This will be my final post on the wonderful book written some time ago by John MacArthur entitled, Hard To Believe. We have looked at three admonitions or “strategies,” as MacArthur puts it, to remember as we share the gospel. Today, I will mention numbers four and five. Because of the length of the text, I will not post it on the blog, but you can look at it in 2nd Corinth. 4:8-16. To combine the final two thoughts, we can say: We Will Not Seek Popularity AND We Will Not Look At Earthly Success.
It would be absolutely crazy to expect this narrow gospel message to be accepted by the masses. This does not prohibit us from passionately carrying forth the gospel to the masses…to every tribe, tongue and nation…but we should understand that we will be hated for giving the true gospel. Now, it should be understood that if we are going to give the true gospel and seek to please our Lord, that success is going to be found in the delivery of truth - rather than the numbers that respond. This is next to impossible for the modern American church to embrace. In America, bigger is better, health and wealth must equal spiritual blessings. We have an “American Gospel” that, in the majority of the world, it would be openly rejected because there isn’t as much health and wealth floating around - so it can be easily refuted. The rule of thumb is, if I have a gospel that can not be proclaimed in a third world country, but rather it can be proclaimed and understood only in my little corner of the world, IT IS NOT A TRUE GOSPEL.
When I look at John 3 and watch Christ proclaim the gospel message, how different does that look than our modern evangelism practices? MacAuthur says it like this: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; it isn’t just holding up your hand or walking down an aisle and saying, ‘I love Jesus.’ It is not easy, it is not user-friendly or seeker sensitive; it isn’t a rosy, perfect world where Jesus gives you whatever you want. It is hard, it is sacrificial, and it supersedes everything.” If the enemy can’t destroy the church, he will be satisfied confusing her. If we can’t articulate the gospel, we are ineffective for the Kingdom. This will redefine missions, this will redefine grace, justification, the exclusivity of Christ, it is a message that is absent of God’s truth. Therefore it is a message that it is synthetic - it may look like a gospel message but it is a message that is damning.
In closing, read books like Hard to Believe and The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur…or What is the Gospel by Greg Gilbert, or so many other wonderful books - but by all means we must get this right. Go to The Way of the Master website or view their training materials that do a wonderful job explaining the gospel. If there is anything we must get a firm grasp on, it is the truth of the glorious gospel of Christ!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
How Unattractive is the Gospel - Part 3
If you want to see the premise of this post, then look at Part 1from a week ago. I want to jump right into these “strategies” or admonitions that MacArthur uses in his book, Hard To Believe. The second point he gives is found in:
2nd Corinth 4:2 - “We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
The admonition is: We Will NOT Tamper with the Message.
This admonition builds perfectly on the first strategy - if I am ashamed of the message or too cowardly to present it in truth, then the tendency will be to tamper with it…to weaken it or to change it to fit my comfort level. We see this a great deal in our day but, in truth, I think there has been a tendency to do this in every generation. I will tie this second admonition, along with MacArthur’s third one, together in this blog because they fit so well together and, most of the time where you see one, you inevitably see the other. The third admonition is found in the next two verses:
2nd Corinth. 4:3-4 “even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
The Admonition is: We Will Not Manipulate People To Get The Desired Superficial Results.
