Walk an Aisle to Hell

The modern church, in the last 40 years, has trafficked in souls and made merchandise of men by false gospel and a desire to grow their membership. Many preachers have brought on the way to salvation in ways Jesus never did. Therefore, the typical church membership today is largely unconverted, for all they did was walk an aisle to hell.

And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, Walking Aisle to Hell. My text can be found in Luke's gospel in chapter 13 and verse 3, where Jesus declared, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And that includes all clever seminary professors and all self-righteous sinners who refuse to repent.

The emphasis today is on making an outward profession, coming forward and walking an aisle to come to Jesus. You'll hear big-name preachers say with a grin on their face, come to Jesus, friend. Come on, all you have to do to be saved is get up out of your seat and accept Jesus by walking this aisle and making it public.

Jesus said, because those who are ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of them on that day. So come on, friend, make it public. Come accept Jesus and make an outward profession and take a stand for him.

Then they'll sing, just as I am, without one plea, and work on your emotions through music. Can you imagine, friends, Jonathan Edwards pointing to his music minister and choir and orchestra before he gave an invitation to come to Jesus? This is a modern invention, friend, and the invitation system, where you walk an aisle to be saved, has no biblical basis whatsoever. All it does is produce false converts.

George Whitfield, the great British evangelist, never once asked a soul to walk an aisle and accept Jesus, but he did tell all sinners that ye must be born again, and he called sinners to Christ, and thousands were saved under his mighty ministry. But today we fail to mention the need for repentance to be saved, and the utter necessity of a work of grace upon the heart through the new birth. We just tell folks to get up out of their seats and walk an aisle for salvation, to make Jesus your personal Savior, and many folks do.

They walk that aisle to accept their little Jesus, like they would take a free piece of chewing gum, and they chew on him for a while, and join the church until the flavor goes out of their religion. Outward profession, decision for Jesus, make it public, give your heart to Jesus, walk this aisle and give your heart to Jesus. Listen, friends, we've taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of man.

Rather, a true God-called preacher will place an emphasis on man's duty of repentance for pardon and grace, and his necessity of the new birth in renewing grace, which is a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit performed on the heart, whereby the Spirit of God brings a sinner under conviction, awakens him to his blind lost condition, and performs the grace in that sinner, whereby the heart of stone is made a heart of flesh, and that person is born from above by the Spirit of God. If you get saved, friend, it's because you've been washed in the blood and born from above, and not because you walked an aisle and repeated a prayer. Listen, friend, there is no salvation without Holy Spirit conviction.

Your heart must be opened by the truth of God's Word under the power of the Holy Spirit, and you must be made to see that you were lost, wrecked, and ruined, and condemned to die, and take your place as a lost sinner before a thrice holy God, and agree with God that he is just in sending you on to hell, that you have no righteousness of your own, for it's but a filthy, smelly rag in God's sight that you're brought to see your old corrupt sin nature, whereby you're brought to lie at the feet of Christ as a guilty rebel, and you throw down your shotgun of rebellion and repentance at the foot of a sovereign, and all you can do is then become a beggar for mercy, for pardon and grace, and renewing grace, and God is just, and God is just, whether he saves you or damns you. Now that's salvation, friends, not this little nonsense we have today of just believe John 3 16 and walk this aisle and accept Jesus and be saved. Many preachers today care more about numbers and the reputations and growing their church membership so they can look successful within their dead denomination, and make merchandise of men, and send them on to hell for an eternity of misery and torment.

Now I've made a lot of folks mad tonight with this message, but I must be honest with you, friend, and preach the full counsel of God, and preach Christ's blood redemption, and repentance, and regeneration, and warn you of the dangers of dying in your sins, and being cast into the prison of hell, for I do not want to fail to warn you that you must turn from your wicked ways, and in repentance toward God, and faith in Jesus Christ, because I care for your soul, and I do not want your blood on my hands at the judgment. The Apostle Paul has an admonition to every one of us as seen in 2 Corinthians 13 5, which states, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves.

No, you're not your own selves. How that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. Listen, friend, if you miss Christ, then you have missed heaven.

Get to Christ. You must get under his blood, and you must be born from above, or you will be doomed and damned in a devil's hell. Let us pray.