After the things I have heard, read and witnessed recently, I am convinced now more than ever, that the Word of God needs to be preached boldly in a way that drives the Sword of the Spirit into the hearts and souls of those listening, and to heck with the consequences! The response of those listening is quite literally out of our hands, and always has been. But the determination to be faithful in our preaching is a ball that is very much in our court.

John 15:19-21
19  If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20  Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
21  But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

Matthew 5:11-13
11  “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
12  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

1 Corinthians 1:21-24
21  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
22  For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom;
23  but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
24  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Let’s face it, the message we are commanded to preach is never going to be a popular one. It will either be received with eagerness by those chosen by God to believe, or will be rejected as foolishness by those who are not chosen. It’s not up to us to figure out who is who, for the wheat and tares grow together, both inside and outside what we know as the Church. It is only upon the return of Christ that those who are truly His own shall be revealed in glory, for which the whole of creation groans and waits.

Let us stop our pretense, bite the bullet, and proclaim His Word from the rooftops. “REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST!” Those who have been chosen will believe and be saved for all eternity, those who don’t will be condemned to face the eternal wrath of God, but both those things are not in our hands. All that is in our hands is to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, and if that is so, then a sincere belief in our heart will cause us to stand for the Truth revealed by His Word alone, and stand on it regardless of the consequences. We will face ridicule, persecution and slander with joy, for we will be in no doubt that we are about our Father’s business.

Originally posted 2009-10-13 18:20:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The truth is that in church congregations across the globe, there are people who have supposedly been Christians for years on end, who listen to the idle ramblings of preachers hell bent on proclaiming everything but the Gospel message. The thought of preaching the Gospel to Christians is ludricous isn’t it? After all, what’s the point of preaching that which we all know and believe already? So on and on they ramble about everything from what they’ve been doing during the week, to banging on about some deep spiritual experience that’s going around, as if it’s the move of God we’ve all been waiting for. Whilst all the time, a growing number of those within the congregation are filled with doubts about their own salvation, knowing full well that there is little or no change in their lives outside of the church building on a Sunday, and they are filled with fear, shame and doubt. How do you know this you may ask? Well I know because for years I was one of those so called Christians!

Thankfully the Lord Almighty saved me from the luke warm church that was determined to see me spewed out of the mouth of Christ on the Last Day, and instead drew me into a deep and challenging relationship with Him through His Word. Away went the warm fuzziness I had known in the charismatic churches I had so long been a part of. Away went the slaying in the spirit, the holy laughter, the babbling tongues, and the endless stream of words from the Lord. And instead in came the cold hard light of the Law, whereby His Righteousness began to pierce my soul to the core, highlighting the deepest rooted fears and transgressions that were a part of my flesh. I was forced to see the decay and rot that was riddled through my being like malignant cancer, until the horror of what I saw brought me to my knees. Believe me that before this time I had professed Christ as my Saviour. I had felt the warmth within my heart as I sung songs and prayed. But until that time, I had never really understood the depth of my need to be saved from myself before!

In this terrible place I really did come to a point where I doubted my salvation, and maybe quite rightly. I began to realise that no matter how loud I shouted “Jesus is Lord!”, or sang songs of praise with gusto, or prayed in tongues, or somehow dressed it all up; I was a complete failure. I realised that after all the years of being a Christian, very little had actually changed in my life, especially out of the public eye. Morally I had improved a lot in many ways, but it was mainly the works of my flesh attempting to mould myself into what I thought a Christian should be. I suppose that if at this point I had been open to the wooing of the emergent church, I may well have fell headlong into the trap of embracing doubt and denying the truth of God’s Word, but praise God that did not happen.

Instead, I was led quite clearly by the Holy Spirit to embrace two things. The truth according to Scripture alone, and the death to my self. There was no mumbo jumbo about it all, or some bizarre spiritual manifestation, or need to come under someone else’s anointing etc.. It was simply a choice laid before me to accept whatever His Word revealed through the Holy Bible as all the truth I will ever need. And a decision to examine myself in the light of this truth, and put away whatever stood against the truth that was revealed to me. As I embraced this way of life, I really began to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in a way I had never known before. What’s more, as I walked this path, I also found a deeper relationship with Christ begin to blossom, His will being revealed in my life on a daily basis, and the sense of assurance that I am truly His to be overwhelming!