MacArthur rightly points out that the problem here is “the soil - not the seed.” A wonderful friend of mine was telling me about a program he saw on the Discovery Channel - it was discussing farming and crops (I have no idea what drew him to this program, but that is beyond the intent of this blog). This friend said the documentary explained that the only way something can grow in “dead/bad soil” is if it is created from a synthetic seed. This describes what has happened all too often in our churches - and sadly, it has happened many times by well intentioned people - they are just not gospel focused. So many churches and pastors become decision focused and “results” obsessed. That is why muscle bound men in wife beater tee-shirts can come in and rip phone books and give a cute synthetic gospel presentation - then can claim hundreds saved. To the casual observer everyone wins! The church is happy (if they are Southern Baptist they may get an award), the preacher gets noticed, the muscle bound men get paid and feel good that they saw such a “movement of God” (their definition), and it is good entertainment! If you dare to protest this by pointing out the fact that, though you baptized 100 people the next Sunday - you probably won’t be able to find them in a week or two – you are somehow cold, calloused and not evangelistic! Never mind that there was never a call for real repentance, no concept of counting the cost, no discussion of Lordship or surrendering your life to Christ - only some magical special prayer that God is now obligated to come through on since you repeated it. Again - if you actually have the unmitigated gall to point this out - brace…brace…it’s about to get ugly because you, my friend, obviously don’t care if people get saved! Some well meaning person will point out that if even ONE came to Christ and all others were false, it was worth it. To that I say, NO! The damage done by a false gospel and a false hope IS SIN!
Some of those who tamper with the message in order to get some desired results, no doubt have a desire to get people to come to Christ…but I am guessing that, too often they forget the reason they are sharing is not to “make a sale,” but to deliver truth. As children of God, our number one calling is to glorify God in all we do - the only way I can do that in witnessing is to get the Gospel right! It is not my message to change (it is arrogance to believe I can give it the way I want), it is simply my task to deliver it! It is exciting to see the ever growing passion at Trinity for this great task.
2nd Corinth 4:2 - “We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
The admonition is: We Will NOT Tamper with the Message.
This admonition builds perfectly on the first strategy - if I am ashamed of the message or too cowardly to present it in truth, then the tendency will be to tamper with it…to weaken it or to change it to fit my comfort level. We see this a great deal in our day but, in truth, I think there has been a tendency to do this in every generation. I will tie this second admonition, along with MacArthur’s third one, together in this blog because they fit so well together and, most of the time where you see one, you inevitably see the other. The third admonition is found in the next two verses:
2nd Corinth. 4:3-4 “even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
The Admonition is: We Will Not Manipulate People To Get The Desired Superficial Results.
MacArthur rightly points out that the problem here is “the soil - not the seed.” A wonderful friend of mine was telling me about a program he saw on the Discovery Channel - it was discussing farming and crops (I have no idea what drew him to this program, but that is beyond the intent of this blog). This friend said the documentary explained that the only way something can grow in “dead/bad soil” is if it is created from a synthetic seed. This describes what has happened all too often in our churches - and sadly, it has happened many times by well intentioned people - they are just not gospel focused. So many churches and pastors become decision focused and “results” obsessed. That is why muscle bound men in wife beater tee-shirts can come in and rip phone books and give a cute synthetic gospel presentation - then can claim hundreds saved. To the casual observer everyone wins! The church is happy (if they are Southern Baptist they may get an award), the preacher gets noticed, the muscle bound men get paid and feel good that they saw such a “movement of God” (their definition), and it is good entertainment! If you dare to protest this by pointing out the fact that, though you baptized 100 people the next Sunday - you probably won’t be able to find them in a week or two – you are somehow cold, calloused and not evangelistic! Never mind that there was never a call for real repentance, no concept of counting the cost, no discussion of Lordship or surrendering your life to Christ - only some magical special prayer that God is now obligated to come through on since you repeated it. Again - if you actually have the unmitigated gall to point this out - brace…brace…it’s about to get ugly because you, my friend, obviously don’t care if people get saved! Some well meaning person will point out that if even ONE came to Christ and all others were false, it was worth it. To that I say, NO! The damage done by a false gospel and a false hope IS SIN!
Some of those who tamper with the message in order to get some desired results, no doubt have a desire to get people to come to Christ…but I am guessing that, too often they forget the reason they are sharing is not to “make a sale,” but to deliver truth. As children of God, our number one calling is to glorify God in all we do - the only way I can do that in witnessing is to get the Gospel right! It is not my message to change (it is arrogance to believe I can give it the way I want), it is simply my task to deliver it! It is exciting to see the ever growing passion at Trinity for this great task.
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