it isn't as well as what it is so today I'm going to do that last week I was dealing with some important gospel issues but today I'm going to trace for you starting with Charles Finney in mid 19th century how we've gotten into the condition that we're in today in the evangelical church and I'm going to propose a very simple solution to the problem in that of course is going to be a preach accordion pattern of the New Testament clarifying essential gospel issues I'm going to be just a short version today I'm not going to be spending as much time as I normally do on all the got issues like justification the blood atonement the wrath of God I'll mention these things but I'm going to spend more time dealing with some of the historical developments then so that we can get this in front of people so they can understand what some of us are trying to say it feel so very very important Paul summarized his gospel in 1st Corinthians 15 he says now I make known to you brethren the gospel which I preached to you which you also received in which you also stand by which you are saved if you hold fast the word I preached to you unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried and that he was raised on a third day according to the scriptures now this may sound very simple but it's of utmost consequence and I'm not going to unpack all of that but there's more in there than it meets the eye when you just look for instance Christ what does that mean not a lot of people don't realize that Christ means Anointed One which means the Messiah which means that he's the one that was promised by all the Old Testament prophets and he's the promised Jewish Messiah who came into the world that he died for sins that's very significant it implies that he lived a sinless life which were taught elsewhere in Scripture and that he provided substitutionary atonement for our sins that the wrath of God that should have come upon us that we deserved fell upon Christ and he bore that wrath for us so that those believe would be escaped would escape from the wrath of God he was buried that means he really died he really had a physical body that died and went into the grave and he was really bodily raised on a third day before witnesses these things are essential every single sermon in the book of Acts every time the gospel is presented anywhere in the book of Acts the meant the resurrection of Jesus is mentioned and if we neglect preaching on the resurrection in the bodily resurrection we neglect what God has ordained that people must believe in order to be saved we can't just use the word Jesus and assume everybody knows what that means they don't people know that Jesus was some sort of a religious person who died but they don't know who he is what he did and why they need him so that's included giving that as a brief introduction to the essentials of the gospel I want to talk about how we got into a condition where one rarely hears the gospel in the modern evangelical church the roots of this problem began with Charles Finney I'm not the only one seeing that I've been seeing that for many years but when we were when we talked to John MacArthur when he's written books and he's been on Todd fields show if anybody asked him where the problem began MacArthur says it began with Finney and I'm gonna say to you that when we accepted Finney and his teachings in America as bona fide evangelicalism we got off course so badly that we've been off course for 150 years since and it causes us to be able to accept things today that firmly Christians in in centuries past would never have accepted if somebody tried to preach that to them now look at what Finney says these things I hope they shock you if what Finney says doesn't shock you then you've been influenced way too much by pop evangelical theology here's what he says a revival is not a miracle according to another definition of the term miracle something above the powers of nature there is nothing in religion beyond the ordinary powers of nature it consists entirely in the right exercise of the powers of nature now no one that I know of who's ever been accepted as a theologian or somebody who was a great religious leader in evangelicalism has a more crass man centered theology than Finney and he didn't believe that the supernatural work of God through grace was what we needed we simply needed to harness the powers that we already have in nature now you should be asking yourself how did this guy ever go out in the annals of American history as one of our greatest evangelist this is not biblical it's radically unbiblical let's see some more as I said I hope it shocks you this is from lectures on revival it is just that and nothing else a revival is not a miracle they are dependent on a miracle in any sense it is purely a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means as much so as any other effect produced by the application of means now he's not talking about means of grace like some of us talk about he's talking about means to excite sinners and I'm gonna show you what he means by means as we go forward to some more slides more from Finney lectures on revival there must be excitement sufficient to wake up the dormant moral powers and to roll back the tide of degradation in sin man being so reluctant to obey go well not act until they are excited now let me explain his theology he believed that he did not believe in the fall he didn't believe that we have the sin nature of Adam in the sense that other theologies have taught he believed that man retained his moral abilities even after the fall and that these dormant moral powers were in every person aside from any special work of grace and so the Evangelist was the person who somehow pushed the right buttons used the right words created the right mode excited somehow stirred up that dormant moral power and man through rhetoric or through his new measures he called it which is where the alter call came from and then thereby exciting people into action now why would he say that well let's look so further in the Phineas theology this is from his systematic theology that which demands a natural impossibility is not and cannot be moral law the true definition of life's cludes a supposition that it can under any circumstances demand and absolute impossibility such a demand could not be in accordance with the nature and relations of moral agents and therefore practicability means the ability to do it must always be an attribute of moral law to talk of inability to obey moral law is to talk nonsense now I'm going to unpack that a little bit it's very important this was his axiom he called it a first principle and and Charles Finney would not allow anything in the Bible to contradict this because he says if you if you don't have this you can't understand moral law what he says is this God will not command us to do anything that we don't already