God Won't Let You Slide If You're Wrong On The Gospel

Matthew 7:21-23, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

An increasing disturbing trend is to accept Free Grace Theology and Lordship Salvation as both within the limits of orthodox Christianity. Nothing could be further from the truth! That is the Devil's work of ecumenism (yoking Christian believers with religious unbelievers). These two ideologies are enemies of one another, and simply cannot both be the Gospel truth! A Free Grace Gospel is correct. Lordship Salvation is not even close to God's plan of salvation. Please do not be deceived dear friend. The Bible is not vague on God's plan of salvation. 'What Is The Gospel?' (by Pastor Harry Ironside, 1876-1951).

“In great contests [battles], each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God—both may be, but one must be, wrong—God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time!” —President Abraham Lincoln

It would be easy to rationalize that a loving God will let people slide someday. I mean, after all, somebody who spends their life doing many wonderful works in Jesus' name deserves to be rewarded, right? I would actually agree. That makes sense to our humanitarian sense of compassion, decency and fairness. The problem is that it is not what God says in the Holy Bible. You and I are criminals in God's sight (Romans 3:10-23). I don't care how good of a person you may be (as far as humans go), you are still a dirty hell-deserving sinner. 

The Bible says committing even one sin makes a man guilty of all in God's sight (James 2:10). That is because even one sin makes us unfit for Heaven! God is absolutely holy, perfect and righteous in every way imaginable and beyond. Even our righteousness (our good works) are filth to God. Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Like it or not dear reader, your best is not good enough for God, you need Christ's best to save you! Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved.

As an example of a false teacher, Evangelist Charles Grandison Finney (1792–1875) was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He has been called: “The Father of Modern Revivalism.” I hope you are sitting down, because what you are about to read is mind-blowing, that any preacher could be so woefully ignorant of theology:

1. Gospel Justification is not the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Under the gospel, sinners are not justified by having the obedience of Jesus Christ set down to their account, as if he had obeyed the law for them, or in their stead. It is not an uncommon mistake to suppose that when sinners are justified under the gospel they are accounted righteous in the eye of the law, by having the obedience or righteousness of Christ imputed to them. I have not time to go into an examination of this subject now. I can only say that this idea is absurd and impossible, for this reason, that Jesus Christ was bound to obey the law for himself, and could no more perform works of supererogation, or obey on our account, than any body else. Was it not his duty to love the Lord his God, with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love his neighbor as himself? Certainly; and if he had not done so, it would have been sin. The only work of supererogation he could perform was to submit to sufferings that were not deserved. This is called his obedience unto death, and this is set down to our account. But if his obedience of the law is set down to our account, why are we called on to repent and obey the law ourselves? Does God exact double service, yes, triple service, first to have the law obeyed by the surety for us, then that he must suffer the penalty for us, and then that we must repent and obey ourselves? No such thing is demanded. It is not required that the obedience of another [Jesus] should be imputed to us. All we owe is perpetual obedience to the law of benevolence. And for this there can be no substitute. If we fail of this we must endure the penalty, or receive a free pardon. [emphasis added] 

SOURCE: Evangelist Charles Finney, “Justification By Faith,” Lecture V. 1837

WRONG! Mr. Finney just totally denied God's imputed righteousness!!! Under the Gospel, sinners ARE absolutely justified by having Christ's obedience set down to our account!!! Titus 3:5-7, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” It appears that Charles Finney never read the Bible!!! Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Being “justified freely” by God's grace means that NO WORKS are required. What is wrong with some preachers, that they are compelled to add personal works to God's grace?

Let me say those beautiful precious words again from Romans 3:24... JUSTIFIED FREELY!!! Gotta love it! I'm telling you truthfully—beware of theologians! I'm just a born-again redeemed sinner who can read English! The inspired King James Bible says that we are “JUSTIFIED FREELY” by God's grace! Let those words sink in... JUSTIFIED FREELY!!! That means you don't have to live a holy life to receive it. That means you don't have to repent of your sinful behavior to receive it. That means you don't have to be willing to turn from sin to receive it. A changed life is the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which is a result of salvation and growing in grace as a believer, but is not requirement to receive the gift of God.

Evangelist Charles Finney was a theological fool! Proponents of Lordship Salvation have a problem with the simplicity that is in Christ, demanding that you “turn away from your sins” as part of salvation. That is the junk theology being taught at Bob Jones University nowadays. This damnable heresy has crept into tens of thousands of the churches, teaching that you must be willing to forsake sinful behavior, or else God won't save you. This is NOT the free gift of eternal life! Pastor Charles Finney was a big time heretic! 

Finney shares the same accursed gospel of false prophet's Ray Comfort, John MacArthur, Steve Pettit, Adrian Rogers and R.C. Sproul, to name but a few reprobates (Galatians 1:6-9). In the preceding article, Finney foolishly says, “we owe perpetual obedience to the law of benevolence.” No, we owe NOTHING! Grace is not cheap, it is totally free!!! Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay! THE PRICE FOR OUR SINS HAS BEEN PAID!!! Jesus paid for everyone's sins on the cross with His precious blood. That is why forgiveness of sins is a gift. You simply need to take that gift by faith. Simply BELIEVE the Gospel and it is done!!!

Dear reader, the people in Matthew 7:21-23 did many wonderful works. They did them all in Jesus' name. They followed Christ, calling Him, “LORD, LORD.” Unfortunately, they didn't do God's will, which according to John 6:40 is to simply rest in Jesus as your personal SAVIOR!!! The Lordship Salvation gang are all going to Hell, because they have perverted grace. If you doubt what I say, please read our text passage again from Matthew 7:21-23:

Matthew 7:21-23, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

How could the Lord be so ungrateful? I mean, these people sacrificed their lives to serve Christ! They preached in the Lord's name everywhere they traveled. They did not just a few, but MANY wonderful works. They may have built orphanages for abandoned children. They may have given money to all sorts of charities. They may have visited the sick in local hospitals. They even cast out devils the Bible says. And they did it all in Jesus name!!! 

Yet, and don't miss this, Jesus called them workers of iniquity. The Lord said He didn't know them as His sheep. Didn't Jesus say elsewhere in the Bible that His sheep follow Him? Yes, and they followed Jesus their entire lives. But they missed one big thing... JESUS DIDN'T KNOW THEM!!! John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” Dear friend, you can follow Christ your whole life, but if you have never been born-again, Jesus does not know you as one of His sheep! John 3:7, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”