In this sermon, the speaker criticizes the use of manipulative tactics and methods in modern evangelism, such as lowering lights, beautiful music, and psychological tricks. He emphasizes that the power of God is necessary for someone to receive Christ and be saved. The speaker explains that God's justice requires payment for sin, and Jesus' death on the cross satisfied that justice. He contrasts this true Gospel with the superficial and watered-down versions preached today, highlighting the need to understand the depth of Christ's sacrifice.

For more media content from Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas, go to GCCSATX.com. Media used by permission of Heart Crime Missionary Society. Visit us online at heartcrimemissionary.com. I present myself before you in the name of Christ Jesus. You deserve, Lord, all the glory, the honor, and the praise. There is no one like you, Lord, in heaven, on earth, or under the earth. Lord, I ask you in the name of Christ to have mercy on us. And through the work of the Holy Spirit, may you teach us, Lord, of your word, so that we may be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, so that we may be useful servants, Lord, for your glory, for the edification of the Church. In the name of Christ Jesus, amen. It is a great privilege for me to be with you. Brother Martin spoke to me about coming and speaking with some of the missionaries there. I think we opened the meetings for others, and we have some people here today. We are sure that everything is according to God's will. Last week we were in the jungle, about three hours from Tarapoto, a place called Tarapoto. I think all the men who were with me got sick, so I don't think we are very spiritual. But God worked greatly among the brothers. There were people from various places. Some people had walked about 12 or 15 hours to come and listen to the Gospel. Today, from what I understand from this conference, we are going to talk about the sovereign grace, the power of God in the salvation of man. Today, there is a problem. I am not saying this because I am a prophet or because I know more than others. But there is a biblical principle that when we study the New Testament, we must do it in the context of the whole Bible. There is also a principle of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is simply the study of how to study the Bible. And the important principle that applies here today is that we must always do our theology in the context of the Church. What does this mean? When we interpret the Bible, we must submit to the grammar of the Bible. Once a man came into my office and started talking to me about John 1. In the beginning, it was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. And he said to me, in Greek, Pastor, the Word comes from the word rhema. And I said, no. And I opened my New Testament in Greek. And I said, look, the word verb comes from the Greek word logos. And he said, I don't care what you tell me because the Lord has told me in a dream. So we must submit to the grammar of the Scriptures. But at the same time, we must learn from history. When we interpret a text, we must compare our interpretation with the interpretations of others. Not only in our culture, but we must compare our interpretations with the interpretations of the other brothers through the history of the Church. If everyone agrees, but they don't agree with us, then we have probably made a mistake. Well, today we see something very important. The modern Gospel that is preached, and mostly the Gospel that has come from the United States, does not agree with the Gospel of the history of the Church. There are great problems. In the last 100 years, we have seen great changes. The glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ has been reduced to four spiritual laws. Or five things that God wants you to know. We have reduced the Gospel to a rite. I will give you an example. We approach a person and say, Lord, the Bible says that you are a sinner. Do you know that you are a sinner? If the person says yes, then the next question. Do you want to go to heaven? If the person says yes, I want to go to heaven, then the next question. Do you want to pray to ask Christ to enter your heart? If the person says yes, then we pray with him. And after the prayer, we ask, did God save you? If the person says, well, I'm not sure. Then we say, of course He saved you, because He promised to save you. We have reduced the Gospel of Christ to nothing more than some superficial questions. And if a person answers well, we declare him saved. But it is not the Gospel. First, if you say to a person, do you know that you are a sinner? If you say yes, it means nothing. The devil knows that he is a sinner. Do you realize that? Ask the devil. He will tell you, of course I am a sinner. The best sinner there is. So, simply asking a person if he knows if he is a sinner does not mean much. The question is, since you have heard the Gospel, God has worked in your heart in such a way that now you abhor the sin that you loved before. There is a change in the heart. To be saved, a person has to repent. Repentance is more