Law To The Proud…Grace To The Humble
My friends, instead of preaching that Jesus improves the flight, we should be warning the passengers they’re going have to jump out of the plane. Hebrews 9:27 explains, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” And when a sinner understands the horrific consequences of breaking God’s law, then he want to know as the Philippian jailer says in Acts 16:30 – “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” If we’re true and faithful witnesses, that’s what we’ll be preaching – that there is a wrath to come; that God “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30). Why? “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness” (vs. 31).
You see, the issue isn’t one of happiness, but one of righteousness. It doesn’t matter how happy a sinner is, how much he’s enjoying “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb. 11:25), without the righteousness of Christ, he’ll die without Christ, only to spend eternity in Hell. Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation, but it’s not legitimate to use these fruits as a draw card for salvation. If we continue to do so, sinners will respond with an impure motive lacking repentance, and thus produce more false converts, instead of true believers.
Now with that thought in mind, let’s take a close look at an incident on board the plane. We have a brand new stewardess. She’s carrying a tray of boiling hot coffee. It’s her first day; she wants to leave an impression on the passengers, and she certainly does. Because as she’s walking down the aisle, she trips over someone’s foot and slops that boiling hot coffee all over the lap of our second passenger. Now what’s his reaction as that boiling liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he go, “Aahhh! Man that hurt”? Of course! He feels the pain. But then does he rip the parachute from his shoulders, throw it to the floor and say, “The stupid parachute!”? No. Why should he? He didn’t put the parachute on for a better flight. He put it on to save him from the jump to come. If anything, the hot coffee incident causes him to cling tighter to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.
Now if you and I have come to Christ for salvation for the right reasons, when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we won’t get angry at God; we won’t lose our joy and peace. Why should we? We didn’t come to Jesus for a happy lifestyle: we came to have eternal life – to flee from the wrath that’s to come. And if anything, tribulation and persecution should drive the true believer closer to the Savior. And sadly we have literally multitudes of professing Christians who abandon ship when the flight gets bumpy. Why? They’re the product of a man-centered gospel. They came lacking all the information necessary to make a knowledgeable decision to trust Christ as their Savior. As a result, they make a profession of faith, but repentance and saving faith, has not occurred in their heart.
Remember Romans 7:7? Paul said, “I had not known sin but by the law.” How can a man repent if he doesn’t know what sin is? Any so-called “repentance” would be merely what I call “horizontal repentance”. He’s coming because he’s lied to men, he’s stolen from men. But when David sinned with Bathsheba and broke several of the ten commandments (when he coveted his neighbor’s wife, lived a lie, stole his neighbor’s wife, committed adultery, committed murder, and dishonored God), he didn’t say “I’ve sinned against man.” He said, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” (Psalm 51:4). When Joseph was tempted sexually, he said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). The prodigal son said, “I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight” (Luke 15:21). The Bible says, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” (2 Cor. 7:10). And when a man doesn’t understand that his sin is primarily vertical, he’ll merely come and exercise superficial, experimental, and horizontal repentance, and fall away when tribulation, temptation, and persecution come.
A.B. Earl said, “I have found by long experience that the severest threatening of the law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.” Now I’d like you to do something a little unusual. I’ll not embarrass you; I give you my word. But I would like to ask, how many of you were thinking of something else when I was reading that quote from A.B. Earl? Now, I want to admit something to you. I was thinking of something else when I was reading that quote from A.B. Earl: I was thinking, “Nobody’s listening to me; they’re thinking of something else.” So, to make a very important point, I’d like you to be really honest. If you were thinking of something else and you haven’t got a clue what A.B. Earl said, could you raise your hand up nice and high.
A.B. Earl said, “I have found by long experience [that’s the true test] that the severest threatening of the law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.”
You see, you try and save a man from drowning when the man doesn’t believe he’s drowning, he’ll not be too happy with you. You see him swimming out in the lake; you think, “I think he’s drowning. Yes, I believe he is.” You dive in, pull him to the shore, without telling him anything. He’s not going to be very happy with you. He won’t want to get saved until he sees that he’s in danger. They’ll not escape danger until they see it. And sadly, what’s happened in Christianity today is that we have preached the cure without first convincing people of the disease. We have preached a gospel of grace without first convincing men of the law, that they are transgressors.
Biblical evangelism is always, without exception, law to the proud and grace to the humble. Never will you see Jesus giving the gospel, the good news, the cross, the grace of our God, to a proud, arrogant, self-righteous person. No, no. With the law he breaks the hard heart and with the gospel he heals the broken heart. Why? Because He always did those things that please the Father. James 4:6 says, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” This is also repeated in 1 Peter 5:5. And consequently, as Proverbs 16:5 states, “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.” Mark 2:17 – “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick:”, and only those who are convinced of the disease will appreciate and want the cure.
