Why So Many Christians Are Falling Away (and How We Can Help Them Return) — Part 1

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.

The following is a pre-recorded program. Why are so many people falling away from the Lord and what can we do to help them? Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Hey friends, this is Michael Brown and what we're going to do today and tomorrow is to dig into the many comments that you posted on Twitter and Facebook answering this question in your view, why are so many people falling away from the faith? Now, I post questions on a regular basis. I want to get feedback. I want to see your perspective.

I want to understand what you're thinking. I want you to interact with things that I've said. Now, I don't base truth on a poll or on response, but you can learn a lot from it. In other words, if I ask for your opinion about a particular controversial subject, that's not going to help me to determine the truth, but it does help me see what you're thinking and what your own point of view is and what's actually out there and what's a hot topic and what is not. And in this case, I have to be honest, we were flooded with comments. I did not expect to receive so many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of comments between Facebook and YouTube. That indicates, as we have known, but it underscores it even more, that many have fallen away in recent years and that it seems to be a higher percentage of people than we normally see.

Now, what's that due to? Were they truly saved in the first place? These are all questions that we're going to address, but my purpose here is not to point fingers at those who no longer believe. If you're listening now and in the past you considered yourself a follower of Jesus, a Bible believer, and you no longer do, you may be very hostile. You may be watching or listening to the broadcast because you're angry and you just, you don't like what I have to say, but you feel you need to know what I'm saying because I influence people.

It could be because you're still wondering, is it possible? Is there a ray of hope that your beliefs were right? It could be that you're hurting and that you're looking for an answer, but you just don't have confidence anymore in the truth of Scripture or the reality of God. But for whatever reason you're tuning in, my goal is not to criticize you or fault you or talk about what's wrong with you, but rather address the real issues, the real problems that we do see, and try to come up with viable solutions. If you've not read my book, Has God Failed You?

Finding faith when you're not even sure God is real. I believe it will really help. I believe you'll find it to be a timely resource either for you as a believer experiencing doubts, for you as a believer wanting to help others, for you as someone that no longer believes or knows someone who no longer believes. I think you'll find it to be a really, really helpful resource. I asked one of our team members to go through the comments because there were so many hundreds. I wanted to make sure I got an overview of the main things that you had to say, and I asked him to go through them and summarize things for me. So I just want to share this list with you.

Again, this is not a particular order, but these were the most common themes that came up in terms of what you shared and what you posted. Going along with family traditions but never genuinely saved, or you gained intellectual information about God but never encountered God personally. So many have said the reason that a lot of people have fallen away, and I would think this is especially a younger generation may be raised in church without really coming to know God or experience God for whatever reason, that this would apply all the more. I heard a preacher say decades ago the reason that a lot of people have backslid is because they never front-slid.

So that could well be the case. Many from a Calvinistic viewpoint saying that the people were never truly saved, therefore not really elect. Another idea that you were taught an insufficient gospel, believing that everything would go well for you.

Prosperity gospel. There's a whole chapter in Has God Failed You saying perhaps it's wrong theology that failed. Now for those who have a problem with the title of the book, Has God Failed You, say God never fails. Yes, yes, of course. He being God never fails.

We understand that. But many deeply feel as if He has failed them. In writing the book and feeling the pain, just in my spirit as I was writing, feeling the pain of many who would read the book, I wanted to address them where they were.

Yes, there's a whole chapter in the book that says maybe it's wrong theology that failed you. Here. And I'm going to get into these in more depth and try to respond in a helpful way. And again, give the antidote to the problem as much as possible, as it is our goal here to see the body healthy and thriving, to break bondages and yokes as the body of Messiah gets so healthy and strong that the yokes are broken off. I'm here every day to infuse you with faith and truth and courage so you can go out and stand strong for the Lord.

So wherever you are, again, my goal is not to condemn or criticize, but to help. All right? If you say, I don't want your help, well, no one's making you listen. No one's forcing you to listen. But as long as you do listen, I'm going to do my best to help.

All right. So if I had been taught, for example, that I'm joining the army and the whole purpose in joining the army is that I'm going to just get in really good physical shape, really good mental discipline, learn certain aspects of computer technology, and then get a free scholarship or free funding towards my college career afterwards, and then I'm deployed on the front lawn side, no one told me people were going to shoot at me? Well, that's what happens in the army.