If you are reading this article and feel in any way whatsoever to relate to what I have been sharing, then I beg you not to turn aside yet again to myths, fables, and man made doctrines of the flesh. But instead respond again to the call of Christ on your life to repent and believe the Gospel. It is not a case of trying to find something hidden from sight that only the wisest few men of God know about. Nor is it about loudly and boldly declaring black to be white in the name of Jesus. But it is about humbly coming to His Word and believing it to be true, then demonstrating that belief by responding in faith and putting your trust in Him, regardless of what the outcome may appear to be. Keep it simple, read His Word constantly, choosing to believe what it says is true, even to the point of examining your life and challenging yourself with that truth, and then respond in faith by applying it to your life. This is the way of someone truly in Christ, and this is the way that ensures the power of His Holy Spirit will constantly be with you, for His glory and not your own. And this is the path that will leave your heart filled with assurance of your salvation in Him, as His Holy Spirit testifies to your own spirit that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Originally posted 2009-10-09 08:03:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Q: What call does Jesus make to us?

Matthew 4:19
19  Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

John 10:27-28
27  My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

We are called by Jesus Christ to follow Him. If we follow Him faithfully He shall make us into fishers of men (we shall bear fruit in the salvation of others), He will give us eternal life, and nothing shall snatch us from His hand.

Q: The benefits of following Jesus are great, but how can we know that it is Him that we are following, when we cannot see Him? And how can we hear His voice when we can’t listen to Him with our ears?

We need someone to tangibly show us Jesus, and reveal to us what He is saying to us. The problem is however that the Bible tells us that the one who teaches us cannot be another man, but our Teacher must be God Himself.

Hebrews 8:11
11  And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

Isaiah 30:20-21 (ESV)
20  And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
21  And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

(The correct translation must be in the way that God is our Teacher, otherwise it would be contradicting itself. So in translations where the word “teachers” is used, it can only refer to someone faithfully conveying what God Himself teaches us, not their own personal interpretation or opinion.)

According to the Scriptures, there is a direct relationship between Jesus Christ and God Almighty Himself.

John 1:1-3
1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2  He was in the beginning with God.
3  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Colossians 1:9-18
9  For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10  that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11  strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
12  giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13  He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14  in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Both of these portions of Scripture are directly describing Jesus Christ. He is Eternal, He is our Creator, He is our Deliverer, He is the Head of the Church, and He is God Himself revealed to us. So if this be true, then Jesus Christ is actually God Himself revealed to us, and thus is also our Teacher. So this brings us back full circle to the start again. Not only must we follow Jesus Christ in order to benefit from the promises He makes to those who do so, but we also know from Scripture that His identity is that of God Himself, and it must be His words alone that we rely on for our instruction and teaching. Even if we listen through the mouth of another teaching on his behalf, we must be able to know beyond doubt that what they are teaching us, is truly what God is teaching us.

There is only one place that we can hear directly the words of Jesus Christ, our Creator, our God, our Deliverer, and our Teacher, and that is in His revealed Word to us through Scripture. By faith we receive the Word of God given in Scripture, through the canon of the Holy Bible, as solely that which God has given to us as His Own Word in written and tangible form. So here is what the Bible has to say about itself with regard to how we should relate to it as believers and followers of Christ:

2 Timothy 3:14-17
14  But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15  and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17  that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The oldest doctrinal standard given to us after the Christian reformation is known as the Belgic Confession [http://www.reformed.org/documents/BelgicConfession.html]. This is what this document has to say about the authority of Scripture:

“We believe that this Holy Scripture fully contains the will of God and that all that man must believe in order to be saved is sufficiently taught therein. The whole manner of worship which God requires of us is written in it at length. It is therefore unlawful for any one, even for an apostle, to teach otherwise than we are now taught in Holy Scripture: yes, even if it be an angel from heaven, as the apostle Paul says. Since it is forbidden to add to or take away anything from the Word of God, it is evident that the doctrine thereof is most perfect and complete in all respects.
We may not consider any writings of men, however holy these men may have been, of equal value with the divine Scriptures; nor ought we to consider custom, or the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times and persons, or councils, decrees or statutes, as of equal value with the truth of God, since the truth is above all; for all men are of themselves liars, and lighter than a breath. We therefore reject with all our heart whatever does not agree with this infallible rule, as the apostles have taught us: Test the spirits to see whether they are of God. Likewise: If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.” Article 7 of the Belgic Confession.

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Originally posted 2009-05-19 19:15:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter