Monday, August 27,
2012, 9:00 a.m. – the Lord woke me this morning with the song “Hear my Voice” (based off Psalm 27) playing
in my mind - http://youtu.be/r1YYnNNE2NM.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read 2 Corinthians 4 (NIV 1984):
Therefore, since
through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we
have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we
distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we
commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if
our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this
age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not
preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for
Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his
light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ.
But we have this
treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and
not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but
not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being
given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our
mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you…
Therefore we do not
lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being
renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us
an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen
is eternal.
Setting forth the
truth plainly
All of us who are followers of Jesus Christ have been given
the ministry of sharing the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are
Christ’s witnesses, and we are all commissioned of Jesus Christ to make
disciples (of Christ) of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey
everything Christ commanded his disciples. Paul and the other apostles set the
example here for us in how we are to conduct ourselves as ministers of the
gospel.
We are to renounce secret and shameful ways, we are not to
use deception or distort the truth of the gospel, i.e. the word of God, but we
are to set forth the truth plainly in all integrity, sincerity and honesty. We
are not to veil the gospel in any way, i.e. we are not to cover up any parts of
it or mask it in order to conceal, disguise or obscure certain parts of it from
our listeners in order to make it more palatable and acceptable to the listener,
so that he or she will readily accept its message. The message of the cross should
be an offense to the unsaved.
If the truth of the gospel is veiled (concealed) at all, it
should not be us doing it. It should be because the “god of this age,” i.e.
Satan has blinded men and women’s hearts from hearing and understanding the
truth (light) of the gospel, either for the purpose of deception in order to
produce false converts who have been given a false hope of eternity with God,
or else to turn people away from the gospel altogether. I believe Satan’s
greatest weapon against us is deception, and his goal is not so much to get us
to not buy into Christianity at all but to get us to accept a fake version of
Christianity that will fill us with false hope so that we will not be saved in
the end, but will believe we are saved.
So, in what ways is the gospel being “veiled” today? And,
what does it mean to set forth the truth plainly?
The Concealment Vs.
Plain Truth
Many ministers of the gospel in today’s church in America
have bought into what I believe is a watered-down (veiled) gospel message that
purposefully leaves out parts of the truth that are necessary for salvation. I
believe many of these ministers know the truth, and I have even heard some
preach the truth at previous periods of time in their ministry, but they have
since changed their presentation of the gospel to what I call “Gospel Lite”. It
gets them greater numbers of conversions and baptisms, for sure. I don’t know
if this is their motivation or not, but it is questionable as to how many of
those conversions are genuine, since they were not given the whole truth of
what it means to come to Christ.
The main components left out (removed) from the gospel in
this “Gospel Lite” are the necessity of repentance (a complete change of heart,
mind and action away from sin), and the requirement of obedience to Christ and
to his commands for salvation. Although these preachers may use scripture
having to do with salvation, they will take the scriptures out of context to
make them say what they want them to say.
For instance, an example of what I refer to as “Gospel Lite”
is a presentation of the gospel that says that all one has to do is to invite
Jesus Christ into his heart and then he is saved, he has his hope of eternal
life in heaven sealed, and no one can take it away.
With regard to the asking of Jesus into our hearts, a
passage that some have used out of context is Romans 10:9-10: “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus
is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved.”
Paul, at the beginning of Rom. 10, expressed his heart’s
desire for the salvation of his fellow Israelites (the Jews). They did not
submit to God’s righteousness but sought to establish their own. They wanted to
gain merit with God by following the law, yet Christ was the fulfillment of the
law and salvation came through faith in him alone. The word of faith the
apostles were proclaiming was: (scripture quoted above). So, what would that
have meant to a Jew at that period of time? Jesus Christ was rejected of the
Jews as their Messiah, though there were Jews who believed. They did not accept
that he had risen from the dead and that he was their hope of salvation. So,
for a Jew back then to confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, he was making
a public statement that he accepted that Jesus Christ – despised, hated and
crucified – was indeed God, and was their promised seed (Messiah), that he did
rise from the dead, ascend to heaven, and that he did atone for our sins once
for all. This was a BIGGIE! No Jew would have done that unless he was totally
committed to the cross of Christ in his life, because making such a public
statement could get him killed.
Yet, to use this scripture as the totality of the gospel
when giving the gospel presentation to people today so that they might be
saved, especially here in America, can leave the listener with a much different
understanding, I believe. For us to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord
can be nothing more than just words we say, or our understanding of the word
“Lord” may be merely a title given to Jesus Christ which holds no real
significance for us like it would have for a Jew of that period of time. How
often do we say “Lord” and not even think about the meaning of the word? It
means we are saying Jesus is now boss of our lives and our lives are now given
over to him in submission and surrender to his will for our lives. For us to
believe in our hearts that Christ was raised from the dead also does not hold
the significance that it did for a Jew of that time, and it can be merely just
an intellectual acknowledgement that Jesus Christ did indeed exist, die, and
that he was resurrected.