You may get shot at and you may have to kill the enemy. If you had certain expectations with the gospel, you just believe in Jesus and you're always blessed and you're going to prosper. You give a dollar, you get a hundred back and just watch and it doesn't happen like that, you'll think the whole thing was not true rather than recognizing you were just taught a false message. Another major theme that came up was lack of discipleship in general, that the church has not done a good job of making disciples.

Another is education and what's out in the media that causes us to question the veracity of the Bible, be it teaching on evolution, be it teaching on ancient history. Another, personal traumas and pain. How could God allow these things to happen? So, if God's really there, if he's compassionate, if he's loving, if the God of the Bible is really who he says he is, then why did he let me go through this?

Why so much pain? Again, I want to address as many of these as possible in more depth. Another theme that came up a lot is it's not culturally popular to be a follower of Jesus. And when it comes to our teachings on gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans issues, we are going against the current of the culture, the spirit of the world. There's a lot of opposition to that.

We're branded as hateful, etc. Another, the church is too experiential and entertainment-based, maybe the way a lot of youth ministries operate in particular. The church does not give people intellectual backing for their faith or answers to their questions. So, on the one hand, we can err by being so intellectual that we never bring people into encounter with God.

On the other hand, we can put such an emphasis on experience that we never ground people in truth. Yeah, and to the extent that we preach a superficial message, we will see superficial fruit. Another, the state of the church, often lukewarm. A lot of hypocrisy in the church. People come to the Lord, join the church, say, this is it, I'm out of here.

Leadership scandals. People who were hurt by the church. I deal with that in depth in Has God Failed You in the chapter about we are part saint and part sinner.

Deal with these very issues. Another, the love of many will grow cold. Jesus speaking of great apostasy in Matthew 24. Could this be that prophesied time of apostasy because iniquity abounds? Another is that people even go to church but not leaving Jesus. So many have dropped out of church attendance or are not counted on the roles of the church where church attendance is wane, but maybe they didn't really leave the Lord. Another poor parenting, relying on children's church or youth groups to disciple their children.

People are busy with life and running faster than ever before and distracted by so many things and maybe parents haven't poured into their kids and really sought to disciple them. Those atheists, there are atheists who weighed in and I appreciate you being there. I appreciate you following me on social media. I appreciate you tuning into the broadcast. Thank you for doing that in the midst of our differences. Whether you're there to mock, whether you're there just out of curiosity to learn, whether you're there just wanting to expose yourself to different viewpoints.

Either way, I'd rather that you're listening and reading and viewing than not. So there are atheists who said, well it makes sense to leave the faith. In other words, the faith itself is not true. Of course, in Has God Failed You, I deal with the question, okay, what if there is no God? Think through the implications of that.

Can I just pause there for a second? I was thinking about this last night with human atrocities being committed. I was talking to a policeman who was driving me from the airport to a TV shoot.

We were driving Sunday night and he was talking to me about child sex crimes that he had followed through on as a detective and just terrible things. What adults had done to children and videotaped them and other horrific things. Just utterly sick.

Absolutely sick. Evil. Evil. And you think there are cases though where people go on doing this for years, rape, abuse, even kill, and never get caught.

And then die maybe at 70 or 80. Think of it. If there is no God, there will never be justice. You have to live with that reality. There will never be justice. And for the victims, let's say someone was killed at the age of seven or eight. It can never be set right. There can never be anything positive for that child that comes out of it.

Oh, it could be that there's a crackdown on things after the atrocities against the child and child predators are caught and something good comes out of it in that way. But for the child himself or herself, nothing good came out of it. And nothing good can ever come out of it. Now you say, well, I'm not going to create a God in my mind to make me feel better. That's the reality.

There is no justice and things will not get set right. And ultimately there is no purpose or destiny in human life because we are just the random products of an unguided evolutionary process. Well, that's the reality if there is no God. Now, as surely as I'm sitting here, I know that God is real.

I know that God is real and I know that he's true and wonderful and compassionate and just. And I know that what does not get set right in this world will get set right in the world to come. But to those who are atheists, I just encourage you to own what your atheism means.

