AS SICK AS A PARROT

Solid things are worthy of confidence. We walk on solid bridges, fly in solid planes and build upon solid foundations. Solidity gives assurance and protection. But unstable elements correlate with a sensation of uncertainty and ill-feeling. Something unsound leaves us uneasy within.

This same scenario applies to all spheres of all life, including the preaching of the Gospel. A straight and solid biblical message is of much more use than a wishy-washy, sinner-friendly mess that refuses to mention sin or coming judgment. A watered-down sermon brings dishonour to the name of the Lord and reproach to the church as a whole. Rather than edifying the saints, such nonsense erodes a solid faith. Hell laughs wherever Christ is not proclaimed in all of His sufficient fullness.

We see this general distancing from the solid teaching of the Word of God in many Christian circles. For example, salvation itself has been reduced to a mere ‘repeat-after-me’ formula. If all you have to do to receive eternal life is repeat a ‘sinner’s prayer’ then every parrot in the jungle is soon to be an heir of eternal life. Knowing how to repeat something doesn’t mean you are participant of the glory of its truths. Saying “I am a fish” doesn’t make you one. The sinner’s prayer was something the modern minister invented.

Likewise, if all you have to do to enter the kingdom of heaven is to raise your hand in the air, then I can assure you that every monkey that lives on this planet is soundly born again! The whole contemporary process of salvation stinks of falsehood and superficiality; it all smells like an unclean circus. We’ve expelled the Holy Ghost from Christianity. That explains why we’ve so many dogs and venomous vermin running about in our places of worship; we tricked them into believing that they belong to God, and now, all they do is sow discord, carnality, sensuality, strife and problems wherever they go. They don’t know God!

A solid and substantial conversion is marked by two clear factors: repentance and faith. Simply put, repentance is fleeing from our sins and faith is fleeing to Christ. We run from ourselves to find refuge in the Lord. Now, here is the all-important question: how can a sinner do that? First of all, the sinner has to be shown his desperate plight. He must know that he is damned and weighed down under the wrath of an Almighty and thrice holy God. There is no hope for any child of wrath. How, then, can the sinner know that? By the preaching of God’s Law!

The Law shuts every mouth before God and reveals to us our sin in all of its gross and abominable depth. The Apostle Paul was well conscious of that eternal truth. Only when the full force of the Law is applied will the sinners cry out under conviction gnawing their tongues in unbearable agony. That is the very moment when the balm of the Gospel is to be displayed. The Gospel is only Good News for those who know that their current estate is one of Bad News. That fact alone shows us why so many nominal Christians live lives that deny the Lord. They were taught the Gospel of love before they saw the horridness of their sin. They never repented, so they continue to wallow in their sin. But that is not the biblical pattern. All of the Protestant Reformers preached the Law of God, and when they saw the Holy Spirit bring conviction of sin then (and only then) they spoke of the work of Jesus Christ. The Law always paths the way for Jesus to be revealed as Saviour and King.

The wholesale rejection of any type of Law preaching today has done more harm to the church than any other secular philosophy that has been taken onboard. This is the one unmistakeable sign of evangelical unsoundness. Spokesmen that do not condemn sin, in no uncertain terms, are missionaries of Gomorrah. A man too afraid to warn sinners of their desperate and hopeless lot will have to give an account for their blood on Judgment Day. Every man of God that has ever graced a pulpit has been crystal clear regarding the grace and the wrath of the Most High. The Word of God speaks to us of the goodness and the severity of God, and any message that says otherwise is a lie sent from the pit of hell. Paul called down a curse upon any person (or angel) that announced a message foreign to the pure Gospel.

Getting back to the solidity of the Scriptures is the only way out of this sad predicament. Some may call us bigots for our stance, but if that be so, then the Bible is the biggest bigot of all. The Bible makes it plain that salvation from the wrath of God is found in Christ alone. Christ is the Saviour of those who know the wretchedness of their sin. It's the sick that need a doctor, not the well.

I, for one, am fed up with parrot-type religion. It has left too many children of God nauseated and confused. I want the real. God hasn’t called us to entertain goats, but to feed His sheep. If you too are fed up with this unstable circus, then I invite you too on this journey to get back to the solid, sound and stable Gospel that has prevailed in the world in spite of thousands of years of the lies and distorsions of man. May Christ, and Christ alone, continue to be the solid Rock on which we stand!