“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you! But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.” Jeremiah 44:16–17 (ESV)
“As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”” Hebrews 3:15 (ESV)
It is amazing how hard the heart of man can become. The Bible likens it to a stone because it can become unfeeling and unbending like rock. But the metaphor of a rock falls short when it comes to the depths of that unbending attitude.
In Jeremiah 44, the prophet once again declared the coming judgment of God as well as the mercy of God if they would only repent. But instead of repentance, the people doubled-down in their sin. They not only wouldn’t turn from their sin, they would instead make sure that they kept their vows to their false gods and continue to make offerings, just as their wicked forefathers and leaders had done before them.
This people who would not keep their covenant promises to the LORD, were so ingrained in their sin that their hard hearts led them to lock on to their promises to worship false gods like a pit bull onto a piece of raw meat! In this way, they were not like rocks. Rocks don’t get harder, but people’s hearts sometimes do. They don’t just reject God, they go even further and show their open disdain and hatred of God.
But what is even more amazing than the hardness of man’s heart is the grace and mercy of God. In Hebrews 3, the writer of this letter uses the rebellion of Israel in the Old Testament as an example. The failures of Israel become a tool for teaching, showing that God will keep his word and punish those who insist on rebelling. But along with that, even hundreds of years after these events in the wilderness, God is still offering mercy and forgiveness to all who will listen and come to him. What overflowing grace!
The offer of the free grace of God is still offered today. Men and women can dive deeper into their sin so that their hearts become completely unfeeling and their hatred against God and everything else is seething. Or they can listen to the Spirit as he speaks through the Word of God and offers to them salvation and cleansing from all their sins.
Some offers are too good to be true, but not this one. This one is genuine. If you don’t have forgiveness from God, then this offer is for you. Don’t pass it by. Don’t grow colder and harder. There is only pain, misery, and death on that path. Go to Jesus. He receives sinners and turns them into saints.
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”
(Galatians 3:1, ESV)
When Paul had originally proclaimed the gospel in Galatia, the people received it with great joy. But Paul soon learned that their acceptance of the gospel of Christ was overthrown by their warm embrace of a false gospel brought in by those who sought to pervert its purity. The conversion from truth to error and from a saving gospel to a damning gospel was so quick that the Apostle likens it to an act of sorcery that had “bewitched” those who had rejected the truth in favor of a lie.
Paul had preached to them a simple gospel–as he said, “Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” By this, Paul means that he painted a picture of the gospel with clarity and plainness. Like a billboard that sits alongside a main thoroughfare must be clear and to the point, so too Paul’s gospel was portrayed to them. How could they mess it up so badly?
This reminds me of the need to preach a simple gospel to the lost. As we grow in the faith we will learn more doctrine and deeper theological truths. These are good and necessary in our Christian walk. But these things can also become a hinderance to sharing the simplicity of the gospel. The Galatians couldn’t claim that the message was muddy, nor could they say they didn’t understand it. They had, and this was what bothered Paul so much. He strove to make the gospel as clear as possible, and yet they rejected it and replaced it with a false and damning message of works-based salvation.
The great Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon saw this danger of overcomplicating our message as well. He wrote:
A good many years ago, when I was about fifteen or sixteen years of age, I wanted a Savior, and I heard the gospel preached by a poor man who said in the name of Jesus, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa 45:22). It was very plain English, and I understood it and obeyed it and found rest. I owe all my happiness since then to the same plain doctrine. Now suppose that I were to say, “I have read a great many books, and there are a great many people willing to hear me. I really could not preach such a commonplace gospel as I did at the first. I must put it in a sophisticated way, so that none but the élite can understand me.” I would be—what would I be? I would be a fool, writ large. I would be worse than that: I would be a traitor to my God. For if I was saved by a simple gospel, then I am bound to preach that same simple gospel till I die, so that others too may be saved by it. When I cease to preach salvation by faith in Jesus, put me into a lunatic asylum, for you may be sure that my mind is gone.
Charles Spurgeon, Galatians, ed. Elliot Ritzema, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
I pray that we never go beyond proclaiming a simple gospel. Not simplistic, but simple. There will be time and occasion to bring a babe in Christ to understand the deeper things of the faith, but as we point the unbeliever to the cross, may we do so with gospel simplicity and clarity.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36, ESV)
“… but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 9:12b, ESV)
In chapter 7 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he addressed the issues related to having a divided heart and divided interests when one is married and called to care for a family. In Chapter 8, Paul addressed the issue of Christian liberty and how that liberty can not only be a blessing, but can also harm the weak faith of another Christian. Paul is stating the marital responsibilities and emphasis on our rights in Christian liberties can get in the way of our greater mission.
And in chapter 9, Paul continued in this same vein of thought. While Paul had personally chosen to work to support his own needs, he did not think that it was wrong for the local church to support the work of the minister of the gospel in order for him to focus his time and energy in laboring for Christ. But Paul wanted to be able to continue “tent-making” in order to be free from the accusation that he was using the church to make a living, much like the false teachers around him. He valued this above the right he had to be supported by the work of the ministry. To Paul, the mission was far more important than his own comfort or ability to rest.
