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"Preach the Gospel... and Use Words If Necessary?"

Really?

So what IS this Gospel, then? What is this Good News that can be preached mainly by action, and by words merely as a supplement?

That the most Holy Sovereign God created all things for His Glory? That mankind was created in His image so that we all have no excuse but to fellowship with God and value Him supremely? That instead of doing this, mankind valued itself more and sought to gain knowledge to be just like God? That for this monumental act of treason alone, each and every human being rightly deserves judgement?

That hell is not the problem? But that SIN is the problem and that hell is the Just & Fair solution to it? But by God's Sovereign Grace, He did not treat us as our sin deserves. Instead He came down to us as Jesus the son of man in the flesh, to preach the Kingdom of God, to die for the penalty of sins and to rise up again, declaring that He indeed is Christ, the Son of God!

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

"Preach the gospel... and use words if necessary?"

Dear friends, if we're not properly using GOD's words from His Word, then we ain't preaching the Gospel properly. God's eternal Word is always necessary.

All Glory, Honour and Praise belong to our God Jesus Christ alone.

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." -- The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 4:1-5

PREACH THE WORD!


Here's an interesting little tidbit from our Roman Catholic friends. Many seem to attribute the "Preach-the-gospel-and-use-words-if-necessary" quote to Francis of Assisi. But according to an American Catholic website:

When did Francis say, "Preach the Gospel at all times... Use words if
necessary"?

This is a great quote, very Franciscan in its spirit, but not literally from St. Francis. The thought is his; this catchy phrasing is not in his writings or in the earliest biographies about him.

In Chapter XVII of his Rule of 1221, Francis told the friars not to preach unless they had received the proper permission to do so. Then he added, “Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds.”

A few years ago, someone used the Internet to contact some of the most eminent Franciscan scholars in the world, seeking the source of this “Use words if necessary” quote. It is clearly not in any of Francis’ writings. After a couple weeks of searching, no scholar could find this quote in a story written within 200 years of Francis’ death.

From http://www.americancatholic.org/e-News/FriarJack/fj092302.asp#F2

The Importance of Context...

A thoroughly thought-provoking message from Cross.TV.
A positively, remarkably "MUST-WATCH" video for all who take God's Word seriously.

See more of their videos at GodTube.com, by clicking here.

Saved By YOUR "Decision For Christ"? Well then,

"Watch and pray..."

"In the nineteenth century few controversies were so heated as the one over Baptismal Regeneration. It is interesting to note that C. H. Spurgeon (1836-1892), the most prolific preacher of that century, had printed in 1864 more copies of his sermon denouncing Baptismal Regeneration than of any other sermon. Baptismal Regeneration teaches that the new birth is conveyed by the waters of baptism. The sacrament is performed by man and is in his control."

"But the twentieth century Church has, in "Decisional Regeneration," a more subtle falsehood to combat. "Decisional Regeneration" differs from Baptismal Regeneration only in the fact that it attaches the certainty of the new birth to a different act. This doctrine, just as Baptismal Regeneration, sees the new birth as the result of a mechanical process that can be performed by man. What is here called "Decisional Regeneration" has in its deceptive way permeated much of the Christian Church." --James E. Adams

"So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."
--Romans 9:16 (ESV)

Exceptional Excerpts from John Reisinger

God's Part and Man's Part in Salvation (Excerpts)
By John G. Reisinger

For the full text, please visit SoundOfGrace.com

God and man must both do something before a man can be saved... The Bible clearly sets forth both the divine and human essential in God's plan of salvation… In order to understand what God's Word really says… we will establish the subject one point at a time.

ONE: A man must repent and believe the gospel in order to be saved. No one was ever forgiven and made a child of God who did not willingly turn from sin to Christ. Nowhere does the Bible even hint that men can be saved without repentance and faith, but to the contrary, the Word always states these things are essential before a person can be saved. The one and only Bible answer to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

TWO: Every one who repents and believes the gospel will be saved. Every soul, without any exception, who answers the gospel command to come to Christ will be received and forgiven by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philip Bliss put the truth to music when he said, "Who-so-ever will, forever must endure..." If we can be absolutely certain about anything, we can be sure that Christ will never void His promise to receive "all who come to Him." As old John Bunyan said, "Come and welcome" is the Savior's eternal word to all sinners.

