When people see the greatness of their sin, when they recognize that they can do nothing to remove their guilt, when they understand that judgement is near, they will flee from the coming wrath" (Matt. 3:7), crying "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). Suddenly God's grace seems so big!
(This article is an excerpt from chapter 4 of the book: "How Saved Are We?", 1990, by Dr. Michael L. Brown. This was one of the first books I read subsequent to my conversion in 1997. It made a profound inpact on me! For more information about the author and his ressources, go to icnministries.org)
[...] Most of us are still waiting to hear the full gospel. Our modern version leaves much to be desired. We love to preach on heaven, but hardly say a word about hell. We make long appeals for salvation, but damnation sounds like a dirty word. We talk about the cross and the blood, but Jesus seems to hang there for nothing. Why in the world did he die?
The cross makes sense only if mankind is hopelessly lost, only if no one can be just in God's eyes, only if all of us have fallen infinately short, only if we
truly deserve the sentence of death, only if He would be perfectly fair in
condemning us forever, only if we can do nothing to save ourselves. Only then does the cross make sense. Otherwise it is ultimately devine waste - Jesus suffered and bled for no reason. "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing" (Gal. 2:21).
Our gospel has failed to attack one of the basic plagues of our race: self-
righteousness. Is there any sin God hates more than this? Self-righteousness is idolatry. Self-righteousness makes man into God and sets its own satndards. Self-righteousness brings a foul curse. "This is what the Lord says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord" (Jer. 17:5). "Go and learn what that means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt. 9:13). God can not help the Self-righteous man.
Why do we have so many proud, self-sufficient believers in our congregations? Why is there so little brokenness in our mindst? Why do some of our preachers seem to show off and strut? Why are we so quick to praise man? It is because we have not seen the depth of our sin. We have not grasped our lost state without God. We have not comprehended our natural condition - not diseased, but decomposing; not critical, but a corpse! The unsaved human being is dead; he cannot resurrect himself.
We must approach the unsaved with this reality. "Take the bandage off their eyes which Satan has bound around them; knock and hammer and burn in, with the fire of the Holy Ghost, your words into their poor hardened, darkened hearts, until they begin to realise that they are IN DANGER; that there is something amiss. Go after them" (Catherine Booth). They are perishing without the Lord.
When Peter preached on the day of Pentacost, the people "were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" (Acts 2:37). Why were they so convicted? What was it that challenged them so? "Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). What a horror, what a shock, what a jolt. We crucified our Messiah! We nailed the hope of Isreal to a tree! And now he sits enthrowned as Lord. Brothers, help us! What shall we do?
When people see the greatness of their sin, when they recognize that they can do nothing to remove their guilt, when they understand that judgement is near, they will flee from the coming wrath" (Matt. 3:7), crying "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). Suddenly God's grace seems so big!
"Was ever the rememberance of your sins grievous to you? Was the burden of your sins intolerable to your thoughts? Did you ever see that God's wrath might justly fall upon you, on account of your actual transgressions against God? Were you ever in all your life sorry for your sins? Could you ever say, My sins are gone over my head as a burden too heavy for me to bear? Did you ever experience any such thing as this? If not, for Jesus Christ's sake, do not call yourselves Christians; you may speak peace to your hearts, but there is no peace. May the Lord awaken you, may the Lord convert you, may the Lord give you peace... before you go home!" (George Whitefield)
Consider the words of the Lord:
"Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand
outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from... Away from me, all you evildoers!' There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets of God, but you yourselves thrown out" (Luke 13:25, 27-28).
What an overwhelming thought. Some people will be thrown out! There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth - utter darkness and no relief. And to think of the bitter indictment: We haven't told people the truth!
"Here is the sinner in rebellion. God comes with pardon in one hand and a sword in the other, and tells the sinner to repent and receive pardon, or refuse and perish" (Charles Finney). Is this the gospel we preach?
Listen to Finney again:
"It is of great importance that the sinner should be made to feel his
guilt, and not left to the impression that he is unfortunate. I think
this is a very prevalent fault, particularly in books on the subject. They are
calculated to make the sinner think more of his sorrows than of his sin, and
feel that his state is rather unfortunate than criminal.
"Make the sinner see that all pleas in excuse for not submitting to God, are
acts of rebellion against Him. Tear away the last LIE which he grasps in his
hand, and make him feel that he is absolutely condemned before God." This is gospel of grace.
"I preached from George Whitefield's pulpit, the wall... Many, I am pursuaded, found themselves stripped, wounded, and half-dead; and are therefore ready for the oil and wine" (Charles Wesley). The patients were prepared for surgery. It was time for mercy to come forth.
If we realized that we were once lost without hope, we would be
grateful to God beyond words - for he who is forgiven much, loves much (Luke 7: 40-50). Could anyone be more precious to us than Jesus, who took the Father's wrath for us? [...]
