The Gospel ( 4 ) 9 The alternative. ( Romans 12 v 15 }

When we embrace the gospel ,and trust Christ as our Saviour, our sins forgiven, we have peace with God, we are justified, we are granted eternal life,we receive the Holy Spirit ,God is now our Father,we are secure, nothing can separate us from God's love.I am sure there are many other things we can say, we are truly blest. But if we don't trust Jesus we will continue to be cut off from all those blessings, and the only thing that awaits us is judgement.Which brings me to an important point,our responsibility to warn people what awaits them if they die without Christ.I read something recently,from a book called , 'Ruthless Trust',by Brennan Manning,the book is about trusting God, in every situation, like Job did.He is critical of people who say what he considers trite things to people who suffer the lost of children,or other awful things.On a person level I lost my first wife with cancer,and was left with four little boys, I did not  feel bitter, never have. So BM goes on as if he is the only one who understands, of course people people struggle in tragedy, that's to be expected,and people don't always know what to say, they may say the wrong thing,but I am sure they mean well.Next time we will come back to consider after death, and what BM says.

The Gospel . ( 3 ) ( Acts 13 v 38 )

So the gospel is good news, and there is only one gospel,why do we rule out those other so called Gospels ?,because the gospel alone ,is God's answer to the dreadful sin problem.,that is why I pointed out that there is not a Lordship,or disciple gospel.The Lordship of Christ, and being a disciple,comes after conversion, the reason Jesus came we are told, that he would be pierced for our transgressions ,that he would be crushed for our iniquities,his  life would be an offering for sin,and that he would bear the sin of many. CP Isaiah 53.in Matthew 1 v 21, we read, 'he will save his people from their sins.He cannot be ones Lord,and we cannot be a disciple ,until until one knows Him as Saviour. Humanities greatest need is Jesus for only he can forgive sin,Their are people who try to live by the sermon on the mount who are not Christians, they cannot do it, it is impossible, we can only attempt to do it through Christ and His strength alone.  CP  Philippians  4 v 14.,and so we continue  to consider the gospel.

The Gospel. ( 2) ( Galatians 1 v 6 - 9)

  Last  time we looked at what the gospel is not, now let us begin to look at what it is. One translation puts it like this,'For  I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ', it goes without saying, that we live in a world were there  is so much bad news,I won't go over them,of course there is a lot of good news in the world,but the Gospel is unique, in other words it is the only one of its kind. I remember buying a Rolex watch, if I stopped there,you would be envious of me, so let me explain ,I bought it in Turkey while on  holiday,it looked like a real Rolex, but it was a fake,it wasn't the real thing.  If we have not the real gospel it is not good news, in fact, it is bad news, because it cannot do what the true gospel does, we will come to that eventually. So many are taken in by what is not true, let me put it this way , every other religion is a false religion.In 1 Corinthians 15 v 3- 4, we have these words written twice,' according to the scriptures.'The cults believe in another Christ, likewise Islam, but the Christ they believe in is not according to the scriptures, beware of those who come preaching another Christ,that is only bad news,no matter how much it is dressed up.

The Gospel . ( 1 )( Romans 1 v16 )

 Romans 1 v16 , reads ' For I am not ashamed of the gospel of  Christ,  for it is the power of God to salvation  for everyone  who believes'.What is the Gospel? well lets say what its not,for instance ,one here's the term social gospel ,one has said that one cannot add adjectives unto the gospel, no it is not a social gospel. It is not a good works gospel, multitudes believe that,but it is not ,CP  Ephesians 2 v 8-9. I would include religious works in that, like baptism.It is not a hereditary gospel,in other words because your parents were Christians, you are now a Christian, no, CP John 1 v 12 - 13,we can broaden that out to include those people who would say ,well I was  born in a Christian country. CP  John 4 v 31.I would add there is no such thing as a Christian country. I would to add also,it is not a lordship gospel, or a discipleship gospel. I will seek to clarify this in time,as we  consider this vital subject, 'the gospel.'

Unconditional love. ( Romans 5 v 6 - 8 )

  Frank Skinner said the following,'' For me unconditional love is not good, if I even smell unconditional love,I back off  because that means I stop trying and my standards  fall. Unconditional love would allow me to relax into nothingness''. If one is not a Christian we are told that the wrath of God rests upon  you John 3 v 36, that means that you are cut from Gods love,     Leon Morris points out ,'that there are literally hundreds of passages in the Bible referring to God's wrath, and the rejection of them all leaves us with a badly mutilated Bible. If we abandoned the idea of the wrath of God we are left with a God who is not ready to act against moral evil'. For that to change, there is a condition, one must repent of their sins,and seek forgiveness, by trusting Jesus as ones Saviour.  When we do that ,the love of God is bestowed upon us 1 John 3 v 1,  and we are no longer an enemies of  God ,Romans 5 v 10, we are His children.

                                                        The soul that sins shall die!

                                                        My awful doom I heard,

                                                        I was forever lost,

                                                        But for Thy gracious word,

                                                       That: Whosoever will believe

                                                       Shall everlasting life receive.

                                                            Words Arthur Pierson.

What does love look like ? ( i Corinthians 13 )

One of my sons is the international director of 24/7, a number of years ago ,he and his family went to live in Ibiza, They  were going to set up a ministry with the many tourist who visit that island ,their emphasis was  on prayer,it developed in a wonderful way,of course it developed into practical work. Many of the young people put themselves in danger,and so the  team would watch out for them, and get them safely back to their  hotels. These days the work continues lead by another team, but alas at this time there are very few  tourist,owing to the present circumstances. My son said that they were working with the homeless  ,helping them in various ways,like washing their clothes. I thought of the words of Augustine when he wrote the following. 'What does love look like?, it has hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy,it  has eyes to see the misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like'.

Welcome to the family. ( Galatians 6 v 10 )

 Church has changed, many churches do not use hymn books,many churches have song leaders, dress is more informal in many churches, that applies to the minister and the congregation. Of course they have had to adopt to the new technology, as we all have to, to some extent.Ministers may need to take a course on the new technology, I suppose many need to depend on those within the local church who are gifted in technology to help them. Another aspect of the church set ups, is leadership,in many  churches they have leadership teams, usually with one main leader,and the rest of the team made up of men and women. What I would say about all this,we must never forget that church is family, we should be seen as brothers and sisters in Christ. There are many small churches, and there are also very large  churches, they must keep this in mind that they are a family. Now churches must be run in a professional manner,we have what we may call business meetings, and yet the church is not a business.One  church I know of, whose leadership is made up very rich business people , and there came a time when they brought in a new pay structure, the workers  would be payed on results. A young girl who had a very meaningful ministry in a run down housing estate ,was to have her support cut.My son said this to me,''Abraham run a business,he went to war,but he was head of a family'.The church is not a business, it is a family, may we never loose sight of that.