have the ability to do that's what he's saying God would never command an impossibility so therefore if Jesus says be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect then you can be perfect and he's our teaching perfectionism toward the end of his career and rather than believing that the moral law of God in the Bible like the Ten Commandments and all the other laws are there to show us that we're sinful and to drive us to this to a savior to the gospel the oral law is there to be fully obeyed now by the powers that we already have and so therefore God doesn't need to do a miracle to save people you already have the ability to obey God whatever it is he says now most this if he was basically fully rejecting the theology that went before him in America he's preached during the Second Great Awakening the first Great Awakening was the total polar opposite of this Edwards and Whitfield and other people of the first Great Awakening believed that sinners were hopelessly lost in their sin and that God had to supernaturally rescue them through the gospel finis though was different and part of it was his own person he was a great musician he was a great athlete he was handsome he was articulate he was athletic everything he did he succeeded at and if he put his mind to do it he could do anything and so he brought that idea in their religion man's ability is the fountain of all religion now we would I would say absolutely we are not unable to obey God's moral law look at them look at what Jesus said in order to shake up those self-righteous Pharisees you have heard that shall die murder I say it if he even hates your brother you're guilty if you say thou fool if you have lust in your heart these things are to show us that we're sinful and we're needy we need the gospel but no Finney says we can do it we can do it all so keep that in mind now I'm going to give a summary of this and I don't want spend more time any but I wanted you to know what's happened to us people want to know what's happening today why are some of our great leaders so versed in the gospel are not proclaiming it well we we sold the seeds in America 150 years ago when we allowed Finney to set the stage to determine the future practices of the evangelical movement and if somebody is a reticle as Finney can be a great hero on America then why not some of the people who got out there today there's our problem we don't have much of a standard now this theology would be considered heretical by everybody's standards but it still got in now what happened as a consequent of Finney's beliefs and teachings the first is what was called new measures evangelism the new measures and they don't seem very profound to us today but they were a radical departure from the earlier practices of at least in America of the revival preachers or gospel preachers before people like Edwards for example would read his sermon sinners in the hands of an angry god with his little emotion as possible and people would cry out for mercy because they felt the weight of their sin and the hopelessness of their lost condition but it was dependent on God convicting the world of sin righteousness and judgment through the Holy Spirit I'll show you that before but his new measures were based on the idea that Vinnie if he had a big lecture hall full of people what he saw out there were people that all as they were are without any special work agrees are able to be excited into being capable of keeping God's moral law and he actually said that if we would get to work we'll have the Millennium in America within eight years he believed you could create a millennium so there consequences new measures evangelism he had a anxious best bench he has he was the first one to have people come forward and sit at a certain bench if they were anxious about or probably means they got the excited it got excited by his ability to do that and that was the invention of what became the altar call he created all right I shouldn't say he created this he was a major figure in 19th century America in the creation of the benevolent Empire during a 19th century people believed in the perfect ability of human nature and there were societies dozens and actually hundreds of them created in America to stomp out every possible ill in society and the belief was that we can Christianize America we could bring in the millennium we can get rid of sin and even if there are sinners they'll be a force to obey God's moral law whether they want to or not this is the precursor to Dominion theology and reconstruction ISM and other things like yes we're going to we don't need God to come in judgment and we don't need a rapture or any of these kind of things we just need to fix the America and fix the world so the benevolent but ever the you know I'm very articulate especially when I'm doing an important message the benevolent Empire post millennialism that means that the church is going to rule for a thousand years creating a golden age on the earth and Jesus won't come back until we fixed the problems on planet Earth doesn't that give you a warm feeling in your heart I believe that's gonna happen well you don't got to tell you something what happened this was 19th century which was the century of optimism and romanticism the 20th century basically - - this up until the late 1980s we had World War one well then we had liberalists and they came in and modernism into the church then we had a great depression then we had world war two and then we had Korea than we had v8 Vietnam and by the end of the by the 70s there weren't very many people standing up in selling books believing postmillennialism or Dominion theology but in the 80s it started coming back with the word of faith and the Reconstructionist and other dominionists and seems like everybody looked like things might get better then all of a sudden we don't need the rapture anymore well I'm telling you we need it got here this morning and the roof was leaking over here again we've been battling this roof leak again and I was thinking Lord either sell this place or let's have the rapture I want to move either up or sideways but no I guess there's nothing wrong with preaching the gospel with a leaky roof is there as long as it's the gospel perfectionism the bleeding and the perfectibility of man and human nature and that Christians could be sinlessly perfect this has been taught now and again in church history but it always ends up now working out and it didn't didn't finish day and what I this wasn't something that Finney said but it's something I think that happens in America we believe that success is more important than doctrine and when I've been debating because of being and getting into public arena with these articles I write and been on the radio been doing some debates what I get back from people that don't agree with me is they say well how can you argue against