The Gospel is for the Needy

I recall some statements made by some old preachers years ago that at the time that they made these statements it was hard for me to agree with them because the church on third day wasn't as bad as it is now. I remember Leonard Ravenhill saying 25 years ago that he believed only 5% of professing Christians in America were saved. And L.R. Shelton Sr. said 50 years ago he believed only 2% of professing Christians were truly saved.

R.G. Lee, the former pastor of the huge Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, commented at a SBC conference decades ago that he believed only 1% of his entire congregation was saved. Having been a former member of that church for 20 years I'd have to agree with the old boy. I look around today at the nonsense we call church on Sunday morning and the watered-down perverted gospel that spills out of our pulpits today and I'd have to agree with all these men.

Our churches are largely filled with unconverted church members. I believe one of the largest mission fields in the world today is the American church. We are experiencing today the sad result of modern evangelism that has deceived millions into believing they're on their way to heaven when in reality they're actually on their way to hell.

When you tell individuals that they can be saved by walking an aisle and making a decision for Jesus, when they never felt their need of him, you get them to join the church believing that church membership is salvation. The church in this country quit preaching about sin and hell and repentance and regeneration years ago when they decided to grow their church campuses so they could look good within their denomination. The end result that the American church today is predominantly unconverted.

If you don't believe me, friends, you go into a church today and preach a message that God is a God who must punish sin and you have a fight on your hands. You stand up in a pulpit today and preach that God is the one who sends sinners to hell while the good deacons will wring your neck. But unless we get back to the gospel of our Bibles and preach it in its purity and proper order, we will continue to harden men and women in their sins by getting them to accept our little Jesus.

You must preach the first message of the cross which is God must punish sin. Then after you do that you can come along with the second message about a Savior from sin. Our trouble today is we offer sinners hardened in their sins a remedy for sin without first showing them their need of that remedy because we are afraid today to preach the truth and upset anybody.

Why, if we did that we'd shrink our membership down to nothing. Folks don't want to hear today that they are born in ruin with a depraved nature that hates God and all things holy. That God is angry with the wicked every day.

That God commands all men everywhere to repent or be sent to a devil's hell. That good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there.

You must get out of the blood and stand in the merits of another who is a substitute for sin. That's your only hope against being held up to the strictness and severity of the holy law of God and not being sent to hell. That God requires perfection to get to his holy heaven and no man is perfect and all deserve hell because they are traitors and rebels against a sovereign king who demands obedience to his commands and a life of discipleship where one takes up his cross daily in a life of self-denial and utter surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Now you go and try and preach that message in our churches today and you will have a ride on your hands while you split the congregation right down the middle. Well that's the introduction to my message this evening friends. The title of my message is the gospel is for the needy and my text can be found in Matthew's gospel in chapter 9. You can turn in your Bibles there now friends.

We will be in verses 9 through 13. In Matthew's gospel in chapter 9 we see Jesus speaking piercing words of truth to the self-righteous Pharisees who felt no need of him. Let me read us his passage at this time.

Here now is the Word of God and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. And as Jesus passed forth from thence he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom and he saith unto him follow me and he arose and followed him and it came to pass as Jesus said at meeting the house behold many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples and when the Pharisees saw it they said unto his disciples oh why eateth your master with publicans and sinners but let me pause here friends here is Jesus having a meal and some fellowship with some folks and some preachers bust in on a man object to it and criticize Jesus why I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they were Baptist preachers well let's return to our text but when Jesus heard daddy said unto them they that behold need not a physician but they that are sick let me pause here again friends to comment that if a man learns he has a deadly disease and there is a cure for why that man will spend every nickel he has to go and get that cure and live what Jesus is saying here is that the Pharisees felt no need of him they believed they were already all right and stood good in God's sight but Jesus told them in John 5 and verse 40 and ye will not come to me that ye might have life these self-righteous preachers saw no need to come to Jesus for forgiveness of sin because in their own eyes they were whole and had no need of a physician now let's continue with our text but go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance I will stop there friends Jesus says if you feel you're all right then the gospel is not for you I'm not talking to you but you won't come to Christ because you believe you're all right but the gospel is for those lost and sick sinners who feel their need of a remedy for sin the gospel is for the needy the weary the hungry and the thirsty are you hungry for God are you weary of your sins are you thirsty for Christ then come to Christ and repent of your sins but the majority of the church today won't come to Christ to stay out of hell because they feel they are already all right after all they already made a decision to accept Jesus and they joined the church and they give their money to that church and serve that church in some capacity and feel secure when they go to sleep at night not realizing they could die in their sins and make their bed in hell tonight because they've never been awakened to their lost condition they've never come under Holy Spirit conviction apart from which no one can be saved for if you miss Holy Spirit conviction you miss repentance if you miss repentance you miss faith if you miss faith you miss the new birth if you miss the new birth you miss Christ and if you miss Christ you miss heaven and you were doomed and damned to suffer eternally in the devil's hell but you won't hear that message preached in our church today in this country because nobody wants to hear it and you'll starve to death as a preacher because very few will support you and that message Jesus said you will not come to me that you might have life why friend won't you come to Christ is it that you feel no need of him let us pray