than simply recognizing sin. Repentance involves a change in the heart. A change created by the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. If a man has truly repented, we will see a change in his lifestyle, in his attitude towards sin. Many times people tell me, Pastor Pablo, I have a new relationship with God. And I always say, well, do you have a new relationship with sin? Because if you have a new relationship with God, you will have a new relationship with sin. The sin that you loved before, now you will abhor. But if a person says that he knows that he is a sinner, then we ask, do you want to go to heaven? Who doesn't? Who will say, no, I would like to go to hell? Do you want to go to heaven? Look, everyone wants to go to heaven. No one wants God to be there when he arrives. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but that is not the question. The question is, do you now esteem the God you used to ignore and even hate? Your relationship with God has changed. Everyone here wants to go to heaven. For this reason we have political theory. We study political science and everything else to try to create a heaven on earth. All men want to go to heaven, but few men seek God. So the question is not, do you want to go to heaven? The question is, has God worked in your heart in such a way that now you can understand something of his value? And do you have a new desire to seek him? If a person says that he is a sinner, and if a person says that he does want to go to heaven, mostly in evangelism today we ask, do you want to pray for Christ to enter your heart? Well, there is a problem there, because there is no text in the Bible that supports a question like that. There is none, it does not exist. Let's go to Mark a little while. This is only an introduction, it is not the preaching, but I want you to see the problem. Mark 1.14 After John was imprisoned, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, The time has come, and the kingdom of God is near. Now, who wants me to enter their hearts? It does not say this. What does it say? Repent ye, and believe in the gospel. On the day of Pentecost, after preaching, Peter said to us, How many want to receive Christ? Raise your hand. If you have raised your hand, come forward. Those who have come forward, repeat this prayer with me. I am sorry, it is not found in the scriptures. It is something made, made by men. It is a method of evangelism. And because of this method of evangelism, 65% of people in the United States believe they are Christians. When most theologians would say that among those who confess to Christ, less than 10% are really Christians. It is like a factory producing false believers. Why? The evangelism that you practice, where did you learn your method? From another person who practiced the same method. From another person, from another person, from another person. But not from the scriptures. Another very big problem in evangelism is the main theme of the gospel. Few people understand what the main theme is. Most of us say to people, Christ died. Christ died. Why? Because of our sin. But they do not answer the question, why did he have to die for our sins? And how did he have to die when he was on the cross? Most of us have, again, a very superficial gospel. Christ died for you. But why? Because of our sin. But why? We need to understand that the gospel begins with the character of God. The attributes of God. And let's go to Romans chapter 3. I'm going to show you something. Romans 3. Many theologians have said that this text is the most important text in the whole Bible. And in fact, if you do not understand this text, it would be very difficult to preach the gospel. What is Paul saying? He speaks of a very important word, propitiation. Do you know what it is? He speaks of the need for God to be just. And the one who justifies the sinner. Here we can see the main part of what the gospel is. Why did Christ have to die? And how did he have to die? First, you have to see something. If God is just, he cannot forgive. If God is just, he cannot forgive. I'll give you an example. It's an example that I always give. Let's say that someone has killed your whole family. And you capture the person who has murdered your family. And you take him to the police. And the police present the murderer to the judge. And the judge looks at the person who has killed your whole family and says, I am a judge full of love. That is why I forgive you. I forgive you. Go. How are you going to respond? You are going to say that the judge is more corrupt than the same criminals to whom he gives freedom. You are going to write to the president, the congress. Maybe you are going to call the newspaper to complain about a judge as corrupt as he is. Why does the judge have to do justice? If a judge does not do justice, he is not a just judge. God is the judge of the whole earth. He cannot simply forgive the sinner. Before he can forgive, he has to satisfy his own justice. Someone has to pay. You say, of course. Christ had to pay. But how? In the Hispanic world, there is something that I call the Romantic Gospel. It is a gospel that has nothing to do