Revival's Golden Key (12 page)

Ho
,
ho
sir surgeon, you are too delicate to tell the man that he is ill! You hope to heal the sick without their knowing it. You therefore flatter them; and what happens? They laugh at you; they dance upon their own graves. At last they die! Your delicacy is cruelty; your flatteries are poisons;
you are a murderer.
Shall we keep men in a fool’s paradise? Shall we lull them into soft slumbers from which they will awake in hell?

Are we to become helpers of their damnation by our smooth speeches? In the name of God we will not.

In
Striking Incidents of Saving Grace,
Henry Breeden tells of a preacher in Colliery, England, who saw a number of conversions take place under his ministry. Then in 1861 a “stranger” passed through and conducted meetings in which “there were great numbers of persons” who professed faith in Jesus. The preacher then recounts the sad effects:

But many of them were, in a short time, gone back again into the world. Indeed, so complete was the failure that the Minister who succeeded me in that Circuit said, “There was not one single person, out of about ninety who professed to obtain Religion through that man’s
services, that
continued to be a member of the Colliery Church.”

I had observed the same sort of thing before in regard to the efforts of suchlike persons in other places. And, therefore, I was very desirous to find out what was the cause of such failures. I was sure that the persons, said to be brought in under my own ministry, had nearly all of them held on their

way
, and were then members—either in the Church above, or in the Church below. So I set myself calmly to consider the whole affair. In doing this, I soon found that the preaching that does not address the sinner’s conscience, and strive to break the unconverted spirit down by enforcing the Law of God, scarcely ever leads to the salvation of the soul. And these men scarcely ever preach the Law.

Yes, that is it, and nothing else—“By the Law is the knowledge of sin.” Let a minister get that important sentiment burnt into his very soul by the Light and flaming Love of God. And then let him go forth and preach the truth as it is in Jesus, and many, many precious souls will soon be saved. But let him omit preaching the Law, and whatever else he may do—for he can accomplish many great things —yet, under that man’s ministry, conversions will be scarce (Harvey Christian Publishers, pp. 188,189).

I couldn’t give a
more hearty
“Amen!” to his conclusion: “Yes, that is it, and nothing else—‘By the Law is the knowledge of sin.’” This teaching is so foundational, and yet we have failed to see its simple truth. In the next chapter we are going to look at the importance of a sinner’s motive in his response to the gospel.

CHAPTER 10

THE MOTIVE AND THE RESULT

L
et me now share with you a portion of a teaching I often give which tends to clarify the motive sinners should have when they come to the Savior.

Two men are seated in a plane. The first is given a parachute and told to put it on, as it would improve his flight. He’s a little
skeptical
at first, since he can’t see how wearing a parachute in a plane could possibly improve his flight.

After some time, he decides to experiment and see if the claims are true. As he puts it on, he notices the weight of it upon his shoulders and he finds he has difficulty in sitting upright. However, he consoles himself with the fact that he was told the parachute would improve his flight. So he decides to give it a little time.

As he waits, he notices that some of the other passengers are laughing at him because he’s wearing a parachute in a plane. He begins to feel somewhat humiliated. As they continue to laugh and point at him, he can stand it no longer. He sinks in his seat, unstraps the parachute, and throws it to the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart, because as far as he was concerned he was told an outright lie.

The second
man is given a parachute,
but listen
to what he is told.
He’s told to put it on because at any moment he’ll be jumping 25,000 feet out of the plane. He gratefully puts the parachute on. He doesn’t notice the weight of it upon his shoulders, nor that
he can’t
sit upright. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he jumped without the parachute.

Let’s now
analyze
the
motive
and the
result
of each passenger’s experience. The first man’s motive for putting the parachute on was solely to improve his flight. The re-suit of his experience was that he was humiliated by the passengers, disillusioned, and somewhat embittered against those who gave him the parachute. As far as he’s concerned, it will be a long time before anyone gets one of those things on his back again.

The second man put the parachute on solely to escape the jump to come. And because of his knowledge of what would happen to him if he jumped without it, he has a deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart knowing that he’s saved from sure death. This knowledge gives him the ability to withstand the mockery of the other passengers. His attitude toward those who gave him the parachute is one of heartfelt gratitude.

Listen to what the modem gospel says: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He’ll give you love, joy, peace,
fulfillment
, and lasting happiness.” In other words, Jesus will improve your flight. The sinner responds, and in an experimental fashion puts on the Savior to see if the claims are true. And what does he get? The promised temptation, tribulation, and persecution—the other passengers mock him. So what does he do? He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ; he’s offended for the Word’s sake; he’s disillusioned and somewhat embittered; and quite rightly so. He was promised peace, joy, love, and
fulfillment
, and all he got were trials and humiliation. His bitterness is directed toward those who gave him the so-called “good news.” His latter end becomes worse than the first—he’s another inoculated and bitter “backslider.”