And many of you have, and it shapes your worldview. And it may bring you some discouragement and depression because things can never be set right in this world. But I want to urge you to consider, perhaps your view is wrong. I say, perhaps for your sake, perhaps God is waiting to touch your life. We'll be right back.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us today on The Line of Fire, your voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity here for you five days a week. We are digging into the question of why so many people have left the faith in recent years. Now, it is true that around the world, the gospel continues to spread in unprecedented fashion. It remains true that in the last 50 years, more people have come to faith, more people have been born again, professed faith in Jesus around the world, than not just any 50 year period in church history, but any 500 year period, any 1000 year period, any, any 1500 year period. God is moving around the world and there is tremendous harvest.

But in many places where many people are being saved, they're being saved through a mixed message. So they are getting born again, but with very shaky foundations and therefore unstable, and in some cases, bearing bad fruit. In countries where the harvest is unprecedented in numbers, I mean, things that have never been seen in church history, in parts of Africa. Look in Nigeria, an extraordinary, massive harvest. I know some of the people on the front lines of it, those, those in Nigeria and those who come in as missionaries and evangelists, I know some of them well.

The harvest really is unprecedented. And in many cases, they are hearing a good, strong, clear, basic gospel message, and then are getting plugged into healthy churches. But in many other cases, there is a real mixture. There is the carnal prosperity message that is added in. There are other things that can come from the pagan culture and witchcraft that get added in. And because of that, there is often a mixture. So on the one hand, God is moving around the world. On the other hand, in many cases, there is a lack of discipleship.

And certainly in Europe and America, in the West in general, there is a lot of apostasy and falling away. I want to say this, though. It doesn't surprise me.

Why? Because for decades, many of us have been crying out and lifting our voices and saying something is terribly wrong. Here, if you think this is a matter of someone after the fact saying, oh, look, I told you so, but I never did. Go back and look at my 1989 book, The End of the American Gospel Enterprise. Go back and look at my 1990 book, How Saved Are We? Go back and look at my 1991 book, Whatever Happened to the Power of God?

Is the charismatic church slain in the spirit or down for the count? Go back and look at my 1993 book, It's Time to Rock the Boat, a call to God's people to rise up and preach a confrontational gospel. And I'm just one voice among many, but one voice among many who for decades has been saying, we're not preaching a clear message. We're not preaching a biblically grounded message.

We're not calling people to real discipleship. So look, you offer me a job, right? I'm fresh out of college. You offer me a job and you say, hey, listen, we just need you to come in. We see your skills and you've got really terrific skills. All we need you for is from 10 in the morning till two in the afternoon. And we're going to pay you $300 a day. That's how much we value your skills.

You're like, man, I'm in, I'm in. And you do your job with joy and with excellence, and you're enjoying this hefty salary for someone fresh out of college. And then they say, listen, listen, we are going through some challenging times as a company, and we've got to change arrangements dramatically and use you in a bunch of other areas that are not really your specialty. So you're going to have to be here, instead of from 10 to two, you're going to have to be here from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon. And actually we have to cut your pay, even though it's more hours, we have to cut your pay from $300 a day. It's going to be to $100 a day. You're like, I'm out of here, man.

I'm going to sign up for this. I'm out of here. Well, the same way when we preach a superficial what's in it for me gospel, when we preach a bypass the cross gospel, when we preach a gospel of personal empowerment, then when we're called to take stands, when we're called to sacrifice, when we have to say no to the flesh, we're following Jesus costs us something like, I'm out of here. Now, whether those people were truly saved or not, God is the judge, but we've got to address these issues. I'm not surprised to see how many have been pulled away by the culture because for so many years, the church has refused to address what's happening in the culture. I mean, much of the church. Look, when I started speaking to LGBT issues, LGBTQ, T wasn't as prominent then in 2004 when I began to, but certainly there, when I began to address these issues and people thought, you're crazy, man, why are you getting off on a tangent?

This is not relevant and you're going to ruin your calling and ministry. This is not all we did, but it's part of what we did and wrote major books like A Queer Thing Happened to America. We couldn't find a publisher to put it out. We couldn't find a Christian publisher or a secular publisher willing to put it out. I had Christian publisher several apologize to me subsequently. And people said, look, the contents are too controversial, but this is what's happening in the world. And we write with compassion. No one said what I wrote was false.

No one said what I wrote was lacking in compassion. No one in terms of the people that responded to us, but it was just too hard to handle and it's not going to sell and it's not going to do well. In fact, it's sold out and we have to, I want to update and things like that. So it's a major project before we reprint. But the fact of the matter is, and we printed a good amount for a first run of a 700-page book, hardcover with 1,500 endnotes. You sell 10, 11,000 of those self-published.

