2 Corinthians 11:3-4 …I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
It's a big crazy world we live in full of wolves in sheep's clothing. We are surrounded by empty philosophies, false cliches and in every direction the truth is suppressed. Our eyes are blind to the Truth of Jesus Christ until God gives us the grace to see Him. My intent with this blog and my prayer in this moment as I write is that Christ will open your eyes to see the reality and Truth. To see the climate of ideas that surrounds us and the glory of the gospel that endures in the midst of us. It is of fist importance that Christ died for our sins. Lord give us the grace we need!
My greatest advice to you would be to filter culture, filter information, thoughts, ideas, philosophies and teaching through the Bible. It's the only absolute source of Truth we have. Read Psalm 119 and see the glory of God's Word in action. We know from God's Word that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, God's son who gave his life as a ransom for many. We read in Romans that salvation comes by faith alone through grace. I come to you, like Paul, deciding to preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified. And I pray that this message would not come with lofty speech or with eloquent words but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF SALVATION TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE!
Don’t put up with teaching
1- That denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (John 3:16)
2- That communicates salvation by any means than faith in Jesus by grace. (Ephesians 2:8)
3- That denies the realities of being a Christian and suffering. There's no health & wealth gospel in the Bible (Romans 5:3)
I am committed to preach the Gospel and to share the Truth of the cross every time I teach from the Bible. Do you wonder why? Does it seem elementary to keep mulling over this Truth of Christ killed, buried and risen? When I was younger and dragged to church I hated hearing the gospel over and over. I was like, "Why dont these people talk about something else? I wanna hear about Noah or Jesus walking on water, not the cross."
2 Corinthians 4-6 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
All the rebellion in my heart in those years was a blinding of my eyes to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. It is my mission to stand in the face of this opposition and speak the cross in a compassionate yet powerful way. Think about the cross, study the cross, sing about the cross, worship Jesus as the one who died and rose again, write about the cross, talk about the cross and live because of the cross! Because the Truth of the cross and life in Christ is the Gospel!
I'm gonna unveil some light on the Gospel with the help of John Piper's book God is the Gospel:
The gospel includes the good news that there is a living God who created heaven and earth. we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Acts 14:15 WOW, It is good news, it is the gospel that there is a living loving God who sent His Son to redeem us! There simply can be no good news without a living God who created the universe.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” Isaiah 52:7 Part of the life of the gospel is to know the good news that Christ has conquered sin and death through the finished work on the cross. This is good news that OUR GOD REIGNS!
Acts 8:12: “Philip... preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ It is an essential part of the gospel to know that Jesus, the Messiah has come for us! Read John 1:14... The Word of God has become flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood! WOW, what a God!
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-3).
It is the gospel that Christ endured the suffering, the shame and death on a tree for our sins. He didn't deserve to die but He laid down His life as a ransom for us.
But there would be no gospel if Jesus had stayed dead. 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” This is why Paul’s definition of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4 includes both the death and resurrection of Jesus: “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel... that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
THE GOSPEL IS NOT GOOD NEWS WITHOUT THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is the down payment, a guarantee of the fullness of joy we will know in the perfected
fellowship with the Father and the Son in the age to come (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). What makes the gospel good news in the end is the enjoyment of the glory of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit provides the present experience of that enjoyment. Therefore the promise of the Spirit in the gospel is what makes it good news. Ephesians 1:13. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
Peter described the gospel that God sent through Jesus as “the word that [God] sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36).
Wow, we can have peace with God because of the good news, the gospel of Christ.
The effect of this peace with God is eternal life. This too is what makes the gospel of Christ good news. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:10: “[God’s grace] has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
This gospel of grace and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ has changed and is changing my life. I will never be the same because of the precious blood of Jesus, that bought me and washed me and gives me life. Oh, that we would fall in love with the Bible, oh, that we would sing praise to the name of Jesus, oh, that we would fall in love with the gospel that is the good news, oh, that we would bring glory to God, the maker of heaven and earth, who loves you and proved that on the cross.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
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