Preaching the Good News of Christ Crucified!
Once
when I was traveling in southern England, I went to what was supposed
to be a gospel church in order to and in hopes of hearing the
glorious gospel of God’s grace in Christ. As the service began,
hymns were sung that were very scriptural and everything conducted in
a respectable manner. My heart could not wait to hear of Christ and
His glory. When the preacher began to preach, his message centered on
how bad he was, the evil of his own heart, the wretchedness of
sinners. All of this may have been true but there never was any “Good
News.” No gospel “glad tidings” of mercy and salvation in
Christ. As a matter of face, very little of Christ and His work at
all!
This
is often the case with writers and preachers but it is just not
scriptural. They glorify unbelief! They write or preach as if it is a
good thing to live in darkness, doubt and despair. They sometimes
say, “I only despair in myself.” Yet, God has not told us to look
to or in ourselves! We are to look to Jesus Christ the Light!
It will always be darkness, doubt and despair looking to ourselves
and our feelings. I realize and know from experience that the
believer will have dark days, fits of unbelief and be found at times
in despair. But that is not the tenor of our lives. Unbelief is just
that, unbelief! It is sin, not to be glorified but recognized for
what it is and condemned. To not believe God, what He says, is sin.
The scriptures call upon us to believe God, to trust Him, to delight
in what He’s done, to rejoice and be glad. Why?
Because
He has made Christ the Light to be light to us! He has called us out
of darkness into His marvelous light. It is the light that reveals
His mercy, grace and the gift of righteousness to us in His beloved
Son. We are loved with an everlasting love, chosen by grace in
Christ, redeemed by His blood and called to Christ in faith by the
Spirit of light. He has forgiven us our sins and blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. We are to walk in His light and the light of His
word. In Christ there is no darkness. “For ye were sometimes
darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of
light” [EPHESIANS
5:8].
Believing God is not presumption, it is FAITH!
-Gospel report by preacher Gary Shepard
Sovereign
Grace Baptist church of Jacksonville, North Carolina USA
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