That's actually demonstrating interest in about the same amount with eBooks. But the point is people don't want to talk about it. Now, some of the young people side with LGBT activists rather than their parents, side with LGBT, quote, Christians rather than the Bible. And so many are confused themselves. Well, we don't want to talk about it.

It's too controversial. Well, this is what's happening and people are hurting. We need to speak the truth in love. So while I'm grieved, I'm not surprised. And then I'd see in some circles that the whole Gospel presentation was purely an intellectual affair and giving people reasons to believe.

Well, that can get them to the point of putting their trust in God, but until they do put their trust in God and experience new birth themselves, they're just going to be intellectual Christians. Let me just give you some of the other reasons that were expressed, maybe not as commonly, but when we surveyed you on Twitter and Facebook and said, what are the main reasons why you think some of you are falling away today? One, challenges living up to holiness standards. I've always fall short. I'm just never good enough. I can't. I'm bound by sin.

All right. So that could be one. Legalism, the other side. Laws, regulations made by people rather than by God. Another, the Gospel doesn't seem to apply to specific concerns they have. It's like I had this need and the Gospel didn't speak to it.

Hedonism, so just the pleasures of this age. I believe that there's a conflict between reason, science and Christianity. I can't reconcile these things. I remember Dan Brown's story, mega best selling author of The Da Vinci Code and other books. If you read his books, you see underlying many of them as a gripe with religion, more specifically Christianity, more specifically Catholicism. And after reading one of his last books, and I'd read a few of them to understand what was going on. He's a scintillating author in terms of it draws you in. I had to read Da Vinci Code, though, for a panel discussion I was going to be part of. And I was totally drawn in by it, even though I knew that the whole narrative was based on falsehoods. So I read some of his other stuff and said, okay, what happened to this guy growing up? He's pretty much telling you in his novels that something happened to him growing up.

So I got online and did it take 30 seconds? I mean, it was there. There's nothing hidden. He talked about it openly, saying that when he was a boy, he was raised by a thinking father, you know, mathematics science kind of guy, and his mother, a strong believer, devout Christian, played organist in the local church. And he enjoyed the faith of his mother and the intellectual rigor of his father. And he said that he would go to church and listen to his dad and talk, interact and stuff. And one day, maybe 13 years old, if I remember correctly, he went to the priest, I believe an Episcopal priest, his mother's church, and said that he was having a conflict between what he was reading in the Bible and what he was learning in science. And according to Dan Brown, the priest said to him, good boys don't ask those questions. Now, it's a bizarre response. But if that's what actually happened, well, that explains some of what went wrong in Dan Brown's own life to bring him to the place he is. I don't mean that he's this wicked, horrific person or, as I say, what went wrong with his life, that he's doing miserably as a human being.

I simply mean in terms of a faith connection, in terms of saying, hey, I can be rigorously scientific and full of faith and believe in the Word of God. Something went wrong somewhere in the process. That's happened with others.

Let's see. A lack of space in the church to ask questions or critique the beliefs of the church. Another very big problem.

That's why in Has God Failed You, I have a whole chapter permission to doubt. Trends have been happening elsewhere in the West, especially with catch up to the USA. Just a lot of what's in the air intellectually, morally, spiritually kind of sweeping through and people getting caught up with that. Churches to behold them to politics. That certainly caused a lot to drop out when we became better known for our political affiliation than our following Jesus. Definitely alienated a lot of people. A surprising number of Catholics talking about the Pope clergy abuse. Interesting. So just many saying, look at what's happened, the scandals.

I mean, France has now admitted, Catholic Church of France, that since the 50s to today there have been over 300,000 cases of sexual abuse of children. Known. Known.

Known. Over 300,000. I think over 330,000 if my memory serves me right.

And France. Who can imagine? Who can wrap their minds around this and how much damage has been done? How many lives destroyed? How much trauma that's never gone away? How many people turning their back on God because of that?

How much tarnishing of the reputation of Jesus? Horrific. These friends are realities. What do we do about them? I'm going to take that up. We're going to continue with this discussion right after the break. Stay right here. Why so many are leaving the faith?

