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It was George Bennard who wrote, "...and I love that old cross where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain." It is very obvious then, that Jesus came to save lost sinners in a lost world. But it appears that then, sinners were lost in the world, unlike today they are lost in the Church.Why? The Church has almost completely lost the true salvation experience! Oh! We need a fresh vision of the cross of Christ. We need a fresh vision of His bleeding side. We need a fresh vision of the resurrected Lord and we need a fresh vision of the judgement seat. When Jesus died, it was an unbelieving centurion, who beholding the cross and the bleeding one on it, finally confessed, "Truly this man was the Son of God." The cross was, has always been, and will continue to remain the pivotal point of true salvation. A man that does not see the cross, does not see sin the way God sees it, neither does he feel the pains of sin the way God does. How can a man who does not see sin the way God sees it, hate sin the way God hates it? And how can a man who does not feel the pains of sin as God feels it ever weep so bitterly for it when he gets to the altar? Today, it takes a lot of threatening on one hand, and begging on the other hand, to get men down to the altar for salvation. So, rather than work out their salvation with fear and trembling, they work it out with force and threatening.The sinner is forced to the altar and probably taught what to say. Maybe we need to be taught, to know that the man who has truly had his eyes opened to see sin the way God sees it and feel the way God feels about it, does not need to be taught or told what to say, when he comes to the altar. The simple truth is that, the experience of true salvation, we have almost completely lost. Men do not give their lives to Christ any longer for the redemptive work of the cross, or the hope of heaven, but for what they will get out of it. Thus, Christianity is no longer seen as a Faith worth dying for, rather, a man would always give up salvation, even for a piece of bread. If it were so of old, John E. Bode would never have, from the depth of his soul sang, "O Jesus I have promised to serve Thee to the end." And the saintly Polycarp, when threatened with wild beasts and fire would not have, to his persecutors said, "Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgement of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly." These men found true salvation and became "men of whom the world was not worthy." Our salvation experience now, cannot be any little compared with what they experienced many years ago. Oh we need the fire again, that fire that brings true salvation. We must wait upon the Lord until He creates in us a hunger for that which is real: that which Apostle Paul describes as "the power of God unto salvation." We have only so succeeded in raising some great 'half-Christians'. Men, who today are promising sons and tomorrow are prodigal sons. Today they sound; tomorrow they are sour. Today they stand for Christ; tomorrow they fall for Satan. Many of them often flock to the altar with decisions and yet less than a few of them often leave with thorough conversion. Those who respond to one altar call would often thereafter, respond to hundreds of altar calls for salvation in different places and programs and yet remain unconverted. Our altars have lost the fire. The reality of the suffering of Christ, the judgement seat and eternity in heaven or hell has lost its life at the altar. The altar fire is snuffed out. The altar life is extinguished. And they that go to it often become just as dead as the altar itself. Let us, like Elijah of old, rebuild the altar which we have, with our inglorious ways broken down, and then seek the Lord, the God of the fire until He brings to our altars again the life and the fire. Jeremiah had said of us: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jer. 8:20). Any wonder then, why we still have many greedy , stealing ushers and unscrupulous elders? But, shall we continue like this? O we need a visitation from above. We have made pretence and hypocrisy a beginning and a present and we may likely make it an end. Jesus came through a womb no other man had ever come through. He rode into Jerusalem on a colt no other man had ever ridden. And He was buried in a tomb no other man had ever been buried. Moses was saved by water at birth. By water he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. And by water he lost the glory. Elijah was known by fire right from the mountain top. By fire he proved the God of heaven as the Sovereign in Israel. And by fire he was taken up into glory. But what about us? A greater number of us came to the Lord in pretence and hypocrisy. By hypocrisy do we serve the Lord; and by hypocrisy will we lose the kingdom. Yes! Brother Jude had said, "Let us earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints," but we have earnestly condemned the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Do we then expect to end up where such true saints ended? Abba Father, help us to re-dig the wells of our fathers. Save your Church from this great depth of hypocrisy and apostasy! The Gospel is now preached so as to make the sinner comfortable. The music in the Church must be such as should make the sinner comfortable. Anything that may likely offend the sinner must be carefully avoided and with enough crafty, worldly wisdom. I do not say it is not right, anyway, but it is only right in the eyes of the devil! For, whatever message or music and in fact, anything in the Church that does not point the sinner to the sore; does not allow the sinner see his true state; and does not allow him decipher the big difference between the world and the Church, does not have its root in God. God added to the early Church such as were saved daily (Acts 2:47). The early Church seemed a community of saved souls, but most of our so-called churches today are just a community of lost souls. The truth-rebuking, conscience-deadening, and power-robbing desire of having the fastest growing church and being called Pastor of the largest church has completely paralysed the fulfilment of the great commission in the lives of our fame-seeking preachers. Thus, many of our so-called preachers no longer see evangelism as a soul-saving medium but a medium of church increase only! They would therefore not bother to know whether a soul is truly saved or not, provided the soul joins the church and increases the number. They count men that Angels do not count. And most of them would rather condone the sinners and increase the number than have them experience true salvation. Leonard Ravenhill had said that, "The church is becoming worldly and the world is becoming churchy." I sure believe it. But I would think that, the world is truly becoming churchy, but the Church is becoming 'worldlier.' After all , many things which could not be openly done in the world a few years ago, are now openly done in the Church. And most of our churches today are mere social clubs with a Bible. In fact, if not for some fear of the unknown, some preachers would have long ago put up a sign post for their churches, with the inscription: "The church of the cheap Gospel!" where they would cheapen the Gospel to fit the people's lifestyles. And, in any case, any so-called preacher that cheapens the Word of God to fit into men's lifestyles is worse that the prostitute without the least willingness to repent. May the Lord raise for Himself men: men who will dare to speak the truth and make enemies. Oh! What a pity! We are in a generation where the preachers that preach against sin are no better than the sinners that sin the sin. The preachers prepare good sermons and sleep over them all night long; the sinners receive good sermons and sleep over them all life long. The preachers do not preach painfully from their hearts; the sinners do not repent painfully from their hearts. The preachers shed no tears secretly for the sinner's mess; the sinners shed no tears openly for the preacher's message. The preachers preach a Jesus they never really talk with; the sinners receive a Jesus they never really walk with. The preachers talk to the Lord and sleep off in their closets; the sinners come to the Church and sleep off during the message. What a painful confusion! O for a fresh fire! O for Pentecost again. When the Apostle Peter preached, the people were pricked in their hearts and then asked, "Men and brethren what shall we do?" When John Wesley preached, the people cried aloud in great anguish, many falling on the ground from the hand of God upon them as they repented...they saw their sins as they appeared in God's sight and cried out for deliverance. When Charles G. Finney preached, hardened atheists repented and gave their lives to Christ. The Spirit's conviction pierced the people with intense inner pain and remorse for their sins. And, "it was with such power that even a few words of conversation would make the stoutest men writhe in their seats, as if a sword had been thrust in their hearts," Finney himself said. O God, can we not have in our days, men who would dare to have a pulpit from which emanates soul-hot preaching? Men who would dare to have an altar that witnesses true repentance and conversions? O Lord, does not any man stir up himself to lay hold on Thee? Elijah had said, "if I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven..." (2Kings 1:12). Dare we not have men of God? |
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