The Great Escape

Since the Garden of Eden men have been seeking a way to escape the responsibility for their sin. The first words out of Adam's mouth when confronted with his sin by God, were, " .... the woman which THOU gavest me...." as if to blame God, because He had given him the woman. What an outrageous thing to lay to God's charge! Certainly, sin DOES make a man depraved! Man is not a sinner because he is depraved, but he is depraved because he is a sinner. That is a truth that is almost universally rejected by the human race. The common ground that all the cults and all the denominations can come together on is that man's sin is ultimately God's fault because He made us the way we are. Russelites believe it, Mormons believe it, the Catholics invented it, and all the Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Campbellites, and every other tribe and clique clings to it dearly, and are willing to stand together against anyone who dares to challenge this most precious doctrine. According to them it isn't all the evil we have done since we were old enough to choose that makes us guilty, but the fact that we were born guilty because of what someone we never knew did 6,000 years ago. We got something from Adam all right, but it wasn't guilt for his sin. What we got from him was a lesson and an example on how to shrug responsibility for our own sin. Eve was the first human to follow Adam's example when she said, "The serpent beguiled me&ldots;" Then it was the devil's turn and even the devil himself wasn't brazen enough to try to blame someone else for what he did.

Any preacher should realize, after preaching and dealing with people for a while, that men are still busy trying to blame their sin on someone, or something besides themselves. The core of the preacher's responsibility in preaching the Gospel is to get people to be honest with God and themselves about their sin, and quit making excuses for themselves. He must bring them face to face with their sin and leave them no escape to justify themselves in their wicked lifestyle. Yet the most prominent and talked about doctrines of our modern Christianity are all designed to just the opposite end. When just about any professing Christian is confronted with something in their life that isn't right, they immediately say one of two or three things: "Well, I'm not perfect, just forgiven." Or they will say, "Well, we all have that sinful nature, you know, and we are going to sin every day, no matter what, we just can't help it, and 'if you say you have no sin, you are a liar'." Then they might say, "Well, it's the old flesh, I just can't control it sometimes, but my inner man is right with God. After all, it's not what's on the outside, but what's on the inside that counts." What it amounts to is dividing ourselves up into two or three separate parts and blaming all the evil on one. It is like the child who invents an imaginary playmate and then blames all his mischief on this imaginary person. Oh yes, that IS the way it is. When we stand before God, we will not stand there as three persons, body, soul, and spirit - we will stand there as ONE person and we will give account of the deeds we have done in THIS body. God will NOT accept these silly excuses that we are using among ourselves to justify our sin.

Every preacher who gives excuses to people to continue in sin is going to give an account to God, and heavy is hanging over his head for taking so lightly the matter of the Gospel and value of men’s souls. It is pure poison that makes reprobates out of those who drink it down. The question is, WHY do men cling to, and defend these particular doctrines so vehemently? Years ago Christians got their dander up when it came to liquor and adultery, but now most are pretty passive about those things. If you really want to raise their blood pressure, just challenge them on their permissive, watered down version of the Gospel. Just try to corner them for their sin and make them the responsible party. You’ll find out what they are willing to fight for. They are willing to fight for the right to continue in their sin and not have some "holier-than-thou" preacher bothering them about it.

Why would a preacher of the Gospel and a representative of Christ stand in defense of sin and preach things that the people take as an excuse to sin? Without a doubt some do it to cover the sin in their own lives; some are deceived; and some are simply false prophets. There are some who are good men, who live holy lives themselves, but simply don’t realize that their message is being received this way by many of the people. They can’t consider the possibility that most of their church members are lost, and neither are they willing to bear the persecution that comes for standing against anything that goes against what most of the "brethren" believe, because it means that they will be ostracized and talked about, probably branded as a heretic. They would be in good company, because the prophets suffered the same thing, Jesus did, all the apostles did, and almost every man who ever stepped out and made a difference and was used by God suffered the loss of the respect and admiration of the "brethren." But God vindicated THEM and uncovered the slanders of the "brethren" for us to see who was approved by God.

Why don't we have revival in our day? Why do we see such wickedness in the churches? Why can't we see anyone get saved and stick with it anymore? Why do you hear of preachers and men in the church running off with women and molesting children, and other such ungodliness? The answers to all these questions can be found, to a large extent, in the subject we are addressing here. Sure, there are some other factors involved also, but this is the root of the problem. When God's men get back to calling sin what it REALLY IS, and preaching repentance the way it REALLY IS; when they quit preaching EXCUSES to sin, and quit calling everyone who prays a sinner's prayer "as saved as the Apostle Paul"; when they start proclaiming righteousness and demanding true repentance, and leaving no ESCAPE except to boldly stand against Christ and the Gospel, then and ONLY THEN will there be any hope for any kind of revival in the churches of God.

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