....continued with Part 3 on Thursday (9/16/10)
You see, the issue isn’t one of happiness, but one of righteousness. It doesn’t matter how happy a sinner is, how much he’s enjoying “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb. 11:25), without the righteousness of Christ, he’ll die without Christ, only to spend eternity in Hell. Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation, but it’s not legitimate to use these fruits as a draw card for salvation. If we continue to do so, sinners will respond with an impure motive lacking repentance, and thus produce more false converts, instead of true believers.
Now with that thought in mind, let’s take a close look at an incident on board the plane. We have a brand new stewardess. She’s carrying a tray of boiling hot coffee. It’s her first day; she wants to leave an impression on the passengers, and she certainly does. Because as she’s walking down the aisle, she trips over someone’s foot and slops that boiling hot coffee all over the lap of our second passenger. Now what’s his reaction as that boiling liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he go, “Aahhh! Man that hurt”? Of course! He feels the pain. But then does he rip the parachute from his shoulders, throw it to the floor and say, “The stupid parachute!”? No. Why should he? He didn’t put the parachute on for a better flight. He put it on to save him from the jump to come. If anything, the hot coffee incident causes him to cling tighter to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.
Now if you and I have come to Christ for salvation for the right reasons, when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we won’t get angry at God; we won’t lose our joy and peace. Why should we? We didn’t come to Jesus for a happy lifestyle: we came to have eternal life – to flee from the wrath that’s to come. And if anything, tribulation and persecution should drive the true believer closer to the Savior. And sadly we have literally multitudes of professing Christians who abandon ship when the flight gets bumpy. Why? They’re the product of a man-centered gospel. They came lacking all the information necessary to make a knowledgeable decision to trust Christ as their Savior. As a result, they make a profession of faith, but repentance and saving faith, has not occurred in their heart.
Remember Romans 7:7? Paul said, “I had not known sin but by the law.” How can a man repent if he doesn’t know what sin is? Any so-called “repentance” would be merely what I call “horizontal repentance”. He’s coming because he’s lied to men, he’s stolen from men. But when David sinned with Bathsheba and broke several of the ten commandments (when he coveted his neighbor’s wife, lived a lie, stole his neighbor’s wife, committed adultery, committed murder, and dishonored God), he didn’t say “I’ve sinned against man.” He said, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” (Psalm 51:4). When Joseph was tempted sexually, he said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). The prodigal son said, “I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight” (Luke 15:21). The Bible says, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” (2 Cor. 7:10). And when a man doesn’t understand that his sin is primarily vertical, he’ll merely come and exercise superficial, experimental, and horizontal repentance, and fall away when tribulation, temptation, and persecution come.
A.B. Earl said, “I have found by long experience that the severest threatening of the law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.” Now I’d like you to do something a little unusual. I’ll not embarrass you; I give you my word. But I would like to ask, how many of you were thinking of something else when I was reading that quote from A.B. Earl? Now, I want to admit something to you. I was thinking of something else when I was reading that quote from A.B. Earl: I was thinking, “Nobody’s listening to me; they’re thinking of something else.” So, to make a very important point, I’d like you to be really honest. If you were thinking of something else and you haven’t got a clue what A.B. Earl said, could you raise your hand up nice and high.
A.B. Earl said, “I have found by long experience [that’s the true test] that the severest threatening of the law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.”
You see, you try and save a man from drowning when the man doesn’t believe he’s drowning, he’ll not be too happy with you. You see him swimming out in the lake; you think, “I think he’s drowning. Yes, I believe he is.” You dive in, pull him to the shore, without telling him anything. He’s not going to be very happy with you. He won’t want to get saved until he sees that he’s in danger. They’ll not escape danger until they see it. And sadly, what’s happened in Christianity today is that we have preached the cure without first convincing people of the disease. We have preached a gospel of grace without first convincing men of the law, that they are transgressors.
Biblical evangelism is always, without exception, law to the proud and grace to the humble. Never will you see Jesus giving the gospel, the good news, the cross, the grace of our God, to a proud, arrogant, self-righteous person. No, no. With the law he breaks the hard heart and with the gospel he heals the broken heart. Why? Because He always did those things that please the Father. James 4:6 says, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” This is also repeated in 1 Peter 5:5. And consequently, as Proverbs 16:5 states, “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.” Mark 2:17 – “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick:”, and only those who are convinced of the disease will appreciate and want the cure.
....continued with Part 3 on Thursday (9/16/10)
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