I think we have all felt the temptation to modify the gospel, to preach a gospel that is inaccurate or incomplete. I think we have all felt the desire to avoid the reproach that may come upon us when we preach the whole gospel and true gospel\u2014the gospel that is so very bad before it is so very good. <\/p>\n
The fact is, the true gospel is not complimentary. It is not admiring or flattering. Rather, it describes humanity in all our sinfulness and depravity, all our hopelessness and lostness. <\/p>\n
Not so long ago I came across some words from the old preacher De Witt Talmage that describe this well. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.<\/p>\n
\nYou see this is not a complimentary gospel. That is what makes some people so incensed. It comes to a man of a million dollars, and impenitent in his sins, and says, \u201cYou are a pauper.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes to a woman of fairest cheek, who has never repented, and says, \u201cYou are a leper.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes to a man priding himself<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think we have all felt the temptation to modify the gospel, to preach a gospel that is inaccurate or incomplete. I think we have all felt the desire to avoid the reproach that may come upon us when we preach the whole gospel and true gospel\u2014the gospel that is so very bad before it is so very good. The fact is, the true gospel is not complimentary. It is not admiring or flattering. Rather, it describes humanity in all our sinfulness and depravity, all our hopelessness and lostness. Not so long ago I came across some words from the old preacher De Witt Talmage that describe this well. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. You see this is not a complimentary gospel. That is what makes some people so incensed. It comes to a man of a million dollars, and impenitent in his sins, and says, \u201cYou are a pauper.\u201d It comes to a woman of fairest cheek, who has never repented, and says, \u201cYou are a leper.\u201d It comes to a man priding himself on his independence, and says, \u201cYou are bound hand and foot by the devil.\u201d It comes to our entire race and says, \u201cYou are a ruin, a ghastly ruin, and a limitless ruin, and, unless the grace of God rebuild you, an everlasting ruin.\u201d Satan sometimes says to me; \u201cWhy do you not preach that truth? Why don\u2019t you preach a gospel with no repentance in it? Why don\u2019t you flatter men\u2019s hearts so that\u2026See AlsoA La Carte (October 31)Everyday GospelEvangelize 2024: Growing a Church That Proclaims The Gospel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":112163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[303],"class_list":["post-112152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tim-challies","tag-articles","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/chris-liverani-9cd8qOgeNIY-unsplash-1-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112164,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112152\/revisions\/112164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}