with the Scriptures. It presents Jesus as a martyr. It always speaks of everything that the Romans and the Jews did to Jesus on the cross. It speaks so much of these things that one has to think, well, then we are saved through what the men did to Jesus. We are saved because they nailed him to a cross. We are saved because they beat him. We are saved because they pierced his heart with a spear. So, through the suffering of Jesus caused by the men, God justified us. God satisfied justice through what Jesus Christ suffered at the hands of the men. No. The suffering caused by the men has a lot to do with our redemption. But what you have to see is the following. Isaiah 53 days. Isaiah 53 days. What does it say? With all this, God wanted to break him by subjecting him to suffering. When Jesus Christ was on the cross, he bore our sin. And all the wrath of God, all the punishment of God, all the abomination of God, just abomination of God, against the evil of man, fell upon his Son. We must die separated from God. And spend all eternity separated from God. On the cross, Christ bore our sin. Our sin was imputed to Christ. And Christ cried out to God, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So, a separation between the Son and the Father. And all the wrath of God that must fall upon you, fell upon the Son. We are saved, justified. Not mainly because of what the Romans did to Jesus on the cross. We are saved by what the Father did to his own Son on the cross. What he broke. An illustration that may help you is the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham tells him that he took his only son to the mountain. And there, according to the decree of God, he was going to kill him. But when Abraham submitted himself to the will of God, and was about to kill his son, an angel cried out and said, No, Abraham, God is going to provide. And Isaac was saved. You say, what a beautiful story. What an end to such a beautiful story. But it is not the end of the story. Two thousand years later, God the Father put his hand on his son's forehead and took the knife and killed his own son. Someone had to die under the wrath of God to satisfy the justice of God. I have a question. Have you heard the Gospel many times preached? How many times have you heard what I have just taught? Almost never. The emphasis is always on what men did to Jesus, right? Always. Look at what men did to Jesus. During the Holy Week in the evangelical churches, all the pastors were preaching about what? About what men did to Jesus. The crown, the whip, the spear. And they almost never mention what really saved us. Someone had to die under the wrath of God. His wrath. His justice. To satisfy his justice. Now, can you understand why the Gospel has little power today? Because we are not teaching the Gospel. Now, I am going to pass a little bit and tomorrow I am going to start with human depravity. But I am going to pass a little bit through this text in Romans 3. I know that I have preached it several times here. But there are new people and it is necessary. For how many have sinned? Romans 3.23 For how many have sinned and are destitute of the glory of God? Children learn this text, right? They learn this text in Sunday school. Do you know what it means? For how many have sinned? The historical confessions of the Christian Church define sin as when one does not conform to the will of God. When one is detached from the will of God. It is sin. Sin. Today, sin does not mean much. Why? Most preachers do not preach with respect to sin. It is rarely mentioned and when it is mentioned it is not explained. When we are preaching the Gospel of Christ we have to talk a lot about sin. A lot. Why? Because man has to understand that he is lost before he goes to seek salvation. I am going to use the apostle Paul as an example. The book of Romans is not a systematic theology. But it has some characteristics of a well-ordered theology. Almost systematic. Paul was going to go to the church in Rome and then he was going to go to Spain and he is sending a letter to teach them what he believed. Look. In the first three chapters of the book of Romans what does Paul do? He struggles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and with all his intellectual strength he struggles to achieve one thing. To condemn the whole world. Really. To condemn the whole world. Three chapters dedicated to what? To condemn the world. To demonstrate the sin of the world. The sin of man. And the condemnation that is the result of his sin. And it ends here in chapter 3. You can say here verse 19 But we know that all that the law says it says to those who are under the law so that all mouths are closed and all the world is under the judgment of God. We cannot treat sin lightly as it is done today. Do you realize? Most churches grow because they talk about victory miracles prosperity gifts a lot of things but they are doing the same as the false prophets in the book of Jeremiah peace, peace, when there is no peace. People who are talking about their gifts their miracles their victory their prosperity while they live in sin. They talk, walk, behave like devils. Many