If a man claims to be a Baptist and does not openly preach Divine sovereignty, total depravity, unconditional election, particular redemption, effectual calling, and the final perseverance of God's elect, he is a liar. Some of you are preachers. You call yourselves Baptist preachers. But your doctrine is the free-will doctrine of the Methodists. Are you not lying to men? You know that the doctrines of grace, such as I have described, are plainly revealed in the Word of God, but you refuse to preach them. Are you not lying to those people who hear you Sunday after Sunday? Isn't it time for Baptist preachers to quit lying on God, lying to the souls of men, and lying about the gospel? If you are honest men, you will either begin today proclaiming the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, or you will resign your pulpit. You will either preach that which Baptists have stood for through the centuries, or you will quit calling yourselves Baptists.
The doctrines of grace today sound like some now thing in the world, because Baptists preachers are too cowardly to openly proclaim them. But these are not now doctrines at all. They were openly taught by C. H. Spurgeon, John Gill, John Bunyans and the Apostle Paul. Let us return to the old paths that God's servants walked in in days of old. It may be that God will bless us as he blessed them.
What are those old paths of Gospel truth which our Baptist forefathers walked in? Our fathers worshipped and served a God who is absolutely, totally, and universally sovereign, a God who does what is good in his eight. They pointedly taught-that all men are dead in trespasses and in sins. Our Baptist forefathers taught, they truly taught, that "Salvation is of the Lord", in its entirety. They told men that salvation's plan began in the eternal purpose of God in sovereign election. They preached that salvation was obtained for God's elect through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, our substitutionary Redeemer. Those old men of the faith declared that salvation is brought to the hearts of helpless sinners by the sovereign, irresistible power of God the Holy Spirit. And they proclaimed that salvation is preserved in the hearts of all true believers by the sovereign grace of God.
It is time for Baptist preachers to quit lying. Begin today to stand like men for the faith of the gospel. Be true to God, true to your own conscience, true to the souls of men, and true to the Word of God. Either preach what Baptists have always taught; or at least be honest enough to become a Campbellite.
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