THREE: Repentance and faith are the free acts of men. Men, with their own mind, heart, and will must renounce sin and receive Christ. God never repented and believed for anyone - and He never will. Turning from sin and reaching out in faith to Christ are the acts of man, and every man who so responds to the gospel call does so because he honestly desires to do so. He wants to be forgiven and he can only be forgiven by repenting and believing. No one, including God, can turn from sin for us, we must do it. No one can trust Christ in our place, but we must personally, knowingly, and willingly trust Him in order to be saved.

My friend, that is what the Bible teaches–and teaches it clearly and dogmatically… If you know anyone that denies the above facts, then that person, regardless of what he labels himself, is denying the clear message of the Bible. I can only speak for myself, and I will not deny what God's Word so plainly teaches!

…We have merely stated exactly what the Bible says a man must do in order to be saved. Let us now look at what the Scripture says a sinner is able to do and what he is not able to do.

FOUR: The same Bible that states man must repent and believe in order to be saved also emphatically states that...

Man, because of his sinful nature, is TOTALLY UNABLE TO REPENT AND BELIEVE.

All of man's three faculties of mind, heart, and will, which must be receptive to gospel truth, have neither the ability to receive such truth nor even the desire to have such ability. In fact the exact opposite is true. Man's total being is not only unable to either come, or want to come to Christ, but every part of his nature is actively opposed to Christ and truth. Rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is not a passive non-action, but a deliberate volitional choice. It is deliberately choosing to say "No" to Christ and "Yes" to self and sin. No one is neutral in respect to God and His authority.

Unbelief is just as much a deliberate act of mind, heart, and will as is faith. This is what Jesus meant in John 5:40 when He said, "You will (you are deliberately making a choice) not to come to me." Yes, unbelief is an act of the will. In fact unbelief is active faith, but unfortunately it is faith in myself.

To believe and preach points one, two, and three, without also preaching number four is to grossly misrepresent the gospel of God's grace. It is to give a totally false picture of the sinner and his true need. It shows only half of the man's sin. It misses the most crucial point of a lost man's need, namely, his lack of power or ability to overcome his sinful nature and its effects. The gospel which is concocted out of this view is only a half gospel. It is at this point that modern evangelism so miserably fails. It confuses man's responsibility with his ability, and falsely assumes that a sinner has the moral ability to perform all that God has commanded. The "cannot" texts of scripture are either totally ignored or badly twisted by this perversion of the true gospel of God's saving grace.

Please note a few texts of Scripture that dogmatically state some things that a lost man cannot do:

Man cannot see - until he first be born again. John 3:3.
Man cannot understand - until he first be given a new nature. I Cor. 2:14.
Man cannot come - until he first be effectually called by the Holy Spirit. John 6:44,45.

We do not have space to go into all the "cannots," but these three are sufficient to show that a sinner absolutely cannot (notice it is not will not) come to Christ until God first does something in that sinner's nature. That something is what the Bible calls regeneration, or the new birth, and it is the exclusive work of God the Holy Spirit. Man has no part whatever in regeneration.

FIVE: The new birth, or regeneration, is God giving us the spiritual life that enables us to do what we must do (repent and believe), but CANNOT DO because of our bondage to sin. When the Bible says man is dead in sin, it means that man's mind, heart, and will are all spiritually dead in sin. When the Bible speaks of our being in bondage to sin, it means that our entire being, including our will, is under the bondage and power of sin.

We indeed need Christ to die and pay the penalty of our sin, but we just as desperately need the Holy Spirit to give us a new nature in regeneration. The Son of God frees us legally from the penalty of sin, but only the Holy Spirit can free us from the power and death of our depravity in sin. We need forgiveness in order to be saved, and Christ provides complete forgiveness and righteousness for us in His death. However, we also need spiritual life and ability, and the Holy Spirit provides it for us in regeneration. It is the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration that enables us to savingly receive the atoning work of Christ in true faith.

God is a triune God, and no person can understand "so great salvation" until he sees each blessed Person of the Godhead playing a distinct and necessary part in that salvation. No man can declare the "glorious gospel of grace" and leave out the Father's sovereign electing love and the Holy Spirit's regenerating power as essential parts of God's work in saving sinners. To speak of God's part in salvation as only being one of providing forgiveness and man's part as being willing to accept it is to ignore both the Father's work of election and the Spirit's work of regeneration. This not only makes man a full partner with God in the work of salvation, it credits man with playing the decisive roll in the deal.