people today who are in evangelical churches are not even saved. And one of the reasons why they are not saved is because the preachers are not preaching the gospel. We have to confront man with his sin. We should not be angry men or with critical spirits or anything like that. But if we love men we have to talk to them about their sin and we have to fight like the apostle Paul to expose their sin to manifest their sin so that they can be healed later. My mother died two years ago of cancer a year and a half. I remember when we went to the doctor he was a good doctor and I could see when he entered the room he was a little worried and sad and finally he approached my mother and said Madam, you have cancer and if we don't operate right now you are going to die. And even though we do everything possible it is still possible probably that you are going to die. Now, it was very difficult, right? The doctor had to do something very difficult confront my mother with her problem. But if he hadn't done it he would have been an immoral doctor. Immoral! If he says, no, I am afraid I don't want to hurt her she is going to be offended I can't tell her she has cancer. Well, if you are not going to tell her that you have cancer you can't save her. In the same way Christian life today has become nothing more than a circus. Churches like a circus. Screams, songs, miracles, people falling to the ground a lot of things. Where is the Gospel? Where is the Gospel of Christ? But even in the Baptist churches talking about a lot of things methods methods to evangelize methods to do missions a lot of things but we don't preach the Gospel and the Gospel we preach is a very reduced version that has no power. What should we do? We should follow the example of the Apostle Paul we should use the Scriptures to expose to manifest the sin of those who hear us. But also not only should we talk about sin but we should also talk about the solution which is the grace of God the grace of God that salvation is not by means of works but by means of a work of God by means of grace. In verse 23 it says for all who have sinned and are destitute of the glory of God being justified for free by His grace for free. Everyone today talks about justification. Religion always talks about how can a man have a relationship with God. The Jew says by means of loving the law by means of keeping the law. The Muslim says basically the same with another book. The Christian is totally different. I will give you an example. We approach a Jew and say Lord if you died right now where would you go? I love the law of Jehovah and I am a good person so I keep the law. Mr. Muslim if you died right now where would you go? To heaven. How? Why? Well, I love the Koran and I keep the laws of the Koran. I give alms I visit the holy places I will go to heaven. But we approach the Christian and say Lord Well, I was born in sin I violated all the laws of God and I deserve hell. And we say but Christian wait a minute the other two understand they say they should go to heaven because they deserve to go to heaven by means of their good works but you tell me something else. You tell me that you will go to heaven even if you deserve hell. How can it be? And the Christian responds I will go to heaven based on the merits of another my Lord Jesus Christ. But a person cannot yet begin to appreciate grace unless he understands something of his depravity. Another night in the jungle we were there in the high part of the jungle and during the day heat, heat, heat and you can look at the sky and there are no stars you cannot see a star. Where did the stars go? Did they hide? Why can't we see the stars? But at night, yes you can see the stars. Why? The stars you can see them at night because of the darkness that surrounds them. They shine. The darker the night the more we can see the stars. In the same way for this reason we speak of human depravity we speak of sin specifically and we try with the Scriptures to condemn the world because because you can see the grace of God when it contrasts with the sin of man. Why are we saved? The merits of Christ Jesus. It is our our glory. Now, it says being justified for His grace for His grace there is a prophecy where it says that they were going to hate the Messiah without reason and it is repeated in the New Testament in Greek that they were going to hate the Messiah without reason. Nobody never had a reason to hate Jesus. Jesus never sinned against anyone. So when they hated Him they hated Him without reason. being justified without reason we have never given God a reason for Him to save us never but the other way around the other way around. But God saved us justified us without reason despite what we have done for the merits of Jesus Christ who died in our place. Now, it says here in verse 25 to whom God put as a propitiation Do you know what propitiation is? Some say that it is the most important word in all of Scripture. Propitiation refers to a sacrifice but a sacrifice that satisfies the justice of God so that He can forgive man without being unjust. Look, once I heard a preacher who said instead of being just with you God showed His