There Must Be Something More

62 | Man-Centered Gospel

"We just finished with the story of the two men in a plane," Trey said. He stood from his seat and let Meredith sit. The girl giggled gleefully like a giddy kindergartener and looked at me with wide brown eyes.

"Tell him what we should be doing as evangelists," Steven said, elbowing her.

Meredith nodded and thought hard for a moment. Then she said, "Saints, instead of preaching that Jesus improves the flight, we should be warning the passengers they’re going have to jump out of the plane. That it’s 'appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment...' as is said Hebrews 9:27. And when a sinner understands the horrific consequences of breaking God’s law, then he will flee to the Savior solely to escape the wrath that’s to come.

"And if we’re 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' (Acts 17:30). Why? 'Because He has appointed a day, in which He will judge the world in righteousness' (vs. 31). You see, the issue isn’t one of happiness, but one of righteousness. It doesn’t matter how happy a sinner is, how much he’s enjoying 'the pleasures of sin for a season' (Heb. 11:25). Without the righteousness of Christ, he’ll perish on the day of wrath. 'Riches profit not on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death' (Prov. 11:4)."

Steven filled in, "Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation, but it’s not legitimate to use these fruits as a draw card for salvation. If we continue to do so, sinners will respond with an impure motive lacking repentance."

"Now, can you remember why the second passenger had joy and peace in his heart? It was because he knew that parachute was going to save him from sure death. And as a believer, I have, as Paul says, 'joy and peace in believing' (Rom. 15:13), because I know that the righteousness of Christ is going to deliver me from the wrath that’s to come," Trey said.

Samuel nodded in agreement. Then he started, "Now with that thought in mind, let’s take a close look at an incident on board the plane. We have a brand new stewardess. She’s carrying a tray of boiling hot coffee. It’s her first day; she wants to leave an impression on the passengers, and she certainly does. Because as she’s walking down the aisle, she trips over someone’s foot and slops that boiling hot coffee all over the lap of our second passenger."

"Now what’s his reaction as that boiling liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he go, 'Ssssfffff! Man that hurt'? Yes. He feels the pain. But then does he rip the parachute from his shoulders, throw it to the floor and say, “The 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.

"Now if you and I have put on the Lord Jesus Christ for the right motive, to flee from the wrath that’s to come, when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we won’t get angry at God; we won’t lose our joy and peace. Why should we? We didn’t come to Jesus for a happy lifestyle: we came to flee from the wrath that’s to come. And if anything, tribulation drives the true believer closer to the Savior. And sadly we have literally multitudes of professing Christians who lose their joy and peace when the flight gets bumpy. Why? They’re the product of a man-centered gospel. They came lacking repentance, without which you can’t be saved."

She blinked for a pause, then continued, "Remember Romans 7, verse 7? Paul said, 'I had not known sin but by the law.' How can a man repent if he doesn’t know what sin is? Any so-called 'repentance' would be merely what I call 'horizontal repentance'. He’s coming because he’s lied to men, he’s stolen from men. But when David sinned with Bathsheba and broke all ten of the ten commandments (when he coveted his neighbor’s wife, lived a lie, stole his neighbor’s wife, committed adultery, committed murder, dishonored his parents, and thus dishonored God), he didn’t say 'I’ve sinned against man.'

"He said, 'Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight' (Ps. 51:4). When Joseph was tempted sexually, he said, 'How can I do this thing and sin against God?' (Gen. 39:9). The prodigal son said, 'I’ve sinned against heaven' (Luke 15:21). Paul preached 'repentance toward God' (Acts 20:21). And the Bible says, 'Godly sorrow works repentance' (2Cor. 7:10). And when a man doesn’t understand that his sin is primarily vertical, he’ll merely come and exercise superficial, experimental, and horizontal repentance, and fall away when tribulation, temptation, and persecution come.

"A.B. Earl said, 'I have found by long experience that the severest threatenings of the law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.'"

I nodded in agreement. "That's true! One time I was swimming in a lake with my friends and this one guy who lived by the lake just runs to the water and drags me out of there. I asked him what was so wrong. I was so shocked and out of breath and panicky. The guy told me he thought I was drowning at a distance. I felt so angry. I was alarmed for such a stupid assumption."

Steven nodded. "That's why this is such an important message. It's a clear message from God."

Meredith continued, "A.B. Earl was a famous evangelist of the last century who had 150,000 converts to substantiate his claims. Satan doesn’t want you to get a grip of this, so listen very closely.

"A.B. Earl said, 'I have found by long experience [that’s the true test] that the severest threatenings of the law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.'

"You see, you try and save a man from drowning when the man doesn’t believe he’s drowning, he’ll not be too happy with you. You see him swimming out in the lake; you think, 'I think he’s drowning. Yes, I believe he is.' You dive in, pull him to the shore, without telling him anything. He’s not going to be very happy with you. He won’t want to get saved until he sees that he’s in danger. They’ll not escape danger until they see it."

I grinned now. This was better than I'd hoped. And I certainly had high hopes for Liam this time.