The following article was originally published by us in February 1994.  This message still needs to be heard today as we are surely in the time of the ‘great falling away’.  I know you are flooded with mail, but this message is worth your time, effort, and prayers to understand.  Blessings to you.

“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”  II Thess. 2:3

Dear Friends,

Sometime ago I wrote on this verse in a letter, and now I would like to write to you again, as I feel many true believers are discouraged and bewildered by what they see around them.  For the past hundred years evangelism has slowly changed.  In the nineteenth century the world witnessed one of the most remarkable revival ministries ever to grace this earth.  The evangelist was Charles Finney.  Previous to his conversion, Finney had been a lawyer and studied Blackstone’s Law, which was the standard law book in use in those days.  In it the Mosaic law and its purposes were put forth to help give lawyers a solid moral ground to stand on.  After his conversion, Finney preached as if he was a prosecuting attorney upholding the justice of God, and proving that man was altogether sinful and deserving of God’s wrath.  The purpose of the law of Moses was not to give life, for it couldn’t, but rather to reveal Mankind’s sin and be used as a gauge to see how far He has fallen.  Seeing this, the Holy Spirit could perform His function of convicting people of sin.  “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  (John 16:8)  When conviction was full, Finney would point them to the Cross as the only means of escape.

When a person is convicted of something, that conviction will produce guilt.  Guilt is God’s way of saying we’re wrong and we need to get right.  When a person is willing to humble himself and admit he’s wrong, and not only admit it but turn from sin, he is repenting.  In Finney’s day, the first few rows in front of the church were left vacant.  These were called “anxious seats”, for those who were anxious about their souls.  When people came forward, they would be under such conviction over sin that they would kneel there before God for hours, sometimes all through the night.  They would stay until God had witnessed to their souls (the witness of the Spirit) that their sins were forgiven, that they had truly been born again, that they had gone from death to life.

Today, many have criticized those methods as being too extreme, not necessary, too complicated!  Today the Gospel is made plain and easy.  Three steps and you’re in!  (Some use four steps.)  Major Bible institutes, colleges, and seminaries are fighting the teaching of the necessity of repentance.  We now have the Gospel down to where a person is converted in minutes.  It’s painless, free, and won’t cost you a thing!  The modern day Gospel is geared to appeal to our selfish sin natures.

Here are some examples:

“If you are a young person, I beg you to come to Jesus Christ.  I want to tell you that Jesus Christ can give you the greatest happiness, the greatest adventure and the greatest thrills that you have ever known.  If you will invite Jesus Christ into your heart, he will put joy in your soul and a thrill in your heart.  Come to Christ!  Jesus Christ is the One who can bring you joy and happiness and peace.”  (“Decision”, May 1993)

“The smartest thing you could ever do is to settle your eternal life right now with the Lord.  Doesn’t it make sense to believe the One who came back from the dead and trust Him for the payment of your sins?  The best thing in life is free.  The greatest decision that you could ever make is to trust Christ as your Saviour.  If you had the good judgment to do so, let me congratulate you.  If you still haven’t please don’t put it off–tomorrow may never come!  You have everything to gain and nothing to lose.”  (“The Best Thing in Life is Free”)

“If you’ve not trusted Christ to get you to heaven, why not do it now?  Just tell God you realize you are a sinner and you recognize Christ died and arose to solve the sin problem.  You might like to express your faith to God like this:  Dear God, I admit I’ve sinned.  I believe Christ died for my sin and arose from the dead.  I trust Christ to save me from my sin right now.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.  Do that now.  If you have trusted Christ, you have eternal life.  You mean it’s that simple?  Yes.  You mean that’s all I have to do!  Yes.”  (“Can You be Sure You are Going to Heaven?”, EvanTell, Inc.)

