Saturday, November 09, 2013

The Gospel

THE GOSPEL

II Cor.4: But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
It is so very simple yet so very profound. It can be understood by a child and yet misunderstood by a philosopher. It is the difference between eternal life and eternal death. It alone by faith is the door to eternal life. And yet men still preach so many different forms of what is called the gospel.

Some insist you use the word repentance. Some insist you confront a sinner about his own sin before or in conjunction with the gospel. Some preach a works gospel which suggests that helping mankind is the gospel, while others preach a gospel which does not require any substantiating works. Some include baptism and others include church membership. And there are all kinds of different presentations.

Let us be honest and admit that no one can completely and perfectly present the entirety of the gospel because the Spirit must take our finite words and illuminate darkened hearts with God’s truth. But having said that, there is a profound misunderstanding concerning the gospel in the evangelical community. And that is a painfully sad situation.

The gospel is not some abstract truth or formula. It is life and it pulsates with the very Being called Jesus. It is not enough to ascend to it with the intellect. It is not enough to nod in agreement. The gospel is a call to believe and follow. It can only be truly communicated to the human heart by the Spirit of God. Men can present it with our finite words but its essence can only be translated by God the Spirit. It is the greatest mystery of all when a sinner believes in his heart that Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified for his sins and resurrected from the dead and at that very moment a sinner is transformed and ripped from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s Dear Son. And that miracle, although unseen at that moment, will begin to unfold as time passes. And that sinner’s life will be changed and continue to change.

And then one day that body will return to dust and the soul will be ushered into the everlasting presence of the Risen Christ. And every sinner that is ushered into His presence will only be granted an entrance into God’s eternal throne room because at one moment in time they believed the gospel. So how powerful do you believe the gospel is if it is the only path to everlasting life?

Rom.1: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

I know men desire to reach nirvana by the strength of their intellect and their alluring philosophies. The gospel is way too simple and even archaic in these days of sophisticated technologies and information highways. They cannot subject themselves to such childlike spiritual fantasies and so they create great and swelling spiritual ideas, wrap them up in some philosophy, and add a few Bible verses. And so you have men like Rob Bell and Doug Paggit and Peter Rollins who present some musings of the mind and draw a coffee house crowd who desire to hear some thought provoking ideas. And even though the entire cache of their truth is quite nebulous they achieve what was obviously their desire from the beginning.

They change the gospel. Now let us be clear: Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting the prisoners and helping the sick should be a main course in the life of believers and the church at large. But those things are not the gospel. They are the fruit of as person who has believed the gospel. But an important part of a believers life is to share the gospel with others. And the social activities that I mentioned play a part in sharing the gospel but they are not the gospel.

The gospel of Jesus Christ consists of two main events. They are the crucifixion and the resurrection. God the Son gave His life for our sins and He resurrected from the dead which authenticated Who He was and what He did. That is the good news called the gospel.

But now you have the social gospel and the prosperity gospel and the self esteem gospel and the American gospel. These are not variations of the true gospel. They are poisonous falsehoods which use some of the same verbiage but which preach a completely different and in most cases a bloodless gospel of works and personal gain. And many times the change is so subtle and to the non-discerning ear the change is almost imperceptible. But the gospel is not some formula for a positive earthly change in one’s life. In fact many a person has lost their lives because they embraced God’s gospel of life. Yes, in many ways the gospel is life and death even here on earth.

The true gospel is good news. It is wonderful and amazing news. It is so wonderful and so amazing that most people cannot even believe it. They will not admit to their feeling of emptiness and that they know all about their sin. It has always been a matter of pride and deception. And the greatest deception that keeps sinners from the true gospel is the visible and organized church. Sinners have become very religious, and these ecclesiastical communities have provided people with a feeling of belonging as well as fulfilling their religious obligation. And they are lulled to sleep by soothing and relevant messages and peer interaction as well as wonderful music in which you can be a participant.

But the gospel is no religious toy to be handled and looked at and used to make us all feel good. It is the very life of our faith. It does make those who belong to Christ feel good, but the gospel brings us all into a state of wonder and awe just because of its eternal power. Just the very suggestion that the Creator of all that is came to earth in the likeness of sinful flesh should be mind boggling. And then to understand that this incarnate being went to his death on a Roman cross further unsettles the human mind. And when we think about what He must have suffered as He became the scapegoat, the Passover Lamb, and the substitute for us who never deserved it, well then, we are undone. You see, the gospel is a story but oh so much more than just another story.

Who can plumb the depths of this eternal story? Who can fully know its power and majesty? Among the smell of blood and sweat and the ripping of human flesh lives a sacred potency which will be made effective and that which alters an eternal destiny simply by a true faith. This bloody cross of shame blends in so nicely with hundreds of thousands of others and yet when the Eternal Spirit of the Living God pulls back that temporal curtain He reveals an unspeakable glory we call the gospel. Who can really give it the wonder and glory it truly deserves. And even though it is the profound exhibition of God’s love a child can embrace it as God the Spirit condescend in order to illuminate a nine year old heart.

