Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7,8)
The Sowing and Reaping essays that follow are dedicated to the millions of believers in Christ who are seeking to live a righteous life even though the theology of their church, and the footnotes of their edited Bible, assure them that they are saved by "grace" and therefore righteous behavior, while always desirable, is not an absolutely necessary part of their salvation.
When the writer in his preaching and writing emphasizes godly behavior, people sometimes respond by stating that a more balanced presentation of the Good News should be given. This is to say, it is necessary to stress that we are to live righteously, but we must balance this stress by pointing out the grace and mercy of God.
While Gospel preaching and teaching must be balanced if it is to produce good fruit, a problem arises when we attempt to "balance" our emphasis on righteous behavior with the reminder that God's love, mercy, and "grace" are part of the Gospel message.
Gospel Preaching Must Be Balanced
The goal of Gospel preaching is to produce men and women, boys and girls, who place their trust in the Lord Jesus. First they must trust the Lord for their salvation, their preservation in the day of God's wrath. Second they must learn to look to the Lord Jesus for every aspect of their life on the earth. Learning to obey the Lord and to depend completely on Him, which is another way of saying learning to live by faith, is as much a part of the program of salvation as is preservation in the Day of Wrath.
Sound, balanced Gospel teaching and preaching produces disciples, that is, people who lay down their own life, take up their cross, and follow the Lord Jesus wherever He leads them.
Teachers and preachers are to feed God's sheep by taking portions of the Scriptures, explaining them and applying them to the decisions and problems of daily life. Perhaps we do not see enough of this kind of preaching in these days.
But let us think for a moment about balance and the principle of balance in Christian teaching and preaching. If the minister of the Gospel is emphasizing living the victorious Christian life he must balance this emphasis by teaching the believers how to rest in the Lord's strength and wisdom. If the minister is emphasizing resting in the Lord's strength and wisdom, then he must balance this by stressing the importance of doing all in our power to obey the instructions of the Apostles and to keep on pressing forward in the Lord.
If the preacher overemphasizes pressing forward in the Lord, some of the believers will become discouraged because of their slow progress. If resting in the Lord's finished work of redemption is overemphasized, as it is today on such a large scale, then the believers do not grow in the Lord.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)
The Scripture teaches that whoever will choose to do so may come to the Lord, and if he does so the Lord will receive him. The statement is made that God is willing that all should come to repentance and be saved.
The Scripture teaches also we do not choose the Lord, He chooses us.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)
Many passages throughout the Scripture exhort people to seek the Lord, promising them that He will be found of them. In addition, there is clear teaching that salvation is of the Lord and He draws to Himself whom He will.
To emphasize one of these two truths at the expense of the other is to give a distorted picture of the Divine salvation. We are free to choose to join ourselves to the Lord. But behind the decisions of people the Spirit of the Lord is operating the will of God.
The Apostles were commanded to go into all the world and make disciples from every nation. The Lord also commanded Peter to feed His sheep.
Numerous Christian churches stress worldwide evangelism almost to the total exclusion of bringing the believers from the "milk" of salvation into the strong meat of the Word.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, (Hebrews 5:14-6:1)
The result of emphasizing evangelism at the expense of feeding the sheep is millions of spiritual babies and very few mature saints.
Another example of imbalance would be to discourse every Sunday on the passages that point out the wrath of God and the torment of the Lake of Fire. A continual harping on the severity of God while never speaking of the numerous assurances of God's love and the unimaginable joy and blessing that will be the portion of those who follow the Lord. All Hell and no Heaven! The severity of God is pointed out but His goodness is not seen. Actually, the reverse is true today. The "positive" passages are stressed while the "negative" passages are ignored so as not to offend the people. This imbalance results from preachers seeking their own glory. The fear of God has been removed from the churches by overemphasizing the love and mercy of God.
There are assemblies today that present an hour of worship and fifteen minutes of diluted teaching. The result of such imbalance is worldly believers—believers who stumble and fall in their time of testing.
Another imbalance, common in our day, is to speak continually of the financial blessings and material provisions God wishes to shower on Christians while never mentioning the admonition to endure hardness as good soldiers of the Lord.
To be continued.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY WELCOME.
Copyright © 2014 Trumpet Ministries Inc
No comments:
Post a Comment