I was invited to attend a revival meeting in a local church. The speaker spoke clear and about sin and many of the sins church people commit and are entangled in. However, I was disappointed when at the end of his preaching he apologized if he had offended anyone. The problem such preachers have is they are not in charge of conviction. I have taught on topics, such as The History of Christianity, and made no mention of sin or sinning, and yet people were convicted.<\/p>\n
The fact is, we have no control over conviction. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts and also anoints preaching and teaching. So that preacher was just trying to appear strong against sin, but he did not want conviction to occur. His apology was for the purpose of softening the effect of conviction. What a waste of pulpit time and my time as well!<\/p>\n
It is true that most people do not like conviction and many reject it. To the deceived, all truth that is conveyed via anointed preaching, and that pierces their minds with conviction, is considered \u201chateful, judgmental, pharisaical, unloving, condemning, et cetera.\u201d They want a soft and benign gospel that could not penetrate a rotten apple. The piercing of God\u2019s word disturbs them and they lash out in anger. Striking out with angry accusative verbiage at one who speaks the clear Gospel truth is indicative of one who does not know Christ.<\/p>\n
The only \u201cgospel\u201d available that fits their standard is as a cart rope tied to Satan\u2019s minions. It is the \u201cgospel\u201d of \u201cChrist on our terms and according to our way.\u201d It does not include becoming a new creation because it does not insist on death to the fleshly nature. One cannot be raised in newness of life that has not been crucified with Christ.<\/p>\n
The truth is that if God had wanted to please the ears and warm the hearts of sinners, He would have sent a Gospel palatable to their sin-deadened souls. However, that\u2019s not the way salvation works. People need their sin exposed so that they realize that they need a savior. But they have become hardened through the \u201cdeceitfulness of sins.\u201d (Hebrews 3:13) There is a reason the word of God is identified as a sword. Its sharp tip is conviction and it did not come to make peace with sinners. When Christ said, \u201cYou are already\u00a0clean\u00a0because of the word which I have spoken to you\u201d (John 15:3), perhaps it was because the anointed word attacks sin with conviction. Sincere repentance is as taking a spiritual bath in the cleansing Blood of Christ.<\/p>\n
No one can be saved who has not been convicted of sin. If an individual is lost, the Holy Spirit will convict him or her because their sin and unbelief condemns them. To be set free he or she must turn from darkness and run to the Light.
\n\u201cAnd this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.\u201d John 3:19<\/p>\n
However, heretics and hirelings preach the \u201cgospel\u201d of a \u201ccovenant with death\u201d (Isaiah 28:18-20), which pleases the flesh. Sinners have no trouble listening to it or believing it. However, they are not truly converted but are being led down a path to deception.<\/p>\n
The anointed word of God leaves no room for fence-straddling Christianity. Millions will reject it and enter hell. The False Christian and flesh-placating preacher will enter eternal hell. People who reject conviction are setting their course for hell.\u00a0 We must love God\u2019s word when it convicts us as much as we love it when it blesses, comforts, encourages, and strengthens us. Conviction is not the enemy of a sinner. It can introduce him or her to a true friend\u2014Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was invited to attend a revival meeting in a local church. The speaker spoke clear and about sin and many of the sins church people commit and are entangled in. However, I was disappointed when at the end of his preaching he apologized if he had offended anyone. The problem such preachers have is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-rC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1712"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1714,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions\/1714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}