Yet, what is true here for us is that coming to Christ not
only means believing in him with our hearts (via turning from sin and turning
to obey God), but it means we must acknowledge before men with our mouths that
we love him and that he is truly the boss of our lives, but mostly we do this with
our lives, because our actions speak louder than words. True faith will let
others know how they, too, can be saved. And, true faith will tell the truth
about the gospel and will not veil it on purpose to make it more acceptable.
All we have to do is go back two chapters in Romans to see the truth that Paul
and his companions set forth plainly. He said, “Therefore, brothers, we have an
obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if
you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you
put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led
by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
With regard to this teaching about no one being able to
snatch believers in Jesus out of God’s hand, the context of this, found in John
10, speaks of those who do not enter the sheep pen (the kingdom of heaven) by
the gate (Jesus; the way to salvation), but come in through another way (a
false gospel; deception). They are thieves and liars (false teachers of the
gospel). Yet, Jesus Christ is our true shepherd, as well as he is the gate, and
whoever enters through him is saved. The mark of true sheep (true followers of
Christ) is that they know Jesus, he knows them, they know his voice, they
listen to him and they follow him (obey him). So, only those who are truly
listening to Jesus (spending time at his feet each day in his word and in
prayer) and who are following the Lord in obedience are those who cannot be
snatched out of the Father’s and Jesus’ hand. They will not follow the voice of
a stranger (a false teacher of the gospel). A stranger (false teacher) will not
be able to snatch them away from their pure devotion to Jesus Christ because
they will recognize what is God’s voice and what is the voice of the stranger,
and they will follow Jesus.
It may be taught that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our
sins, that he rose again, that he ascended into heaven, and that when we follow
Christ in baptism that we are identifying with Christ in his death, burial and
resurrection, which means our sins were crucified, buried and that Jesus rose
triumphant over our sins so we can go to heaven one day. Yet, what is left out
(is veiled) is that when we come to Christ we not only identify ourselves with
him in what he did for us on the cross, but we appropriate what he did for us
to our daily lives.
In other words, coming to Christ means we die to our old way
of living in sin, and we are given new lives in Christ, “created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness” (see Eph. 4:17-24). Jesus said that if
anyone wants to come after him, he must deny (die to) himself, take up his
cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow him (obey him and his commandments).
If we want to hold on to our old lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity,
but if we lose our lives (die to our old lives of sin) for Christ, we will gain
eternal life with God forever (see Luke 9). Jesus also said that unless we eat
his flesh and drink his blood we have no life (eternal) in us (see John 6). To
eat his flesh and drink his blood means to partake, experience, consume,
participate in and/or to involve ourselves in his death, not just in
acknowledging what he did for us on the cross, and not just in receiving
(accepting) what he did for us in dying for our sins, but to undergo death ourselves
to our old lives of sin so that we can live victoriously in Jesus Christ over
the control of sin day-to-day.
Seek the Lord - http://youtu.be/Ny56wgNs4UQ
Do Not Lose Heart
To teach the “plain truth” of the gospel may get us
rejected, persecuted, abandoned, falsely accused, and hated. Jesus said we
would be hated as he was hated. He was hated because he testified that what the
world did was evil (see John 7:7), i.e. he confronted people with their sins. When
we tell the truth of the gospel, which confronts sin and calls for repentance
and obedience, we, too, will be hated. Yet, we should not lose heart, because
through our suffering, Jesus Christ may be revealed in us. Though we may be
going through hardships or persecutions, God is at work in renewing our spirits
within us, if we will let him. The Lord allows us to go through hardship to
remind us, I believe, that we cannot do this ourselves, but we are completely
dependent upon him, so that if anyone gets the glory, it is God. Whatever
persecutions, rejections or difficulties we may face in this life for “setting
forth the truth plainly,” they pale by comparison with our eternity with God
forever. So, we fix our eyes on eternity and what we know God can accomplish
through our lives in the lives of others, though we may not yet see those
results (the unseen). And we keep on keeping on.
A
Believer’s Prayer / An Original Work / July 31, 2012
With
my whole heart,
Lord,
I pray to be Yours,
And
Yours always.
Lead
me in Your truth today.
May
I love You, and obey.
Lead
me in Your righteousness.
When
I sin, may I confess;
Bow
before You when I pray;
Live
for You and You always.
Love
You, Jesus,
You’re
my friend.
Life
with You will never end.
You
are with me through each day,
Giving
love and peace always.
You
will ne’er abandon me.
From
my sin You set me free.
You
died on that cruel tree,
So
I’d live eternally.
Soon
You’re coming back for me;
From
this world to set me free;
Live
with You eternally.
Oh,
what joy that brings to me.
I
will walk with You in white;
A
pure bride,
I’ve
been made right
By
the blood of Jesus Christ;
Pardoned
by His sacrifice.
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