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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to
observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19,20).
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March 21, 2010
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Contents:
1) Preaching the Living Word of the Living God In Order
to Produce a Living Faith and Living Hope (Billy Ashworth)
2) "For Our Good Always" (Greg Gwin)
3) News & Notes
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-1-
Preaching the Living Word of the Living God In Order to
Produce a Living Faith and Living Hope
by Billy Ashworth
Jesus commanded the apostles, as recorded in Mark 16:15,16, "Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned." In Hebrews 4:12 we read: "For the word of God
is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Paul writing to the saints at Rome said: "For I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it
is written, The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:16,17). Gal. 2:20: "I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." The apostle
Peter wrote: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." (1 Pet.
1:3).
The reader must be impressed with the repetitive use of the word LIVING
in the title of the article which is reflected in the passages of
Scripture cited. We do not preach a dead message from a "dead God." The
foolish revival of the old cliche by Altizer: "God is dead," is not
only blatantly false, but also nonsensical since there is no such
thing as dead deity! Only a LIVING GOD could reveal a LIVING message to
produce a LIVING faith and a LIVING hope!
It is important to notice the command: "Go ye into all the world and
PREACH the gospel to every creature." This passage contains what
is called The Great Commission in contradistinction to the Limited
Commission which Jesus gave to the twelve and seventy and limited them
to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 10:6; Lk. 10). The
Twelve were to preach, "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt. 10:7).
The Seventy were to preach, "The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you"
(Lk. 10:11). Of course, the message was the same in both instances.
But after Pentecost, when the apostles were to "go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature," the message was "This Jesus
hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses... Therefore let
all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:32,36).
J.W. McGarvey, in his commentary of Acts of Apostles, commented on
verse 36: "He had made him Lord by causing him to sit on God's own
throne, to rule over angels and men; and he made him Christ by causing
him to sit on the throne of David according to the promise."
Here we find the apostles beginning to carry out the Great Commission
as Jesus directed them in Acts 1:8: "...ye shall be witnesses unto me
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth." The message was NOT of a "coming kingdom"
but of the kingdom of God's having come with Jesus, the crucified and
resurrected Savior, sitting enthroned on the universal throne of
dominion -- the KING over His Kingdom!
At this point, I want to make it clear that I believe the Bible not
only tells us WHAT to preach, but HOW to preach the message. The sermon
preached by the apostle Peter as recorded in Acts 2:14-40, is the
finest example one can find of the scriptural way to preach. The
arrangement of the sermon, the cogent arguments he made in response to
the critics who scoffed, "These men are full of new wine," are
unexcelled. Peter appealed to the prophets of the Old Testament
and said: "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel...." He
gave prophecy after prophecy of these Jews who knew them but failed to
understand them, and said: "Him (Jesus of Nazareth)... ye have taken,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain... " (Acts 2:23). Peter
was speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit the gospel of Christ,
God's power to save. He responded to the carping critics, identifying
of whom he was speaking and why. He had not been trained in "audience
psychology" how to speak so kindly no one would know of whom or what he
was saying. He never heard the warning by weak, compromising people,
"That kind of preaching will run people off." He had no fear of losing
his job as "minister of the gospel" in Jerusalem, but he did fear
losing his soul in hell by failing to do what the Lord commanded him to
do. He preached for conviction of his audience -- not to please them
but to save them.
One finds Peter preaching as Paul later commanded Timothy to do:
"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season: reprove,
(convince, NKJ) rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2
Tim. 4:2). Today one hears such warnings as: "You are too
negative. Preach Positive." That is the psychology of the world
which lives and breathes the positive approach -- negatives are out. I
do not think Paul meant to advise Timothy to preach two negative
sermons for every positive one, but two of the three instructions given
above were negative. The apostle Peter used these principles on
Pentecost -- he reproved, rebuked and exhorted the Jews and convinced
them of their heinous crime of having crucified and slain their
promised Messiah. Listen as he challenged his audience: "Therefore let
all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). The
result: "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said
to Peter and the rest of the apostles 'Men and brethren, what shall we
do?'" They were convicted by the Gospel, God's power to save as
delivered by a powerful preacher!
Peter did not "run all his audience off" for we know that after Peter
told them to "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins..." that "they that gladly
received his word were baptized; and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls." How many "ran off" because they did
not like the sermon, I do not know. But I do know that about
three thousand obeyed the gospel the first time they heard it preached
by this powerful preacher. But if Peter had been a modern day "Gospel
preacher" who is more concerned with giving the people what they want
to hear instead of what they MUST hear to be saved, the ones who stayed
and applauded him would have gone away lost.