As Paul continued developing this idea throughout the chapter, he builds upon the idea found in verse 12–it is better to “endure anything than to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” It would be better to stay single, better to abstain from meat, better to labor in the day and minister at night for the sake of the gospel.
Paul’s focus was laser-like. He was constantly looking for opportunities, strategies, places of commonality for any way to proclaim the gospel to the lost. It didn’t matter if they were Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male of female–he wanted to preach Christ crucified to everyone everywhere at any time.
I think that at times what I see in our world, the focus is on comfort and a better life. This is clearly an issue in the US, but it also is true of human existence. We seek for better. We work for more ease and comfort. That isn’t always bad. But when this idea becomes centralized in our heart and it begins to become the force that drives our lives, it shows that we have begun to move ever so slowly away from the mission we so passionately embraced at our conversion.
By way of reminder, Paul told the church in Corinth that this tent of a body not only will break down, but it will be glorified one day: “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” (2 Corinthians 5:1–9, ESV)
We might willingly live hard lives for Christ. We might suffer greatly, and endure much–sometimes by choice in our commitment to Christ–but one day we will find our Sabbath rest in Christ. May we not seek to enjoy a cheap substitute rest now, but instead walk with Christ and his Apostles, willing to endure suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Our mission has not ended.
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV
Along with Bible reading, many Christians have set for themselves a goal to share Christ with someone in 2019. For some, the prospect of sharing Christ with someone fills them with anxiety. This is true even though many of understand that we heard about Christ from another Christian ourselves and how thankful we are that someone loved us enough to step out of their comfort zone in order to explain the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ to us.
Who will we share Christ with this year? Perhaps for you sharing Christ is a scary thing. You might believe that you would mess up the message so bad that it would harm rather than help the mission of Christ if you tried.
Some of you have been on evangelism teams in the past or you were once faithful to preach the gospel on a regular basis, but you have slowed down and maybe you rarely go out evangelizing any more. I want to encourage you and stir you up once again to get out there and share the gospel.
To help you have confidence to share your faith I would like to give you five principles, or five marks of a clear gospel message that will glorify God when you share His plan of salvation.
1. God is glorified when the gospel is shared with simplicity (v.1)
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.” 1 Corinthians 2:1 ESV
Please notice what Paul did not say here. He did not say that he came with superiority of speech, or as the ESV says, “lofty speech.” Here Paul was thinking of highly technical language that the philosophers used. Now, if you speak on a regular basis with philosophers, then use that language because it communicates best to them. Paul was concerned that the Corinthians had continued to be enamored with the so-called scholarly rhetoric that was used by the false teachers.
If you run with mechanics, bus drivers and waiters, then when you proclaim the gospel, speak the language of the people. Avoid using religious language and “Christian-ese”. Don’t say things like, “Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb?” If you do, I won’t come and bail you out of jail when they call the police! Most people today in America have no context to know what statements like that mean. We need to explain the gospel to people and assume they know very little of the Bible or of the gospel message. Terms like sin, redemption, atonement and even the cross all need to be explained more fully to the average person today.
Paul also said that he didn’t come to Corinth “with wisdom.” This is the world’s brand of wisdom, not God’s wisdom. You do not need to argue philosophy or know everything about everything. The gospel is powerful in and of itself. The gospel isn’t about what you know, but about who you know. Armed with the gospel you can know that you have the wisdom of God, even if the person you are speaking with is a genius about earthly things. The gospel is deep enough for a lifetime of study and yet shallow enough for a child to come to faith.
Pastor Chuck Swindoll tells of a little sign he has on his desk that reads: IDIOSYNCRATICALLY ECCENTRIC PHRASEOLOGY IS THE PROMULGATOR OF TERRIBLE OBFUSCATION. On the back was the translation: “BIG WORDS CAUSE CONFUSION.”
When the message can’t be understood and is muddled or confused, God is not glorified.
2. God is glorified when the gospel is shared with authority (v. 1)
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.” 1 Corinthians 2:1 ESV
Notice that Paul calls his message “the testimony of God,” it is the witness of God Himself. By using the Bible you are speaking with the authority of its Divine Author.
The unbeliever knows in his heart (even if he or she denies it) that God exists and that he has suppressed this knowledge (Rom. 1:18-19, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”) and he needs to repent (Acts 17:30-31, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.””).
As Christian witnesses to the cross, we are to speak with the authority of God himself who has sent each of us out as his ambassadors and ministers! Second Corinthians 5:17-21 says, ““Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
We do not come in our own power or our own name. We come as children of God and witnesses of the gospel. We come seeking to see our fellow man reconciled to God by the proclamation of the message of reconciliation in Christ Jesus.