success this guy that you say is a false teacher has 20,000 people in his church this other guy you say is false has 30,000 in his church and look at all that they're doing so how can you say it's wrong well that thinking comes right out of what happened with Finney he was successful so basically gave him a free ride for teaching false doctrine nobody cared along as the multitudes pulled it poured into the lecture hall who cares if this is heretic oh by the way Finnish teachings are even considered heretical by Roman Catholic standards because he was a full Pelagian and the first three cannons on justification in the Council of Trent condemned Pelagianism so even Finney wouldn't even be close enough to the gospel to satisfy Rome so if that's the case why would evangelicals in America accept him well they still do and I got nasty letters when I wrote my article seeing if you think there's something wrong with me taking me off your list well let's move on here let's just suppose for a moment Finney is wrong let's suppose that humans don't have the innate dormant ability to perfectly obey God if they just get excited by the right means let's suppose instead that we are descendants of the Adam there were sinners by Nature that there's nothing in us inclined to love God and serve God and go to he come to him on his own terms because we're not seeking God and they were lost and hopelessly depraved that doesn't mean that were just as sinful as we possibly can be but it means that the whole person is lost some have described it this way a lot of theology suggests that really what we have is a is an island of righteousness in a sea of sin and that within humans there's there's some divine spark or some island of righteousness and if he could just reach that thing that will somehow cause them to respond but I believe that what causes people to respond is the grace of God working through the Holy Spirit who convicts the world of sin righteousness and judgment and that the means is it some technique some emotional draw to excite people but the gospel itself so if we didn't believe Finney what would we do well we preach the gospel in its native offense knowing that all sinners will reject it anyway unless God doesn't worker Greece it doesn't bother me to know that I'm going to get rejected when I go out on the street preaching the gospel why because God said that that would help it but he'd not everybody will in some cases the veil of darkness the blinds our minds will be pulled away by God's grace and they will see the light of the gospel shine into their hearts and they will rejoice and they will become new creatures in Christ they will be converted and they will hunger for the Word of God it says as newborn babes in Christ desire either sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby every newborn Christian comes with a hunger for the word absolutely that's something that I don't have to create in them that's something that the Holy Spirit creates in them and all I have to do is give them the word and they will rejoice they're like little birds in a nest we have these old chickadees that build Gordie Williams had built a little birdhouse a little hole and in a license plate that hangs out kind of decorative we had on our part while chickadees made a nest in there one year and that little birdhouse filled so much with little chickadees in there mama they would come with worms all day long that whole bird house was happened like that we had sit out on a porch and they'd get used to us Diane would be in the porch and and a chickadee didn't want to feed the babies and she said this is my porch they'll get used to me and they did in that birdhouse would hop well there's they're hungry it's like they eat insatiable a newborn babe in Christ is like that I was like that I couldn't wait to get to church I went back again and again one of the word of God see what we got wrong is that we think we're trying to work with a person only in their sinfulness and then we got to do all these things to get them to come to church we got to give them a message that they like we've got to entertain them we've got to cajole them we've got to create programs over they have to be here and and then even if that is hard to get them to come but if you could people are converted by the grace of God they become newborn babes that hunger and thirst for the Word of God and all you have to do to get them to come feed them novel idea provide the means of grace that's what I'm talking about me basically talked about that many times hear the word of God the communion baptism fellowship around these means in prayer now some people don't believe prayer should be there but we teach that here pray for the Lord us and laborers into the harvest if we believe that people are totally lost out there where the meets figuring out some way to excite these dormant moral powers that I don't believe exist I would pray to God that he would raise up gospel preachers gospel workers and and congregations to go out with the Word of God and to send forth laborers into the harvest because God is going to use his mean to have a to have bring in a harvest we don't have to be spiritual technocrats that know how to excite people into action we just need to be faithful to God and let him sovereignly save who he's going to see we don't believe Finney we'd pray for the return of Christ see the domain Ian does think that we're escapist and losers they'd say well you don't have any optimism that the world is going to get straightened out no well you just don't want to get to work and to fix all the problems in the world no I want to get to work to preach the gospel because God's coming and he's going to judge us and we better escape and so the Lord's Prayer I see is a prayer for the return of Christ thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven they see it's something that we can do now that's why we disagree this affected permanent changes in evangelicalism and what I say to you I don't want anybody to get me wrong the people that came out after Finney mostly were not nearly as Extreme as him very few were as heretical as him but they kept his methods his methods determined the next hundred and fifty years of evangelical practice and they never went away after Finney the next great evangelist was Moody and I would have saved something right now before I go any further God used people that are less than perfect and many people got saved all right dad Moody was a Christian I don't know where Finney was at because I don't know how he could believe what he did but Modi was vicious Sunday was a Christian Billy Graham's a Christian I got to use those people and many people were saved but we need to sit back and reevaluate where these methods came from and where our terminology came from is it and is it truly biblical I will assert to you that just because God can use something which he can doesn't mean that we shouldn't be doing it as he has revealed in the scripture so moody began his ministry preaching about the wrath of God against sin and Hellfire and a need to escape that through the blood of Jesus but he met a English preacher who convinced him that was not the best method and it wasn't very appealing and that he should rather preach on the love of God so Modi from the rest of his career preached on the love of God in John 3:16 because more people would come now it's valid to preach at the love of God but it's also valid to preach on the wrath of God and I don't think you can see one without the other if you see that you're a sinner that was rescued from wrath by God's great sacrifice of sending Jesus to die for your sins then you know the love of God but if you don't think your is ever a problem to be rescued from and somebody just says well God's a very loving God then you may just get some idea about what that is it's not totally biblical all of these people Moody's Sunday the healing revivals of Billy Graham who's the altar call as a means to excite people into action and that was invented by Finney now let me say something right here because I know people are gonna have questions am I saying to people that go forward at altar calls aren't saved no I'm not saying that I'm saying to some people that go forward for altar Clairol's aren't saved in some are let me tell you how you'd know the difference if you were I'm sorry think about it this way let's say you are the one sitting at the crusade and there's 50,000 people and there's a great preacher and he does preach the gospel and as you're sitting there in your seat the preaching of this gospel penetrates into your heart and as you sit there you realize these are the words of truth and you know that Jesus is real and you know that he died for your sins and you know that he was raised from the dead and you know that you better get do something because your loss oh you're gonna go to hell if you don't repent and you're sitting there and you realize that because the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin righteousness and judgment and then when the Evangelist said well come forward yo you you'll get out of your seat in a second you'll be out of there before the plants get going you know the ushers that aren't really going that they put in there and you can't wait to get down there why I'll tell you why because you were saved while you sat in that seat going forward didn't save you believing the gospel did what but being saved motivated you to be willing to go forward because they told you that's what to do and that's your probably confession that's okay that's fine well let's imagine another scenario let's say you're sitting in your seat and there's a very eloquent sounding evangelist that can really spin a wonderful message and maybe it does have the truth of the gospel but you don't really get these truths in the Gosport know what he's talking about but in your mind you just seems like well people be better off of their religion or maybe they should turn over a new leaf and try to make a new start and so just thinking that way and not being sure about anything you're sitting in your seat and then they start playing a soft music and people start getting up and they start going down and you're thinking you know what maybe if I go down there something maybe it's a good thing to do and it seems kind of a tracker because all these other people are doing and you just walk down there and you sign a little card did you get saved not necessarily probably not okay and so you have a mixture now that's not to say that somebody had bad that was doing the meeting but this was just what became of our evangelicalism now macarthur talks about this quite a bit in his books now a lot of people end up thinking they're saved by raising their hands signing a card taking a pledge americans will take a pledge I'm going to turn over a new leaf I'm gonna be a better person some some places now they just have a little card I want to be a Christian or I believe in Jesus all right you see now that's assembly a conversion is going from darkness to light from the bondage of sin to the power of God over sin and it's the light of Jesus Christ shining into our hearts and totally transforming us and if you are converted you'll pray a prayer you'll sign a car you'll go forward you'll do anything else they tell you to do as long as you get the Word of God in the end because you're hungry but if you're not converted and you do all these things and you think you're Christian you might be fooling yourself well one way or another everyone kept some version of this and rejected or neglected the doctrine of human inability and that's the Achilles heel and I'm gonna make a strong claim if we believe in humility then we can't understand the gospel we think that somehow there's something that we can do to add to whatever God they have done that'll cause us to be saved but when we know that we're hopelessly helplessly abiding under God's wrath and only God could ever rescue us that's good because he will as we put our faith in Him the bible does teach human inability so I'm going to reject what Finney taught look at what it says in the Bible but on natural man does not accept the same things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him he cannot understand him because they're spiritually appraised until the Holy Spirit turns on the light it just doesn't make sense and many people are very honest about other than that and that's good that they are I've had people tell me well why would God kill his own son again can he do something better than that it just doesn't make sense unless the Holy Spirit convicts you because the mind set on the flesh just hostile to God Romans eight seven and eight the mind of notice this where is this island of righteousness into sea of sin where is this dormant moral power where is this thing in man that somehow a religious teacher could appeal to because it's already there it already wants to serve God now what Paul says the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God it does not subject itself to the law of God unlike what Finney said and it's not even able to do so how clear does it have to be Finney says you can obey every moral law otherwise God wouldn't have given it and I say no the moral law is there to show you you're a sinner yesin to give guidance about what's right and wrong but nothing good is going to happen until after God what wakes you from the dead the Bible says that we were dead in trespasses and sin we don't just need a little a boost the little self-esteem boost a little motivation to be good people we need to be made alive from the dead by faith you're saved by grace not of works can God use unusual means yes I'm going to quickly just hope you hope you know these