Jul 15
11
A Matter Of Revelation
Todd Nibert
No matter how simply and clearly the gospel of Christ is presented, no matter how intelligent the person is that is listening, the gospel cannot be understood or received apart from a revelation from God Almighty to the sinner’s heart ( Matt. 16:17). This is a humbling truth. No amount of seeking or study will enable one to believe. God must reveal Himself.
But it is also a very encouraging truth. Although our ability to preach and witness will not make a sinner more likely to believe and the sinner’s ability to listen, and comprehend what he has heard will not make him more likely to believe, yet God can and does make Himself known in an instant; and that sinner to whom God makes Himself known will believe! Not only will he believe when God makes Himself known, he can’t help but believe!
| By the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth the believer is given spiritual eyes. Spiritual eyes are eyes that see what others cannot and will not see. The apostle Paul describes this vision in II Corinthians 4: 18 saying —“We look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal..” The faith of God’s elect is the gift of God that enables the believer to see through the eyes of God. John said of Christ, “What he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3: 32-33)” The eyes of faith see through God’s eyes. They see God as he is, man as he is, and Christ reconciling the two. They see the eternal, immutable purpose of God in redemption, the everlasting covenant of grace and the one mediator between God and men accomplishing the will of God concerning these things. The eye of faith sees a bleeding substitute satisfying the justice of God concerning their sins and his righteous obedience as their own righteousness making them “holy, unblameable and unreproveable in his sight (Colossians 1:22).”
Seeing through his eyes we see the perfection of God in all he has done and found as God did when he looked upon his work, that it is good and complete and sufficient to cease from our labors and enter into his rest. |
|
| Why is the Truth such a mystery to most? Why is the Gospel so clear to the believer, yet the world does not see it that way at all? Because Christ said, “It is not given to them but to you it is given .” The Gospel is a revelation, a gift, a very personal one at that. Just as you and I give gifts to whomever we will, so it is with the unspeakable gift of a revelation of the Truth. He reveals it to whomsoever He will. And when He reveals the Truth, it is, “all plain to him that understandeth and right to them that find knowledge.” (Proverbs 8:9) |
|
| Darvin Pruitt |
| The Gospel we preach is concerning the Son of God. If we take Christ out of the gospel we have no gospel at all. But this gospel is not the careless casting out of the name Jesus leaving men to their own evil imaginations and wicked minds to form opinions and ideas about. The gospel is no gospel at all without the clear declarations of Holy Scripture and the historical facts that are preserved in the Word of God. We must be told who He is, why He came, what He did, and where He is in order to call seeking sinners to repentance and faith.
The gospel Paul preached to the Corinthians, he declared to be according to the scriptures. We live in a day of much religion with little facts. If I must rest my eternal soul on Christ, let me be assured that He is the Christ of God and not another Jesus. The gospel Paul preached was a gospel that left his hearers standing upon it, hoping in it, continuing in it: God give me the grace to preach such a gospel! |
A perverted Gospel
| “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel; which is NOT another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal.1:6,7).
“If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt NOT build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast POLLUTED it” (ex.20:25). Any perversion of the absolute free sovereign grace of God in the gospel of Christ is an abomination unto our Great God. Whether it be molding the altar stones to our liking to suit our demands, or putting anything of self to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary, God is not honored in it nor will He be tolerant of it. Some perversions are very obvious, while others are much more subtle, but the end result is the same. It is polluted by man and the stamp of ‘unacceptable’ is upon it. Oh, how I need your prayers as I stand here to proclaim the wonder and mystery of ‘Christ and Him crucified’. Oh, how I need your ears to ‘take heed how you hear as well as to what you hear’. I am thankful that by the grace of God and faith in His blood that you have not these many, many years tried to add one thing to that perfect altar, that sinless Redeemer! Oh, may He keep us here together, serving Him, worshipping at His footstool and rejoicing in that one and only Sacrifice for sinners: Jesus The Christ! |
|
|
| For the Love of the Gospel
From the Scriptures and from my own experience, I must say that God’s people delight in gospel preaching. By gospel preaching, I mean setting forth Christ in His wonderful Person, His glorious work and His eternal exaltation. (Romans 8.34; 1 Corinthians 15.3, 4) There is no sweeter message for the child of God, no more needful word than that Word of God which, when he heard it, gave him faith; that living and active Word that reveals his heart; that eternal Word of God by which he was born again and by which he continues to be nourished on the inner man; that Word which, by the gospel, was preached to him (Romans 10.17; Hebrews 4.12; 1 Peter 1.25). Give the believer the message of Christ, and do not waste his time with religious trivialities! As with all things, there is no perfection in this life on this matter. There are times – even extended periods – when a true child of God may find no joy in hearing the gospel. But he will not look for the desired joy from another source. Instead, he will cry out with David, “Let me hear joy and gladness that these bones which you have broken may rejoice… Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” A believer may also be distracted by the glories of fleshly religion and find some excitement in the passing fads of human religion. He is yet flesh and such religion appeals to the flesh. But you can be certain that the excitement will fade and the hunger for the gospel will return. Believers must have Christ! We may judge accurately of a man’s profession by this standard: Does he love the gospel of Jesus Christ? If he does not love the preaching of Christ, it can only be he does not love the Christ that is preached. |
|
Why Attend the Gospel?
| The church of God operates according to the law of love (with the motive of love). Although the benefits and blessings rendered to us by our loving heavenly Father is incomprehensible, we do not assemble together in His blessed name to get something from Him, we come together with the motive to render worship unto Him Who loved us and gave Himself for us – “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” John 4:23.
We see the glorified church in heaven doing the same – “The four and twenty elders (representative of the complete church) fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne.” Revelation 4:10. If indeed Christ is preached there is no scriptural motive for believers to absent themselves from the worship of Christ with other believers, – “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” Mt 18:20. Love for Christ and the worship of Christ being the chief motive, there are many good things that flow from this. It is an encouragement to other believers as we “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works”. Our love for the brethren as we are one in Christ brings us together in exhortation (“exhorting one another”) to faithful worship, being of one mind, one accord, and one Spirit. Our faithful (or unfaithful) attendance of the gospel of Christ speaks volumes to those who are without Christ. Our love (or lack thereof) for Christ, His gospel and for each other is a witness and testimony to our lost family, friends and neighbors. God may use this means (love and faithfulness) to bring them under the gospel and reveal Christ to them as well. However, if He doesn’t, what a blessing and privilege it is to meet with those whom we love in Christ and worship Him in the preaching and hearing of the gospel! |
|