Regeneration vs. the Idolatry of Decisional Evangelism

It was about the time I heard this sermon that I was only 90% sure how I felt about the “sinner’s prayer.”  After this sermon, I was 100% sure.  I put the “sinner’s prayer” in the ground, buried it, and put up a tombstone that said “anathema.” Our evangelism is weak, unbiblical, and it is eternally destroying some.  What are we preaching? See for yourself, and examine yourself. What are you preaching?

Inoculated to Jesus?

“The hardest thing is not convincing people they’re saved; the hardest thing is convincing people they’re lost.”

-John Piper

Preaching to Heart Part II: Watching Pastor Paul at Colossae

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you…” Colossians 2:1

There is a great struggle spoken of in this passage.  Pastor Paul writes of it to these believers.  It is a great struggle he has for the church at Colossae and for the believers at Laodicea.  He must be struggling inwardly.  Paul was a man of the heart.  His messages emitted naturally from a newborn heart–a heart suffering for the sake of the church, a heart filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.  His is a heart that received from God a certain calling.  He is as he said earlier, “a minister.”  What is the main focus of his ministry?

“And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Colossians 1:21-23

Here we see that Paul ministers to God’s people for their sanctification.  God is working through Christ to present his people “holy,” “blameless,” and “above reproach” before him.  The main end of the minister’s work, therefore, is help God’s people reach these fruits of sanctification–holiness and blamelessness.  If the minister is not aiming for this, what is he doing?  He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul; and likewise, what Bible is leading him?

More particulary, we see that Paul exhorts the people toward these fruits by way of  three qualities–faithfulness, stability, and steadfastness.  If a minister is not exhorting his people to these three qualities, what is he doing? He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul.

But this is made even more particular.  Look at what the people are told to be faithful to, stable in, and steadfast for:

“not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” v. 23

This clearly demonstrates the way for a people to be holy, the way for a people to be blameless.  The way for a people truly to be God’s people is found in their faithfulness to the gospel, their stability in the gospel, and their steadfastness for the gospel.  Paul says at the end of this verse that he was made a minister of that gospel.  If we say we are ministers of the gospel, are we even preaching it?  If we are not preaching the gospel, we are not ministers of it.  Indeed, we cease to be ministers of anything the Bible has any knowledge of.  We have fallen from our ministership.

Paul says a little later that he is suffering for the church because “[he] became a minister [to it]” (1:24-25).  He then clearly acknowledges the nature of that ministry.  It is a “stewardship from God given to him for [the church]” (1:25).  The minister who calls the ministry his own with no heart-felt knowledge of the stewardship of it, ceases to be the minister the Bible speaks of.  He is a selfish man, building a kingdom, not God’s, but rather his own.

Stewardship signifies reception. If God has called you to this ministry of the gospel, why is there no reception?  You spurn the calling of the Lord, like some disobedient Jonah.  Away to Tarshish, yet God will find you!  A giant fish awaits the called runner. But Paul did not run.  It says in Acts 26:14 that upon the call from the Lord, he had “fallen on the ground.”

Stewardship signifies holding.  The minister of the gospel holds something that is not his own.  He has had something “entrusted” to him (See 1 Timothy 1:11).  It is not his own, yet why do some ministers act as though they invented the gospel?

 ”Man never could nor would have invented and devised a gospel which would lay him low, and secure to the Lord God all the honor and praise.” -C.H. Spurgeon

If any man has forgotten the nature of the gospel as here explained by Mr. Spurgeon, what is he preaching?  The end of the preaching of the gospel is the glory and praise of the Lord God, not the praises of men to the minister.

Stewardship also signifies selflessness.  “the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.”  It is not given by God for the ministers own personal parading prideful pulpiteering!  God has given the minister the stewardship for the sake of others.  Pastor Paul understood that he was given the ministry for the church, not himself.

Stewardship also signfies faithfulness. “…to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”  Paul refused to do the ministry half-heartedly.  He declared the whole counsel of God!  He made it fully known! This is the faithfulness of the minister.  He knows his mission, and he does it, fully. What mystery has been made known to us! Yet we preach some other thing as though there is no mystery and all people knew of it.  Don’t ever assume your people already know the mystery; and don’t ever think they know it well enough.

“Never be content with your grasp of the gospel. The gospel is life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than any diamond. Its depths man will never exhaust.” - C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life

The minister of God also has one proclamation for his people.  “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (1:27-28)

What message do we preach?  Is it Christ and him crucified? For Paul would know of nothing else! (See 1 Corinthians 2:1)  What goofy, moralizing, cream-puff exhortations fill the pulpits of men who preach something other than Christ!  They want growth of church, but they forgot the seed–the gospel!  People may have ears for moralistic exhortation, but their hearts will be far from Christ and closer to their own self-righteousness.  “Stop complaining” is no sermon content!  Even the pagans don’t like complainers.  God’s people will stop complaining when they understand the gospel, when they see that the rock guiding them in the desert is Christ (See 1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

The minister of God also has one process for his people. “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom.”  The only wisdom Paul knows of he gets from Scripture.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Psalm 111:10).  Also, Paul knows that his Lord is a truine Lord.  He goes on to say, “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3).  If a minister wants wise and knoweledgable people with good understanding his process should be to warn them and teach them with this wisdom; that is with this Christ.