love. Sounds good, doesn't it? Think about what he is saying. Instead of being just with you God showed His love. Can you see the problem? They are saying that God's love is unjust. God took justice to love you. God cannot do that. God is perfect. God has to be just and His love has to be just. He has to do justice while He loves. This is the problem and the reason why we need a propitiation. The Bible says in Proverbs 17.15 He who justifies the impious is an abomination before Jehovah. Listen, we have read in Romans that God justified us even though we were impious. He who justifies the impious is an abomination. So does that mean that God is an abomination because He justified us and we were impious? That is the biggest problem. It is the center of the Gospel. How can God as Paul says in Romans 3 be just to the impious? That is the biggest problem in the Scriptures. If He is just He has to condemn the impious. But if He condemns us there is no hope of salvation. If God had condemned the whole earth all men to hell if He had done that there would have been no philosophical or theological problem because that is exactly what man deserves. There was a need for explanations when God began to save. How can a just God forgive those who should die? Well, He can do it only because when Jesus Christ died He satisfied once and for all the justice of God. Something that is very important and we are going to talk about this for a while. Sometimes I hear preachers and singers singing and preaching things like this. God searched all over the sky to find someone with the good will willing to die for man but He could not find anyone. God searched the earth to find someone who could die for the sinful man but He could not find anyone. There was no angel willing, no man willing or no man perfect to die in the place of man. So He had to send His Son. That is not good. The theology is very, very bad. An angel perfect could not have died for our sins and a man perfect could not have died for our sins. The one who died on the cross for us had to be a man because man has sinned and man has to die but the one who died on the cross had to be more than a man an infinite man. That is why God came to be man and walked on the earth and lived a perfect life and according to God's predestined plan He was nailed on a cross. On the cross He took away the sin of His people and became a curse before His own Father. Look at Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3 verse 10 For all who depend on the works of the law are under curse for it is written Cursed is he who does not remain in all things written in the book of the law to do them. Today in many churches a curse means well, one gets sick or one does not prosper economically. There is no word in any language that can describe how horrible it is to be under a curse. The fact that a man is under a curse means that before God and all the holy beings of heaven the sinful man is so horrible it is such an abomination that the last thing that the sinful man will hear when he takes his first step to enter hell the last thing that he will hear in heaven and a standing and applauding to God because God has condemned him. That's the man how terrible is the man how sinful is the man he deserves the eternal condemnation. Do you know that today You don't just hear those things. No, man has great courage and if he doesn't save himself, the whole sky will cry. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that man is a depraved sinner who deserves hell. On the day of judgment, even the condemned men will stand before God and will say, Kirk, the judge of all the earth, has done well. But the Bible says in verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law made by us. Curse. You know, I have problems when I speak in Spanish. Very limited. But with respect to this topic, even in English, I am short of words. There is no way to truly describe what happened on the cross. Imagine all the curses that you can find in the Old Testament. All the curses that exist there. And from there, put them on Jesus. The opposite of all the blessings that are found in the Old Testament about Jesus. All the wrath of God against him. When he was in Gethsemane, he prayed three times, let this cup pass from me. I know what the preachers say today. How many times have I heard the preachers say, Yes, the cup, the cup, the cross, the whip, the spear. No. It has nothing to do with those things. And some charismatic preachers say the cup was the wrath of Satan. You just have to read the Bible. Through the whole Bible, it speaks of the cup. Especially in the prophets. The cup of wrath. The fury of Jehovah. All the fury. The just abomination of God against your wickedness. It was poured over the son. And he became a curse. And his father abandoned him. That is why when he said, I will consume you, you would have canceled him. You would have paid him completely. Once and for all. On the cross, he satisfied the justice of God. Paid. And now, God can forgive the impious, and at the same time, be just. Because he paid for his crimes with the blood of his own son. When was the last time you heard these