Invitation System Free Ticket to Hell — E.A. Johnston

The Invitation System and Man-Centered Church Growth

I remember years ago, I was having lunch with a Baptist pastor who just returned from visiting Willow Creek Church, and he told me with great excitement how crowded that church was because they were doing things different, and this Baptist pastor could not wait to implement those same seeker-sensitive methodologies at his church in the South.

Why let a Baptist pastor just hear about a church that has drawn a big crowd, and that man's eyes will bug out of his head? He'll begin to perspire on his forehead. He'll get sweaty palms just thinking about it, and lick his chops in anticipation of it.

I don't know why Baptists are so impressed with numbers, but they are, and they will adopt any methodology that will attract a crowd. Billy Graham, as best as I can figure out, is the main reason many churches have adopted the man-centered methodology known as the invitation system.

False Converts Produced by Easy-Believe Invitations

Because of the numerical success of the Billy Graham Crusades 50 years ago, churches began to pattern themselves after his methods and end their services with an invitation to get up out of your seat and respond in a physical act by walking an aisle to make a decision for Jesus.

And when the majority of the churches in this country adopted that man-centered system, that's when hell began to pop as hell began to be populated with baptized sinners who were led to believe they had a hope of heaven by responding to a preacher's invitation to accept Christ as their personal savior.

And pastors and evangelists made it so easy to come forward and to accept Christ that untold thousands took that easy-believed gospel invitation as they would a free piece of chewing gum, and they walked an aisle and chewed on their little sugary Jesus until the flavor went out of their profession, and they kept on living like the devil, even if they were the chairman of the deacons.

And thousands of churches all over this country soon became nothing more than a halfway house to hell. For if you feed someone an easy-believed gospel and get them to physically respond to your invitation, it grows your church faster than two rabbits in a hutch.

Numerical Success and False Assurance

And every pastor wants a big church so he can look like a success within his denomination. I'll never forget sitting at my seminary graduation dinner, and it was testimony time. Any student could get up on stage and give a testimony.

This young evangelist ran up there and grabbed the microphone, and he said he'd been holding a crusade, and he had 1 ,100 people get saved, and everybody in that banquet room clapped and hollered and said, Amen.

That is, everybody but me, because I knew that young evangelist had 1 ,100 people just respond to his easy invitation to come to Christ and pick up their free ticket to heaven. He didn't know for certain if even one person was truly born again and saved from his appeals.

Listen, friends, the invitation system is one of the worst perpetrators of man-centered evangelism that makes false converts, but pastors love it because they can make immediate converts and grow their churches quickly.

But all they're doing for the most part is making it easy for baptized church members to go to hell in droves. I want to bring you this message this evening, friends, based on years of experience and great familiarity with the invitation system.

Personal Experience With Invitation-Driven Churches

I was a Sunday school teacher in a big Baptist church for nearly 20 years, where the pastor of that church made it awful easy to walk an aisle and accept Jesus. When he died, his empire fell to pieces, and his baptized goats scattered all over that city to find shelter.

A nearby Baptist church received 1 ,700 new members within one year from the division of that church. They had to build all just to accommodate them. Like I said, Baptists are impressed by numbers, and they'd love to see an immediate response to their invitation.

But my question is this, why grow a church with unconverted sinners just to expand your campus and have bragging rights within your denomination? Why, I'd be happier with a congregation of 10 people that met in a garage that were truly saved.

I'd then have 20 ,000 lost goats in an auditorium-sized sanctuary who've never been awakened to their lost condition, never been convicted of sin, and never born again by the Spirit of God. I want to talk to you this evening, friends, about the invitation system, and I believe this methodology needs to be put to bed and done away with.

I now have more churches shutting their doors to me because of this message, but I'd rather expose this corrupt system than risk giving poor sinners a false assurance because that gospel hardens them.

If you hand them a track or try to witness some of them, they'll say, I've already done that. Vance Havner used to say, I could have led a lot more folks to the Lord had they not already joined the church, and it's true, friends.

The Invitation System's Biblical Text: Luke 13:23–25

The title of my message this evening is, The Invitation System, Free Ticket to Hell, and my text can be found in Luke's Gospel in chapter 13. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 23 to 25, and let me read us this terrifying passage of Scripture to us at this time, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word.

Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer, and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are.

The Narrow Gate and the Certainty of Judgment

O friends, don't you know that the antediluvians were pounding on the door of Noah's ark in his day, when the floods came and swept them away? If you miss Christ now, friend, and dine your sins, there's no hope for you.

Salvation Requires Christ and His Blood

To be saved, you must get to Christ. You must get under the blood. He is the only refuge from sin. Listen to me, friends. I want to make a startling statement to some of you that you'll hardly even realize I'm making it because you believe it's so true, but listen to me.

Accepting an invitation and making a decision for Christ is not salvation. Let me repeat that. Accepting an invitation and making a decision for Christ is not salvation. I know that statement will upset a good many, but I must be honest with your souls.

Five Reasons Religious Responses Do Not Save

I want to list five reasons why the invitation system is corrupt. Number one, a physical act like walking an aisle does not make you a Christian. Number two, repeating the sinner's prayer does not make you a Christian.

How did all this non-biblical nonsense become so popular? Number three, you cannot become a Christian by an intellectual decision. Number four, you cannot make yourself a Christian for God is the author of salvation.

Number five, another person cannot tell you you are now a Christian. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. A lot of what you were pinning your hopes on for heaven are nothing but straw dogs. The following things will not help you to stay out of hell.

Religious Credentials Cannot Save

The fact that you joined the church won't help you. The fact that you were baptized won't help you. You're standing in your denomination won't help you. Your tithes won't help you. The mission trips you went on won't help you.

Teaching a Sunday school class won't help you. Singing in the choir won't help you. Your seminary degree won't help you. Your religious title won't help you. Your position of prestige and influence within your church won't help you.

The date on the calendar that you made a decision won't help you. Your adherence to your doctrine won't help you. There are many in hell right now still clutching their burnt up tulips and creeds. You either have life or you don't.

Your good opinion of yourself won't help you. Your self-righteousness is nothing but filthy stinking rags. Your long track record of service won't help you. For all your religious duties as a lost person won't add up to a hill of eternity.

The pastor that misled you won't help you. He can't even help himself out of hell. Listen, friends. Our text declares, many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Absolutely nothing will help you stay out of hell, friend.

Repentance, Faith, and the Blood of Christ

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but Christ and his blood. You must exercise repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. You must be washed in the blood. You must be born from above. It is my prayer that the vast majority of our churches in this land will stop using human methods to get members and instead will start preaching up a bloody cross and a crucified Christ and warn sinners about going to a burning hell and that they must repent, that they must be born again.

Walking an owl won't save you, friend, but sincerely coming to Christ and owning him will. Let us pray.