The minister of God also has one purpose for his people.  “that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”  That is the purpose the minister of God has for others–their maturity in Christ.  For indeed, he must present them before God!  Will they be mature in Christ?  But yes, they will with God’s help.

The minister of God also has one power for his people.  “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (1:29).  The minister of God knows that two very difficult truths exist together.

1.) I must work, toil, and struggle. (This is our responsibility.)

2.) God gives the strength to endure that toil and struggle. (This is his sovereignty.)

And so, this was the struggle Paul had within him for the church.  He wanted to declare to them the riches of Christ for their joy and God’s glory.  What else is the minister to do?

Working with you to preach to the heart,

Vince R.

100% Gospel: Jonathan Dodson on “Gospel and Method”

Jonathan Dodson contributed to The Resurgence web blog with these two articles.  I had a verbal “wow” when I read them.  Check out both parts.  I have provided excerpts from both.  Think hard especially about part II.  It is there that I was even more convinced of this simple equation: Preach Word -> Church Growth.

Part I

“Perhaps we need to be debating the strength of the gospel that is being preached, taught, shared, and shown in our churches. Are we incarnating and attracting people to a diluted gospel or a strong gospel? Are we incarnating kitsch gospel or kerygmatic gospel? In the end, what are we calling people to? Is our gospel both missional and communal or inward and individualistic? If it’s the latter, then something is wrong with our gospel. What would happen if we stopped debating methods and started debating gospel—winsomely and charitably?”

Part II

“Each concoction of the 50/50 gospel is actually quite dangerous. They all produce churches that attract people to morality messages, missional activities, and communal experiences. The goal of the church is reduced to converting people to a better way of living, not to a better God to be believing.“

Working with you for the gospel method,

Vince R.

The Cardinal Tenants: Luther’s Gospel-Stance

Here I Stand!

After Martin Luther wrestled with Romans 1:16-17, he came to realize that “the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.”  It was at this divine illumination that he felt himself “to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.”

This changed Luther’s understanding of Scripture.  “The whole of Scripture took on new meaning,” he said.  Hence, we turn to his lectures at the University at Wittenberg. After this divine illumination of Scripture, he began to lecture on the Psalms and Romans from 1513-1516.  He had not yet posted his Ninety-Five Theses, but he would soon get to that.  Note what Luther biographer, Roland H. Bainton, has to say of these lectures:

“The center about which all the petals clustered was the affirmation of the forgiveness of sins through the utterly unmerited grace of God made possible by the cross of Christ, which reconciled wrath and mercy, routed the hosts of hell, triumphed over sin and death, and by the resurrection manifested that power which enables man to die to sin and rise to newness of life.  This was of course the theology of Paul heightened, intensified, and clarified.  Beyond these cardinal tenants Luther was never to go.”-Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, p. 51.

I find in Martin Luther a man worth imitating in a lot of ways (most definitely not in every way! yikes!), but here, I find his refusal to move on from the gospel the one way I want to imitate him the most.  Luther was transformed by the gospel, and so he could not recant. “I Cannot… I will not recant…Here I Stand!” said he at the Diet of Worms.  The gospel is the centerpiece of our lectures, our sermons, our teachings, and most definitely, our lives.  If it’s not, has it transformed us? Let us examine this in us.  Beyond the cardinal tenants of this message, never go!

Working with you to keep the cardinal tenants at the center,

Vince R.

Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill: Book Review

"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying."

Leonard Ravenhill is a passionate man, and indeed, he will beat you senseless until you are, too.  This book reintroduces much of the revivalistic fervor that has so departed from the hearts and minds of today’s evangelical church.  I was brought to my knees many times while reading this book.  Any man who says that he wants to lead God’s people needs his world shaken, this book will help him. It will become required reading for any young man who asks me to disciple him.  I find in this book a calling for deep sorrowful repentance for the lack of prayer in my life, and I find also a soul-wrenching rebuke to weep for the lost more than I ever have before.  Then, it demands that my weeping turns into action.

Some people will despise this, throw it down and start calling out names like “fundementalist” or “old school.”  The person who does that demonstrates that his heart is not properly submitted to the Word of God because Ravenhill’s book is directly in line with it.  ”Whether you hear or refuse to hear,” after reading this book, you will know ”that a prophet has been among you.”

“A popular evangelist reaches your emotions.  A true prophet reaches your conscience,” he wrote. Then Ravenhill is a true prophet.

With deep pangs for prayer and evangelism,

Vince R.

