The Power of the Gospel

In the first Chapter of Romans, Verse 16, the Apostle Paul proclaims one of the most powerful truths in all the word of God, when He confidently and for all time sets forth a glorious pronouncement, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” With one grand stroke of the pen, Paul says, the Gospel is and always will be God’s great genius to bring a lost world unto Himself. Paul in essence says, “The Gospel is enough.”

God’s great plan for the redemption of mankind is fulfilled in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His coming to live out that glorious victorious life by indwelling those who believe on Him to the salvation of their souls.

At first glance this may not seem so spectacular. We all believe this great truth. We know it to be true. Why then do we not see today the mighty works of God in our midst on an ongoing and continuing basis? Why do we see a weak and insipid church round about us? Our response might be similar to Gideon’s when the angel of the Lord came to him (Judges 6:13). Gideon’s response was what ours would likely be today. “If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of…?” We can ask that question today. Where is the manifestation of God’s mighty power for this generation? Why are men and women today not being turned to the living God in a way commensurate with the effort and resources that are being expended?

I submit to you, beloved, that some of the fault lies in the fact that today’s church is trying to use the Gospel for their own ends and profit, rather than allowing the Gospel to be used by God in the way it was intended to be used.

In listening to some of the radio, Christian T.V., and many pulpits in the land today, one would conclude that the giving of the Gospel is nothing more than for the purpose of furthering one’s own goals, success, personal ambitions, and our programs. The precious Gospel has become the latest merchandise on the market, promoted much like the world does with their latest product. It at times becomes a spectacle almost too sad to endure to turn on a good Christian program hoping to be uplifted or encouraged, only to be deluged with a seemingly endless array of heart wrenching pleas for finances, to promote and plea for money, for almost every conceivable project all in the name of the Gospel. 

Thankfully, not all are this way, and undoubtedly some causes are worthy; but it seems as though the Gospel has become a message of big business so much of the time. We know that it does take finances for the Lord’s work and so does God. His word addresses the legitimate concerns of the harvest, but using the Gospel has become a springboard for virtually any and every project that can be imagined--the newest group, sports hero, musician, movie celebrity, building projects, or just plain merchandise, all in the name of the Kingdom. The Gospel has become big business.

Somehow it is felt that the Gospel needs the endorsement and backing of the famous, the hero, the star, the famous politician, etc. Whereas God can use them the same as any other Christian. Human importance and recognition are not sufficient credentials within themselves for the propagating of the glorious Gospel. Human bankruptcy and total and complete dependence upon God and His power are necessary. God does not need our names, personalities, and human notoriety in order to give credibility to His work. The power of the Gospel and the risen Christ are enough.

These are days when we are continually reminded of all the ways the Gospel can be useful to us. Rather than us becoming clay in the hands of the potter to be molded and useful for His purpose and glory, we are told how to become more successful, more prosperous, and how our dreams and desires can be brought to pass. Success and personal happiness are guaranteed. Difficulties and hindrances can disappear as faith becomes so strong that success is assured. Trials and suffering seem to have no place for those who have learned to use the Gospel to sweep aside every unpleasantry for the covenant people; and if one is experiencing otherwise, he simply has not found the key to believe for these privileges.

I have spent a lot of time in recent years picking up the broken hearted pieces of lives where it just didn’t work out quite that easily. Guilt ridden and living in tormenting condemnation because they could not make that kind of a Gospel work. Beloved, Jesus is not a glorified American Santa Claus who will absolutely assure your every human desire. As we delight ourselves in Him, our desires become His desires, and those will be assured. He always subsidizes and blesses that which comes out of His heart.

We are overwhelmed with continual pleas for finances for every imaginable project, and somehow convinced that we will be mightily blessed of God if we respond to all the calls that come our way. Our intelligence is insulted when we are told that our prayer request has a much better chance to be answered by God if it is accompanied by a large cash donation, and we can be made to feel the wrath of condemnation on occasions if we do not immediately and with great haste (I have actually heard it presented in this way) send our offerings. The sad thing is that true hearts long to give of themselves and their resources to that which brings glory to God, but many times people are turned away from that which is true by the pleadings of the opportunistic.

One would almost assume that the giving of the Gospel to a lost and dying world was simply the need for more money, bigger and better ideas and methods, more organization and efficiency, and the well oiled wheels of denominational and ecclesiastical planning. Less and less do we hear that it is, “NOT BY MIGHT, NOR BY POWER, BUT BY MY SPIRIT, saith the Lord.” The bleeding lamb is seldom mentioned and the blood-stained cross is almost a forgotten message relegated to the back pages of history. The emphasis is our success, our goals, our ambitions. Whatever happened to gut wrenching travail? 

Have you ever wished that you or your church could be so challenged for God that men and women would fall before the living God with deep cries and heaving sobs of anguish, weeping over the lost and needy, or crying for the fatherless and the afflicted? Wouldn’t it feel good, really, for a change not to hear about fun and games, success, fun fairs, fund raisers, seminars, parties, how to get ahead, and a host of other activities in the name of God, and instead be challenged not to participate in the latest program of the church, but to share in the sufferings of the broken Savior weeping over His lost creation, or His pitiful church scattered as sheep having no shepherd? Are you tired of being vilified because somehow you just don’t feel the drive to help some man realize his lofty dream of something bigger, better and nicer or multi-million dollar cathedral?

We are told that we can all share in the dream that God has given so that we can enjoy the most beautiful of buildings and furnishings and lovely ornate surroundings--our crowning achievements. Somehow in the depths of my spirit, I have a hard time believing that God is even remotely interested in these things. I think He is more interested in a broken and humbled people, who are bereft of their own ideas and ambitions saying, “God, what will you have me to do?” Perhaps we need to be reminded that God will raise us up to be a mighty people for Him if we will humble our selves and pray, and seek His face (2 Chron.7:14).

How far we have departed! How foolish we have become. Our ways have blinded us to what God is really seeking for. Jesus said, “I came to seek and to save that which is lost, and to destroy the works of the devil.” I think if Jesus came to our town He would probably go to the places that He frequented when He was on the earth. He would be searching out the tormented, the hurting and the lonely; and like the woman at the well, offering the water of life to the destitute. He would be searching for the poor and needy, and looking for the one lost sheep. He probably would go into the great temple just long enough to drive out the money changers and attempt once again to turn His Father’s house into a house of prayer. I hardly think He would be interested in the many projects that we have pushed so strongly, many of which have fallen into misuse, bankruptcy, or that are being auctioned or sold to the ungodly who reap the benefits of that which was made possible by the gifts and tithes of the people of God.

The Kingdom is not for the purpose of building the finest, the biggest, and the most modern--adequate, yes. That which is needful He has supply for, but many churches have tied a financial noose around their necks that neither they nor their children in their lifetimes will be able to payoff, while the world gets rich off the interest from the tithes of God’s people that was intended to keep the spiritual ministry to God’s people intact. It is not in the building of great temples and cathedrals for their own sake and which sit idle most of the time. Jesus dealt with that in Matthew 24:1, 2. The people and the disciples stood and admired the great stones of the Temple. It was the heart throb of every good Jewish person--the temple, the temple, the temple. Jesus was totally unimpressed. He hardly even acknowledged its presence except to answer their comments. He looked beyond and down the years when He said, “The days will come when there will not be one of these stones left upon one another which shall not be cast down.” 

History is a loud trumpet to the truth of Jesus prophetic words, for when the legions of Rome marched into the golden city in 70 A.D., the soldiers looking for the gold that they had heard was hidden between the stones of that building literally dismantled the temple one stone at a time. The temple vanished into the dust of history, but the Kingdom did not. Earlier, Jesus had told the woman at the well in response to her question that the time would come when they would not worship God in the temple or on the mount, but He said, “True worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth.”

In the early years of the infant church, those apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and just plain ordinary folk turned the world upside down with nothing more than the truth and the power of the message of the risen Christ. They had no great denominations to back them, no ecclesiastical committees to give direction, nor constitution to guide them; and heaven forbid, not once did they refer to Roberts Rules of Order.

They had no wordy degrees or named seminaries to recommend them. The one thing they did have was the wisdom to depend entirely on the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, and the Gospel of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. There was added to their church body over three thousand souls in one day, when with all our dollars, machinery, organization committees, degrees, dreams, ideas, promotions, seminars, ad infinitum. We struggle and almost compete for a relative handful of souls that we can truly say are new creatures in Christ Jesus. Oh yes, at times we have the numbers to show, and our large meetings sometimes move masses to “come forward;” but when the lights have gone down and the crowds have drifted out, how many have truly been born from above, and entered the KINGDOM OF GOD as a new creation in Christ Jesus. How refreshing it is instead of the religious psychology that is used so much of the time to see broken and contrite hearts weeping before the Christ of Calvary, crying out like the publican in the scripture saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Oh that we would hear men weep and cry, “I have wasted my life, I have ruined my soul, I am facing a dark eternity, OH LIVING CHRIST HAVE MERCY.” Oh to see Jesus made real, true commitments made to the King and the Kingdom, new men and women created in the image of Christ with changed lives to testify to HIS reality! 

Yes, those disciples went everywhere preaching the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM, healing the sick, casting out demons, speaking with new tongues (Mark l6:15-20); and because they preached His message in His way, He worked with them and confirmed the word with signs following. Because Christ was preached, Christ was believed on. Because Christ was believed on, new men and women were born into His Kingdom. Because Jesus was lifted up, men were drawn unto Him.

What makes us think that we can improve on God’s ways? The weak, the despised, and the penniless men and women BROKE THROUGH FOR GOD. The stuffy, religious hierarchy was confounded because they had nothing that would come close to the power of the risen Christ. The world was changed, transformed, turned upside down, wherever they went with HIS gospel. In the vain arrogance of our thinking, what makes us believe that we have a better idea than God? Just like Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:18-25), who tried to use the power of God for his own selfish ambitions, we in our own way have sought to profit from the Gospel. The Gospel cannot be used to promote self. Those who try will come to a bitter end.

The Gospel was given for one purpose alone, TO BREAK THE POWER AND THE DOMINION OF HELL from off the minds, bodies, souls, and spirits of a lost and sin enslaved humanity. It cannot be used for us, or our ministry, or our gift. It can only be used to set people free, to bring heaven to earth.

It was sent into this sin darkened world to raise mankind up out of the dung hill of sin. The Gospel was sent in the person of Jesus to heal the broken hearted. Its power is to enable us to bring good news to the poor, to preach deliverance to the captives, to recover the sight of the blind, and to set at liberty those who are bruised and broken by sin. It is to tell people that today is the acceptable year of the Lord when they may receive God’s salvation.

We are the ones, friends, who have turned away from Him and His gospel. Today’s religious scene in general is that to which Jeremiah spoke when he said, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”--Jer.2:13 

There is no water in our cisterns beloved. Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty let him come unto ME and drink.” There is no refreshing in our empty programs and the multitude of our fleshly religious activities. There is NO life in our traditions. Our own efforts have trapped us in a pit from which we cannot extricate ourselves. God must have mercy upon us. We will perish in our own doings. We are lost in a jungle of our own vain ways and falling deeper into the quicksand of futility because we refuse to admit that spiritually we have lost our way and are unwilling to reach out for the only lifeline of hope that is available to us, which is a return to the simple power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Jeremiah said, “Hath a nation (the church) changed their gods, which are yet no gods, but my people have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit.” In an effort to make ourselves more presentable and palatable to the influential of the worlds systems, we have weakened and compromised ourselves to the point where we have nothing to give them when we do reach them. They do not need more of what they have. They can beat us at their game anytime. The one thing we can give and that the world needs is the power of the Gospel. Peter said “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee, IN THE NAME OF JESUS, rise up and walk.”

Let us awaken, people. We have exchanged HIS glory and power, for a handful of empty paltry programs of our own making. Indeed we are like the dog returning to its vomit, or the sow to her wallowing in the mire. Our self-efforts cannot produce living water. I ask us a question. Have we found water that is better than what Jesus promised in John 4:14? Have you found a food that is more satisfying than that which Jesus promised in John 6:35, 48, 50, and 51? Do you know of a life that is better than the abundant one promised by Jesus in John 10:10? Do you know of a Gospel that is more powerful than the one which Jesus brought, and which Paul re-affirmed as being the only true one? His is the Gospel which will free the church from the debilitating effects of pharisaical, self- centered, and legalistic religion. His gospel will raise mankind out of the dungeon of sin, misery, darkness, despair, and all of hells vile offspring. There is no other Gospel! Christ in you is the only hope of glory. It cannot be improved upon. 

Modern religion with its soul wearying multitude of man made programs will only sink us deeper into despair and confusion. The whole body has become sick. God said, “I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me. They are a people laden with iniquity, they have gone backward.” While we are saying, “We are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.” God is crying out, “You are wretched, and miserable, poor, and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see.”--Rev. 3:17, 18

The poor and the needy are turned away from our doors because we have no living manna to give them. As Milton said, “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.” There is no feed in our stalls, and our pastures have turned gray and barren. Our strength and our energies are wasted on programs, committees, seminars, promotional schemes, fund raisers, church growth seminars. (God caused the church in Jerusalem to grow by three thousand in ONE DAY, and it probably only cost pennies.) God is able to subsidize what He is involved in, and adequately meet the true needs of those who are preaching Christ and it will not exhaust His people in the process. .

Let us return to the fountain. Let the church of Jesus Christ come back to its maker and true God. Turn away from idols and we shall live in His sight. Our idolatry (man centered religion) has put us in bondage just as it did Israel in Babylon. Hosea said, “Ephraim is joined to, idols, Let him alone.” What a death knell! What an epitaph! Leave him alone. He wants his self centered idolatrous ways. He will die in his folly. Church, return to our God. “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a NEW heart and a NEW spirit: FOR WHY WILL YE DIE, 0 house of Israel”--Ezek. 18:31. Let us return to Him, and He will heal us. He will raise us up. He will make us alive and we shall live IN HIM.

When I was a young teen-age boy I learned a lesson, while learning carpentry from my father which I have never forgotten; and I have thought many times how it applies to the church today. My father and I were preparing to put the roof rafters on a church building in a small Northern California town where he was pastoring. Dad had cut the “pattern rafter” for me to use to mark the rest of the rafters. Wanting to please my father, I began diligently to line up each-board and cut it, then mark the next one. I had only marked and cut 3 or 4 boards when my father came back and said, “Son, what you are doing will not work.” What was I doing wrong? I used the pattern he had cut for me, but then I put the pattern back in the pile of boards and was using each new board, as I went, to mark the next rafter. I was changing the pattern with every board. It seemed right to me, but a good builder knows immediately what was happening. Dad pointed out to me that my rafters were “gaining" or "running,” almost imperceptibly getting a little longer with each board. One or two might not have mattered a lot, but by the time I had finished all the boards, the gain would have been significant; and in the end we would have had what is called, a “racked roof.” I was in essence turning out mutants. They would never work right. My father said, “You have to return to the pattern each time you mark a new board, and then they will all be the same.” 

Friend, God has a pattern. The pattern is the gospel. We must continually return to it or we will also be turning out spiritual mutants. Why are there so many dissatisfied Christians today? Weary, confused, restless, wandering and famished, we have forsaken the fountain. We have left the pattern. In our great intellect, material resources, electronic media, and grand buildings, we have put our trust in man, feeling that we could improve on God’s pattern. Oh no, we haven’t verbalized it in that manner, but in essence that is what has happened; and we convince ourselves that our activities are really “His work.” Just like the rafters our “running” has been almost imperceptible, as we institute some new idea, or try the newest religious gimmick. We can even go to the many religious magazines which will show us the latest marketing ideas, and tools to become successful for God. More and more we depart from the pattern. We have grown accustomed to having the voice of man tell us what we need to know in order to be hep, tricky, modern and cute, but hardly a voice is raised that says, “We are drifting from the pattern; like Samson, our strength if gone, and we are losing our living water.” 

If a voice is heard, it is probably not paid much attention to, or denounced as being rebellious or out of date, frivolous or fanatic, and we continue our downward slide.

Seldom does it dawn on us that God’s way is really a whole lot simpler, easier, definitely cheaper, less stressful, far more fulfilling, and life giving. We could try some fasting and prayer or getting alone with God in a quiet place with a Bible until we hear from Heaven. We could even go back to the simplicity of the pattern in Acts, where they continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship--maybe even some breaking of bread and prayer and continuing daily in one accord, breaking bread from house to house and praising. It sounds like it is simple enough that any of us could do it. It certainly had profound results for the church in Jerusalem. Could it be that those were some of the reasons that God added to the church daily such as should be saved?

I do believe that if we would quit trying to benefit from the Gospel and let the gospel benefit a lost and dying world that once again there would be an explosion of Divine life and power evidenced by a body of believers living out that glorious mystery hid from ages and generations, but now made manifest to His saints which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”--Col.1:27

There is no other hope, friends. If we do not return to Him who is our only life, our only hope, and to the power of HIS Gospel, we will languish and perish inwardly. The prodigal said, “I am perishing with hunger, I will arise and go to my father...” He finally got to the point of hunger and despair where he did not want to try one more foolish thing of his own. His own personal motivations and ambitions were gone. He had no more tricks, ideas, or schemes of his own. He had run out of ideas. He was perishing quickly and he knew there was only ONE pathway open to him. That was the path back to his father’s house. Only one thing would now satisfy his longing and famished heart--his FATHER, his father’s presence, his father’s food, and his father’s house. Are we hungry enough to stop our own doings and return to Him who is the source of all food and life?

George McDonald, a great Scottish preacher, once spoke these marvelous words: “If we do not learn to eat the only food which the universe grows--the only food which any universe could ever grow, then we must starve eternally.” Jesus is that food. He is that bread of life.

There is abundance of food beloved in the Father’s house. There is music and dancing there. There is warmth and love and fellowship. There is a place for you at the Father’s table. There is rest for the tired and weary heart. There is drink for your thirst and food for your hunger. There is counsel for your hopeless despair. There is light for your dark night of the soul. It is all to be found in Jesus. He is God’s provision for all the needs of mankind. God does not have a spiritual smorgasbord where we walk by and take our pick of one thing and leave something else. God’s bountiful table is spread before us, but everything on the table says JESUS. He has fountains of living water in His house, but each fountain is titled JESUS. He is God’s only food and the only water available. He is more than enough--Jesus on the inside, Jesus on the outside. It is Jesus over me and Jesus under me. It is Jesus through me and Jesus all around me. It is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, God’s answer to the cry of the world. It is the blood of Jesus for the sins of the world. It is Jesus delivered for our offences and Jesus raised again for our justification. Jesus reconciled us to God by His death, and He saved us by His life. He it is who called us, justified us, and glorified us. We eat of Him or we starve eternally, but oh what food! He becomes our life or we are walking dead men. Just like the beautiful words of the song God is saying, “I give you Jesus,” and oh what a gift! “All that I need is in Jesus, He satisfies, joy He supplies. Life would be worthless without Him, all things in Jesus I find.”

Yes, He is the Gospel. He cannot be adulterated, nor used by man for His own purposes. When we try, the Gospel loses its power, and we wander as blind men leading the blind.

Let us return to Him and He will receive us.

The Master's Voice

I hear them, yes, I hear them
On the aging sands of time -

The sound of the Master's footsteps
As He walks in realms sublime.

For He calls me, sweetly call me

And my heart leaps at His voice,

Till a thousand worlds around me

Echo, "I am His own choice."

And my listening ears are eager
As His voice dispels the gloom,
For the voice of my beloved
Bursts my soul from out its tomb.

For my eyes with love are glowing
And my heart beats nearly wild,
As His voice it drips with sweetness,
And His love is undefiled.

Why He loved me, why He chose me
Mortal minds could never know,

But with every word He whispers,
Deeper in His love I go.

The draw me closer, Master,

More, oh more Thy love to know,

And in Thy heart, I'll dwell forever
Where the souls' deep rivers flow.

A Hundred Years from Now

It will not make much difference, frined,

A hundred years from now
if you live in a stately mansion

Or a flowing river scow,

If the clothes you wear are tailor-made

Or just pieced together somehow,

If you eat big steaks, or beans, and cake,

A hundred years from now.

Won't matter what your bank account,

What make of car you drive,

For the grave will claim all your riches and fame

And the things for which you strive.

There's no deadline that we all must meet,

No one will show up late,

It won't matter then, all the places you've been;

Each one will keep that date.

We will only have in eternity

What we gave away on earth,

When we go to the grave, we can only save
The things of eternal worth.

What matters, friend, the earthly gain

For which some men will bow;

For your destiny will be sealed, you see,

A hundred years from now.

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