issues and these events let me quickly tell you something remember the story of Phillip Phillip in the Ethiopian eunuch and the Ethiopian eunuch goes out in a wilderness and he had to somehow had a copy of Isaiah 53 and he was reading it what does this mean what does this mean who is this one who suffered and God took Philippa brought him out to the sea Ethiopian eunuch now that's unusual means all right but what happened when he got there he explained Christ in the resurrection the the Ethiopian you know believed the gospel and was baptized now what about Peter he saw a vision coming down all these unclean animals but then an angel talked to him and in the meantime Cornelius was elsewhere and angels talked to him and between the Angels and the vision God managed to get Peter to go preach to these Gentiles but what happened when he got there he preached the gospel and God granted repentance to the Gentiles as it says now God may do unusual things to get our attention he did in my case when I was converted I have very unusual story God could do miracles God can get you places where you didn't think you would ever be but when you get there it's the gospel that saves you I don't know what that angels are gonna go out and talk to somebody to tell him to come in here and talk to this preacher he could do that that's God's business but my business is when I find the person who needs the gospel to give it to them whether they come in here or we go out there God can use that which is less than perfect absolutely notice what Paul said some to be sure preaching Christ even from envy and strife but some also from goodwill let them only that in every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ has proclaimed and in this I rejoice yes I will rejoice if the truths of the gospel are there God can use those to say people even if some of the trappings are not what we would like now that's true across the board and I want to make this clear because people accuse me of seeing what I'm not saying you can sit in a liturgical church where the pastor doesn't even believe the gospel and I know that some don't because I've talked to him and yet read a responsive reading sing a hymn open a Bible and see if I didn't see something of the light of the gospel in the material that's the truth maybe you recite the Apostles Creed that you believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and one day you actually believe it Wow you can be converted now does that mean that we should just copy the plan of the liturgical church and you get a pastor who's unconverted because it worked for that person now I'm not saying that's true for all the turgid churches it's just some cases that has happened you can be sitting somewhere where there's hardly any light of the gospel but if there's some light God can use it so we would agree that God can use that which is less than perfect but we would also agree than if we know what God has ordained and what God has said what he wants us to do that's what we should do then we will get the best results and the best effect and God will change the most lives through us if we are faithful to what he told us to do and not use something less and perfect because somebody else told us that it works now I'd apply that to the seeker movement the seeker moment says you've got to create a church that looks appealing to the people in your target audience which is the people out in your community so you do marketing research you do focus groups and you find out who Saddleback's am or some other composite person is out there and having figured that out you design a church that would be they would want to go to and the music the the sermons said a friend of bible you maybe have one verse and then some 10 steps to better living whatever it may be and you fill this big auditorium with people and some of them go and read your doctrinal statement if it's an orthodox one and actually gets saved and because some people get saved in those churches then they say see it works no I'd say see God is merciful and it wasn't that person's fault that you didn't give them the gospel right straight upfront the God will still see people who reach out in faith if they get enough gospel somewhere maybe one of your songs had it in although it's rare you could probably get saved it to Crystal Cathedral no okay I went too far there all right no no that's really radical well I've seen pretty remote but something might happen there there may be some other hymns still have something about Christ in them then let's look on what is the scripture see we need to obey God and he does his means revealed in Scripture he says it solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living in dead in other words he's coming again to judge everybody is appearing in his kingdom preach the word Dahl is that clear enough what did God tell us to do preach the word when in season and out anytime anyplace anywhere if you end up out in the wilderness with an Ethiopian eunuch eunuch preach the word and how should we do this reprove rebuke exhort do people want to be rebuked no they don't want to be reproved they don't exhorted to tell them what God's will is and what's right and what's wrong and what's true and what's false and do so with great patience and instruction now look notice why notice why for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine see if you accept the premises of the secret movement you're never going to have sound and doctrine sound doctrine you know why because we're in that end times that Paul prophesied when they won't endure it and if you're going to let the audience determine the message you're guaranteed not to preach sound doctrine they won't endure it now what did Paul say because they won't endure it rebuke them reprove them and preach it to them anyhow it's so clear I don't know how it could be any clearer but what does it say here well wanting to have their ears tickled what does that mean tell me something that I like to hear why don't you preach out I've heard this before and go ahead and say it if you want why don't you preach on something positive so well I think that the love of God in Christ is the most positive thing I've ever heard I know the blood of 12 is the most positive doctrine I've ever heard in my life why couldn't wash away my sins nothing but the blood of Jesus but wanting to have their ears tickle notice they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires this right here is a prophecy of the seeker movement coming in the end of the age that there would be a rise a ton that would arise a future time in the church when the desires and priorities of the unregenerate would determine the message of the church dear ones we are live in that time and I believe this is a watershed issue as an either-or issue and I know some are saying no no no I still believe the real gospel and I'll