In this sermon, the preacher discusses the decline of the church in the 20th century and the need to return to biblical preaching. He emphasizes the importance of preaching the holy character of God and the eternal law of God, which demands strict obedience from the soul. The preacher criticizes the modern evangelistic formula that focuses on making a profession of faith without true repentance and transformation. He highlights the role of the law of God in convicting sinners and leading them to seek salvation through Jesus Christ.

Well, I'm going to read to you a statement that Martin Luther made. I want you to listen. Martin Luther wrote this, I should never have foreseen that Satan would raise up a sect as such that teaches that the Ten Commandments ought to be taken out of the Church and that men should not be terrified by the law. Are you terrified by the law? Martin Luther said he was. Moses trembled. Do you reckon Moses knew anything about what was being said? And that men should not be terrified by the law but gently extorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ. You know, gently extorted. Martin Luther also said it's a doctrine of Satan. Martin Luther also said it is a doctrine of Satan that men are no longer terrified by the law and have replaced it with a gospel of love and grace only. I have a book back here called Today's Gospel. I don't have much to do with books unless I know there's a whole lot of anointing and truth in it. And that's what I found in that book. There's some truth in it. It's good. And this is what Walter Chantry said in this book. We have inherited a system of evangelistic preaching which is unbiblical. Our message and manner of preaching the gospel cannot be traced back to the Reformers and their creeds. There are much more recent innovations. Worse, they cannot be traced back to the scriptures. They have clearly arisen from the careless mixture of 20th century reason with God's revelation. Products of modern evangelism are often sad examples of Christianity. They make a profession of faith, then continue to live like the world. Only a small proportion of those who make the decisions evidence a transformed life. When emotional hope and evangelist invitation has moved to another city, what do you have that's real and lasting? Large numbers have been led to assume they have a right to everlasting life and have been given assurance which does not belong to them. In other words, I'm going to add, it's a false security. Evangelicals are swelling the ranks of the deluded with a perverted gospel. Many who have made decisions in modern churches have been told in the inquiry room their sins have been forgiven will be surprised to hear, I never knew you, depart from me. What about those who have decided for Christ and you cannot tell what they decided? They do not study the word, they do not mind if they're absent when it's preached? You know they give no evidence of true conversion. Have you considered the possibility that we're never evangelized at all? Thousands of sinners think of God as having only one attribute, love. When you tell a stranger God loves you, his mind registers something like this, yes, he loves me, he'd never harm me, so all is well with my soul. To say to a rebel God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life is a terrible misinforming. The truth is that God is holy, thus he is angry with the sinner at this moment. Wrath already hangs over the head of the guilty and will forever torment him unless he repents and trusts God. This plan is not so wonderful. Sinners frequently think of God as flexible so that he will by no means punish wonderful men. If you rush into four easy steps to heaven with a man who has a defective view of God, you will deceive him. You may lead him to pray after you and you'll be praying to the God of glorious wholeness, but when he repeats God in his prayer, he's going to be praying to another God. He don't know him. Preaching several easy steps to heaven is not evangelism. Preaching the whole counsel of God is. Paul was a missionary evangelist. He could say to his Ephesian elders, I am free or I am pure from the blood of all men. Acts 20, 26. Not because he'd given each person four spiritual laws. The next verse substantiates this blame. For I have not shunned declaring you all the counsel of God. You know why some people shrink back when declaring the whole counsel of God? Because it upsets flesh. Today's mission boards are asking their missionaries to keep the blood of men on their hands. Don't rock the boat by clearly teaching anything that another evangelical would object to even if it's in your Bible. Stick to the main issue. Present day preaching only pays lip service to the concept that a man must recognize himself to be a sinner before he can genuinely embrace the Savior. Do you believe that all men are sinners? You ever been asked that? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Let's see what good is that. Because no definition of sin is included. It is God's law that convicts of sin. Isn't this good? Looks good. Until this condemnation of particular evils is forcefully pressed upon a sinner, he'll not flee to Christ for mercy. Have you been thinking about today since we've been sharing this word? Have you been thinking about fleeing to Christ for mercy and no place else to go? The man who understands the law clearly that knows only God's grace can have him. It is essential to declare the commandments in order to show the sinner his heart of hatred toward God and enmity toward men, in other words, his neighbor. Only then will he flee to the grace of God in Christ Jesus to provide him with righteousness and love. That righteousness only comes through Jesus. It's not our deeds and nothing we can do. We get in on it. Amen? It's perfected in us. Men are not turning to Christ because they have a sense of sinning against the Lord. They have no concept of sinning because the law of God is not preached. Amen? When Jesus said, talking about the rich young rulers, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, he was preaching the 10th commandment in an applicatory fashion. Christ was using God's word, thou shalt not covet. Like a dart, the law of God pierced the conscience of this youth for the first time. Jesus translated the 10th of God's commandments into a practical test by demanding that he abandon his riches. The youth loved his riches more than he loved God and his Son, and he turned away. He was deficient to the love for God upon which all the law was hanging. In the 20th century, the Church has tried to see how little it can say and still get converts. It is succeeding in spreading the truth so thinly that the world cannot see it. Four facts have bored sinners around us and weakened the Church as well. We must preach the holy character of God. We must preach the eternal law of God. Where are the pulpits clearly showing that God's pure law makes strict demands upon motives, desires, feelings, and attitudes of the soul? When you find them, or pastors who preach these things, you also discover churches with convicted sinners prepared to hear the way of salvation. Our ears have grown accustomed to hearing men told to accept Jesus as your personal Savior, a form of words which is not found in Scripture. It has become an empty phrase. They wholly ignore an essential element of the gospel, namely, repentance. Today, men are properly told to confess their sins and ask forgiveness. They forgive him his sins, but evangelists and pastors are forgetting to tell sinners to repent. This misinformed age imagines that it can continue, and it is always a lie, while adding Jesus. Build kingdoms, build treasures on earth, and also build treasures in heaven. Who could turn down that bargain? Pleasures of sin and joys of eternity. That's a good deal. Sinners are not being saddened or offended, as was a rich young ruler. Repentance is necessary to forgiveness. Confession of sin is not enough. It is no wonder, however, that repentance is not being preached today. How can a sinner turn from the sin of which he is blind because God's law is unknown to him? You can easily bring sinners to a sense of remorse because they are about to perish. Criminals are always sorry that they face punishment. That's the answer to worldly sorrow. There is little doubt that the rich young ruler would have received today's version of the gospel joyfully, without requirements of repentance. He would have gladly accepted Jesus' help to get to heaven. Surely he would accept the free gift of eternal life with no strings attached. But he would not empty his hands of filthy lucre or mammon or money to receive the righteous Son of God. He was not ready to do that to get eternal life. He is willing to have Christ. He came running to him, but he is not willing to forsake mammon. Churches are being filled with professing Christians who have never heard that Jesus demands repentance of any who seek eternal life. People flock to accept Jesus as personal Savior without selling all. They have never been told by a preacher that there is a condition placed on having treasures in heaven. So the converts of modern evangelism are often as worldly after their decision as before for they have made the wrong decision. The covetous still cling to the riches and pleasures. In a panic over this phenomenon, the evangelicals have invented the idea of carnal Christians. These are said to be folks who have taken the gift of eternal life without turning from sin. They have allowed Jesus to be their Savior, but they have not yielded their life to the Lord. In other words, Jesus is not really Lord. Trying to patch up a faulty evangelism that defends the questionable experiences of these men and women is conversion and holds out victorious life to those who are going to take a second step. If you want to go ahead and make him Lord, you can have a second step, but you are already secure where you are. What a lie! The rich young ruler would gladly have been a carnal Christian. Wouldn't he be delighted to be assured of eternal life by serving the devil on earth? No one is saved while being unrepentant. No illegitimate sons will enter the kingdom of God. Giving a false assurance to sinners is a scriptural sign of a false prophet. Few seem to appreciate or understand why professing Christians today question whether they have been born again at all. It is so easy. There is no question that God will give eternal life to all who repent and believe, but they are discerning enough to know that walking the aisle and muttering a verbal prayer does not constitute faith. How many souls have been led to vain confidence by man-made evangelistic formula? How many are sent home from evangelistic services with a calm who should have gone away grieved and disturbed like the rich young ruler? How many unsaved children have been given assurance by the teacher's Bible classes so that they have ceased to seek God's salvation and quit seeking him anymore? But the dreadful false piece of today's salesmanship evangelism it will kill conviction before it can do its intended work. They are talked out of it. And it becomes so much so.