The gospel of Christ is God's power to save. Men have developed awesome
weapons capable of destroying this world with all living beings and
things in it. Man has also manufactured chemical weapons capable of
destroying eight times the entire inhabitants of this world. But
man cannot produce anything or anybody capable of saving himself from
sin! Only the God who made us in His own image can do that. "For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John
3:16).
God revealed the message (the Gospel) to men who were inspired by the
Holy Spirit who spoke it and wrote it down for mankind that we might
know what we must do to be saved. The message is God's power to save.
But it must be preached to lost, perishing humanity. Lying dormant on
the pages of the Bible, the gospel will not save. Faithful preachers of
the gospel must preach it (herald it abroad/proclaim it). The gospel is
God's power to save. To preach it powerfully is man's part in
salvation. I realize that each of us has different
dispositions/temperament, but I personally believe the powerful gospel
deserves powerful preaching. We need to stand forth with the Sword of
the Spirit and preach with all boldness and plainness of speech,
persuading men without favor of friend or fear or foe (Acts 4:29,31; 2
Cor. 3:12; 2 Cor. 5:11).
-- Via Searching the Scriptures, September 1992, Volume 33, Number 9
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-2-
"For Our Good Always"
by Greg Gwin
"And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the
Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as
it is this day" (Deut. 6:24).
In his final words to the Israelites, Moses re-counted the commands
that God had given on Mt. Sinai. And, he urged them to realize that
everything the Lord had commanded them to do was in their own best
interest.
The subsequent history of Israel bears witness to the truthfulness of
Moses' statement. So long as they faithfully followed God's will,
things went well for them. But, when they neglected their duty and
turned away from His law, they always suffered awful consequences.
The statement that Moses made so many years ago is still true today.
Some may ask, "Why did God command this?", or "What is the purpose of
that?" The simple answer is that it is for OUR good.
God did not make the rules just because He wanted to "flex" His divine
power. He didn't order us to do various things simply to test us or
torment us. Instead, He established His law because He knows us. He
created us. He knows what is best for us. And, He desires that
everything go well for us.
Think about some of God's laws, and see that they are "for our good
always." Consider His prohibitions against drunkenness, adultery,
lying, stealing, murder, etc. By keeping from these evils we are
insuring our own well-being. Meditate upon His commands to study,
pray, love our spouses and children, treat others as we want to be
treated, etc. Each of these -- when fully obeyed -- leads to happiness
and joy in our lives.
God loves us. His commands are a real manifestation of that love. Let
us show our love for Him by obeying His law faithfully.
-- Via The Beacon, September 30, 2008
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-3-
News & Notes
For those who are Christians, please be remembering my mother (Marian Edwards) in your
prayers. In just several days, she will have been on hospice care
for 5 months (in a nursing home). In all that time, it wasn't
until yesterday (3/23) that she had to begin taking pain medication on
a regular basis to help keep her comfortable from her inoperable cancer.
Let us also be praying that Richard
Crews (who is with the Park Forest church of Christ in Baton
Rouge) will heal up speedily from the surgery he had yesterday to
remove his gall bladder, which had also been infected. Were it
not for the infection, he would have returned home the same day of the
surgery, instead of the following day.
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the gospel,
for that is how faith comes (Rom. 10:17; John 20:30,31).
2) Believe in the
deity of Christ (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent of sins
(Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in Christ
(Rom. 10:9,10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water
for the remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4;
Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet. 3:21).
6) Continue in the faith;
for,
if
not,
salvation
can
be
lost
(Heb.
10:36-39;
Rev.
2:10;
2
Pet.
2:20-22).
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CHURCH OF CHRIST
201 Rushing Road (at the Hampton Inn), Denham Springs, Louisiana
70726
Sunday services: 9:15 AM (Bible class); 10 AM & 4 PM (worship)
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520
tedwards@onemain.com
tedwards1109@gmail.com
http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/go (Gospel Observer website)
http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/audioser.html (audio sermons)
Directions:
Take the Denham Springs exit (exit 10) off of I-12. At the end of
the exit ramp, turn north. Go about a stone's throw to Rushing
Road. (You'll see a Starbucks, Circle K, and two other gas
stations; with each on each corner.) Turn left on Rushing Road,
and go less then 0.3 of a mile. Hampton Inn will be on the
right. We assemble in its meeting room, which is very close to
the reception counter.
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