The First Step - Evangelism and Gospel Preaching

"The first duty of the gospel preacher is to declare God's law and to show the nature of sin." - Martin Luther


I don't always agree with Luther, but on this point I couldn't agree more. You can see the effects of the false "gospel" that is being preached today when you look at such statistics as divorce and sexual impurity in the church.


The problem with the modern "gospel" is that... no one is being saved by it! When I say being saved, I do not mean that no one is asking Jesus into their heart. I'm saying, they're not being regenerated, transformed, or delivered not only from past sins committed but also from the power of sin now! I suppose some might be saved, not as a result of such preaching but by the power of God in spite of bad preaching, but the truth is no one needs salvation if they aren't aware that they have broken God's law!


And once they have come into the Church, if they were never instructed about what they were escaping (sin as defined by the law of God), then they continue to live in the very bondage that the gospel would free the from.


The preaching of the gospel must begin with the law. Most of our job is showing the sick that they truly are sick, or else they won't be needing a cure! Only after a man has seen himself to be truly bankrupt and guilty before God can he hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ.

Are we living for eternity?

"Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?"

This question is etched on the tombstone of Leonard Ravenhill. Its a solemn reminder to Christians that Christ died to purchase us from sin. As the Apostle Paul states, "You are not your own, but you were bought for a price."

Don't you think that it grieves the Holy Spirit, when He's wanting to lead us into truth, wanting to empower us for witness, wanting to glorify Christ in our lives, and we're laid out on the couch watching television and eating junk food? When He wants to visit us in times of prayer, but rather than talk to God, we spend more time gossiping to neighbors? Instead of reading God's word, we absorb information from all sources of media, and then wonder why we don't have the power of God in our lives to abstain from sin and live for eternity.

Looking back from eternity, the things we consider wonderful now must look so dull. Lord help us to be tombstones (men and women dead to this world) with that same message etched upon our lives, a message to the world, "Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?"

Cheap Grace is worse than Legalism

   One of the most disgraceful acts being committed in the church today is the labeling of obedience to God as legalism. Simply because one chooses to follow the commandment of God, one becomes vilified by his or her own blood (those who claim to be of the household of faith.) There is an obedience that is born out of man's desire, for the sake of self. That is truly legalism. But there is another obedience born out of God's desire, for the sake of Christ. That is true discipleship. The following are the words of a 20th century martyr:

   “... cheap grace has been no less disastrous to our own spiritual lives. Instead of opening up the way to Christ it has closed it. Instead of calling us to follow Christ, it has hardened us in our disobedience. Perhaps we had once heard the gracious call to follow him, and had at this command even taken the first few steps along the path of discipleship in the discipline of obedience, only to find ourselves confronted by the word of cheap grace. Was that not merciless and hard? The only effect that such a word could have on us was to bar our way to progress, and seduce us to the mediocre level of the world, quenching the joy of discipleship by telling us that we were following a way of our own choosing, that we were spending our strength and disciplining ourselves in vain - all of which was not merely useless, but extremely dangerous. After all, we were told, our salvation had already been accomplished by the grace of God. The smoking flax was mercilessly extinguished. It was unkind to speak to men like this for such a cheap offer could only leave them bewildered and tempt them from the way to which they had been called by Christ. Having laid hold on cheap grace, they were barred for ever from the knowledge of costly grace. Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace - whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.” - Dietrich Boenhoffer, The Cost of Discipleship.