How dreadful, and ridiculous, to give Christ the glory for His work on the cross, and then give sinners the credit for the Father's work in eternity (election) and the Spirit's work in our hearts (regeneration). It does great dishonor to the Sovereign Spirit to say, "The Holy Spirit will perform His miraculous work of quickening you unto life as soon as you give Him your permission." That's like standing in a graveyard saying to the dead people, "I will give you life and raise you up from the grave if you will only take the first step of faith and ask me to do it." What a denial of the sinner's total spiritual inability. Amazing!

… (R)epentance and faith, are the fruits and effects of God's work and not the essential ingredients supplied by the sinner, as man's part of the deal. Every man who turns to Christ does so willingly, but that willingness is a direct result of the Father's election and the Holy Spirit's effectual calling. To say, "If you will believe, God will answer your faith with the New Birth," is to misunderstand man's true need and misrepresent God's essential work.

SIX: The Scriptures clearly show that faith and repentance are the evidences and not the cause of regeneration. Suppose a man who had been dead for twenty years greeted you on the street one day. Would you conclude that the man had gotten tired of being dead and decided to ask a great doctor to perform a miracle and give him life? I'm sure you would, instead, exclaim in amazement, "Man, what happened to you? Who brought you back to life?" You would see he was alive because he was walking and breathing, but you would know these were evidences of a miracle having been performed on him from without and not the results of his own power or will. Just so when a spiritually dead man begins to perform spiritual acts such as repentance and faith; these spiritual fruits show that the miracle of the new birth has taken place.

Let me illustrate this with a biblical example. Acts 16:14 is a clear proof of the above. By the way, as far as I know, this is the only place in the New Testament that uses the phrase opened heart, and the Bible gives the whole credit for this opening to God's power and not to man's will. Modern evangelism does the exact opposite and credits the opening of the heart to the power of man's free will. Remember that we are not discussing whether man must be willing to open his heart. We settled that under points One, Two, and Three. We are now looking for the source of power that enabled man to perform that spiritual act… the Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God furnishes that power or ability in the new birth.

Let us examine the one text in Scripture that uses the phrase "opened heart" and see if it agrees with our previous points:

And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. (Acts 16:14)

The NIV says:

The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

First of all we note that Lydia did indeed attend or listen to the words of Paul. She gladly heard and willingly believed his message. As we have already shown, she had to do this in order to benefit from the gospel and be saved. Lydia's attending, or hearing and believing, illustrates points One, Two, and Three above. Lydia did indeed choose to believe, and she did it only because she wholeheartedly wanted to. She did not do it unwillingly nor did God hear and believe for her. It was her own response and it was a most willing response.

Next, we notice exactly what God did. We see here demonstrated what God must do before Lydia can be saved:

(l) He provided a salvation of "by grace through faith" that could be preached. Obviously the things spoken by Paul were the gospel facts concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and surely this Lamb is God's gracious provision.

(2) God also brought the message of His provision to Lydia. He sent a preacher to tell her about this great plan of salvation. God went to a lot of trouble to provide such a gospel - He gave His only begotten Son. He went to great ends to provide such a preacher as Paul - read about it in Paul's testimony in Act 22.

(3) ...God must open Lydia's heart (or give her spiritual life) so she will be able to believe. Her natural mind is blind, her natural heart is averse to God, and her will is in bondage to sin and spiritual death. Only the power of God can free her from this graveyard of spiritual depravity. The giving of this life and power is solely the work of God. Notice that the Bible explicitly gives God alone the credit for Lydia's heart being opened. If you do not see that in this text then you simply cannot read:

...whose heart the LORD OPENED...

Notice also how clearly the Holy Spirit teaches us the relationship between the cause and the effect in the conversion of Lydia. God was the One Who opened Lydia's heart, that is the cause, and He did so in order that she might be able to attend to the truths that Paul preached, that is the effect. Now that is what the Word of God says! …If you try to deny that the one single reason that Lydia understood and believed the gospel was because God deliberately opened her heart and enabled her to believe, you are fighting God's Word. If you try to get man's free will as the one determining factor into this text, you are consciously corrupting the Word of God.