These are only three examples from groups that are having a profound impact upon the thinking of the modern-day Church.  We hear phrases like: salvation is easy; it’s as simple as that;  all you have to do;  look at what God is offering you;  you don’t want to go to hell–pray to receive Christ now.  Dear God, help us!  Please open up our eyes to see what has happened.  There are many today who have prayed to receive Christ as their Saviour but they still haven’t been born again.  We’ve been led to believe that a decision for Christ is synonymous with being born again.  An old saint named Lillian Harvey said, “You cannot join the Kingdom of God, you must be born into it.”  We talk so much about what we get, but fail to tell people the cost.  We make it sound like a party when in fact it’s a crucifixion.  The old man must die, and before God will give grace to save a person’s soul He gives grace to help a person repent.  Mind you I said help, not make.  In saving souls, God is always the initiator and man the responder.

In Matthew 13 we see the parable of the Sower.  Some seed fell on four types of ground.  The seed represents the Word of God.  The first ground was the wayside, and the birds snatched up the seed immediately.  The birds are a picture of Satan’s demons stealing the Word away.  The second ground was hard shallow soil that the seed began to grow in, but died off quickly.  In the natural realm the roots of a plant must go down deep into the soil in order to draw up water to sustain its life.  Especially is this important during a drought.  If the roots are shallow, the plant will be burned up.  Likewise in the spiritual realm all will have to face those dry times (wilderness experience) and if our roots do not go deep into Christ, then our lives will wither and fall away.  The Christian must have a drink of living water.

The third ground allowed the seed to grow, but eventually that life was choked out.  One of the greatest dangers in the Church today is materialism.  What is especially tragic is that this malignancy is so easily accepted.  Yet the Word of God shows plainly that materialism will choke out spiritual life.  This does not mean that the professing Christian will denounce Christ–far from it.  The materialist is thinking of what’s in it for him, and eternal life is very appealing to the selfish sin nature.  The materialist doesn’t understand true self-denial.  He has a form of godliness, but keeps denying the power thereof.  When under conviction he says, “I’ve prayed to receive Christ,” and he can’t see how his spiritual life has been choked.  He can’t see himself as fitting the mold as the third soil.  He’s carnal and lukewarm and can’t see how close he is to being spit out (rejected) by Christ.

The fourth soil was good, prepared soil that brought forth a crop.  It bore fruit from the seed.  Now what made the fourth soil different so that the seed was able to grow properly?  The answer is simple.  If you were a farmer with spring coming round, and it was time to plant, what would you do with ground that has been rained on, snowed on, frozen and thawed, and packed down almost as hard as rock?  Wouldn’t you plow it up?  What would you think of a farmer who didn’t plow up the ground, but instead threw his seed out on top of it?  What kind of harvest do you think he’d get?  Wouldn’t you think he was foolish and wasting his seed and time?  And in the end what would that farmer have in his field?  Wouldn’t it be weeds?  That’s exactly what has happened today in churches.  Hosea 10:12 says to break up your fallowed (unplowed) ground.  Breaking up unplowed ground spiritually is dealing with sin, true repentance, and yet today we don’t preach repentance.  Consequently, most people in the churches today have made decisions for Christ without ever truly repenting.  In order to receive God’s saving grace you must repent.  Without God’s saving grace you will never understand the true Gospel.  The Gospel is a revelation only to those who have obeyed God, by repenting.  Paul shows this in Gal. 1:11,12:  “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

When John the Baptist came his message was repentance.  Who was John preparing everyone for?  It was Jesus.  Don’t miss this valuable truth, for when Jesus was revealed then people could believe to salvation.  Now some of you may be thinking, “Jim, the Bible teaches that all we have to do is ‘believe’ and we’ll be saved.”  (Acts 16:31)  However, there is a great distinction between those who believe for selfish or even religious reasons and those who have truly been born again.  The difference is heaven or hell!  Read John 8, and you’ll see how Jesus dealt with believers (see vv. 30,31).  Jesus spoke to them and talked to them about being free.  What did these believers do but argue that they had never been in bondage to anyone (v. 33), citing their blood relationship with Abraham.  Jesus immediately showed them that He was talking about sin.  What was He trying to accomplish?  He was hoping they would see their need and repent.  But as you read the rest of the narrative you’ll see the relationship between Jesus and these believers deteriorated rapidly until at last they tried to kill Him.  Are we going to say these believers were saved?

