"Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man’s sinfulness and guilt, calling on ‘all men everywhere to repent,’ results in shallow conversions; and so we have myriads of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration whatever. Prating of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that ‘faith without works is dead’; and that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God."—H.A.IRONSIDE, Except Ye Repent, p. 11.
Thank the Lord for men like H.A. Ironside. He is an inspiration to me and everytime I read one of his works or sermons, it seems that he is using God's Word to deal with me personally. I can not help but to wonder what would happen if we could get the above quote to all of the evangelical churches in America and ask their pastors and staff to ponder them! Those men who are called to proclaim God's Word are called to call sinners to repentance; i.e. to call the lost to change their minds about their spiritual condition and their views concerning God and His Christ. To go from sufficient to need so that they may become rich!
It is one thing to preach grace, but the pastor who preaches it had better live it. This may be misconstrued as one needing to start orphanages or homeless shelters, and while these are good things in helping the poor, they do not meet the greatest need... that of Christ! I mean, think about it... if Christians give the world food, clothes, and healthcare, but neglect the Gospel, you will end up with full, clothed, and healthy people in Hell.
By living out grace, we are in constant reflection of what Christ has done for us on the cross and from the pondering of His riches that are made freely available to us through no effort of our own, we then seek to bless others, and the greatest way that we can bless them is to introduce them to the source of our joy so that they too may be saved! Social justice is good. Homeless shelters are good. But neither will save. Only Christ can do that.
As a side note, I am a huge fan of LOGOS Bible software and I use it everytime I prepare a sermon or do studying of any kind. It is the most complete and thorough Bible study software on the market today! They have just started production on the works of H.A. Ironside and you can get it from them at a special price before it is released to the public. If you do not have LOGOS, please feel free to contact me and I can get you a special discount! Check out http://www.logos.com/ for more details
