Then he comes to his invitation to the unbeliever, saying, “There are two things that get you into heaven: The blood of Christ and the instructions of God to guide us and both require trust, surrender, faith, and obedience on our part. We can’t save ourselves, we need the blood of forgiveness and we need God’s instructions for guidance."
At this point, the discerning reader might become a bit concerned over the statement, "We need God's instruction for guidance," so he holds his full approval in abeyance until he, in fairness, hears him out, and when he hears him say, "and both require trust, surrender, faith, and obedience on our part. We can’t save ourselves, we need the blood of forgiveness and we need God’s instructions for guidance," mental red flags are flying all over the place.
THEN COMES THE INVITATION
After a few more comments, he comes to the invitation time and to introduce that time, he brings the listener a list of things he must do:
1. Trust the Lord Jesus.
2. Be baptized. (“Baptism,” he says, “is our appeal to the Lord to cleanse us by His blood.”)
3. Obediently follow God’s instructions.(The only "instructions" are, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.")
4. Turn to the Lord Jesus. (This is vague.)
5. Repent—"Turn away from sin, renounce all vain things you trusted in before, renounce the love and practice of sin in order to turn to the Lord." (His definition of "repent" is faulty and he's imported into the word meanings it does not have. "Repent" means "change your mind." At this point, he's defined what he means by "Turn to the Lord Jesus." There are a multiplicity of problems which surface at this point--no one can turn away from sin, the preacher included. He has sinned and will continue to sin even after salvation. He's imposing the impossible requirement of "renouncing the love and practice of sin.")
6. Confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth. (By this, people usually mean, "Come forward down the aisle." This requirement is coming from his misunderstanding of Rom. 10:9-10 and turning that text into a requirement for salvation not found in the Gospel of John, a book written for the purpose of evangelism.)
PURLOINED!
Talk about "snatching the gospel away!" (Luke 8:12) The speaker himself has snatched the good news away by loading it with works, when he'd just said that salvation was a free gift.
All of the above serves as a cautionary tale for us to be more and more and more discerning. Had the reader stopped reading with we "need to submit to God's plan for obtaining righteousness," and had he stopped with "the blood of Christ gets you into heaven," and had he stopped with "We can't work our way to heaven," he might have thought all was well. But such was not to be.
We always need to require the writer or the speaker to nail things down--to inquire as to the specifics, to keep asking questions to make certain that when he's writing or speaking of trusting Christ, what does he mean by that? Is he speaking of trusting Christ alone by faith alone, or are there additions such as the aforementioned?
RED FLAGS
The additions of works to faith alone in Christ alone are numerous and in error:
“Give your heart to Christ,” “Give your heart to Jesus,” “Surrender all,” “Pray the sinner's prayer,” “Turn the direction of your life over to God,” “Put your all on the altar,” “Make Jesus Lord of your life,” “Confess all your sins,” “Forsake all your sins,” “Take Jesus into your heart,” “Ask Jesus to come into your heart,” “Make the great commitment,” and “Follow Jesus.”
If you are attending and thereby supporting a ministry or a church that corrupts the good news in the aforementioned ways, you need to drop everything and leave immediately. "They have a good youth program," "They have an excellent nursery," "They're in a good location," "Their music is excellent," or, "The preacher is nice" are not reasons for staying and supporting their leavening the gospel of grace with works.
Find and associate with those who understand grace; learn from and encourage them.
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