3. God is glorified when the gospel is shared with intensity (v. 2)
“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV
Notice here that Paul says that his focus is upon Jesus Christ and the cross alone. Of course Paul spoke about all sorts of issues, but in his initial conversations with the Corinthians, when he shared the gospel with them, he was all about Jesus Christ on the cross and nothing else.
For us. We need to remember that if salvation is not the goal, then we are wasting our time. Paul could have spoken intelligently in regards to a number of subjects but his focus was on presenting the gospel. He was an evangelistic laser-beam. A laser beam is merely light, but focused with such intensity that its beam can cut through rock and steel. We need to preach with accuracy as well as intensity so that our message has power.
When we go off on bunny trails and move away from the central gospel message to look at lesser issues, God is not glorified. I know some Christians who are easily distracted into side issues when they are sharing Christ–the worship of the Virgin Mary, the factual nature of Jonah and the big fish that swallowed him, the issues surrounding creation versus evolution, cultural issues such as crime, homosexuality and more.
Now I don’t mean that we shouldn’t think deeply about these issues nor that the Bible doesn’t give answers. But we need to make sure that we don’t lose sight of our goal–reconciliation and redemption! We need to be like hounds of heaven who won’t get off the trail and will seek out the soul that needs to be saved. Otherwise we will find that we will be constantly frustrated in never ending wrangling about words that will never change the heart until this first issue is dealt with. The unbeliever must come to submit to the Kingship of Christ. It will take the gospel of Jesus Christ to do that!
4. God is glorified when the gospel is shared with gravity (v. 3)
“And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,” 1 Corinthians 2:3 ESV
When we talk about gravity, we mean a type of seriousness or a weightiness. We are all business. We are caught up in a mission and we didn’t come to mess around. Paul’s attitude to the work of evangelism was one of soberness. He knew that he was a tool on the hands of God.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 Paul wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” Paul didn’t overestimate his importance in the process, BUT he also didn’t underestimate his part as the means by which God brought sinners to faith in Christ. Paul was no hyper-Calvinist. He understood that he needed to take his role with all seriousness and couldn’t throw it off as something that God would accomplish without the means of men preaching the gospel and calling sinners to faith.
That is a sobering truth. He knew that he was sharing a message of eternity in heaven or hell. Puritan pastor Richard Baxter famously said, “I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” Christian, you are dying, but you have hope! The person who needs Christ that you need to speak to also is dying, but they have no hope and without Christ will slide into a Christ-less eternity!
Every disciples of Jesus Christ needs to know that he or she will one day give an account for his or her talents. In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus spoke about the parable of the talents that are not to be buried, but invested for our Master. There is no greater treasure that we have been entrusted with than the gospel of Jesus Christ. What are you doing with that treasure? When we share the message half-heartedly, or worse, don’t share it at all, then God is not glorified.
5. God is glorified when the gospel is shared with dependency (v. 4)
“and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” 1 Corinthians 2:4 ESV
Clearly, Paul depended upon the Holy Spirit. He knew that without the empowering of the Holy Spirit he was weak for the task. Jesus told His disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 1:8). This power isn’t for showy church services, it isn’t for putting your special spirituality on display for everyone to see, and it surely isn’t for your personal satisfaction or to make you wealthy and famous. Your empowerment by the Spirit was given for the preaching of the gospel to the world.
Someone put together a little power to ask a very serious question:
Where is God’s Power?
A city full of churches
Great preachers, lettered men
Grand music, choirs and organs;
If all these fail what then?
Good workers, eager, earnest
Who labor hour by hour;
But where oh where, my brother,
Is God’s almighty power?
When we do anything in our own power, particularly when we preach the gospel, God is not glorified.
Are you sharing the gospel? We need the message to go out. We need to begin once again hitting the streets with the saving message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If you aren’t doing that, you need to be going about sharing the gospel message.
Additionally, God has not called us to just share the gospel, but to do so with an empowered passion that is laser-beam accurate.
The message is clear. It has power to save. What will you do with it? Go into the world and share the gospel.
I’ve been stuck at home for a little over a week recovering from minor surgery. This week our church (Grace Baptist Church) is doing what many churches all over America are doing–ministering to the local children with Vacation Bible School. I can’t be there with them, but our little church keeps plugging along faithfully as it has done for over 80 years.
Saints whose names are found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but unknown to almost everyone else, are working hard all day at their regular jobs and then wolfing down dinner or skipping it altogether to go and serve the Lord for a couple more hours every night. They have been preparing, planning, decorating, setting up, giving countless hours and dollars, and most of it will never be seen on this side of eternity.
As I think about my brothers and sisters tonight, I am grateful for their hard work and I am proud to be their pastor. They do it for Jesus. Even when I can’t be there, they love the kids in our neighborhood so much that they keep charging ahead. The darkness keeps pushing back, but they are undeterred. They love our community, and the best way to show their love is to introduce the little one’s and their parents to the Savior.
I am thankful that He sees it all. I love you, GBC.
Always Reforming 