In the past four newsletter articles we have looked at the author of conversion, the reason or motive for conversion, and then the means of conversion. The Holy Spirit is the author and power in conversion and grace is the only motive that God has. Since those two things are true, we must use the means that God has set out for the Church to use in conversion. Since the Holy Spirit is the One that converts the soul and He only does it by grace, it only follows that the Spirit will use the words He inspired and then commanded to be preached as His method of converting sinners. 1 Timothy 4:16 has massive ramifications for us if we will only listen and take heed: “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”
It is vital to the salvation of others and ourselves to take pains with our doctrine (objective content of the teaching). The Gospel is a Gospel of truth and the Holy Spirit uses the truth to convert souls. We are not playing (to paraphrase John Gerstner from memory) with tinker toys like nuclear weapons; we are dealing with the Gospel of God and souls that are headed to eternity. If a soul is not truly converted while on this planet, that soul will spend eternity in hell. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just one road to heaven; it is the only way to heaven. We can make every effort to be gracious and kind and all of that, but at some point we need to be faithful to God to deal with human souls according to their sin and the truth of the Gospel. If we want to be nice to human beings, it will be nice according to human standards. If we want to be kind according to biblical standards the greatest kindness we can do is to be faithful to God about human souls according to the truth of God. Preaching the truth of the glory of God in the Gospel is not the same thing as going to a youth conference and playing games. It is about being broken for our sin and turning from all trust in our own sufficiency and relying totally upon the grace of God in Christ Jesus. The Gospel is all about a gracious God that saves sinners from hell but also from sin and themselves. He changes their hearts and dwells within them in order to be their life. It is not a simplistic message that a person responds to with a simple prayer, but is the message about how God actually converts people. The hope is not in self to respond to a message, but the hope is in God who converts souls and makes new creatures in Christ.
It is easy enough to intellectually believe in certain things that are from the Bible and think that we believe in the Gospel because we have an intellectual belief in some things that are in the Bible. It is easy to think that evangelistic campaigns are great things. But if those who go out have a truncated message that is not the Gospel then the evangelistic campaign in simply spreading non-truth and perhaps confirming souls in their damnation. All that is called evangelism does not have the evangel or the good news of the Gospel. Before we send out the youth and before we send people out to do evangelism, we must make sure that the Gospel message is understood. If the churches are full of unbelievers, then we can be sure that there are many who are only too happy to go out and do works through the church to ensure their salvation. But that is not the Gospel. I have had many people come up to me and try to tell me the Gospel, but not one person that has “evangelized” me has ever told me with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have only heard the good news of how great that I am and what would happen if I would do something, but I never heard the good news of what God does to convert sinners.
Galatians 1:6-10 should be enough to wake us up and quit playing with a man-centered and watered down message some refer to as the Gospel. We must become acutely cognizant and then broken over the fact that it is not only others that have misunderstandings of the Gospel, but it could be those close to us or even us. We all have to examine our own hearts and doctrine as well. Ministers must become students of the Gospel and of the Gospel of the glory of God in order that they are not sending people out with a false message. Just because people can tell people a few things about the cross of Christ does not mean that they are telling them about the Gospel.
“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! 10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”
Paul himself had preached the Gospel to the people at Galatia. Now others were there and were disturbing the same people by distorting the Gospel of Christ. It is hard for a person to examine his own message and come to a realization that s/he is not teaching the biblical Gospel, but it must be done. Beyond question the United States is under the judgment of God and spiritual darkness is descending upon us at a rapid rate. The Church was meant to be salt and light with the Gospel and it has not. Something is terribly wrong and it is not just with everybody else. Paul’s words need to light a fire under our souls. We can just go along assuming that we are orthodox and have the Gospel or we can read Galatians 1:6-10 and ask the Lord, as the disciples did when He told them that one of them was going to betray Him, “surely not I, Lord.” When the text tells us that if anyone is preaching a gospel contrary to what Paul taught them, then that man was to be accursed. That text tells me that if I am preaching a gospel contrary to what Paul taught then I am accursed. That text tells me that if you are preaching a gospel contrary to the one Paul taught then you are accursed. There must be a great brokenness of our hearts and a crying out to God if the Gospel is going to return to our churches in power.
Verse 10 of Galatians 1 is a very sobering passage. Paul said that if he sought the favor of men then he was not a bond-servant of Christ. That again tells us the position of a true minister of the Gospel. The Gospel is not about going out to please men and talk them into praying a prayer; it is about a man that lives in the presence of God and bound to Christ as his absolute Lord who will take the message and demands of God to human beings. There is no middle ground. The Gospel must be preached and declared in truth whether men or women like it or not. The Gospel must be preached and declared in truth whether ministers are fired or not. Ministers are not to be hirelings of a particular people; they are to be servants and bond-slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel cannot be preached by those who are driven by desires to please men because they will inevitably water things down to make it more palatable or easy. The Gospel of God which is about how God converts souls is a message of the work of God and what He must do by grace alone to men and women who have sinful natures. If ministers try to please men, though they may try to maintain orthodoxy too, they will soften things. But in softening things a poison is being added to a pure Gospel and it is no longer the gospel of God. That poison of a softened Gospel is also one, which according to Galatians, declares that the one who is preaching a different gospel is accursed.
In our day the Gospel itself is no more than a sedative for the troubled consciences of human beings. Instead of faith being that which God gives and receives grace alone, it is now something that I must produce or exercise in order to obtain grace. In other words, faith has become a work of sorts that God responds to and saves the sinner. Rather than that, however, the Gospel tells about a God who converts souls and it is the converted soul that has the life of Christ in it and believes in Christ alone for salvation. Repentance is not the action of a natural soul turning from external sin, but it is what a converted soul does. A converted soul turns from outward and inward sin because it has been turned or it has been converted. A converted soul is now a repenting and believing soul because it is now alive in Christ Jesus and has life. When one has life, that one turns from the things of death and turns toward the springs of living water. The Gospel of Jesus Christ tells sinners about how God converts sinners rather than how sinners need to convert themselves.
The gospel that is so often declared today depends on unenlightened minds that are dead in darkness understanding spiritual things which men are dead to. It depends on a person that is dead in sins and trespasses making him or herself alive and doing what God commands. It depends on a person that loves sin to leave that sin and love God who the person hates. The Gospel, on the other hand, comes to those with unenlightened minds, dead in sins and trespasses, who love sin, and hate God. It comes to them with the power of the living God who does not expect them to do the work of the Gospel, because that is His work. The Holy Spirit has been purchased by the work of Christ and He is given to do the work of the New Covenant that man cannot do. It is the Spirit who enlightens men’s minds through His illuminating work. It is the Spirit that raises those dead in sins and trespasses from their deadness and regenerates them and unites them to Christ who is eternal life itself. It is the Spirit who works faith in the soul. It is the Spirit who works in the soul of believers and writes the law in their hearts and minds. It is the Spirit that works in believers and causes them to obey His law: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:27). The Gospel is about God and His work in and on human beings. Human beings have to be broken and humbled in order to turn from trying to do it or merit it themselves. The true Gospel is all about the work of Christ who purchased the Holy Spirit to work salvation in the souls of sinners by grace alone. The true Gospel is all about the real conversion of sinners.
God Loves... Himself 
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