I was recently at a large church outreach event, where the
music was wonderful, the testimonies were powerful, and the
harvest for salvation was ripe. As I listened to the invitation to
come to Jesus, something didn't feel right. I had seen altar calls
so many times, and heard the familiar words so frequently, a
year ago I would have missed it. The call for the people to come
to Jesus went something like this:
"Today is like no other. You are here tonight by a divine
appointment. Some of you here tonight are looking for peace
inside. Some of you are looking for a way out of your drug and
alcohol addictions. Some of you are silently suffering in a failing
marriage. And some of you feel an emptiness inside your soul,
and just need to know for sure that you are loved. My friend ...
you are. I love you, and God loves you, and He has a wonderful
plan for your life. He didn't create you to be in pain and
suffering, but to know Him and be filled with peace, love, joy,
happiness, and lasting fulfillment. He simply wants a personal
relationship with you because He knows that what you need to
be truly happy.
"But something keeps you from having this relationship with
God, and it is called 'sin.' Let's face it, we've all made honest
mistakes. You're not perfect, I'm not perfect, nobody's perfect.
But God doesn't expect you to be perfect, that's why He sent His
Perfect Son — so that you could have that relationship
with Him again.
"If you will just admit your honest mistakes to God and say
'yes' to Jesus as your Savior, He will come into your heart and
you will become a child of God. You will never be alone again,
because you'll have Jesus, the ultimate friend riding 'shot-gun,'
guiding you through life. That is eternal life — the
abundant life Jesus came to give you. Would you like to have
that life, that peace, that joy, that friend?
"If you want to know Jesus and find what you've been
looking for, then invite Jesus into your heart. He's been waiting
for you. He's been waiting for this very moment. Come now and
simply accept Him."
Now you may be thinking, "What's wrong with that?" What's
wrong is that it's not the gospel; it's a recipe for disaster. Sin is
not an honest mistake and Jesus did not die to make you happy.
Sins aren't accidents and God is not a lovesick celestial being,
hoping for some nice person to ask Him into their heart so He
can make them happy — as though He has a man-shaped
hole in His heart that only we can fill.
The first problem with the false modern gospel is a
watered-down definition of "sin." Sin is not an "honest mistake";
it is an honest choice from a sinful heart to do what you know is
wrong. Would a good judge describe the crimes of a vicious
murderer as "honest mistakes"? While it sounds ridiculous to call
murder and rape "honest mistakes," God sees hatred to be as
wicked as murder (1 John 3:15), and lust as deceitful as
adultery (Matt
5:28). In God's world, those who lie are liars. If we have
stolen, we are thieves. If we have broken God's Law in any way
(in word, thought, or deed) we are Lawbreakers.
God defines sin in His Word: "Sin is transgression of the
Law" (1
John 3:4). We are on the hook for our sins, and God doesn't
view us as innocent misguided victims of our "honest mistakes."
In God's holy eyes, our hearts are "desperately wicked and
deceitful" (Jer.
17:9) and we are "by nature, children of wrath."
Ignorance of God's Law is no excuse, because He has
written it upon our hearts (see Romans 2:15).
We have a conscience. We know right from wrong. When we lie,
it isn't an honest mistake. Stealing and lusting, hating and
blaspheming, idolizing, coveting, and dishonoring our parents
are not honest mistakes either. Scripture says that we have
actually angered God by violating His Law, and made ourselves
"enemies of God," and therefore, are "by nature, children of
wrath," "storing up wrath for ourselves that will be revealed on
the Day of Wrath" (see Romans 5:8, Ephesians
2:1-3 and Romans 2:4-5)
We are not doing sinners any favors when we minimize the
seriousness of their sin. George Whitefield, a famous preacher
once said, "First, then, before you can speak peace to your
hearts, you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep
over, made to bewail, your actual transgressions against the Law
of God." It is only when a person sees his sin as wicked and
understands the seriousness of offending his Creator, that he
can find a place of true repentance and surrender to the
Savior.
Within the last 100 years, a new gospel has crept into our
churches. It has been designed to not offend you. It has been
carefully crafted not to be too "in your face." It gently suggests
that you open your heart to Jesus if your current lifestyle isn't
working for you, and try God "when the time is right for
you."
This "seeker centered" and "no offense" approach is no
gospel at all; it is "another gospel." If we continue to define sin
as "honest mistakes," we will continue to fill our churches with
"backsliders" and false converts who fail to repent because they
don't see the seriousness of their sin. We will give them a cruel
false hope, and make them comfortable aboard the "Jesus loves
you" pleasure cruiser, singing songs to the Captain, while they
blindly speed toward the iceberg of Eternal Justice.
The Captain has already lowered the life boats of salvation,
but they are mostly empty. God help us to stop the music, and
sound the air-horns. We must tell the passengers about the
iceberg and direct them to the emergency exits of repentance.
Time is slipping away, and those who die in their sins will perish.
If we are faithful servants to the Captain of our Salvation, we will
obey his Commands and preach the pure gospel, the only gospel
that can save souls.
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