God's grace not only provides salvation, but His power also gives us the ability to both desire and receive it. He works in us both to will and to do (Phil. 2:13). His working in us to will is the new birth, and, I say again, this work of regeneration is totally the work of the Holy Spirit.

The moment we lose sight of this distinction between being saved by faith (the act of man) and being born again by the Holy Spirit (the act of God), we are heading for confusion and trouble. We will be convinced that man is able to do what the Bible emphatically states he is unable to do. The necessity of the Holy Spirit's work being thus theologically denied, it will not be long before it is ignored in actual practice. This is the plight of modern day evangelism. Since they are convinced that the new birth is within the power and ability of man's will, their man made methodology has become far more important than the theology of the Bible.

For the full text, please see http://www.soundofgrace.com/aug97/godsp1.htm
Enjoy more articles by John Reisinger at http://www.soundofgrace.com/jgr/

Our Dependence on God

Adapted From http://www.daily-devotions.net/cgi-bin/devotionbydate.cgi?date=03-31


Reading from:

Deuteronomy 8:3-4 (NIV), Moses speaking to the Israelites during the last month of the final year of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness:

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.”

Comment:

God tested Israel in the wilderness to prove how faithless and proud their own hearts truly were.

People often think that we are independent creatures. We think that we can take care of ourselves and be in control of our world. This is usually why Christians are taken through “wilderness” experiences.

When the Lord sets his love upon you, He shows you truth. The truth is that we are all dependent on God—for air, water, food and ability; for every heartbeat and reflex; for His mercy and grace, righteousness and holiness; for life on earth and for life eternal.

God alone is ascient (self-sustaining).

How did Moses survive forty days of fasting without water (Exodus 34:28)? God sustained him.

How could the nation of Israel wander for 40 years in the desert? The Word of God brought water from the rock, manna from the sky, and kept their clothing from wearing out.

When we realize this fact of total dependence on God, we are humbled. It is not even up to us to decide whether we shall depend on God or not. Like it or not, we already do.

The question now is, shall we accept the truth or not? Interestingly, even the ability to accept God's truths can only come from God Himself. (Matt.11:25-27; 16:17; John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1Cor. 2:10-16)

The effect of this humbling truth, that we are totally dependent on God, should change the way we speak and act if we are to accomplish anything of lasting value.


Reflect: The trials of life are to humble us and to show us of our need for God always.


Prayer:

Almighty God, thank you for continuing to make us realize how truly dependent we are on You, for everything.

Thank you for the desire to glorify You... Even as we are humbled because we know that all our best and finest words and superlatives, deeds and imaginings fall well short before you, O Lord.

Make us realize that You and You alone can truly do justice to Your blessed name--for You and You alone know the full extent of Your power and love, holiness and might.

So please glorify yourself... reflect your glory through us, in all that you would have us do.

In Christ Jesus’ name we humbly pray. Amen.

God’s Sovereignty, Inseparable from ALL His Other Attributes

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. "

1 Chronicles 29:11

While God’s Sovereignty is often referred to as another one of His attributes, we may also think of God’s Sovereignty as the very culmination or summation of ALL His attributes:

GOD is Sovereign because He is Absolutely Supreme in ALL His attributes.

God is Holy. Holiness is one of God’s attributes. Is there anyone or anything more Holy than God? No. God is the absolute power and authority when it comes to Holiness.

God is Righteous. Righteousness is one of God’s attributes. Is there anyone or anything more Righteous than God? No. God is the absolute power and authority when it comes to Righteousness.

God is Gracious. Graciousness is one of God’s attributes. Is there anyone or anything more Gracious than God? No. God is the absolute power and authority when it comes to Graciousness.

God is Merciful. Mercy is one of God’s attributes. Is there anyone or anything more Merciful than God? No. God is the absolute power and authority when it comes to Mercy.

God is All-Knowing (omniscient). Is there anyone or anything more All-Knowing than God? No. God is the absolute power and authority when it comes to Omniscience.

God is Eternal. Is there anyone or anything more Eternal than God? No. God is the absolute power and authority in all of Eternity.

And so it goes, for each and every attribute of our incomparable God!

As Arthur W. Pink declared, “Sovereignty characterizes the whole Being of God. He is sovereign in all His attributes.”

May all of God’s children agree in Christ, “Amen!”

Ignacio Lacsina jnr.