Oh dear brothers and sisters can you not feel the weight of that glory? Where are the bootstraps by which we have pulled ourselves out of the dunghill? They are bold faced lies and in fact have never even existed. We had been laid waste by both our inherited sin as well as our own personal additions. Lost and without any promises and hopeless, we were not searching for our Creator at all. It was He who searched for us. But God did come empty handed when He found us. He has with Him the everlasting gospel which could give hope, and which had eternal promises, and which could make an enemy of God into one of His children. Now I ask, what kind of love and power is that?

When the church poses and ignores or softens the gospel it has lost Christ Himself. And for those of us who have known our Savior for many years, let us not grow complacent about that gospel. For when we leave the gospel in search of deeper and more awesome truths we have embarked upon a fruitless search. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest truth that can ever be known by a human heart. For those who do not know Christ it is the eternal and exclusive olive branch which can cleanse the soul and forgive the sin. But for those of us who by His grace have known its truth and have experienced its power, well, it is life and life everlasting.

19 comments:

Julie Wilton said...

"For when we leave the gospel in search of deeper and more awesome truths we have embarked upon a fruitless search."

These words you wrote are an answer to a prayer I prayed this morning. As I sat here listening to Billy Grahams message on the cross of Christ, something was stirring inside of me. Hearing Billy share the message of the cross brought such a refreshing to my soul. I'm always searching for the deeper truths and I just asked, "Lord, am I leaving the message of the cross in search of deeper spiritual truths?" The Spirit was showing me this and your words just confirmed what He was speaking to my heart.

Thank you.

Cherie c. said...

So it is true, people are looking for something that isn't there and I am undone. With painful tears I am undone.

I'm still struggling with the Gospel and people are looking for deeper truths!

I used to think there was something wrong with me because I am still in awe of the simplicity of the Gospel. And yet, I used to think it was hard enough to understand it because it is so deep in and of itself.

People look for signs, wonders and miracles, the moving of the Spirit, and I'm still back at square one.

Belong? I never really fit in anywhere at church. I tried to "use my gifts" to figure out where I could serve, as a survey went around regarding using the gifts of the Spirit for serving in the church. When I looked it up in Scripture it only described behaviors like patience, love, godliness, good speech, and on and on. When it didn't say my gift was, organizational, or fund raiser, or audio/visual or web design or clean up person after a church function, etc. I was completely confused and thought there was no way to serve God. I searched, and searched, and inquired all for naught.

I felt like I would never be able to serve God and it made me very sad. I was a misfit. I did not fall into any of the categories. Until I read these verses:

John 5:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

John 6:27
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

Romans 6:22
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

I was already serving God, but those ideas are rebuked. That is when my time in the visible church began to come to an end.

What is there to go deeper for when we still need to explore the depths of the Gospel?

Okay, by Adam's sin (which was really Eve first let's not forget) we have a sin nature. We are rebellious to God, but in this day and age people, even those in the church see God is in a storybook, not actual history and ever present, but because of counterfeit stories of Roman gods, Greek gods, intellect, etc. And cute little riddles like "which came first, the chicken or the egg"; fully seeing in God's Word that He made mature things so Adam could live, like "Trees baring fruit", fully grown. That is why the "intellectuals say the earth is millions of years old, etc., you get my point.

As rebellious people (please refer to the tower of Bable Genesis 11) as we still are today.

Being in the flesh makes us enemies of God. How sad, but never the less true. He knows this so throughout history He makes a way for us to be redeemed. Forgiven after a penalty is paid. But no human can pay this penalty. But He had a way for that too! One, way.

The sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son. The only One who could and did in obedience. For me? As I get older my shame grows as I look at who I think I am, and at who I was before I met this God and Man named Jesus.

Cherie c. said...

When I was in a church I rarely if ever read the Word. Didn't have to. I had it all figured out and what Pastor was saying must be true, he is the Pastor. Umm, not so fast. It wasn't until Jimmy DeYoung came to speak at my church that my eyes were fully opened. If I had doubts about church, this confirmed my worst fears. See, the Pastor never preached Genesis, the 10 commandments, and Revelation. Law and Grace. I was glad in a way because Revelation frighten me. Now I know why. And when you read the Gospel, and Revelation, you see for the first time all the hype you've heard before and it is all a lie. When you read the Epistles, you see the truth of "our role and contribution to the church". It is not to be a secretary or fund raiser, or audio/visual or choir or any of those things. What a lie! It is to believe on the One Who sent His Only begotten Son to die for the sins of the world.
To die. Born to die, for you, for me, for the whole world which rejects this simple truth by putting on it its own ideas and conditions. In this simple truth, there is still so much to know, and to keep from worshiping the Gospel (the cross) itself and worship the true and living God and His Son.

