A Gospel Which Is NOT Another

Although it is true a person gets saved the moment they trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, salvation if it is of the right kind, is no mere choice between heaven or hell. The issue never has been, nor ever will be, whether a person wants to go to heaven or doesn't want to go to hell —the issue is sin. The very idea that permeates the vast majority of evangelistic circles today, that God will allow impenitent sinners into heaven, has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. And any gospel that would minimize sin at the expense of heaven and hell is another gospel.

"Your iniquities [SINS] have separated between you and your God” (Isa 59:2). “. . .for He shall save his people from their SINS” (Matt 1:21). “The soul that SINNETH it shall die” (Eze 18:4).

A person that "trusts" the Lord simply to avoid hell or because they want to go to heaven is going to hell anyway. What the average person is really after is to be saved in their sins, but the scripture is clear that is not the reason the Lord Jesus came. What they are after is not salvation from who they are and what they are, they simply want to be inoculated from future retribution and judgment. They, like the Pharisees of old, will accept any so-called "gospel" as long as that "gospel" allows them to keep living the vile and ungodly life they've always lived. Men come not to the light not because they don't believe, they come not to the light "because their deeds are evil." Because as the Lord Himself said, "men love darkness rather than light." (John 3:19).

When dealing with a person concerning eternal life, that person MUST be brought to a place where they first realize their own need. They must come to the place that Philippian Jailer did where they too are pleading, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Until then, the gospel is NOT to be given.

The primary duty of the soulwinner in presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ is getting the person in whom you are dealing to see themselves as God sees them. Not merely to just get someone to pray some prayer. Because the truth is, when a person comes to the realization that they are lost and undone without Christ, and that they are deserving of the hell they're going to get, there will be little occasion to argue and plead. There will be no need to simply lead someone through some prayer they don't mean.

In fact, the bible tells us that "God heareth not sinners." (John 9:31). And conversion when it is made, is made in the heart. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Rom 10:10). A sinner can pray a thousand prayers and still go to hell as long as the heart does not believe. And this is the reason that it is imperative that administers of the gospel learn how to properly deal with seekers. May Spurgeon's stark warning to his students ever be an admonishment to us all that, "It is a terrible thing when the healing balm loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers it."

A prime example of this is when the Lord was dealing with the Rich Young Ruler in Matt 19 and Luke 18. Notice in the discourse that after asking, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" The Lord never gives him the way out. Now some would have you believe that it was because they were still under the LAW and so the Lord placed him under the law, and although that may be true when considered doctrinally, that is not the case typically. What the Lord was doing was bringing up the SIN issue. And because that man saw himself as being just—"ALL this have I kept from my youth"—the Lord left him in his SINS. For we are told that after the Lord said, "Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me" that we read the man was sorrowful, and why? Because the law saith "Thou shalt not covet." And though we are told he sorrowed; he maintained his self-righteousness. The sorrow he experienced was not of the godly sort "which worketh repentance, but was "the sorrow of this world, which worketh death." He, therefore, deemed himself unworthy of life eternal.

"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." (James 2:10). And Jesus declared, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:31-32).

Now contrast that story with the woman at the well and you'll see the difference. That woman, after she believed to the saving of her soul, went forth and told the whole city, "Come see a man that told me all things ever I did: is this not the Christ?" And why? Because she saw herself as God saw her —an adulterer. "For thou shalt not commit adultery." For we read the Lord says, "For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: IN THAT SAIDEST THOU TRULY." She admitted before God what she was. And because she did, she found mercy. She was granted eternal life just as the Publican did who cried, "Lord, be merciful to me a SINNER."

Remember, you are NOT a used car salesman. You are a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The salvation of souls is no flippant work, it is the work of the direst kind and of the most severe consequence. It is the difference between heaven and hell for the person you are dealing. That means, any attempt to force a decision before the preparatory work of the Holy Spirit is accomplished in the heart of that individual will, more often than not, in the end leave the person resentful and bitter towards the things of God. It is the reason so many that have been merely led through a sinner's prayer never grace the doors of the Church or even receive the supposed soulwinner back into their homes. It is only when a person comes into a right agreement with God concerning who they are and what they are will a right decision be made in the heart of the individual to the Glory of God.