We've looked at this from different angles in recent months and years, but I wanted to devote some significant time to really digging in, to really focusing in, to really understanding, to digging deeper together. Again, my purpose is not to condemn. God forbid. My purpose is not to criticize. Why don't you have more faith? What's the matter with you? Why can't you live holy? What good does that do?

How does that help you? If I berate you? If I belittle you?

What a stupid question! If it's real and painful to you, even if it sounds easy or inane to me, how do I help you by belittling you for having the question or struggling with doubt? And hey, maybe God's constituted me a certain way that what feels like a mountain to you is like a molehill to me. It feels like a mountain to you. I've got to help you right there. Conversely, if something feels like a mountain to me and a molehill to you, well, it's still a mountain to me.

It's still there, and I need help with that. So let's do our best to really help. Let's do our best rather than point fingers and criticize.

Let's assess things honestly. For example, when it comes to scandals in the church, when it comes to people who've been hurt by the church, when it comes to leaders who've abused congregants, I'm not going to defend the leaders. I'm not going to just rally around them because they're fellow leaders. In my book, Playing with Holy Fire, a wake-up call to the Pentecostal Charismatic Church, which came out in 2018, I deal with abusive leadership and unaccountable leaders and mercenary prophets.

Why? Because that's reality, and I'm not doing it as God's policeman. I'm not doing it as the corrector-in-chief. I'm doing it as a God-lover, a lover of the body, a lover of people who's hurting and grieved and wants to help those who are being hurt. If my goal was to make people look bad and get some reputation as a controversialist who calls everybody out, then every day on the show I'd just name this one and name that one and mock this one and mock that one and look at how righteous I am and look at how foolish they are. But if I play a clip of someone in error, I'd do it with pain, and I'd do it with desire to see them right and to see them helped.

And that's God's heart. So I'm not here, again, to be the corrector-in-chief. I'm not here to criticize those struggling with doubt. If, in fact, I know someone and what they need is kind of a holy slap in the face, if you know what I mean.

In other words, a wake-up call. Come on, man. You're bigger than this. You're better than this. You're stronger than this.

If I know that that's what that person needs, then I'll give it to them, just like in a workout. Sometimes, like, right, slow down. Take it slow.

Get your breath. Don't push too hard. Just little by little, do what you can do.

And that's what you do sometimes with someone working out that's not in good shape, right? Just, hey, I'm glad you're here. Don't be discouraged. You're doing great.

You're doing much better than last week. So you just, little by little, baby steps, right? It's another thing. It's like, you can't do it. You can do it.

Just set your mind to it. So there are times for righteous rebuke. There are times for godly correction. But a lot of times, what we need to do is get in the boat with that person as their boat feels like it's sinking and say, hey, you're not going down alone. I love you. We're in this together. All right, so let's address this big issue of people not hearing a sound gospel message, people not being grounded in the truth, and therefore their foundations are shallow.

Therefore, when testing and shaking comes, they easily fall away. We won't debate whether they were really saved or not. Let God decide that. But certainly many who professed faith in Jesus, many who for years seemed to be followers, went through certain experiences and then fell away, and it was clear the foundations weren't that strong. So what is the message we're preaching? My newest book, Revival or We Die, let me draw your attention to it, and I want to read some excerpts from chapter four. The chapter is titled, From Amazing Grace to Amazing Sinners. From Amazing Grace to Amazing Sinners. It's chapter four in the book, and if you have the book, starting on page 45. Did you ever sing Rock of Ages, the classic hymn written by Augustus Toplady?

1714-1778. The words ring true to this day. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I claim. Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace.

Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. That's why the first words of the hymn are, Rock of Ages, cleft for me.

Let me hide myself in thee. What it means is that outside of him there is no hope. Outside of Jesus we are totally and utterly lost. That's why we come to the cross naked and helpless. That's why we fly to the fountain of God's grace. That's why we cry out, Wash me, Savior, or I die.

If you're watching, we just need to scroll down on the pages there. It's either mercy or damnation, and the only one who can grant mercy is the righteous judge who knows our every sin. And so Toplady wrote, Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could by zeal no respite know?

Could my tears forever flow? All could never sin a race. Thou must save and save by grace. Have mercy on us, Lord God, and save us by your grace. Otherwise we perish. Otherwise we're damned.