My grateful heart is still not grateful enough. Never will be because although the letter with the survey says we have to find our talent to serve God, there is NOTHING we can DO except believe on Him who sent Jesus. That is all Jesus asked.

John 5:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

It is so simple yet so deep, who can fully understand it? So with tears of joy and conviction I can only believe and pray. I still cry when I think of what He did for me, and I can do nothing for Him except believe He did. There has to be more I can do, right? I still haven't found it. It is not in the Word. My faith is propelled by God the Holy Spirit by His changing me and by the hope I have in me for Jesus' return. That is it! If I do what the Spirit leads me to do, I produce fruit. When I don't do as the Spirit leads, I suffer correction. The only way to follow as His Spirit leads is to read His Word, and pray. Listen to godly men, but also to prove what they say by His Word. And with the joy that fills you, preach the Gospel to all creatures.

Mark 16:15
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

And so we have it. Simplicity of the Gospel, yet depths to be explored with prayer and reading, and our marching orders to "preach the Gospel to every creature.

That is how we serve the Living God. Want to know how to "sow your seed of faith'? Go preach the Gospel to every creature. Embrace the leading of the Holy Spirit which you will find in the Epistles, and believe on Him who sent Jesus, and believe the one Who was sent.

Dear Brothers and sisters,

2 Thessalonians 3:18
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

your sister in Christ Jesus,
Cherie c.

Cherie c. said...

Want to listen to something that will break you, move you to repentance, and fill you with the Lord?

Take a moment to listen. Just listen. The words of the music will come to your remembrance. And its those words that you will remember which will break you, and fill you with both repentance and joy. Simple, yet so deep. I go to this little piece of music whenever life gets so loud you can't hear your heart beat. When my mind is so filled with all things I'd rather not think about. When I am weary and need to just rest. When I need reminding of the simplicity of the Gospel. How can we find beauty in the awfulness of the cross? I don't know but it's there.

I am sorry to hog the comment section of the blog today. I am just so filled with heart break for all those who don't know of what I speak. I want for those who don't understand to find rest and peace and joy and most importantly, the Lord. I am broken beyond belief today, and I just have such a urgency to share.

Please take a moment to hear this soul filling music where we find the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The conviction, the joy and even the tears will be a blessing. I know, sounds ludicrous but true non the less.

When conviction not just of sin, but of truth and the magnitude of the Spirit empties you, it is at the time you are striped of yourself and you can let God the Spirit fill you and it now is the time for prayer. Don't miss the opportunity to go to Him in prayer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNg6CrVt73o

Pastor, if you please, post this video. Thank you.

your sister in Christ Jesus,
Cherie c.

Anonymous said...

It is Amazing Grace that Jesus will take me Just As I Am, when I come to the foot of The Old Rugged Cross.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxLNlgKM8c Just As I Am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meITKEI7Wdo Amazing Grace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXAqoZuYvyA The Old Rugged Cross

Cherie, isn’t it truly amazing that the Holy Spirit leads us to the Cross each and every time we think that we need to go deeper into Jesus Christ.

Joel

Cherie c. said...

Amazingly wonderful Joel, just wonderful.

Cherie c.

Annette said...

Thanks for the post Pastor Rick!
Love the richness of the Gospel for it has the power to tranform!

God Bless you!

Anonymous said...

Cherie wrote: When you read the Epistles, you see the truth of "our role and contribution to the church". It is not to be a secretary or fund raiser, or audio/visual or choir or any of those things. What a lie!

James says:
All those activities honor God! And until the Lord Jesus returns always will and always have done! It is when skills are misused that the LORD will seek to correct and at times rebuke us.

Thank you for your enthusiasm Cherie in spreading the gospel.

James

Anonymous said...


Cherie wrote:
When it (Scripture) didn't say my gift was, organizational, or fund raiser, or audio/visual or web design or clean up person after a church function, etc. I was completely confused and thought there was no way to serve God. I searched, and searched, and inquired all for naught.

James replies:
God blesses anyone, Christian or non Christian, who wholeheartedly gets involved in those activities! God is good and He will bless clean activities that are used wisely to hallow His name.

Cherie c. said...

I ask you James to find those activities in the Bible

Rick Frueh said...

Those activities could be considered the gift of helps.

Cherie c. said...

James replies:
God blesses anyone, Christian or non Christian, who wholeheartedly gets involved in those activities! God is good and He will bless clean activities that are used wisely to hallow His name.

Do you realize what you wrote? Christian or non Christian? What has dark to do with light?

Service to man is not the Gospel James.

I will not continue to address this if you reply.

Cherie c.

