The good news in the proclamation of the
Gospel is to convert men to God.
We see this in Acts 26.18, to
open their blind eyes, to turn them from
darkness to light and from the power of
Satan unto God.
But in a day where the church lies
in a spiritual stupor and the Gospel is
not preached, creates an atmosphere of death and
decay as many members of congregations are in
a perishing condition.
The preacher's duty is to preach to men's
consciences with the purpose to awaken them to
alarm.
The Apostle Paul so declared, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men.
If a man is sound asleep and his
house is on fire, he first must be
roused and shown his danger.
He must be awakened before he can become
alarmed.
So too, with a sinner alienated from God,
they are fast asleep and soft words will
not awaken them.
In a day of spiritual declension in the
church, the majority rest upon an empty religious
profession as they live a lie of a
false assurance, as they walk on slippery ground,
unaware of their peril of dying in their
sins and being cast into the torments of
hell.
As the psalmist declares, surely thou did set
them in slippery places, thou cast them down
to destruction, how they are brought into desolation
as in a moment they are utterly consumed
with terrors.
Multitudes in our churches today will pray, they
will serve, they will give, they love to
talk about Jesus, yet they are strangers to
a bloodstained Christ, like the scribes and Pharisees,
they are very religious, but void of God.
They have never sat under the sound of
the gospel with the threatenings of God ringing
in their ears.
Their pastor has merely spoken soft words to
them about heaven, about the love of God,
but soft words will not awaken men hardened
in their sins.
Men need to be warned of their peril
of hell and its torments by dying outside
the blood of Christ.
The preacher must face his hearers with a
sword in one hand and a hammer in
the other to hew men down by the
sword of the Spirit, and like a hammer
pound away on all false foundations with the
express purpose to break up the stony heart
so God can make it a heart of
flesh.
A God called preacher will not fear man,
but only God, and press upon his hearers
their duty of repentance and warn them of
the miseries of a burning hell.
He will be like the prophet Ezekiel, who
fearlessly pulls men from the fire with a
clear cry of danger.
Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thy
hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say,
Alas for all the abominations of the house
of Israel, for they shall fall by the
sword, and by the famine, and by the
pestilence.
But sadly, many pastors fail to warn their
people and speak to them only smooth and
encouraging words while their congregation sits on rotten
plankboards of an empty religious profession ready to
give way beneath their weight and send them
down into a devil's hell.
One must ask himself before God an honest
question, Am I saved?
Have I ever been lost?
Have I ever been awakened to my lost
condition to feel my danger and see my
need of a remedy for sin?
Have I exercised heartfelt repentance toward God and
faith in a bloodstained Christ to wash my
sins away, or have I merely done what
the minister told me to do and did
a physical act by walking an aisle or
repeating a prayer and merely making a decision
for Jesus?
Am I living a lie as an unconverted
church member, or do I know the reality
of being united to a living Lord through
saving faith?
May the Holy Spirit shine his searching spotlight
upon my heart to show me any falsehood
in my profession and grant me the grace
of saving faith in Christ Jesus.
Amen.