Crawl to the Altar

2 Timothy 4:3-6 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
Are we brave enough to look at ourselves as Christians? Are we brave enough to reflect on many of our Sunday worship services, asking of how God sees them? Are we drawn to Sunday worship for the entertainment; for the concert, the lights and sound, the flashy mega-preacher that has a cult-like following? Are we disillusioned when we are not entertained, complaining how the music was not right, or the message was just not clear? I have sat many a Sunday in the pews, only to drive home and critique and complain about the above, and Satan smiled….we all have done it. Leonard Ravenhill said, “I read of the revivals of the past, great sweeping revivals where thousands of men were swept into the Kingdom of God. I read about Charles G. Finney winning his thousands and his hundreds of thousands of souls to Christ. Then I picked up a book and read the messages of Charles G. Finney and the message of Jonathan Edwards on ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,’ and I said, ‘No wonder men trembled; no wonder they fell in the altars and cried out in repentance and sobbed their way to the throne of grace!’ Hell is missing in our doctrine, our preaching, and the fear of it in our lives.

When is the last time your pastor preached on Hell? Likely some length, because they are fearful the pews will be vacant the next Sunday. If your pastor has fulfilled his duty, remain at that church if he is preaching the only Savior from it, the free gift of God’s grace, but not a works based doctrine of yourself that sends you to it. Paul was writing his final letter to Timothy, knowing how Timothy would struggle against the world in proclaiming the gospel. Paul was seeing the early growth of the movements of heresy that still thrive today; just enough Jesus to tickle the ears, but enough of the world to condemn the follower. Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them. Paul knew many other teachers were going to struggle with exclusivity of his doctrine, how they would twist it to tug people away from all Jesus had provided. They would still preach Jesus, but deceptively not the clear gospel of John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Today many times we hear there is enough bad news in the world, that preachers only want to preach the good news. There is no bad news greater than Hell, there is nothing you are facing today that compares to eternal damnation from a Holy God, there is nothing to compare to Hell. Why would we not proclaim the One who died to save us, rose to rescue us, and builds mansions in Heaven to dwell with us eternally? When you see how little your worldly problems are, how great your eternal problem is, why would you not crawl to the altar in repentance such as the great revivals of the past?