Preaching to the Heart Part 1: Watching Pastor Paul at Lystra

 

Paul and Barnabas at Lystra

“But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. ” Acts 14:14-15

We enter the city of Lystra with Paul and Barnabas.  Think of it, men of God in the midst of an alarming reality.  Paul and Barnabas at Lystra encounter a man who never had the experiences that many of you have had.  They come upon a man “sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked.”  He had never walked.  This is an astonishing reality.  This man sat there in that community, accustomed to the stares at his helpless immobility.  But as he sat there, he heard something he had never heard before.  He heard the sound of a voice declaring strange things.  “He listened to Paul speaking,” says Luke.  This man sat and listened to the truths Paul preached.  Could he stop listening?  No, his soul was enchanted with truth.

Paul is no pompous orator, showing his eloquence or intellect in the pulpit while ignoring the struggling sinner.  Contrarily, Paul, while speaking intently also does something else intently.  “And Paul, looking intently at him” saw something developing in this man.  He saw “that he had faith to be made well.”  Paul’s pastoral intention saw the longing soul in the congregation, and with pointed clarity, he  ”said in a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet.’”  His declaration was as one with authority.

He fulfilled his calling there at Lystra.  He declared the truth and went for the heart of this crippled man.  The heart, as many like me often forget, is the heart of the matter.  This man’s heart beamed with faithful reception.  Paul looked “intently” at him, and declared openly, “Stand upright on your feet.”  The most recent time we see Paul looking “intently” at someone is found in the previous chapter.

“But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at [Elymas the magician] and said, ‘You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?’” Acts 13:9-10

Here we see Pastor Paul reading the man and applying the truth to his heart.  For this man was not concerned with the conversion of souls, but rather he was  ”seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.”  Paul is no cowardly minister, he as Mark Driscoll puts it, “shoots the wolves.”  Yet in returning to chapter 14, we see Paul doing what Driscoll says is “feeding the sheep.”  He proclaims the truths and so feeds the sheep.  This crippled man from Lystra believed, and by his faith, he was made well.

But then we read what the Lystran population did in response to this demonstration:

“And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, ‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’ Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.” Acts 14:11-12

The men of Lystra were amazed at Paul’s Spirit-wrought power.  Indeed, Paul was a spiritually-minded preacher, and like the crippled man, his preaching begot spritually-minded people.  “I have begot you through the gospel,” said Paul to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 4:15).

But these men of Lystra were amazed at signs.  They were not amazed at Christ.  Likewise, today’s church is amazed at the good works of the gospel and not the gospel itself!  Shameful…When we replace God’s supernatural mercy on sinners with our natural mercy on sinners, we beget an ignorant blind people who love good works but despise the work of Christ.  People will gladly accept the good works of the church if the church lets them see the good works by themselves.  But will the people accept God’s good work?

Today’s church doesn’t seem to care.  It is much too hard to read all of John 6.  We enjoy the part about feeding the five thousand with bread; we would like to cut out those parts about eating the bread of life.  “People will rebel against it!” says one, but did not many “disciples” turn away from Christ that day, too.  But we would rather find a mass of unconverted church members than twelve men like Peter who can say simply, ““Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  The only saving faith is that which says simply to Christ, “To whom shall I go but you? You have the words I need.”

Today’s preachers would react much differently than Paul and Barnabas. They might stand timidly in the corner as these pagan men marched around them calling them gods.  They might even relish the opportunity!  They devour the compliments that said they speak with “the voice of a god and not of a man!” They, like Herod, would find the angel of the Lord smiting them for not giving the glory to God (Acts 12:20-23).

But where is the man who would react like Paul and Barnabas?  “But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments” (Acts 14:14).  They react with sorrow! Where is the sorrow for the lost soul?  These men know not what they do, says our Lord.  And indeed, these preacher men don’t timidly offer another alternative to these lost souls. They don’t interject a differing opinion.  But instead, they  ”rushed out into the crowd, crying out, ‘Men, why are you doing these things?’”  They did not walk and politely offer.  They did not stroll and gracefully proffer.  They rushed and cried.  Would that I would rush and cry for the souls of men!

The soul is the most fragile thing that the minister can deal with.  I learned this from Leonard Ravenhill.  I should have just learned it from Paul.

“We also are men, of like nature with you,” cries Paul.  Sinners preaching to sinners.  Where is that understanding in me?  Paul understood it, and he said clearly that the only difference was they  “bring…good news.”  Indeed, this is all there is to the way we differ.  We have found the bread of life.  We have found the way.  We are the people who should be the voice in the wilderness crying out against all “vain things,”  pressing and pleading with the souls of men and saying “turn from these vain things to a living God.”  We are the people who know the difference. The church is a pillar of proclamation and a buttress of truth, yet we so often act like a pillar of privacy and a buttress of buttoned-lips.

We have the message, and we have the God who created all things.  We know “a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.”  The LORD is creator, and by that very claim we state so much more than we think.  We state clearly that this world belongs to our Father in heaven.  “Let the whole race of creatures bow and pay their praise to him.”  By the very nature of being the created, we owe everything to the creator.

Paul knew the God he served, and he would be damned lest he see more souls go to hell (Romans 9:1-3).

Working with you to minister to the heart,

Vince R.