Devotion for October 4, 2008

Preach the Gospel

“Preach the word! Be ready in season [and] out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, [because] they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn [their] ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4 NKJV)

Spurgeon said, “Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; indeed, it should be the main pursuit of every true believer However, it is sad to say, it is not. I fear the time Paul predicted has come upon us. Surely this impacts those willing to labor in the fields. However, Paul does not say preach only when the season for reaping is good. No, quite the contrary, he says be ready out of season also.

My dear friends let us take to heart the Scripture that says, “. . . Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). As it also says, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14)

Our time suffers torment from a two-faced demon. On the one side truth has been so distorted, and those distortions are so propagated in our theological schools that even many ministers grope in darkness. On the other side, our lack of efficacy has worn down the well-equipped trumpeter until now he cries with Elijah, “I alone am left.”

Well, do not abandon the way. The Word has suffered at the hands of evil men more than once, and it still reigns today.

For thousands of years this volume has withstood, not only the iron tooth of time, which devours men and their works together, but all the physical and intellectual strength of man. Pretended friends have endeavored to corrupt and betray it; kings and princes have perseveringly sought to banish it from the world; the civil and military powers of the greatest empires have been leagued for its destruction; the fires of persecution have often been lighted to consume it, and its friends together; and at many seasons, death, in some horrid form, has been the almost certain consequence of affording it an asylum from the cry of its enemies. . . Yet still the object of all these attacks remains uninjured, while one army of its assailants after another has melted away.—Edward Payson, The Bible Above All Price, c1800.

What shall be done then? What says the Scriptures? “Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” We must return to the means God has provided. Surely we have seen enough of what a weak gospel produces to recognize that God will not yield to our desires. We must yield to His will. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

For this to happen we must renew our confidence in His Word. Those who seek to lure people into the kingdom with delicate morsels like peace and happiness have succumbed to the delusion that salvation happens by the will of man. My dear friends, there is peace and happiness in Christ, but it will not be found by a sinful man clinging to his lusts. No rather God must regenerate the vile creature, peeling the scales from his eyes in order to set him free from the bondage of sin and death. He must be convinced by the Word of God that he is without hope save the blood of Christ.

Therefore, we must regain confidence in God’s Word, but we must also understand it so we can preach it accurately. It is a serious sin to preach another gospel. “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9 NKJV)

Your mission should be to gird up the loins of your mind and trust that the power of God will be present in the Word of God. Then, you should examine carefully the Gospel you are preaching. Please look carefully at these two areas. God is able to save today. However, He will not deny Himself. Could it be that we are His greatest hindrance today?