Otherwise it's all over forever. This is Gospel 101. That's why when the Jewish crowd at Pentecost heard Peter's message, in which he told them they were guilty of crucifying Jesus the Messiah, quote, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the brothers, the rest of the apostles, brothers, what should we do? Or as translated in the NET Bible, they were acutely distressed, pierced to the heart, acutely distressed. The arrows of conviction penetrated. Oh no, we crucified the Messiah.

What are we going to do? The message hit home. The divine arrow pierced the heart.

The conviction was intense. Brothers, what shall we do? We're guilty of a terrible sin in God's sight.

How can we make things right? And how did Peter respond? After calling on his fellow Jews to repent and be immersed in water, promising them forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit in Jesus' name, Acts records, with many of the words he warned them, and he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. So Peter exhorted them. He urged them. He pleaded with them. He warned them, fly to the fountain of God's grace while you still have breath. Flee from the coming wrath.

There's still time for mercy. What a far cry all this is from today's feel-good Gospel. The Gospel of self-affirmation. The Gospel of self-esteem.

The Gospel which is really no Gospel at all. As explained on the Five Minutes in Church History website, Top Lady knew that apart from grace, it's not that we simply won't become better people. We're not just okay people apart from Christ. No, we're headed for the wrath of God over us. And unless Christ washes us with his precious blood and gives us his righteousness, we die.

We die. That's what Top Lady tells us with this hymn. That's why the best-known hymn of the 20th century was Amazing Grace, starting with those familiar words, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. The more clearly we see the depth of our sin, the more clearly we see the breath of God's mercy. The more we realize the wretched nature of our rebellion, the more we understand the amazing nature of God's grace. And the more we understand it. Today we don't like to talk about coming to God as wretches.

That hurts our self-esteem. And rather than telling sinners how amazing the Lord's grace is, we tell them how amazing they are. No wonder there's so little conviction of sin today. No wonder there's so many shallow conversions, if they be conversions at all. No wonder there's so little depth and so much of the contemporary American church.

And friends, I remind you, I've been saying these same things for decades, decades, and others were saying them before me. The bottom line is that if we're going to see true revival, then we have to recover or rediscover the gospel. Conversely, one of the reasons we so desperately need revival is that we've strayed so far from the biblical gospel. In fact, we've turned the gospel upside down. The biblical gospel proclaims that human beings are terribly sinful and that God's grace is truly amazing. The American gospel proclaims that lost sinners are truly amazing and that any talk of God's judgment is really terrible. As for God's grace, it's like icing on the cake for the sinner. Be assured that the sinner's cake is already quite beautiful and wonderful. God just wants to add some special ingredients to make it taste even better. You're an amazing person and God is so into you.

He has some really neat things to tell you about your future. My friend, that's not the gospel. And seriously, not get saved by realizing how amazing they are. You get saved by realizing how lost they are and how amazing God's grace is. And that includes the message of his absolutely extraordinary love. But if the lost sinner is so amazing, why does he need to get saved?

Why did Jesus even need to die for such an amazing person? The biblical gospel declares that our sin is monstrous, that God sent his son to take our place and suffer for our guilt. Today we're told that such a message turns God into a monster who practices cosmic child abuse. So we've gone from recognizing that man is capable of doing monstrous things to claiming that the God who sent his son to die in our place did something monstrous.

How could this be? As for the neat things that God wants to tell a sinner about his or her future, the inconvenient truth is that they include, one, you're guilty in God's sight and if you don't turn away from your sins and ask for mercy you'll perish. Two, one day you'll stand before a holy, all-seeing, all-knowing judge, one who doesn't take bribes and one who doesn't care about public opinion. On that day all your excuses will vanish in the sight. Three, if you refuse his grace and scorn his goodness, saying to him in this life, I don't want anything to do with you, get away from me. Then in the world to come he will say those words back to you, I don't want anything to do with you, get away from me forever. And then four, if you acknowledge your guilt today, ask him for mercy, believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead and confess him as Lord.

He'll wash away every sin, cleanse you from the inside, give you eternal life, fill you with his Holy Spirit, make you his child, change your heart and desires, enlist you in his service, and spend eternity with you in unimaginable bliss, satisfaction, and joy. Now we're preaching the gospel. All right, that was an excerpt from my chapter, From Amazing Grace to Amazing Sinners, in the book Revival or We Die.

But if you're hearing those words, maybe things are falling into place for you. The way that we start in the Lord, the way that we come to faith, the way that we lay our initial foundations, it's so important. It's like a child being born in a healthy way, or being born in a dangerous, defective way.