Evangelists and pastors today are much like the foolish farmer I alluded to earlier, and now because we don’t have true repentance, we have to come up with a quick and easy way to close the “sales agreement”.  Believe it or not, many church leaders use sales principles in their evangelism.  When we say, “Doesn’t it make sense to receive Christ,” or, “Look at what Jesus offers you,” etc., we appeal to the unrepentant flesh.  It’s the “What’s in it for me?” mentality.  There have been thousands, perhaps millions of these professions of faith, but again, making a profession is not the same as going from death to life or truly being regenerated, born again of the Spirit.  These professors have been coming into the organized Church.  They’re carnal, unrepentant, and unregenerated.  (Regeneration is something only God the Holy Spirit can do.)  Eventually, many of these assume leadership positions still blind to God’s holiness and telling others there’s no need to repent because they didn’t themselves.  They enjoy leadership not because they’re servants, but because their flesh enjoys the power.  The thought never occurred to them that maybe they are not really in the faith.   Ask yourself this:  Do I love the Lord with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength?  Or do I love myself and the things of the world?  Do I love my work, my home, and the things I’ve amassed (materialism) more than I do my Lord?  Do I enjoy my television for hours, but my devotion time is reading “Our Daily Bread,” and asking God for His blessing on my wants?  (I John 2:15) “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  Emphasis, “in Him”.  Am I diligent in seeking the Lord, wanting to know Him better, to live a life that is holy and pleasing to Him, or am I non-chalant concerning holy living because after all, nobody’s perfect.  Do we rationalize sin as if God expects us to sin?  Jesus told the adulteress in John 8:11 to go and sin no more.  Was He kidding?  In John 5:14, Jesus said the same thing to the cripple He healed.  Listen, Jesus didn’t die to save us in our sins, He died to save us from our sin.  I John 2:1 says, “If we sin”.  Today we say “when”.  Those who have been born from above are conscientious of all they do, as they want Jesus to be glorified in all things.  Born again believers don’t use God’s name in careless conversation as the presence of the Holy Spirit would so convict, that the person would again repent and remain in a right relationship with God.

Now to summarize all of this.  The Word of God goes forth, and the Lord graciously works on all hearers by His Word.  Those who yield to the conviction by the Holy Spirit will repent.  Conviction leads to repentance.  However, a person can resist the Holy Spirit’s correction.  Those who skip over repentance might pray for salvation, but it’s in the realm of the flesh and this act has only given the individual a false security.  “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death,”  (II Cor. 7:10).  Those who repent with a godly sorrow are then enabled by God’s grace to see the kingdom and the way in, which is through true belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The proud religious person might (and will) have a belief but not by God’s revelation.  It would compare to the belief in John 8, where the truth was hidden, misunderstood, maligned, and rejected.  “At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes,” Matt. 11:25.

In the beginning of this writing, I quoted about the great falling away, and mentioned about Finney’s ministry.  I hope you’ve seen a little of the difference between those who’ve gone before and those of this century.  We could add the names of Whitefield, Wesley, Asbury, Garrettson, and others who called on their hearers to repent.  Back then there were mighty  moves of God’s Spirit.   Today we don’t see the Spirit move because we don’t ask for God to move upon us.  Today the weeds (tares) from this feeble evangelism are filling churches everywhere, in all denominations.  In my ministry I’ve experienced the anger and rejection from many of the churches I’ve preached in, but I’ve also seen the remnant.  Those of you who are the twice born, you’ve seen the carnality and the worldliness, and you’re grieved by it.  Perhaps you’ve been made to feel like there is something wrong with you.  Listen my brethren, stand firm and raise your shield of faith, for just as Cain persecuted Abel, so the lukewarm, carnal church will persecute those who are of another world.  My precious brethren in Christ, we are in the last throes of this old world and the organized Church is heaping to themselves teachers who will tickle their ears.  You be faithful.  Find others who are like-minded and band together in prayer for God to move.  Christ is coming.  You be found faithful!

Current ministry news — July 2007

Please pray for:

1. Malaga Camp Meeting:  August 5th – 10th, two services daily
2. Meetings in Indianapolis:  August 16th – 19th
3. Please remember the jail ministry, youth ministry, and our home group.
4. We are working on another music CD and a website linked with PRBTMI

Blessings to you all in Jesus,

Jim