GOOD INTENTIONS AND THE ROAD TO HELL
Psalms 85:10, “Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
One of the challenges in today’s ministry world is to keep our message on track, to actually stay true to the message of the gospel articulated by the Apostle Paul is our greatest challenge. The tendency is for ministers to gradually move off point. Their intentions may be good, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I recently googled an old minister friend just to see how he was doing and what he was preaching. When I got to his web site my greatest fears were realized. There was a face that obviously had spent too much time in the tanning booth and had taken too many trips to the surgeon’s knife. That wasn’t the bad part, the video clip of his preaching was shocking. Not a scripture was even mentioned, the point of the message was how to get ahead in life. All I could think of was the words of our Lord, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his very soul?” The answer is obvious. Jonathan Edwards preached a powerful message that speaks about the justice and grace of God seen at the cross. Here is a small sample of that message.
“The strict justice of God, and even his revenging justice, and that against the sins of men, never was so gloriously manifested as in Christ. He manifested an infinite regard to the attribute of God’s justice, in that when he had a mind to save sinners, he was willing to undergo such extreme sufferings, rather than that their salvation should be to the injury of the honor of that attribute. And as he is the judge of the world, he doth himself exercise strict justice; he will not clear the guilty, nor at all acquit the wicked in judgment. And yet, how wonderfully is infinite mercy towards sinners displayed in him! Though he be the just judge of a sinful world, yet he is also the Savior of the world: though he be a consuming fire to sin, yet he is the light and life of sinners.”
Jonathan Edwards was never accused of allowing modern trends to shape his message, he remained relentlessly God centered throughout his ministry. In this message he touches on the heart of the gospel, the part that modern preachers have taken out of their message. He points out that man’s sin deserves punishment. He even says that the wrath of God is justly focused on man’s sin. The good news is this, Christ became a man to suffer the wrath of God in our place. Justice was satisfied, God’s holiness was protected, at the same time His endless mercy was offered to us in Christ. No matter how much man tries he can never improve on that timeless message. What message is that? The God so loved the world message. Christ died to save sinners, that is the message of the Bible. It can’t be improved and we dare not try to change it, eternity lies in the balance.
2 thoughts on “GOOD INTENTIONS AND THE ROAD TO HELL”
So right. I was in the world most of my life and know, very well the stench of hell. I see people taking dips, and slides into self help, positive thinking, etc. that have nothing to do with the word of God. I have seen and heard a mess of crazy teaching, all opinion with hardly even any reference to the word. When you walked in depth of depravity for as long I did.. you just don’t care about a lukewarm walk,especially regarding the word…as I don’t have time to entertain anything else. Thank you Pastor Frank for loving the word, especially God centered preaching.
Powerful, Good morning Pastor Frank, the truth is the truth and is all found in the manual, the AMAZING BOOK OF THE WORLD (BIBLE). My favorite book ever. A book held to be authorized in its field. Ha. I love that saying.
It is what it is today, tomorrow and forever. It is my walk, my talk, my character, my everything not just sometimes but all the time.
I will clinche my hand tightly to Jesus, just like Paul did and not quit. Nothing matters to me in this world anymore except for the work of the Lord and loving Him and acknowledging Him and walking with Him daily. Lord move me bend me more shape me more. More of You less of me and make me move where you want me to move, Holy Spirit. It’s all yours Holy Spirit. I am yielded to you Lord. I love your ways, and you know my heart inside and out. 😉 Lord thank you for your fresh mercy, grace and anoiting daily. I wake up to you.
Awesome blog, love you, Pastor, have a great day in our LORD. It’s all because of Him not me , for being where I am today, thank you Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit for that instruction manual that the Lord led me too.. Got to go eat and get watered. I see daylight coming in through the window.