They are affected by the line of fire. Welcome back, friends, to The Line of Fire, where we are doing our best to deal head on with real issues, with real complications, with real problems, as to why so many people are leaving the faith, leaving church, leaving the Lord. We can debate whether all of these people really knew the Lord or not.

For some, it's a temporary backsliding. For some, I believe they genuinely knew the Lord, were genuinely born again, and have genuinely rejected him. Others say, well, if you're truly saved, you can't fall away, and therefore they're never truly saved.

Let's just agree on this. At one time, many of these people professed faith. At one time, as far as we knew, many of these people were believers. We're not talking about what God ultimately knows, but as far as we knew, these were brothers, sisters, friends, co-workers, fellow ministers of the Gospel, okay?

People we walked with, people that we knew, and no denying that. As far as we could tell, they were believers just the same as we were. And right now, they no longer believe, either in pain and questioning and hurting, wanting to come back but afraid to open their hearts again, it could be you, or outright thinking, thank God I got out of that, that was a cult, but here you are, still listening, glad you are. Whatever the case is, for many of these people, from everything we could tell for years, they were genuine believers. Or for months, they were genuine believers. And right now, they are not walking with God, or they don't even believe in God. You say, well, you can't judge their soul, maybe they're just hurting and God's still with them. I'm not judging their soul.

I'm not judging their soul. I've had people say, look, I was away from the Lord for 30 years, but he never left me. He was always dealing with me. He was always calling me back, and I know he bailed me out of difficult situations. Well, does that mean if you were to die in that state, you still would have gone to be with the Lord?

Does that mean he was drawing you back? God knows. God knows. What I can say is this, if I see that person, I will treat them as if they need to come back to God to be right with God. If I interact with that person, I will interact with them as if they are lost right now, and needing his grace, and needing his mercy. So I want to stay on this first point a little bit longer, then we're going to take tomorrow's show and dig deeper into some of the major issues why people are falling away. One reason that there are preachers and leaders who preach a compromised message is because their own lives are compromised.

Now, sometimes it goes in the other direction. You hear some preacher screaming and yelling about the evils of sexual sin and condemning anyone. They'll even have a lustful thought.

And here they are, addicted to porn or having multiple affairs. And this is their way of kind of, I don't have the psychological term because it's not my background, but it's kind of this living this double life, or living in denial, or compensating for the sin, the evil, that I'm going to be righteous. They feel guilty, so they preach against it. Or it's just their way of covering up to show how holy they are while they're secretly living in sin.

That can't happen. And there have been times when I've heard someone ministering in a harsh way, with no compassion, condemning others, thinking, oh, something just doesn't feel right there. I'm not judging that they're in that same sin themselves.

And look, there are plenty who'll accuse you, whatever you talk about, well, you must be struggling in that area, that's why you talk about it. And they just don't know you're seeking to be biblical and honor the Lord and preach his burden. But I've heard it at times, there's a harshness, there is a lack of care for those who are struggling, there's a lack of humanity. And it's almost as if they're presenting themselves as so perfect and so flawless, you think, ah, something seems funny there. And I've watched in front of my eyes where these people then get exposed for years of living a double life. There are others, though, and they go in the other direction, that to cover their sin and their guilt, they preach hyper-grace. Now, I'm not saying everyone who preaches hyper-grace is covering their sin and guilt.

No, I'm not saying that at all. But I've seen it happen. I've seen, for example, a guy pastoring a church, has an affair with church secretary or organist, whatever it was, I mean, the old stories, but, you know, I've seen them happen, and have an affair, and then decide he's going to divorce his wife and he's going to remarry this gal. So it's adultery. It's adultery, and he's in an adulterous relationship.

And the woman is now committing adultery with him, according to the clear teaching of the New Testament. And he goes on from there, he gets his ordination removed from his original denomination, he goes out, starts some new church, and he's just going to preach grace, grace, grace. And you always hear bitterness towards the organized church, or bitterness towards his old denomination, and preach against judgmentalism. And you think, I remember hearing a guy on the radio, and I thought, something's funny here. Now, trust me, I don't sit around scrutinizing and analyzing why someone's preaching what they are, and thinking that I can have insight into their hearts miraculously, and that I'm going to just be the judge. I do my best to receive and think the best, and then if there's error, then deal with the error.

