Are YOU ashamed of the Gospel?

“The Lord had called us to preach the gospel” Acts 16:10
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” Romans 10:15

I find myself constantly wrestling and constantly frustrated with a seeming hopelessness to make any difference in a world that is doing everything in its power to destroy itself! Man’s utter depravity is endless; our appetite for the gory and the disgusting is insatiable; our hunger for power causes catastrophe and our greed collapse and in the face of it all our leader’s stupidity is unbelievable. As I watch the news broadcasts on television I shake my fist, clench my teeth and mumble something inexpressible at the sheer sense of despair.
That is until I remember that this is NOT my world, it’s God’s World.. and I am forced to go back to the Prophet Isaiah where I am reminded of this, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,

or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness” Isaiah 40:12-23 

 Wow!!! Now there’s my answer, there’s my confidence!

Now what was God’s answer to all the woes of this World? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. What is still the answer to all the woes of the world the Gospel!! Do you know when you are writing blogs the advice given by the experts is ‘do not quote too much scripture’? Well here’s another one, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of
God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Romans 1:16
I am NOT ashamed of the Gospel and believe my heart, soul and mind that it is still the power of God and His means to transform our world hence, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7 

I found this hugely appropriate quote from John Macarthur which I subsequently posted on the Church Facebook page last Tuesday….“Although changing our society by calling it back to a safer morality is a noble goal, that has never been Christ's goal for His church. The church has but one mission in this world: to lead people destined to spend eternity in hell to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and an eternity in heaven. If people die in a communist government or a democracy, under a tyrant or a benevolent dictator, believing homosexuality is right or wrong, or believing abortion is a woman's fundamental right to choose or simply mass murder, that has no bearing on where they will spend eternity. If they never knew Christ and never embraced Him as their Lord and Saviour, they will spend eternity in hell.”

Following on from my blog last week and in the light of all the happenings in our world here lies the clarion call to the Church of Jesus Christ…PREACH THE GOSPEL, PREACH THE GOSPEL, PREACH THE GOSPEL!

Don’t misunderstand me, I do not mean that we stop making our voices heard when wrongs are done or remain silent when laws are passed that spit in the eye of God’s Word, neither am I saying that we should be ambivalent to the needs of others.. The Bible clearly teaches us “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.” James 1:27 and Jesus own words of rebuke in Matthew 25 ‘Depart from me……. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
Oh yes we must look after the poor and the needy, the widow and the orphan, we must defend the weak and the helpless. We must comfort the sick and the dying, we must be resolute in our defence of what is right and condemn that which is wrong BUT we must NEVER allow those things to become the end in themselves.. In many of these areas we are seeing in the ’Emergent Church’ a revitalisation of the so called ‘Social Gospel’. The oft quoted phrase of Francis of Assisi is used as their slogan, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” I understand what is being said here I have used the quote myself to highlight the necessity for us to practice what we preach!! It’s no good us talking about a Gospel that transforms if people do not see that transformation worked out in our lives…
However the need is NOT another Social Gospel the need is the Gospel itself, plain and simple, for “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. ”How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? ….So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:13-17 and that should give us such encouragement because fanned with prayer if we just do what we are meant to do as Church then we are NOT helpless in the face of all that is going on, far from it we are powerful and able to see even the direst circumstances changed!!!

So go on preaching the GOSPEL, you may be laughed at; you will be scorned and for some put in prison or even put to death… “but the word of our God will stand forever” Isaiah 40:8 
“Never lose heart in the power of the gospel. Do not believe that there exists any man, much less any race of men, for whom the gospel is not fitted.” Charles H. Spurgeon