Good News – Gospel – Repentance – Forgiveness – Redemption – Salvation – Eternal life
Jhn 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Condemn – Perish – Saved – Eternal Life
Jhn 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Loved Darkness – Evil – Judgment
Rom 1:20-22 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Invisible Attributes – Eternal Power – Divine Nature – Clearly Perceived – Creation
Without Excuse – Did Not Honor God – Did Not Give Thanks To God – Futile Thinking – Foolish – Darkened – Fools
Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity
Rom 1:28-31 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Lusts – Impurity – Debased Mind – Unrighteousness – Evil – Covetousness – Malice – Envy – Murder – Strife – Deceit
Gossips – Sladerers – Haters of God – Insolent – Haughty – Boastful – Inventors of Evil – Disobedient – Foolish – Faithless
Heartless – Ruthless
Rom 1:32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Rom 3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Psalms 36:1 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Proverbs 23:17 Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.
No Fear of God – Pride – Arrogance – Evil – Perverted Speech – Envy
Psalm 119:78. May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts.
Isaiah 45:16 They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them
Jeremiah 17:13. O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame.
Ezra 9:6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.
Job 8:22 “Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
Psalms 35:26 Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!
I firmly believe what I have written but I must admit I don’t think it is fully filled with all there is to say about it.
How can the Gospel be preached, spoken, and offered without the proclamation of the need due to our sin? God’s grace, mercy, and love are truly blessings beyond our imagination. We do not fully understand their depth and width due to our limited understanding of the absolute Holiness of God, yet our need for them in light of our sin.
We begin to scratch the surface of it when we begin to understand Sin. Without a basic understanding of sin, there is no application for the Gospel in our lives. We can not understand the basis for God’s grace, mercy, and love. There is no reason to fear God. Without this basic understanding of sin being jointly proclaimed and declared with the Good News of Jesus Christ people will shallowly come to God seeking the benefit of eternal life, but not for the forgiveness of Sin. The need fo repentance will not be recognized. The brutality and cruelty of all the physical violence Jesus bore on His body will not be understood. The penalty He bore was OURS! It was due to our SINs! His agony and death to redeem us and give us eternal life. How can the need for the Gospel be presented without the declaration of Sin? It can not.
A person should feel shame, guilt, hopelessness, despair, conviction, worry for their souls, helplessness, unworthy, fear, judgment, etc…. in light of the Holiness of God and hearing of the Gospel when the understanding of sin is exposed to their hearts and minds. The fullness of God’s grace, mercy, and love is only understood in the light of His holiness and our sinfulness. Sanctification, growth, and maturing in a Christian’s life continue in this understanding of sin and holiness until their death.
I am amazed by how the Holy Spirit shows the need for salvation to worldly “good people”, who have lived their life on a good moral code. Their hearts and minds are not filled with fleshly and worldly lusts. They have seen the ugliness of the effects of sin in the world around them and humbly choose to not be a part of it. Their kindness, gentleness, and selflessness is witnessed. In their outward behavior you would think they are saved and believers. However, they are not and somehow the Holy Spirit moves on their hearts and minds and they are made aware of the need for redemption, salvation, and forgiveness. They understand the need a part from those outward visible and inward lusts of the world and flesh.
What I fail to understand and explain is the young child who comes to Christ for salvation and believes with that child like faith. They have not seen the world of sin in all of its ugliness and depravitiy. The lusts of this world and flesh have not contaminated their hearts and minds. Certainly they sin, but the awareness in light of the due penalty of sin and the holiness of God, grace, mercy, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, etc…. is not anywhere close to being understood, yet alone seeing the need for forgiveness almost all young and older adults do who believe. And yet, the Holy Spirit moves on them in such a way that they understand, in a child like way, the need for Jesus Christ.
There is only one way to eternal life, belief, trust, obedience, faith, and reliance in and through Jesus Christ. Don’t get me wrong on this. I don’t not think we should be going around and calling out every sin under the sun that mankind does. It is the Holy Spirit who does this work and reaches into the hearts and minds of every redeemed soul. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is opened up to them and the need for it.
I do not know how the Holy Spirit opens up the hearts and minds to the need of salvation in young hearts and minds, nor do I understand how a morally good person sees the need, but praise be to God, He can and does.
Much of my thoughts on lukewarm preaching and teaching come from not hearing much if any proclamation of the holiness of God in light of the sinfulness of sin. There are teachings, sermons, preaching and other wise proclamations about the blessings of God; love, joy, hope, peace, rest, grace, mercy, strength, courage, power, godliness, things of God, living without fear, security, eternal life, etc…….. but, without speaking about sin.