But, or if I feel something's funny, I'll just step back. I remember hearing this guy thinking, what in the world? I've never heard grace preached with such bitterness, with such an edge, with such judgmentalism on others. What's with this guy? What's the exact story I just told? The exact story I just told, committing adultery with a gal in his church, leaving his wife, getting a divorce, marrying this other gal, and being rejected for it, refusing the discipline, and refusing the path of restoration and repentance. So he was covering up.

He was covering up. And that's why others will say, God doesn't see our sin, because they're living in it, and they're unrepentant, and it's their way of covering over it. So, friends, many of you have been hurt by a faulty message from a faulty leader. What I want to encourage you to do—and maybe you're still in the Lord, but things are shaky—what I want to encourage you to do is re-dig your foundations, is to go back to the Word and find out what it really means to be saved and born again. Maybe you'll find that you're getting born again for the first time, and that you were in church but didn't really know the Lord, or that you signed up for some carnal superficial message but didn't really get born again, repent of sin, look to the Lord for salvation, cleansing, forgiveness, receive the free gift of salvation, enter into new life.

For others, it's a matter of going deeper, going deeper. Maybe you cried out to the Lord because your marriage was falling apart, and you and your wife cried out, and he helped you with your marriage, but that was kind of the foundation. God helped me with my marriage rather than I recognized my need for God as a lost sinner. I recognized why Jesus died on the cross for me. And it's not so much about crossing every T and dotting every I with doctrinal perfection. Look, there are folks I know, and they used to be Arminian, and when they became Calvinists they say, now for the first time I've really been born again. Maybe they were never born again or not, but I can assure you that becoming a Calvinist is that what makes you born again.

In other words, you're a non-Calvinist, a follower of Jesus, and now you become a Calvinist, it doesn't make you born again. And with all love and respect to my Calvinist friends, we'd have some differences and a number of issues. However, my Calvinist friends and I would absolutely agree on these gospel foundations being laid, and on a God-first perspective. Start with God, and then it puts me in the right light, puts you in the right light, puts the cross in the right light. Start with me, and it puts God in the wrong light.

It puts the cross in the wrong light. So I want to encourage you to look at the foundations of what you preach, teach. Look, maybe you want to get people to, quote, pray the sinner's prayer. Maybe you have a healing ministry on the street, and you go up to folks and tell them about God's goodness. Say, hey, can I pray for you?

I see you're in pain, you're in pain, or the right arm is hanging there. Can I pray for you? And they're healed.

Well, don't just make it the goal to close the deal. All right, let's pray this prayer sign up. Make sure that they understand the gospel. One of my friends, in fact, the colleague with the best street ministry that I know in the States, in other words, who's out there doing it, praying for the sick, seeing miracles, seeing deaf ears open up, seeing people in wheelchairs get up and walk. I mean, the real deal, ministering to the homeless and the hurting and just getting in the trenches and caring for people. When he goes to lead them to the Lord, he preaches a clear message of repentance. And if they're physically able, and if the conditions allow for it, they get down on their knees, on the street, and pray together. And he has them cry out for mercy. And some are deeply broken.

Those people get up, born again. You know, one of the stories I've heard him share a few times was a guy came to him, all grateful and thankful for him sharing the gospel with him and leading him to the Lord. And his life has been changed. And my friend said, I'm sorry I don't know you.

He says, of course you do. I've never seen you before. And then realized who it was. It was this homeless guy in the street with a shaggy beard and ripped clothes. And now he was a new man.

He didn't even recognize him. Well, that's how it should be, the reality of being born again. So let's start there. And we're going to dig into a bunch of other issues, difficult, painful issues on the next broadcast.

But let's start there. Let's start with reality about our sin, reality about our need for mercy, reality about the meaning of the cross, reality about the judgment that we deserve and the forgiveness and mercy that's offered, reality that the new birth means a new life. It means we die to sin and die to this world and die to self. Obviously, we consider ourselves dead afresh every day and we battle through that when we need to. But it is an understanding. My life is no longer my own.

I've been bought with a price. I belong to the one who died for me and rose from the dead. And I now live a new life in him, empowered by his grace and mercy, indwelt by his spirit. And the purpose of my life from here on in is to live for God. How about we start with really understanding what it means to be saved after all. Another program powered by the Truth Network.