preach here most of all but I got to do this church for the unchurched thing I've got to do this no you don't have to do it it doesn't say to do that it says preach the word because the problem is even if you do have the true gospel in the back door somewhere and you get some people in a small meeting and tell them the real gospel and a few gets saved they're gonna have to come to church Sunday after Sunday and not get fat they've got to sit in a Pew and starve because you're trying to tickle these ears and give people what they want to hear it doesn't matter what sinners desire it matters what God's ordained to save them and this is so clear it just totally absolutely boggles my mind that it just seems like the mass of the evangelical church can't see it it says they will turn away their ears from truth and they'll turn aside to miss so what are we what should we do we need to stop this we need to stand against it we need to preach the truth not ms/ms can't save people now what did God say he would do says in John 16 in verse 8 and he the holy spirit when he comes will convict the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe and if we use true gospel preaching right from the Bible God will use that to convict of sin people don't think that they're sinners that's not even a category in their mind they just think they're suffering from lack of fulfillment in life or something like that but God will convict righteousness people don't know why they need to be right before God and what it takes to have right standing before God and judgment they don't really believe it I was talking to someone last Sunday who was a fairly new Christian and we were talking about this very issue and he says you know when you're not a Christian you just don't believe it's going to happen you might hear a preacher saying that God's going to come and judge and that people are going to go to hell but you don't believe it it just does it seems too far fast but the Holy Spirit will convict you that these things are actually true the moment I was converted the actual moment in doubt of milliseconds if you if you could say so I knew that heaven was real and hell was real I just knew it and I knew that if I didn't repent I'd go to hell and and for days before that people were telling me about Christ and I wouldn't listen to him and I didn't believe it and I thought they were just religious nuts when you're converted you know it's true the Holy Spirit does that so what does he use the message preached so we should preach it now I'm going to say some things about our theology and our terminology we all have used these terms I have many many times I don't know but for many years I did and people have gotten saved through these means that I would affirm maybe thousands and millions of people but we need to learn the way of the Lord more perfectly and I hope that we can now some of our terminology that came ultimately from this Phinney view was accept Jesus as your personal Savior now there's some there's some good about that or accept Christ as your personal Savior the reason we say personal Savior sometimes is to stand against this idea of just some generic salvation I've saved because I'm Presbyterian or I've saved because I'm American and oh yeah I believe Jesus is sort of this group thing and so when we say personal I understand that but the problem with this accepting thing is that it creates in people's mind a role reversal and I without being mean to anybody or their motives I want to say it I wrote this in an article that's out of print now it's issued 73 you can get it on the website the problem is we have created a role reversal and here's what I see we say well Jesus stands at the door knocks you've got to accept him Jesus is waiting for you and what you create in the minds of the person is that Jesus is needy and we're sitting in the power position maybe unintended but that's what happens and MacArthur has been talking about this a lot and so Jesus is waiting and what was the sinner going to do but the way is portrayed in the Bible by Steven by Peter by many of different people is that Jesus is the judge and we're in trouble with him and what we ought to be worried about is what he's going to do is he going to forgive me or is he going to damn me are you are you following me let's take the one in Joel multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision we've used that in evangelism for years you're in the valley of decision now what's your decision well I went and looked it up and Joel for this article that I wrote wherever that is he's just 73 here it is this is on the web site this was in 2002 so I've been talking about this for some time here's the deal I went back in the Joel to see what the valley of decision was well here's what it is it's basically where our mageddon is gonna happen and the nations are brought into this valley of decision the person who's making the decision is God do you think about that God's making the decision and the idea is that you're brought into this place where our mageddon that's gonna happen where God is gonna wipe out the wicked nations that have assembled themselves against Israel and also the wicked in Israel who refused to have repent if they put themselves on that side of it and God has gone into his chambers to consider the verdict and when he comes out his decision will be made and when he makes the decision if you're not right with God you're condemned for eternity and so the reason we talk about the problem of decision theology is that we've got the wrong person making the decision now if you're thinking God is in his chambers and he's got my case in front of him and he's going to come out I have never been no that's right I was I was gonna say I've never been brought to court on charges but that's wrong when I was 19 I got a speeding ticket and it wasn't fair but anyhow I had to go I had to go sit and the mayor was the judge in a little town of Sheldon I had to go sit out there the door was open and somebody was in there before me and then the mayor was saying then this person brought a lawyer in because she's a young lady had gotten a reckless driving ticket because somebody got in the trunk of her car she drove around the block and and and mayor says I don't care about lawyers or anything else if the police gave him a ticket they're guilty it's all I need it on and I was sitting there thinking I was gonna plead my case so I went and said all right and I had to pay my 35 bucks he said all right you're right with society to all go your way so I did have to go before the judge but what if you had to go before the judge for a serious criminal charge and all the evidence was brought in and you are guilty and the judge has gone back into his chambers and when he comes out he's going to issue the verdict what would you feel like you would be horrified you would be