things in a sermon in a church? Christ dying, crushed, broken, under the wrath of his father. Because of our wickedness. Now, you can see that the gospel that is being preached today. Four spiritual laws. Five things that God wants you to know. Superficial preachings. Now you can see that it is not the gospel. It is a reduction that has no power. Now, this is an introduction. We are going to teach, this week, in this little conference, some things. These are things that are always found in the history of the church. We are going to talk about what God has done through the cross of Calvary. We are going to talk about the truths of the Reformation. Martin Luther, Calvin, the Puritans, the Baptists, Jonathan Edwards, Jorge Whitfield, Jorge Muller, Carlos Spurgeon. All those men. If you go to the library, you will read about all those men. How God used them greatly. But there is a problem. Nobody talks about their theology. Everybody talks about how God used them to change the world. But there is almost no book about what they believed. Why? Because what they believed contradicts what we preach today. Everybody recognizes, for example, that Carlos Spurgeon. Right? Everybody. The greatest preacher who has lived on earth since the apostles. But why don't we preach what he preached? Jonathan Edwards. Perhaps the greatest theologian since, who knows? At least him, Calvin, Luther. The great ones. What did they believe? Have you ever thought why they didn't believe like we do today? Hudson Taylor. The famous missionary to China. What did he believe? Because he had another gospel than we do today. Jorge Muller. The great man of faith. What did he believe? Different than we do today. His gospel was different. What I am saying is that if we are here to teach new things, it is not worth it. It has no value. If a preacher tells you that he has a new revelation, run. Run. We want to return. Now. Finishing. Brothers, we are not talking about differences with respect to gifts. Or differences with respect to baptism. Although baptism is very important. What we are saying is that today the evangelicals themselves are not preaching the gospel that was preached only 75 years ago. And for that reason, look. No? You have your evangelistic campaigns. Right? An evangelist comes. Chants and a lot of things. It is a great show. And he preaches. And 100 people receive Christ during the week. But on Sunday, none of them come to church. Why? Do we have to change our method? Well, it is better to say that we have to change our theology. We have to return to the scriptures. We are going to talk about human depravity. Why? The whole battle is won or lost there. We have to recognize that man is spiritually dead. And that he can be saved only through a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Through the preaching of the gospel. Today, the evangelists are using their tricks. Manipulating psychologically. Lowering the lights. Beautiful music. Move forward. Your friend is with you. It is only going to take 5 minutes. Make your decision. All of that is false. These are methods used by children who do not know what the word of God is. The gospel or the power of God. We have to recognize that man is depraved. If he is going to receive Christ. He is going to receive Christ because of a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. That shows the power of God as the same creation of the universe. Really. It requires more of the power of God to save a man than to create a universe. Because God created the world out of nothing. Out of nothing. He created the universe. But to take a corrupt, depraved man. And to recreate the man in the image of Jesus. Power. And it is a power that man cannot generate. What we need today in Peru and in the world. Are men who do not trust. And women who do not trust in the arm of the flesh. Methods. But people who trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ. If I stop with an open Bible. And I preach about sin. And I preach about judgment. And I preach the cross correctly. Christ dying under the wrath of God. If I preach the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. And if I call. If I give a call of repentance and faith. God is going to save. He is going to build his church. He is going to do a work. We must put aside all these things. And preach the scriptures. Isn't it true that when you go to a conference of missions. They mostly talk about methods. Statistics. Things that you can do. To manipulate others. No. We have the word of God. The prayer. And love. They are our weapons. And if we are going to fight. We fight with the preaching of the word of God. Prayer. Intercession. On our knees. Claiming to God. So that he can do miracles among us. And love. That is sacrificed. That is sacrificed. Brothers. I am sorry. I am so limited when I speak in Spanish. My wife is Peruvian. But I still don't learn much. Because she always speaks. She doesn't allow me to speak. But. But. Be patient. Be patient with me. The other preachers. I assure you. I will teach you much more. But this is an introduction. Let's pray. Father, I thank you. I ask you Lord. In the name of Christ.