What Jesus Preached Would Shock You

We live in a day of an easy-believed gospel and shallow Christians who seldom read their Bibles and very few understand what true conversion is. Many mistake church membership for salvation. In multitudes sit in church on Sunday upon a rotten foundation of an empty religious profession.

The true gospel is seldom preached today and many would be shocked by what Jesus preached. When Jesus was here in His earthly ministry, many of His disciples deserted Him because of His hard sayings. Many, therefore, of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying.

Who can hear it? And we read, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. When Jesus preached, He never gave the sizzle without the steak. When He preached John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, He preceded it with fifteen verses declaring that no one, absolutely no one, would ever get into His Father's kingdom as an unregenerate individual.

No good works, no good opinion of oneself was good enough to get in, but only He who was born of the Spirit by a supernatural work of grace upon the heart. For that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

And He ended His sermon with John 3, 36, so His hearers would know that God was not only a God of love, but at the same time a God of justice. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And Jesus preached long and hard about the reality of hell and the dangers of damnation, describing God's wrath on sinners as taking place in a region of outer darkness, in a bottomless pit where raged a lake of fire that never rested, it was never quenched, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth, where weeping speaks of great loss and grief, and gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret, and that hell was not only a terrible place of suffering and misery, but a place of unending duration, where the worm doth not, for as an eternal abode of devils and the damned, that never ended for all eternity, and that the way to hell was a broad way, much traveled, and easy to find.

But salvation was on a narrow path, by way of a straight gate, one you had to press and squeeze through, with much difficulty to gain entry, and few there be that find it, for Jesus said, few would be saved, and no one could say with his lips that Jesus was their savior, unless with their lives they declared him as Lord, for Jesus preached, not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works, and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, and Jesus taught that there was a cost of discipleship in following him, if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple, and whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple, and Jesus taught that if you were one of his followers, then self would have to be denied, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me, for whosoever will save his life, shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it, and Jesus never preached, and only believed gospel, for he warned that repentance was a necessary component to salvation, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, even if they were the chairman of the deacons, and Jesus preached that salvation was in the hands of God, and not man, for no man could come to him, unless the father first drew him, no man can come to me, except the father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day, and he underlined God's sovereignty and salvation by saying, therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my father, in other words friends, if you have saving faith, it's because God gave it to you, that's what Jesus preached, and he didn't broaden the way of salvation like so many evangelists do today, and Jesus preached a man had to be lost before he could be saved, and he used illustrations to illustrate it, like a lost coin, a lost sheep, and a lost son, for he declared, the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost, and Jesus taught that a sinner had to first feel their need of him, before they would come to him for salvation, and Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, and Jesus never preached a sin and religion, but be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect, and Jesus said that salvation in him was of an astonishable worth, like a treasure, like a pearl of great price, again the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure, hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all he hath, and buyeth that field, again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, when he hath found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it, meaning that Jesus, the pearl of great price, is worth selling all for, and losing all for, so he may be gained, when Jesus preached, he preached the full counsel of God, of the gospel of the Son of God, empowered by the Spirit of God, we should go and do likewise.