terrified this would be the worst day of your entire life because you're thinking I may end up in jail the rest of my life so I'm terrible I'll never escape he's going to come back and find me guilty that's the pitcher in Joel it's not God sitting here waiting for the sinner to judge him it's not us deciding is God good enough for me or what is it the do me brother Jesus is just okay with me no no no no we have to take the gravity of the situation the heart and realized I don't want to be sitting here I don't want to be the defendant I don't want the evidence going before the judge I know what is verdes going to be and I'm going to go to hell and when you know that the valley of decision is the best place to be because you'll flee to a savior you flee to the Savior because of your fear of God making a decision do we accept Christ well that's exactly what I said what I got saved I went to the guys I was working with who I heard me blaspheming Christ the day before and I told them I accepted Christ as how it seems to work to us it's not a terminology we find in a Bible I think better to believe say that I believed it Christ is more biblical many people have accepted Christ had been saved but I think we should take about our it's not for us to decide whether we accept to reject him it's whether he's going to accept or reject us a lot terms and it should be because of what the gospel then we say make a decision for Jesus but then the problem with decision ISM is that it's very much like Finney assuming that the saved person has this island of righteousness or this moral power this dormant that somehow can be excited into just making this decision the fact is if you do may let me explain this when it comes to the universal call it can be explained as a decision MacArthur does it all the time it definitely can I heard MacArthur preaching a sermon on angels and he told about how angels - what angels do and how they serve God's people and different things they've done in the Bible and then at the end of the sermon MacArthur says now you've got a decision to make and the decision concerns which role you want the Angels to have in your life and he quoted the scripture about how the angels will come and take all the wicked out of the kingdom and throw them into the fire so he says either the angels will be ministering servants caring for you until you get to glory or they're waiting on the sidelines for God to give the final verdict and then they're gonna come and they're gonna carry off and throw you into hell so you decide which version angels you want I listened to that sermon oh wow that's strong now why is he portraying it as a decision because McCarthy thinks they have the power and 8ly to do it no this is part of the universal cause just like to come an to repent and if it's a command to repent God uses that he can God couldn't get vicked somebody somebody may be sitting near MacArthur's church hearing that sermon about angels and gets scared to death and realize I better get right with God I don't want to wait for the angels to carry me away ask Jesus into your heart now that comes from that thing in Revelation that we know is about the church and is really as a biblical terminology people I have done this they've been saved but why were they saved not because they said the words I asked Jesus into my heart it's because they believe the gospel and I'm just saying why don't we get our terminology more reflective of the scripture this one is really bad come to Jesus as find happiness and purpose Jesus what Ray Comfort called Life Enhancement preaching come to Jesus and everything will be fine we don't even know that to be true come to Jesus and your family may kick you out I never talk to you again that happens let's go on biblical terminology it's really quite simple and it's throughout the Bible repent and believe the gospel jesus said that repent and believe the gospel Jesus said I have not come to call righteous but sinners to repentance I have people email me all the time saying that I teach salvation by works because I preach repentance they can't get it Jesus calls sinners to repentance I don't I don't understand how they get these goofy theologies that they're so obviously not biblical look at what Jesus said Luke 24:47 that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem well who are the nations they're not the church are they its sinners we preached repentance to people that are lost Paul tells us what he preached solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that if you've been in his church for long you've heard me preach at week after week after we turn from trusting man turn from trusting self turn from trusting religion turn from whatever it is that you're living for and turn to God and serve him on his terms through grace by faith very straight forward God will use that some people ask this why command people to repent unless they have the natural ability to do so that's what Finney says if people don't already have the ability why he preached something they can't do good question well because it's part of the universal call that God uses to convict the world of sin righteousness and judgment and he will use that to awaken people as the Holy Spirit penetrates into their hardened hearts and makes them alive notice what Paul said to Timothy with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth I preached repentance because I believe God may indeed grant repentance when he does what a glorious day it is a new soul is born into the kingdom of God notice Paul's preaching the universal call in acts 17:30 231 therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance God has now be clearing to men that all people everywhere should repent absolutely why because it's God's moral will why preach God's moral will if people don't have moral ability because God is holy and he can say he can teach nothing less than was perfectly holy God can teach nothing less than what is good and what is moral and what is upright and what is true but it doesn't imply that sinners are the ability to make themselves perfectly moral just by trying harder it shows us our need for the gospel the law and the gospel so the command of a repent is part of gospel preaching that brings the law of God to bear and to show us our need to change notice what Paul says now we need to distinguish meaning a universal call that everybody hears as it goes out through the preachers and the internal call that is heard internally to those who are converted and he says this in Romans 9 23 24 and he did so to make the known the riches of his glory upon vessels of Mercy which he prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he has called so notice that there is one use of the term call call sinners to repentance which is universal and another use of the word call that applies only to those who actually believe none of