The Lost Gospel

The Apostle Paul in Romans 6 2 states God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in sin? this first friends shuts down antinomianism Antinomian is derived from the Greek words anti meaning against and nomos meaning law many Christians a day Abuse the term once saved always saved as a license to sin That no person can be held to any moral law It is only required of them That they believe then they can live as they please and sin all they want to and still go to heaven the man-centered Gospel of our day promotes the happiness of man, and it's nothing more than humanism dressed up in religion evangelists today say that mere intellectual knowledge and assent to the Christian faith by a Decision is enough to make one acceptable to God even though that person lives a impure life Well what the Word of God is saying here in Romans 6 2 is as believers if we are dead to sin How can we still live in sin an unconverted individual is dead in sin? When you experience conversion through faith in Christ, you are dead to sin a new principle Is implanted in you. I Precipitated by a false gospel We may blame Charles Finney for introducing new measures to evangelism That morphed into the easy believism we have today But when you go back and really study Finney You will find that he preached a God-centered gospel in the beginning of his ministry He said that Salvation was a surrender to God all the men God used in Revival throughout history preached a God-centered gospel that shut men up to God for salvation Sam Jones preached a gospel where man comes to Christ by a Surrender to God and then he lives for God Sam Jones was known for his famous remark that being a Christian means quitting your meanness I think a lot of mean Christians a day need to re-examine their faith to see if it's real We need to recover the lost gospel and that's the title of my message today friends the lost Gospel, we need to go back and be like the Prophet Jeremiah Thus saith the Lord stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths Where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls But the modern evangelist answers that with we will not walk therein The old gospel was a God-centered gospel that saved men for the glory of God the new easy believe gospel is not centered on God, but centered on the happiness of man That's why Salvation is no longer a surrender to God But an acceptance of him we save ourselves today and continue to live a self-ruled life But the trouble with that is Jesus never preached a sin and religion and neither did the Apostles They preached like Peter who maintained Jesus doctrine of being born again in 1st Peter 1 23 we read being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God Which liveth and abideth forever in our day of modern evangelism We have taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men Let me ask you a burning question friend and how you answer will reveal a lot about your own condition Is God the agent of salvation or is man or men? Saved as a result of a decision they make or as the result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit Come with me today friends as we discuss the lost gospel and the great need for its recovery in these last days Where the spirit of Antichrist is already in the land where there's a great fallen away into apostasy by Christians and religious denominations And let us recover the old God-centered gospel that promotes the glory of God and holy living We are going to pick up the lost doctrines of the Christ life for the self life Because salvation occurs when self is dethroned and another is enthroned there the Lord Jesus Christ We are going to recover the surrendered life where a sinner Repents before a thrice Holy God and comes to Christ by throwing down their shotgun of rebellion at the feet of a blood-stained Savior for sin We're going to recover the doctrine of the spirit-filled life Which enables a born-again believer to live a life of victory in Christ Jesus? Too many today live lives of Inconsistency I term it Elevator Christianity where you walk with God is kind of like an elevator ride One day you were on the top floor enjoying the view of a penthouse suite and oddly the next day or even in the same day you end up in the basement of defeat and the Devil is laughing at you some of you Within the sound of my voice Have never truly been born again You're strangers to repentance You've never been born from above and washed in the blood You will die on your sins as a good church member and stand at the last judgment in your own Righteousness you have sinned and broken God's law in one day you will be held accountable to God's severe strict and Unbending law and if you stand there and your own merits You will fail fail that test and be cast into the lake of fire Which burns with the fierceness the fierce wrath of God forever in eternity? Your only hope friend is to face that judge and his holy law Standing there in the merits of another the Lord Jesus Christ To live for God you must live a life of surrender Adrian Rogers was my pastor Colleague and friend and he told me a story that is always stuck with me Dr.. Rogers told me how he had preached in Romania shortly after that nation had been liberated from a communist government a Romanian pastor became good friends with Adrian Rogers and dr. Rogers one day asked this Romanian pastor to give his definition of American Christianity he answered by saying The key word in American Christianity is commitment Adrian said that's good isn't it the Romanian said no It is not there is a big difference between commitment and surrender When you make a commitment you are still in control But surrender is different if someone holds a gun and asks you to lift your hands in the air As a token of surrender you don't tell that person what you are Committed to you simply surrender and do as you're told The Romanian pastor went on to say Americans love commitment Because they are still in control But the key word is surrender.

We are to be slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ Well, I like that story friends because it is so true We have cheapened salvation today by diluting the gospel to make it more palatable to sinful man Jesus preached a narrow way and a straight gate and you entered with difficulty and few there be that Find it, but we evangelists today have committed a crime by broadening the way of salvation And therefore many in our churches today are just baptized pagans who mistake church membership for salvation But to recapture the surrendered life We must recapture the spirit-filled life for you cannot experience the surrendered life apart from the spirit-filled life My homiletical mentor was dr. Stephen F. Alford, and he taught me Expository preaching I was in the first graduating class of his school of preachers I am a fellow of the Stephen Alford Institute for preaching But more importantly Stephen Alford taught me the Christian life how to be spirit-filled He personally taught a young Billy Graham the same principle when they were holed up in a hotel in Wales in the 1950s When self is dethroned and sin is exposed then the spirit has room to Fill to overflowing Stephen Alford's life verse was Galatians 2 20 And I have my own version of that verse friends and it typifies my Christianity In the old gospel that I preach for I preach the gospel of the cross I hold up a blood-stained Savior for sin and I point men and women and boys and girls to Christ to repent and for Salvation Jesus saves I want to finish this message friends by reciting Galatians 2 20 I always preach and quote out of the King James Version Because I believe it's the best but for me personally I had to come up with my own doctrinally correct version of Galatians 2 20 which I feel says it more Succinctly at least for me here is the EA version Look I've been crucified with Christ But it is no longer I who live but Christ himself Lives in me in the Christ life. I now live in the flesh I live only by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me You