(Not Presenting The Gospel Plan Of Salvation) 

Robert R. Taylor, Jr. 

Why are more and more of our preachers omitting the inclusion of the plainly stated stipulations of the Gospel plan of salvation in EVERY sermon they preach? I would not dare do this. I am now in my 63rd year as a preacher and each time I have given the invitation, I have told people what to do to be saved. I emphasize hearing, faith, repentance, confession and baptism (Rom. 10:17; John 8:21,24; Acts 17:30; Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 2:38 or Mark 16:16). I also make a point to tell any erring member of the church who needs to be restored what God’s plan of salvation states (Acts 8:22; James 5:16; 1 John 1:9). I have done this consistently from 1949 to 2012 and plan no change in this. I feel strongly that we are not ready to sing the invitation song until the above has been done. Should this not be the sentiment of EVERY Gospel preacher? 

I preached in a West Tennessee meeting some years back. I gave the Gospel plan of salvation at the initial service. Present for that service was a visitor from the state of Washington. He had come back to his West Tennessee home area to visit relatives and dear friends. As he shook my hand at the door he said, “I have not heard my local preacher in Washington give the plan of salvation in a dozen years. I commend you for doing it today in your first sermon of this meeting.” I asked him, “Do you not have elders there?” He assured me they did. I asked, “Why have they not corrected it?” He knew they had no justification for their lack of corrective action. In this case, both preacher and elders were at serious fault. 

Our elders here at Ripley, Tennessee, insists the plan of salvation be given at EVERY service. I did this for 36 years and our new preacher, Justin Paschall, continues this well established practice. No one leaves a Sunday morning, Sunday night or Wednesday night service without hearing spelled out the Gospel plan of salvation. This is the way it should be everywhere, but alas it is not! 

Some years back we were having a Gospel meeting here at Ripley. Consistently, we have always had excellent attendance with many from the community in attendance. On a particular night of that meeting we had a well-known religious leader visit the meeting. This was the first time I had ever seen him at one of our services and he has not been back since. The visiting preacher did not give the Gospel plan of salvation anywhere in his sermon. After the meeting was over one of our alert elders said in my hearing, “A man like ____ should never leave one of our services without hearing the Gospel plan of salvation. The visiting preacher had to be corrected on this for the rest of the meeting. 

I remember hearing the late and lamented Guy N. Woods say, “If I were preaching to a group of elders and preachers, I would still give the Gospel plan of salvation at the end of the service. I do not want to get out of the habit of doing it. That is my sentiment 100%. Why is not such the sentiment of ALL our preachers? 

Some years back when I preached at Ripley, Mississippi, I preached Sunday morning, conducted the funeral for our oldest member early that afternoon and drove to Middle Tennessee to begin a Gospel meeting that Sunday evening at 7:30 near Columbia, Tennessee. On the way, late in the afternoon, I picked up on radio the evening service from a nearby congregation. The program came on at 6:00 and lasted one hour. Hence, I heard its entirety. At no time in all that sermon did he tell his congregational audience or his radio audience what to do to be saved. Surely, there were many people traveling or confined at home listening to that radio sermon. In all probability there were people listening to that wonderful medium of radio who did not know what to do to be saved. If there were, they did not learn it from this incomplete radio sermon. 

From 1974 to 2010, I preached about 4,500 radio sermons on WTRB, our local radio station. I was on three mornings each week. I never grew tired of quoting the Gospel plan of salvation at the end of each radio message. We have many non-members who listen to this on a regular basis. 

More and more we hear it said at the end of a lesson, “If you have needs, come as we stand and sing.” Why not tell how they are to come — obeying the Gospel plan of salvation with both God’s first law of pardon and His second law of pardon? Back up each demanded command with a “thus saith the Lord.” 

This growing omission needs to be corrected, YESTERDAY!!