Today thousands of sermons will be preached to millions of people. Some of it will do more harm than good—way more than you know.
I am not taking a swipe at all preachers.
Most preachers are sincere men and women of God.
However, these worthy voices are often drowned out by the modern preaching that leaves out the Cross of Christ, the Blood of Christ, Bible verses on sexual sin, and hell.
The modern preachers who leave all this out do it because they say they want to offer hope.
Hope is their big word.
Here and now, I am accusing them of offering at best an inferior hope and at worst a false hope.
Paul the Apostle had a totally opposite view about preaching hope.
He said, “Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech.” -2 Corinthians 3:12.
To give hope these preachers leave truth out.
Paul believed that to give hope you must leave it all in.
He said in Ephesians 6:19 “and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Twice, he refers to boldness.
Again, in 2 Corinthians 4 he detailed why it is such a disaster to leave anything out:
“Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Handling the Word of God deceitfully and putting a veil over it makes that preacher a villain to lost souls.
Worse still, that preacher is in cahoots with the devil.
They put a veil over truth while Satan blinds people to it.
Every day we are lose ground because of this artificial preaching.
Since He–the Holy Spirit– is also called the Spirit of truth.
You cannot be anointed unless you are telling the truth.
Here is what this preaching has cost us so far:
Because the church did not take a unified Biblical stand on sexual immorality the left has systemically canonized the lie that Christian doctrine is hate speech.
Today, Chick Fil A was banned from yet another airport.
What did they do wrong?
They stood by their Christian values and they gave money to Christian groups.
City boards voted to shut them down because they gave to “hate” organizations.
Had we taken a stand, we would not be in this bind.
More damage: these preachers made their congregations biblically illiterate.
That is why a huge number of Christians including famous “gospel” singers don’t know the values of the Christian faith—don’t know how to answer their culture—don’t see anything wrong with abortion or same sex marriage—and don’t know how to vote.
Back to the issue of hope.
I am asking these preachers a simple question:
how can you say you are bringing hope if you leave out the truths that carry the hope?
Here is what I mean:
real hope comes from true conversion.
Only the soul that has repented and utterly opened themselves to new life can feel the surpassing hope of Christ.
Let me show some examples of hope:
The Cross:
until the soul knows it is lost—
until it is broken by the sacrifice of Christ the true hope of Christ cannot take hold of them.
But, brother, when it does it is awesome to behold.
You will have a convert that is in church for all the right reasons.
You have a walking miracle that is contagious.
The Blood of Christ:
Only those souls that know the Blood was applied to their sin can feel clean—
a moral clean that nothing else can give them.
Moreover, the most dangerous young convert is the one that knows they have power over the devil. Revelation 12:11
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
Sexual sin:
Millions of people who genuinely want deliverance can’t find it because society has normalized their behavior.
But that does not change the damage.
The suicide rate for transgender people is 33 times higher than the general population.
People look at verses like the following and call them hateful but look again:
1 Corinthians 6: 9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived.
Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you.
But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
Two takeaways here:
1. Sin is sin.
There is no sin elevated above another.
Thieves, murders, idolaters, drunkards, are all sexual sin are listed equally.
2. It ends with true deliverance from sin.
It offers hope of cleansing, sanctification, and justification.
That hope is not available if we skirt the issue.
The hope of the misguided modern sermon offers little or no hope.
They tout the good life.
But if that’s hope, why are billionaires killing themselves?
Besides, what are we doing advancing the same lie as the world?
When the lukewarm believer leaves church they are swooning the superficial glow of a happy sense that God is not mad at them.
What they don’t have is the blazing reality of being set free and filled with peace that passes understanding and power to answer a sick world’s cry for help.
These happy time sermons must stop now.
They are as big a threat to America as the leftist radicals.
Every night, under our tent we kill the lie of these modern sermons.
Lost souls hear truth under the power of the Holy Spirit.
God confirms the Word with miracles.
The unchurched come running for new life. Glory to God!
Remember this…Paul said it was because of how great the hope is that we are bold to tell all the truth. Amen.
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