As the convert prays and studies the Word of God he goes deeper and deeper into the things of God. Each day there is a challenge to faith and each day he is given grace to meet the challenge in perfect victory.

After a while a new righteous creation comes forth. This is the Kingdom of God. It is not a place, it is the rule of Christ in the personality.

The purpose of the new covenant is to change the person, to bring him or her to the fullness of eternal life. The person soon loves to draw near to God, to the consuming fire.

When we preach the Gospel to the sinner and give him the idea he is saved by grace so he can continue in his old ways and still escape punishment we are being totally dishonest with him. We are telling him he can come to the marriage supper of the Lamb without being dressed for the occasion. The truth is, he will be thrown into the outer darkness!

Until the man's heart is changed Heaven would be a hell to him. Do you think the sinner rejoices at the thought of going to a place where everyone is praising God and living a holy life? Do you think this is what he wants? No, he wants to escape punishment but as yet he has no desire to live righteously.

This is where the "state of grace," or "dispensation of grace," do their deadly work. They imply that the unchanged individual can enter Paradise and be happy there in his imputed righteousness. What an illogical, unscriptural concept this is, but it is the prevailing view of Evangelicals.

Do you, as a Christian, really want to go to Heaven? Do you want to be in a place where you cannot gossip, slander, hold your favorite grudges and bitterness against people, preserve your self- will? Suppose you are assigned the task of cleaning up behind the horses in the royal parade?

What if people you always have despised are elevated to high places of prominence and you are left as a nobody? There are greatest and least in the Kingdom! What if you can't manipulate people and lie and cheat until you get what you want?

Do you really want to be in a place where everyone is transparent, having a childlike heart?

Do you really love God and Jesus or are you hoping to preserve your evil nature in the garden of God?

We should warn people what they are getting into when they receive Christ. Christ never tried to sell people on the Gospel, He laid the law down proper!

If God is with you He will bring the people He wants to be blessed by His gift in you. The rest will not profit very much and finally will leave.

The Gospel, if we only knew it, is a seller's market. People should be told clearly what it may mean to them if they walk with God. I do not mean by this to set off hand grenades and scare the fish away. Rather I am thinking about the current sloppy grace teaching that leaves people unprepared for the demands of discipleship.

To be continued.