The Wednesday Word ~ 17 June, 2026 A.D.

The Good v the Best!

 

The entire Bible is about Jesus, His person, work and offices. He, as had been said, is on every page of the scriptures (see Luke 24:25). We should, therefore, put on our ‘Gospel Glasses’ every time we read the Bible. I continually encourage my preacher friends in various parts of the world to avoid making man the centre of their message. It’s not that some good things cannot be said about our Christian experience but we, the believers, are not the focus, sum and substance of the Bible.

 

 I recently listened to a sermon, and I must admit that the speaker was an excellent communicator. He said many good things, but he said nothing much about Jesus.  It was, therefore, a sub-standard sermon.  He could have taken this sermon to the "Jehovah Witnesses" or a non-gospel centered group and they would have applauded him.  But, no New Testament apostle would have been caught preaching a message like this. It reminded me of the truth that, ‘The enemy of the best is not the bad but the good.’  

 

Consider, for example, the recent history of the church in the UK where this maxim is proved. Many Christians began, in the 19th and early 20th century (in the UK) to develop a social conscience.  This was a good thing. In its beginning, that movement was headed up by many Gospel preachers. They brought the best message, the Gospel, and social action followed in its wake. However, that movement drifted away from the Gospel.  The good replaced the best to the point that many in that movement nowadays are anti-gospel, as they support abortion, same-sex marriage and the likes.

 

I hear a lot of preaching about “us,” and “me” but where is the preaching of the God-Man?  Where are the great truths of Jesus and Substitution, Jesus and Reconciliation, Justification by Grace through faith, the Sovereignty of God, the Blood, the Deity and Humanity of Christ, etc.? Where is the preaching of the glorious person of Christ?  He’s on every page of the Bible though you’d never know it by listening to much of today’s pulpit ministry.

 

In addition, it often seems to me that many ministers have not yet grasped that the Gospel is not the story of what we must do, it is the story of what has already been done. Far from being about us or anything we can perform, the Gospel is about the perfections of the person work and offices of the Lord Christ.

 

The Gospel is not primarily about how we behave; it is about Christ’s behaviour in our place and stead.  This may shock you, but the Gospel is not even a demand that we give up worldliness.  Indeed, there are no demands at all in the Gospel.

 

One old time preacher put it like this, “The Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed.” He was right!  But as preachers, it is easier, at times, for us to continually demand that the flock obey the Word rather than preach the accomplishment and person of Christ.  It’s easier to demand personal righteousness than to hold forth an invisible, alien righteousness that is ours by faith alone.

 

Nowhere, in scriptures, however, do we find the Gospel presented to us as a legalistic call to duty.  So why is our preaching so full of demands and devoid of the Gospel? Remember, ‘The enemy of the best is not the bad but the good.’  Behavioural demands, unless bathed in the Gospel become a toxic diet to feed the flock of God. Again remember, ‘The enemy of the best is not the bad but the good.’  

 

This Gospel, by the Spirit, produces godly desires in its hearers and under its preaching God’s people become a grateful people who desire to follow, worship and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

 

-preacher Miles McKee 

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