Matthew 22:37
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

No where does it say, serve your church as secretary, fund raiser, choir director etc.

We are to support the body of Christ. Churches today are serving themselves and that sir is dishonoring to God.

Empty activities not done with God the Holy Spirit is just lip service.

Anonymous said...


Cherie, that's true when a church overall is serving itself that dishonors God. What we ought to remember is that God is looking to see what and indeed knows what He will reward and what He will punish whether it is done inside a church building, at home, at work or anywhere else.


Let's stop making sweeping generalisations for the LORD is still showing favor to Christians and non Christians and it is wrong to teach otherwise. Let's let God make His own decisions about what is vain or empty service otherwise we make ourselves to be a judge without knowing the whole situation!

May the LORD bless you!

Anonymous said...


Cherie, that's true when a church overall is serving itself that dishonors God. What we ought to remember is that God is looking to see what and indeed knows what He will reward and what He will punish whether it is done inside a church building, at home, at work or anywhere else.

Let's stop making sweeping generalisations for the LORD is still showing favor to Christians and non Christians and it is wrong to teach otherwise. Let's let God make His own decisions about what is vain or empty service otherwise we make ourselves to be a judge without knowing the whole situation!

It not so clear cut as you write, Cherie. How could I, when I was unsaved, come to Christ unless the LORD had drawn me.

What He did over many years was show me His gracious love even though I still belonged, at that time, to the kingdom of darkeness. That is the gospel!

And the summit of the love of Jesus is shown in His atoning sacrifice. Paul preached Christ and Him crucified. Let's praise Our risen Lord Jesus!

James

Cherie c. said...

Pastor Rick, can you direct me to where the gift of helps is located? I am not familiar with that. Thank you. Sincere request.

Also, the activities mentioned by James I was involved in and I can tell you first hand, those who volunteered in those positions for service to the Lord were pushed aside to those who served the goals of the church.Goals of which had nothing to do with God and more to do with increasing numbers in the church and achieving success as set forth by business consultants from out side the church.

Yes, helping out in church used to be a blessing to the mission of the church, to spread the Gospel. Those days are long gone and to say these positions continue to be clean activities to honor God is not true. You know what I am talking about. These positions are used to show favor in the church, not to further the Gospel.

I have first hand knowledge of this, unfortunately. I wrote on your blog months ago the position I held in my old church and I saw first hand the infiltration of the doctrines of demons. It started with Rob Bell and Beth Moore literature and business consultants to "grow" the church. The youth group was completely led astray with Scream music brought in by the new youth pastor, and the ushering out of two the best youth pastors I have ever been blessed to meet. They were ushered out because, this is an actual quote, "there is too much bible and not enough fun for the kids." A mission trip was cancelled in favor of a camping trip where boys and girls were allowed to do things we see in the world. One of the youth leaders worked for MTV the other from the Emergent church movement. Doctrine of demons hold sway there to this day.

It was not only me who witnessed these things, which is what I thought at first. But a year later others came to me with other news to confirm what I was privy too.

God is not honored in the church today, and to say He is is denial of the truth.

You don't need skills to serve God, you need truth and the Gospel.

I mean no disrespect to James, but he needs to look a bit more closely and or read the Word and see the difference. A pastor who puts himself into the Word during a sermon is not preaching Jesus, he is preaching himself.

Pastor Rick, you know this to be true sir.

your sister in Christ Jesus,
Cherie c.


Cherie c. said...

Evidence of what I said in my last comment:

Bibles and Booze: Congregations Across America Attempting to Attract New Members With Beer

http://christiannews.net/2013/11/03/bibles-and-booze-congregations-across-america-attempting-to-attract-new-members-with-beer/


23 youths from City Harvest Church have recorded a music video to express support for their congregation and its embattled leadership.

Titled "The Greatest Place -- City Harvest Church" , the 4-and-a-half-minute video begins with an opening sequence of several youths proclaiming their love for "this place".

"In this time, we will stand stronger, hand in hand we will climb higher, this is my church, my life," goes one of the main lines in the song.

This is worship of the church, not the object of the church which is Jesus. You can find the entire article here:

http://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore-showbiz/city-harvest-youths-record-song-support-pastor-kong-060813258.html

We can close our eyes and our ears to the falling away and the apostasy in the visible church today, but that would be a great mistake. We can try to convince ourselves otherwise, but that would be lying. And God hates a liar and we will have to answer for it.

Proverbs 6:16-18
16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

Just saying.

to get to the referenced site, highlight the text, right click on your mouse and open in a new window.

Rick Frueh said...

I Cor.12: 27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

Cherie c said...

Forgot that verse Pastor and James. Please forgive my ignorance.


Anonymous said...

Cherie, you a passionate woman. The world needs more women like you who are passionate for truth. Keep on pointing out error, for that is God's will!

God bless you

James