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—the 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, “You are a pauper.”
It comes to a woman of fairest cheek, who has never repented, and says, “You are a leper.”
It comes to a man priding himself on his independence, and says, “You are bound hand and foot by the devil.”
It comes to our entire race and says, “You are a ruin, a ghastly ruin, and a limitless ruin, and, unless the grace of God rebuild you, an everlasting ruin.”
Satan sometimes says to me; “Why do you not preach that truth? Why don’t you preach a gospel with no repentance in it? Why don’t you flatter men’s hearts so that you make them feel all right? Why don’t you preach a humanitarian Gospel, with no repentance in it, saying nothing about the ruin, talking all the time about the redemption? Instead of preaching to five thousand, you might preach to twenty thousand; for there would be four times as many who would come to hear a popular truth as to hear an unpopular truth, and you have voice enough to make them hear.”
I say: “Get behind me, Satan.” I would rather lead five thousand souls into heaven than twenty thousand into hell. The redemption of the Gospel is a perfect farce if there is no ruin. “The healthy need not a physician, but they that are sick.” And “If any one, though he be an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel than this,” says the apostle, “let him be accursed.”
