Since man does not want salvation God's way (Rom. 3:11), he creates his own god, as well as a compatible religious system. To do this he drags the law of God down to something he can do and convince himself he is saved (Isa. 28:14-15). A typical response to the question, "Where are you going when you die?" would be, "Well, I hope I am going to heaven." But what is the ground of such a hope? Men invent the kind of god they want with the kind of standards they can keep so they can consider themselves righteous enough to go to heaven. They are comfortable in a refuge of lies, and those who may not be so comfortable are rushing headlong to a false refuge in order to get comfort.
The Gospel must be preached then in such a way so as to reveal the true and living God, a just God and a Savior (Isa. 45:21-22), who will receive and accept sinners upon the one ground of the merits of the imputed righteousness of Christ (Isa. 45:24-25). It must expose all false gods, false grounds of salvation, and false refuges in which deceived sinners are resting comfortably. Many today want to preach the Gospel in what they call a "positive" way, and what they mean is that we should try to preach it without offending sinners allowing them to find out for themselves or draw their own conclusions concerning their state and their idolatry. But this is only a subtle way of removing the offense of the cross in the name of love and compassion. It is not the way of God, and it is not the pattern our Lord set forth in His own preaching (John 3:19). The best we can do for any sinner is to tell him the truth and leave the rest to God who only is able to save sinners by His Son. We must pattern our preaching after God's Word and not based upon the response of men.