Monday, August 19, 2013

The Necessity and Urgency of The Gospel (2)

"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures," (I Corinthians 15:1-4 NKJV)
Under God, a man cannot be genuinely saved, until he has heard 'the gospel'. 
Beloved preachers! I challenge you to cross-examine your message once again, are you sure you have been preaching 'the gospel' or 'another gospel' (Gal.1:6)
It is not all good messages you can call the gospel; it cannot be the gospel just because the preacher has credibility among men. It must be what the Bible calls 'the gospel' before it can save people (Rom.1:16)
The Bible is definite about what the gospel is - it is "the message of Christ's death, resurrection and ascension and its concomitant benefit to human race" - This is what Paul the Apostle presents as THE GOSPEL and anything other than this is 'another gospel' (Gal. 1:6-11).
The prime concern of the gospel is about man's eternity. The gospel has a lot to do with man's existence on earth, for instance, healing and health, godly living, prosperity etc. yet, any message whose primary emphasis is on the benefit for this present world, cannot be the gospel. 
The gospel is not just a 'tool' to make people rich or to a live good life in this world, otherwise it wont be different from the common motivational messages. The gospel addresses the core/vital need of man. Man's 'vital'  need is not such things as money and physical possession. The 'vital' need of man is fellowship with His God - he must be brought to God in righteousness and true holiness, his sinful nature must thus be replaced with the nature of God, he must by it become a citizen of heaven otherwise he will end-up in eternal damnation.  This is is what Paul preached, this what they received (believed) and this is what saved them "...I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved..." (I Corinthians 15:1, 2 NKJV)
He put it thus in 1Cor.2:2   "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." (I Corinthians 2:2 NKJV)
If this is not what you believed, you need to accept the gospel and be saved so as to avoid eternal shock of discovering when it would be too late that you were never saved.
Dear preacher, If this is not what you ve been preaching, you need to to change your message and start preaching the gospel otherwise you might end up facing the eternal reality that your listeners were never saved.   seen this? 

Saturday, August 17, 2013

The Necessity and Urgency of The Gospel (1)

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? "(Romans 10:14 NKJV)
The gospel of Jesus is the  message sinners must believe before they can be saved. They must hear it before they can believe it. They must come in contact with it whether by face to face preaching, prints or electronic media.
Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6) and for anyone to be saved, he must believe in Jesus. The gospel presents Jesus, thats the reason the Apostles claimed to be preaching Christ when they were preaching the gospel (Acts 5:42, 17:3, 2Cor.4:5). To believe the gospel is to believe in Christ the saviour.
Salvation cannot be earned, not even by good works. Salvation can only be received through faith in the gospel of Jesus.
Fellow saints and soldiers of the cross, think not nor assume in thine heart that a nice man would be saved by his manners, nor an easy-going and seemingly innocent man by his simplicity. All must believe the gospel - the cruel and the harmless, the good, the bad and the murderer, the humble and the proud alike.
Don't assume your uncle is saved because he is kind-hearted,  preach to him the gospel. Don't feel too comfortable among your unsaved friends, let them hear the gospel. The standard of God is the gospel of Christ and God will never bend his standard. The gospel is a necessity and the only one there is for salvation of souls ...until they hear it and believe it they wont be saved. 
Go therefore, go where the sinners are, go and tell them about Jesus.
809