Shocking Message-Part 3

And you know, historically––one of the reasons I’m a Southern Baptist is that the Southern
Baptists have always been quick––when other denominations have failed to realize this––the
Southern Baptists have always been quick to realize that there is one gate; there is one God; there is one mediator between God and man; and His name is Jesus Christ. It’s not multiple choice. Not every road leads to Rome. As a denomination, we have always told people what Jesus told people: I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.

So, I praise God for that, that the only way any human being on this earth will ever be saved is through Jesus Christ, and that is all. Because you need to realize the Bible says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and you have no idea what that means, that we were born radically depraved and God hating, that we would have never sought God, never come to God. We have rebelled against God, broken every law. It’s not just an issue that you have sinned. The issue is you’ve never done anything but sinned. The Bible says in the prophets that even our greatest works are like filthy rags before God. And because of that, you know what we deserve? The wrath of God. The holy hatred of God.


You say, “Now, wait a minute. God doesn’t hate anybody. God is love.” No, my friend. You
need to understand something. Jesus Christ taught, the prophets taught, the apostles taught this
—that apart from the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, the only thing left for you
is the wrath, the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin.

When I speak in universities, they’re always quick to point out, “No, God cannot hate because
God is love.” And I tell you God must hate because God is love. You see, I love children;
therefore, I hate abortion. If I love that which is holy, I must hate that which is unholy. God is a
holy God. That’s something that the Americans have forgotten. Many of the things that you
love to do, God hates. Did you know that?

Pray for revival. You’re going to have a youth meeting; you want God to move, but before you
go there you watch programs on television that God absolutely despises. And then you wonder
why the Holy Spirit hasn’t fallen on a place and why you have to create false fire and false
excitement. Because God’s not in it. God is a holy God and the only way you and I could ever
be reconciled to a holy God is through the death of God’s own Son when He hung on that tree.

Now listen to me, if you’re saved here tonight, you’re not saved because the Romans and Jews
rejected Jesus. You’re not saved because they put a crown of thorns on His head. You’re not
saved because they ran a spear through His side, and you’re not saved even because they nailed
Him to a cross. Do you know why you’re saved if you are saved? Because when Jesus Christ
was hanging on that cross, He bore your sin. The sin of God’s people and all the fierce wrath of
God that should fall upon you fell upon His only begotten Son. Someone had to pay that price.
Someone had to die. It was God the Father who crushed His only begotten Son. According to
Isaiah 53, it says, It pleased Yahweh to crush Him.

People say the cross is a sign of how much man is worth. That’s not true. The cross is a sign of
how depraved we really are, that it took the death of God’s own Son. The only thing that could
save a people like us was the death of God’s own Son under the wrath of His own Father paying
the price, rising again from the dead. Powerful to say, this is the Gospel of Jesus.

Now what are you called upon to do? You say you go through the narrow gate. How do you do
that? Jesus said, The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. What must you do? In
Mark, He tells us . . . repent and believe the Gospel.

You say, “Brother Paul, I got saved by praying and asking Jesus Christ into my heart.” And I’m
sure you did, but you weren’t saved by a magic formula or some words you repeated after
someone else. You were saved because you repented of your sins and you believed, and not only
did you do that in the past, you continued to do it even until now, because when Jesus . . . a
proper translation of that verse He gave is this: The Kingdom of God is come. The time is
fulfilled. Now, spend the rest of your lives repenting of your sins and believing in Me.


Conversion is not like a flu shot. “Oh, I did that. I repented. I believed.” The question is my
friend––are you continuing to repent of sin? Are you continuing to believe? Because He who
began a good work in you will finish it. He will finish it.

Now, we as Southern Baptists preach that you’re supposed to go through that one and only gate
which is Jesus Christ. But we as Southern Baptists have forgotten something. And I want youth
ministers and pastors and everyone to listen to me, parents, we have forgotten a very important
teaching in the Gospel. It says that, not only the gate is narrow, it says the path is narrow. What
we basically do is lead someone to Christ, lead someone in a prayer and then they spend the rest
of their life living just like the world, and if you deny me on this, I can bring the statistics to
prove you wrong. Gallup poll, Barnard polls, every kind of poll you can possibly look at, when
it questions the morality of the church in America against the morality of those who claim to be
lost in America, the polls find no difference. Now that is statistics. It has nothing to do with
religious interpretation. Those are statistics.