"Take heed therefore how ye hear" -Lk. 8:18a
PSEUDO-PREACHING
There
is a way of preaching that offends no one. The problem is, it saves
no one. It does not distinguish God as He is because it does not
contain the doctrines that God uses to set Himself apart from every
false god and doesn't exalt Him and give Him the glory. Man is proud
and must be abased. God has said that He will “stain the pride”
of man. Men preach and the messages they preach could be preached in
almost any place where there is a profession of Christianity. Men
love to hear “God can do anything He wants to.” The problem is
they don’t want to hear what He’s done!
They
don’t want to hear that He’s acted alone as the One and only
Sovereign in salvation. They don’t want to hear that He saves whom
He will. That He shows grace to whom He will. That He chose a people
from Adam’s fallen race to save and blessed them with salvation.
Preachers don’t preach that He hated Esau, that He loved Jacob and
all His sheep, but, all are not His
sheep such as the Pharisees. You don’t hear of
predestination, that He acted alone and powerfully to foreordain all
things, especially as they pertain to conforming all the elect to
Christ.
These
things abase man and glorify God as He is. There is no preaching of
man as he is, a helpless sinner who can do nothing to please God or
come to God. No, just preaching about the blood, grace and Jesus in
general terms with people applying their own definitions to them, and
never preaching the doctrines that show salvation to be “of
the LORD.”
No mention of the doctrines of scripture which God purposed to bring
conviction of sin and to bring men to an end of themselves. No
mention of reprobation or things that show men their helpless estate.
No mention of men being lost if they do not believe the truth. No
preaching of the particular redemption of Christ. They just say
Christ died for sinners. He did but He said, ”I
lay down My life for the sheep.”
He
gave His life for the Church. Preaching the gospel is preaching what
He successfully did, not what will be made effectual by what men do.
They preach trying to get men to do something when God alone must do
something. It almost like preachers are trying to sneak up on people,
trying not to offend them, and bring them in under a false profession
and call it salvation. They know that preaching the truth will not
accomplish their goals and create great ministries and make a name
for them. Preaching
the truth will accomplish God’s goals and save all His people. The
Spirit of truth uses all the truth to bring God’s elect to love God
in all that He is and all that He does!
-preacher Gary Shepard
-preacher Gary Shepard
You
will sometimes hear those who deny the wrath of God and preach the
universal love of God for all men declare that what this verse in
Romans 9:13 really says is, "God loves Jacob and He loves Esau
LESS." Now, I ask you, how does our infinite, Almighty, perfect
God do anything LESS than perfectly? Is He at times LESS RIGHTEOUS?
LESS HOLY? LESS JUST? Our comfort in Christ is that He who loves His
sheep HAS always loved them, WILL always love them, and loves them AS
He loves Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son (John 17:23). And to
those who were told to depart from His presence, He said, "I
NEVER knew you."
Malachi 3:6 declares, "I
am THE LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed."
Our comfort is that HIS LOVE IN CHRIST is without degrees or changes,
as is His wrath upon those outside of the Ark--Christ Jesus!
-preacher Henry Mahan
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