What keeps us from the blessings of God? – SIN
I can remember as a new young Christian talking with my pastor. (back then he was an old man of 55 years old to me. I was 22) He said, “I have many seen things throughout my life as a pastor, but “you know what bothers me Daryl?” I have seen things in the culture and world around us that the church and godly people flat out reject as unholy and ungodly, only to see it being tolerated and condoned 10 to 15 years later.” “Why is that?”
Many of the sermons are preached with some humor in them. I am at odds about this. Is there anything funny about God, Sin, Holiness, the Death of Jesus Christ?
This is what I found on line for the benefits of using humor in (worldly) presentations;
Used properly, humor is a powerful tool that can benefit speakers in several ways:
- Humor creates a bond between the speaker and the audience.
- It energizes people and keeps them engaged.
- Humor can provide emotional relief.
- It helps the audience remember your points.
- Humor leaves the audience with a good impression of the speaker.
I listen to many sermons by many famous and well known pastors of mega-churches. Mostl use humor in their preching, teaching, sermons. Have we adopted this as a means to present the truth of the Gospel? Have we adopted a means to warm up the crowd so that people are comfortable? Are we using humor as a human effort to break the ice on a cold heart? Is this one of the adopted things that my old pastor was talking about? Are Christian people looking for a church that gives them baby food through humor? Is humor the same as levity?
I am reaching out to the lost. I am helping lighten a persons burdens. I am removing stress. I am inviting them to engage in what I am going to say. The gospel is not all about fire and brimstone. It is proven people listen better when the message is presented with some humor. I sprinkle my sermon with humor to help anchor a point. Humor kills boredom. Humor gets everybody listening. Humor disarms skeptics. God gave us the emotion of laughter so we should use it.
Spurgeon and Piper said there is a difference in humor and levity. It is possible to be earnest in the subject matter of what is being preached and have elements of humor but no levity. Humor can both polish preaching, sincerity, and excellence or tarnish them. Both Piper and Spurgeon used some humor. Both say it must be used with wisdom.
Piper put it like this; “While self-discipline is necessary in all aspects of the sermon, it is most required with humor. John Piper warns, “There is a place for humor in our lives, but there is something deeply wrong that we feel compelled to use so much of it in teaching and preaching and even worshiping.”
Spurgeon said; “there is a great distinction between holy cheerfulness and general levity.”
Humor is more often misused in preaching that it is well-used. You must be sure you aren’t “making light of something God takes seriously.” “While the audience laughed, the angels cried.”
Do we err on the side of humor? Do we approach levity? I am not sure. There are aspects of it that seem ok and many more that don’t. God can and does use our imperfections to open the hearts and minds of the lost.
Sin is not a laughing matter and I fear the use of continued humor has diminished the sinfulness of it. I wonder if churches would have the same attendance if no humor was used? Probably not. So it may be good in that aspect to drawn and keep people in church. So there is the problem. How to use it and not create lukewarm babies who can not discern the Word of God.
I am not quite sure how I got to this point. I started out confessing my thoughts on preaching and the lack of seriousness in proclaiming the sinfulness of sin and how a person must see it to believe. Then having thoughts about how a young person who’s heart is moved to belief and is saved, and as well a morally good person. How the Holy Spirit moves in the hearts and minds of people is a mystery to me. So I would guess that what I see as lukewarmness has permeated out through these thoughts. Though we may change, grow, not grow, become more knowledgeable and understand, or not, is not up to the pastor, elder, or friend, though we are given the responsibility to encourage, love, and grow our brothers. No it comes down to an intentional choice on each Christian to desire and seek to grow in their walk and pursuit of God honoring and glorifying lives. If things are watered down then more than likely the hearer may hear but are they changed. By watered down I mean deeper things of God. As I say this I am perplexed at how a Pastor can preach to the lost in the simplicity of the Gospel and at the same time preach to the deeper things of God. Would you drive out the very people you are trying to bring in? I think yes. The deeper things of God must come from discussion, teaching, and fellowship with other Christians. Iron sharpens iron. Many times (wrongly) I think the pastor is weak but in reality their heart for the lost is so big and Holy Spirit filled that they mostly speak to bring the message of salvation to them in such a way that it will be used by the Holy Spirit to move a person to repentance and belief.
