Why Modern-Day Grace Teaching Doesn't Work

By brother R. Michel Lankford
A few years ago I felt God leading me to write a teaching series called "Wrath of God, Grace of God." What I originally thought was going to be a very simple teaching ended up being a five-part series. The whole premise of this teaching series was this. We cannot genuinely understand or appreciate God's awesome grace, until we first understand and truly appreciate God's righteous standards and the guaranteed punishment and penalties for violating God's righteous standards. Until we understand what God really requires, what standards God will use to judge every single human being, until we understand that we are truly guilty of violating the standards, and until we understand what the absolute guaranteed penalties are for violating the standards, then we do not truly understand our desperate need for Grace. What's more, if we do not authentically understand our DESPERATE NEED for Grace, then we certainly will not appreciate the high price that Jesus Christ paid to ransom us out of our destruction and into the Grace of God. We can't appreciate the cure that God offers, if we don't first believe and understand that we have the disease, and we won't take the treatment protocol that the Great Physician requires to cure our disease, if we don't truly understand and believe that staying in our disease is absolutely fatal. This beloved is the crux of the problem with modern day "Grace teaching and preaching." For more than a generation now, the modern-day evangelical approach has been to teach about the grace of God and ignore God's wrath almost completely. What you end up with is that you are offering to give a very high-priced cure free of charge, but you are offering it to people who don't believe they are sick, and who don't take the consequences of their sickness seriously, so they won't appreciate and remain with their cure.
Yesterday, a friend of mine gave me an audio sermon called, "Hell's Best Kept Secret." The evangelist who preached it is named Ray Comfort. He preached and confirmed to my heart every premise I have written in, "Wrath of God, Grace of God."So the Holy Spirit then has clearly been leading us both in the exact same direction. In his sermon, Brother Ray Comfort reveals information that I did not even have when I wrote my papers. He says that in the course of his travels, he has gained access to church growth and development records, and he has seen trends which clearly demonstrate that 80% to 90% of people who make professions of faith in Jesus Christ today will not remain in their faith for Christ. Think about this. Churches are actually reporting and documenting an 80% to 90% failure rate at making and keeping disciples!! Something clearly is Not working, and we need to face up to it and do something about it, if we truly care about the immortal being of people. Imagine, according to present tends, only 10 to 20% of people continue walking with God after they make professions of faith. If you love people and you care about their immortal being, that is an extremely scary reality. Normally, I don't post anything in this blog except for discipleship teachings and Bible studies. I don't usually promote other books and other teachings, but in this case I am making an exception. I highly recommend you listen to this teaching. Also, if you would like a copy of the teaching series that I wrote called, "Wrath of God, Grace of God," (parts 1-5), simply e-mail me and I will make that available to you as well. God bless.
Brother Michel Lankford
Ray Comfort Teaching: Hell's Best Kept Secret
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=434&commentView=itemComments
I truly believe that every pastor, every teacher and indeed, every believer who has any concern for the destination of people's immortal being, should hear this sermon.