Covenant Baptist Church is looking for sinners. Do you qualify?
Sinners!
What an unwelcome word it is! Our generation has nearly expunged it from the dictionary. Indeed, men have always disliked this word and sought to remove it from their vocabulary. We don’t find many sinners anymore – very few are willing to seriously label themselves as such. Nowadays, most everyone is just “morally challenged”, suffering from low self-esteem, victims of someone else’s sin and therefore not responsible for their own sin.
Alas, today’s nominal pop-Christianity despises the term as much as others do! They have redefined it or simply relegated it to the days of the ox cart.
We believe that it is high time we reemphasize this forgotten Scriptural word!
Definition
A sinner is one who is guilty of sin. And what is sin? It is failing to love God with all your heart. You do not have to make headlines for a notorious crime to be a sinner. If you simply omit loving God supremely you are a sinner. Sins of omission (not being or doing what God requires) are just as condemning in God’s sight as sins of commission (doing what God forbids). Any and every deviation from God’s holy standard is sin: sin is the transgression of the law (1Jn. 3:4). Because we sin against an infinitely holy God, every sin – regardless of its size and shape – deserves eternal punishment. “But am I really that bad?” you may protest. The Bible says you are! For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Though we manifest our sin in our own individual ways, we are all sinners before God. So bad is our sin, only the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can put it away.Why We Are Looking
We are looking for people who are sinners because, in the first place, sinners are the only ones who can be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ said:
They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Mark 2:17)
Second, sinners are the only people for whom Christ died:
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1Tim. 1:15)
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8)
Third, sinners, unless they repent, will suffer the eternal torment of God’s holy wrath:
Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. (Ps.104:
…Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (Lk. 13:3)
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone… (Rev. 21:8)
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19-21)
Good News
If you are a sinner we have good news for you. It is not that you can save yourself, nor that you can help God save you. It is that God saves sinners and He can save you. What surprising mercy! Because Christ on the cross suffered the punishment sinners deserve, God forgives sinners. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace… (Eph. 1:7). In fact, He more than forgives! He justifies, adopts and sanctifies sinners, and in the end will take them to His sinless heaven forever.
No sinner who comes to the risen Christ for salvation will ever be turned away. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out (Jn. 6:37). This man receiveth sinners… (Lk. 15:2). Christ freely receives sinners who come to Him regardless of their background, nationality, age, intelligence, wealth, etc. He saves some whose sins are publicly known scandals; He saves some whose sins are only known in the secrecy of their own conscience.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Pr. 28:13). My sinner friend, will you not turn from your sin, confess it all to God, and trust in Christ as your Savior?
Clarifications
Let me clarify a couple of things. First, we insist on putting no adjective before the word “sinners”. Some say the good news is for bad sinners, as if to say that good ones need not apply. Others say the good news is for good sinners, and so the bad ones need not apply. (Of course, truly speaking, all sinners are bad.) Some only have a message for awakened sinners or seeking sinners. Our message is for sinners as sinners. If you are a sinner, you meet the qualification to come to the Savior of sinners. Second, the members of our church are not yet sinlessly perfect. Though Christ has atoned for our sins and paid our legal debt before God, we are yet struggling against sin that indwells believers in this life. Sin no longer rules over us, Christ is our Master, but only in heaven will we at last be free from all sin in our experience. When you come to visit our church, we will not look down on you because you are a sinner.Not a sinner?
If you are not a sinner, we have no good news for you. The only message we can declare to you is one which will utterly humble you and cause you to see your desperate condition as a sinner. Denying that you are a sinner may be the worst sin of all! If we say that we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us (1Jn. 1:10).
You are invited
Friend, if you are a sinner, we want you to come to our church. But most of all, we want you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming to church will not save you, but it is a means whereby you will hear the truth of Christ.In Christ, sinners are saved. You qualify! Look to Christ at once!