I guess it was about 30 years ago
when I was a senior trainer in Evangelism
Explosion at a big Baptist Church.
There I trained men and women to go
out into the surrounding neighborhood on Tuesday evenings
and knock on doors as I taught them
how to present the EE outline of the
plan of salvation.
We would go out in a team of
three.
The three of us would work our way
into someone's living room and they would observe
me as I went through a memorized step
-by-step process to get some poor victim
to accept my Jesus.
Then we'd go back to the church and
assembled in a big room to boast and
brag about how many we led to the
Lord that evening.
The trouble was when we would conduct follow
-up work the next week and go back
to visit our new convert they wouldn't answer
the door.
We would see a light on in their
house and we could hear the TV on
in the living room but as loud as
we knocked or rang the doorbell they never
came to the door they hid from us
because all they did the week before was
to say yes to a formula that could
get them to heaven.
I was sincere in my ignorance back then
of what the true gospel was.
I drank the Kool-Aid of modern evangelism
but all it did was make me less
thirsty on my way to hell and that's
the title of my message today friends.
I don't need to repeat it because some
of you drank out of the same punch
bowl as well.
You know what I'm talking about.
The easy believe gospel is so diluted and
so popular today because it's easy to swallow.
It has no rights or claims on you.
You can take Jesus or leave him.
It'll still be hanging around the front door
your heart waiting until you're good and ready
to let a man.
The man-centered modern gospel says open your
heart friend and receive this Jesus and you
will be saved.
The old God-centered gospel taught that men
were dead in sin like the Bible says
about them and they had no power in
themselves to open their heart any more than
a dead corpse can open his own coffin
lid.
The man-centered modern gospel presents an impotent
Jesus who stands helplessly at the door of
the human heart hoping you will let him
in.
It's up to you because salvation is in
the hands of man.
The old God-centered gospel got men lost
by the breaching of the law and shut
men up to God for salvation because it
taught that salvation was in the hands of
God.
Jonah 2.9 declares salvation is of the
Lord.
The man-centered modern gospel exists to make
men happy and it is centered around the
happiness of man.
The old God-centered gospel made men holy
as it glorified God.
The modern man-centered gospel says all you
have to do to be saved friend is
to repeat this prayer and believe it and
you can know for sure you are going
to heaven.
The old God-centered gospel said believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your
sins or just go on to hell.
The man-centered modern gospel says accept Jesus
as your personal Savior and you will go
to heaven because once saved always saved means
you can sin all you want to and
still arrive at your heavenly destination.
The old God-centered gospel declares for without
holiness no one shall see the Lord because
it taught that self must be dethroned and
another enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe some of you got into the church
by drinking this Kool-Aid that tasted good
and was easy to swallow.
Spit it out friend.
Get to God.
Repent of your sins and become a seeker
of mercy.
There on Calvary hung a bloodstained Savior from
sin and if you want to be saved
from a devil's hell you must come to
him confessing you are a sinner and repent
of your sins and believe on him and
own him as your Savior and Lord.
Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
Get under the blood.