This Isn’t the Day For Being Mr Nice Guy

Listen, this is not a day to be Mr. Nice Guy and say, well, you know, I can't offend the Muslims. You can't offend them. What are you going to do? Just sit back, let them go to hell. You see, we live in this age where we just, we need, we need love. We need everybody to be, to be nice. That's the thing. Nice. We've got to be, we've got to be pleasant. And, actually said, he said, you will notice that most of God's men are not handsome. And in fact, did you, did some of you see the article that somebody wrote about John MacArthur recently saying that they just don't know why people go to hear him? Well, they were saying this, people don't go to hear John MacArthur because, because he's handsome, because he's, and then they, they put a lot of things out there. And he was actually reading this to his congregation. You know, he's, he's got this flaw and that flaw. And the, and the, the author of the article actually said people go to hear him because he preaches the Bible. And MacArthur liked that. And Lloyd-Jones was saying, you know, typically, typically the, the true man of God, he's rough around the edges. He may not be the nicest guy. He may not be the, the, the most handsome guy. In fact, in fact, I think Lloyd-Jones said, you know, typically, typically the men in the pulpit are, are not that, but I'll tell you what, the men that so often we get attached to and we get drawn to, they're the ones that are smooth and they're the ones that are nice. And they're the ones that they look really good, but you need to be careful. This is what, this is what everybody wants today. Brethren, we need to be loving. We need to be accepting. There was a woman yesterday. It's interesting. I got, I got over there by the, by the ATM machines and there were people lined up. So I'm handing out tracks to him and I'm basically able to preach to the whole crowd there. And so I'm carrying on. And there's one woman who's dialoguing back and forth and she says, well, you know, Christianity and Islam are similar. No ma'am, they are not similar. I mean, they both may be monotheistic, but they are not similar. And she said, well, you know, the Muslims are just as confident as you are. I said, but the Muslims are wrong because there is only one name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. There is, he is the way, the truth and the light. There are not many ways. And brethren, we had, listen, you need to be resolute by something. You need to stand on something. We live in a day where the, this is no day for softness. Now look, that doesn't mean we can't be gracious and we can't be gentle with people. We have to be, but you know what? How are you graciously and gently going to tell somebody you're wrong? And there are not multiple ways. No ma'am, that is not the right way. Remember Ruby and I, years ago, we were out evangelizing door to door and we came up to a house. Nicest guy you can imagine. Old man, nicest guy. He said, he said, you know what? Getting to heaven is like going to Austin. Austin's about 70 miles north of San Antonio. He said, some take the interstate, that's the motorway. Some, some go by this road. I said, sir, that is not the case at all. There's only one way to heaven. And the look on his face turned, do you remember that? He was angry. Could have spit at us then. Do you know what to believe? I mean, this is the issue. Is there anything for which you're prepared to stand? That's, that's where Jesus said, thy word is truth. Folks, do you recognize, I mean, one of the reasons that I did a series about a year ago on Genesis is because one of our supposed evangelical guys that, you know, one of the churches there in Atlanta, Andy Stanley, he's, he's saying, you know, we've got to debunk the myth of Genesis, especially the first three chapters. And oftentimes it's the first 11 chapters. Science has just disproven it. We're just setting up a stumbling block for all sorts of people. If we keep preaching that this is actually true, this is myth. We've got to, well, all we need to do is we need to preach Christ. Yeah. Well, he's just dismissed the infallibility of scripture. And now he wants to tell us about Christ. Where's he going to figure out who Christ is from scripture or his own imagination? I mean, look, do you, do you believe this? I'll tell you this. How are you going to explain where sin came from? How do you explain, you know what evolution doesn't explain it. And you know what the scientists know that it doesn't. They hate Christ. They hate God. But if you talk to them, if you just, if you listen to them as they are examining the cell and the intricacies of the RNA, the DNA, as they are looking at how the cell works and the complexity and the information that is stored there, they know it did not happen by chance. And yet the microbiologists, they look over at the paleontologists and they say, well, you know, they've, they've found it over in the fossil records and in the bones. And then you've got these guys over here and they're saying, well, you know, no, it's, it's the astronomers. They figured out from, but you know what? They all, none of them have the answer and they all know it. They're depending on another, some other leg of science has figured this out. But when you look at it, there's not a shred of proof, not a shred. And I'll tell you this, you basically want me to believe that everything was in steady state. And then suddenly it's like R.C. Sproul said, you know, suddenly on one Thursday at 3 a.m., 3 p.m., the whole thing decided to blow up and give us the big bang. Brethren, it's ludicrous. I went to school to become a mechanical engineer. I, I know the laws of thermodynamics. I know that basically what these scientists are doing is because of their hatred of the truth, they will say that this whole universe came into existence by violating all the known laws of physics and they don't want to go there. And if you listen to Dawkins, you ever heard Dawkins? Well, he's got all of his theories, but when he's really pressed to it, how did life begin? Well, we don't really know. There was some event and he will even talk about crystals and he will talk about aliens. You see, he will accept that some intelligence was behind it, but it can't be God. Brethren, do you have something to stand on? If you want to know where sin came from, we know where sin came from. If you want to know why death is in the world, we know why death is in the world. Brethren, all you have to do is look around. You look at the way things are created. There is so much design. There is so much amazement. With the first song we sang, you think about the creation. You think about a worm becomes a butterfly. You see, the whole thing is a miracle. You think about a man and a woman coming together and a baby can come out of that. That is absolutely a miracle. And yet they're denying it all. Do you have anything to stand on? Brethren, are you going to stand on the fact that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and be dogmatic about it? Listen, this is not a day to be Mr. Nice Guy and say, well, you know, I can't offend the Muslims. You can't offend them. What are you going to do? Just sit back, let them go to hell? Listen, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. You better not be ashamed of it. You better get it on your feet. And you better be confident about something, confident about what this book teaches, about what it says. This cry for acceptance today. Oh, brethren, the word of our God shall endure. This excerpt was taken from the full sermon, The Stability of Gospel Shoes, preached by Tim Conway in Manchester, England at Grace Fellowship Manchester.