us know who those we be in the future would you agree with me if you and I think we'd all have to agree if there's a hundred people here and the street preacher is preaching all 100 of them no one could predict which one of those persons will hear this internal call come and cry out to God my brother-in-law did the street preacher before before he was my brother-in-law Eva the street preacher came and this guy was a skinny little Pentecostal preacher and he went down to the dance hall where they were having a rock and roll dance and the teenagers were streaming out of there including my brother-in-law and they stood around and he started preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to them and they mocked him and ridiculed him made fun of him hissed and made grilled vulgar comments and Jim looked at all his buddies doing this and he thought why are they treating this guy like this he's just trying to tell us what he believes and he went in and Jim got saved how's that he dropped to his knees right there he met Jesus Christ and God ventually saved our whole family Dianne her dad and ultimately the worst one me pance fiancée now why did Jim drop to his knees and meet Jesus out there while all of his mocking buddies thought he was nuts that because he's morally superior to all those guys because he heard the call he heard the Lord call his name and you and I don't know who's going to hear that and so we need to put it out there but imagine another scenario so that a little preacher telling them about Christ in the blood and the need to repent what have you went out and said we're gonna have a rock and rolled church service for you all and we got a better rock band in our church than what you just heard it here do you think they'd ridicule him I have soul enough they'd go to church you're not gonna get rejected for inviting Pete centers to have what they already would like so the called we don't know who they are so we better get the gospel out so God will save them says in 2 Timothy 1:9 he called us with a holy calling not according to our works that's the effectual call here's an essential gospel truth as I need to draw to a close here the unique person of Christ people need to know who Jesus is we can't assume they know they don't know he pre-existed as God then they just think he's a man we need to know the reason for his death on the cross it should be proclaimed because they don't know why everybody's heard Jesus died on the cross for the most part of their America there's crosses everywhere but they don't know why it was because of God's wrath against their sin if you don't tell him they won't know why the blood atonement rarely preached but it's throughout the New Testament as the essential doctrine and Paul said that he preached that the resurrection only Jesus was bodily raised from the dead coming judgement people needed to know it's real God is going to come and judge this but never all that Empire is Buncombe we're not gonna create a millennium we're not gonna solve the world's problems we're not gonna feed everybody we can feed anybody that has got enables us we should do alms but the idea that we're gonna create some Christianized paradise on planet earth by creation action is false you know it'll be - just as badly as the one they tried to do in the 19th century was - by the 20th century he's coming in judgment so we better be ready to meet him there's a big calves between these two approaches I've outlined before you this morning either there's some innate human ability dormant moral powers some something good in man that can be appealed to which can be excited by the right message or all sinners are spiritually dead unable and disciplined to obey God unless God does a supernatural work of grace I believe the second is true that that's true so we should preach it the way it is chasm either our if you mobility is true then finian as many evangelical followers are right we should find out what will excite sinners in the action and do that but if he's false and wrong we should preach the gospel and as a native offense and trust God to use it to save whoever will be saved I'm going to close by showing that Finney has a 21st century counterpart was doing almost the same thing Finney did let me quote Finney's great-great-great-grandson spiritually it is my deep conviction that anybody can be one to Christ if he discovered a key to his or her heart now if you believe that what are you going to study ma'am you're gonna study people to figure out what's in them so you can find that a little key that island of righteousness that that dormant moral power to excite into action that's Finney all over again why do we not discern this because we accepted Finney in the 19th century why should we accept this new version today it may take some some some time to identify it but the most likely place to start is with the person's felt needs Rick Warren Purpose Driven Church well that's exactly what Paul warned against at second Timothy for having your ears tickled it doesn't matter what they feel they need does any sinner feel like they need the blood of Jesus not unless they've been convicted of their sin if any wanted to create a millennium and a golden age of Christian daeum a benevolent Empire in the world by motivating Christians to take action Warren wants to institute his peace plan to solve the world's biggest problems by motivating Christians to take action let me quote somebody that doesn't agree John MacArthur if our gospel is veiled to someone it is veiled because that person like all sinners is unable to understand changing the message manipulating the emotions or the will is useless says no one can believe unless God grants him understanding but a command to gut books to you for further study hard to believe by John MacArthur and the Gospel according to the Apostles by John MacArthur MacArthur Ray Comfort a guy named Mark Keeler from cross TV there's a few of us who are taking a stand on this and we are proclaiming that we've gotten it wrong from Finney on let's get back to what God said let's get back to the kind of preaching that they had in the New Testament and let's get back to the blood atonement repentance and faith and the basics of Christian doctrine so that people can be saved and let's lay aside this notion that somehow man has some inner ability that we consult somehow appeal to without a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit thank you for your patience as I was able to get this to you [Applause] thank you [Music]

Channel: Critical Issues Commentary

Views: 737

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Bob DeWaay, Gospel Preaching, Seeker Sensitive Movement, Purpose Driven, Charles Finney, Rick Warren, Critical Issues Commentary, CIC, Sermons

Id: yXyly4uagnE

Length: 62min 14sec (3734 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 08 2018