Instead of preaching that Jesus improves the flight, we should be warning the passengers that they have to jump out of a plane. That it’s appointed for man to die once, and after this the judgment. When a sinner understands the horrific consequences of breaking the Law of God, he will flee to the Savior solely to escape the wrath that’s to come. If we are true and faithful witnesses, that’s what we’ll be preaching—that there is wrath to come—that “God commands all men everywhere to repent,
because
He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness.” The issue isn’t one of happiness, but one of righteousness. The fact that the Bible doesn’t mention the word “happiness” even
once,
yet mentions “righteousness” 289 times, should make the issue clear.

It doesn’t matter how happy a sinner is, or how much he is enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season; without the righteousness of Christ, he will perish on the day of wrath. The Bible says, “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (Proverbs 11:4). Peace and joy are legitimate
fruits
of salvation, but it’s not legitimate to use these fruits as a drawing card for salvation. If we do so, the sinner will respond with an impure motive, lacking repentance.

Can you remember why the
second
passenger had joy and peace in his heart? It was because he knew that the parachute was going to save him from sure death. In the same way, as believers, we have joy and peace in believing because we know that the righteousness of Christ is going to deliver us from the wrath which is to come.

With that thought in mind, let’s take a close look at an incident aboard the plane. We have a brand new flight attendant. It’s her first day, and she’s carrying a tray of boiling hot coffee. She wants to leave an impression on the passengers and she certainly does! As she’s walking down the aisle, she trips over someone’s foot and slops the hot coffee all over the lap of our second passenger. What’s his reaction as that boiling liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he say, “Man, that hurt!”? Yes, he does. But then does he rip the parachute from his shoulders, throw it to the floor, and say, “That stupid parachute!”? No; why should he? He didn’t put the parachute on for a better flight. He put it on to save him from the jump to come. If anything, the hot coffee incident causes him to cling tighter to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.

If we have put on the Lord Jesus Christ for the right motive—to flee from the wrath to come—then when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we won’t get angry at God, and we won’t lose our joy and peace. Why should we? We didn’t come to Christ for a better lifestyle, but to flee from the wrath to come.

If anything, tribulation drives the true believer
closer
to the Savior. Sadly, we have multitudes of professing Christians who lose their joy and peace when the flight gets bumpy. Why? They are the product of a man-
centered
gospel. They
came
lacking repentance, without which we cannot be saved.

What Was Pharaoh's Problem?

Why did it take so long for Pharaoh to bow to the will of the God of Israel? One would think that one plague would have caused him to immediately let God’s people go. The answer is given to us in Exodus 9:27
,28
. After a number of terrible plagues, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the Lord, that there may be no more mighty
thundering
and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” Such talk would seem to show that finally he was repentant. However, Exodus 9:30 gives insight as to what was still lacking. Moses said, “But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the Lord God.” Pharaoh saw his sin as something he had done “this time,” and in his heart he didn’t yet fear God enough to obey Him.

There are many who profess faith in the Savior who
are
like Pharaoh. A lack of knowledge of the Law has left them with a shallow understanding as to the exceedingly sinful nature of sin. They admit that they sinned “this time.” They think sin is something they have done, rather than something that saturates their very nature. They lack the fear of God, and, like Pharaoh, these “believers” entreat the Lord simply because they find themselves in the midst of thunderous trials. Then, like the king of Egypt, when the plagues of life stop, they sin once again and harden their hearts to the will of God (Exodus 9:34).

What is it, then, that will break the will of a stubborn, rebellious sinner who gives mere lip service to God, but doesn’t fear Him? The answer is, not only does he need to be terrified by the plagues of God’s Law, but he also must see the death of the Firstborn. After the Law has done its terrifying work, the gospel will then give him light regarding the cost of his redemption. His heart will fear when he realizes that his liberty from wrath came through the death of the firstborn Son of God.

However, the death of Jesus of Nazareth, which purchased our salvation, didn’t come swiftly. Jesus Himself told us that “Christ must suffer.” When commenting on Psalm 22:14, Charles Spurgeon said:

The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones. Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faint-ness and general weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness He became nothing but a mass of misery and
swooning
sickness... To us, sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in His case, He was wounded, and felt the sword; He drained the cup and tasted every drop.