Our Glorious Gospel

When Jesus began His public ministry, He went into the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. He was handed the Scriptures. He turned to the Book of Isaiah and read this portion to them:

After reading it, Jesus closed the book and said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:16-21).

Jesus closed the book after the reading, but Isaiah's prophecy doesn't stop there. Let's read on.

The glorious "good tidings" that we proclaim to you today is God's glorious message to man. In a world filled with so much misery, strife, and trouble, it's good to hear some good news for a change.

Reading the newspapers or watching the news on TV gives a sad commentary upon man's existence. Oh, how ready we are for some good news! The Gospel is good news, but who is it for?

In reading from Isaiah, Jesus declared, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings," the Gospel "unto the meek." The Gospel is for the meek, those who are conscious of their inadequacies and needs and are reaching out for help. The best way to understand the word "meek" is to separate it: me...ek. When I realize how "eeky" I am, I know what meek is all about. The Gospel is for those who recognize their need for something more, who are dissatisfied with their current status, who desire a better life.

Many people today are very satisfied with their lives. They're satisfied with their possessions and situations. The Gospel isn't for them. Other people today are extremely proud of themselves. The Gospel isn't for them, either.

What does the Gospel do? First, it is meant "to bind up the brokenhearted." We've seen Valentine's Day cards that show broken hearts. Sometimes the heart is broken through the middle and sometimes it is totally fractured. Our hearts often break because of unreciprocated love. We have a deep love for another, but it's not received and accepted. This causes our hearts to break. I wonder how many times God's heart is broken over us.

Our hearts often break over our own failures and weaknesses. We promise ourselves that we'll do certain things, but we don't seem to be capable of achieving them. So, we experience heartbreak over our inadequacies. Our desire to be what we apparently can't be and to achieve what apparently is beyond our capacity causes personal heartbreak.

The Gospel has come to bind up the brokenhearted, to let us know that we can be what God would have us to be. The good news is that we can achieve, attain, and experience a love that flows and flows and doesn't quit. The second thing that the Gospel does is "to proclaim liberty to the captives." Paul spoke of those who had fallen in the snares of the devil and had been taken captive by the devil against their will (II Timothy 2:26). Many people today have fallen into the snare of the devil and have been taken captive by the devil against their own will. In another passage Paul referred to those "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15).

We often use the term "free moral agent," but it's almost a misnomer. To say that a man is a free moral agent when he cannot help but do the things he does is a contradiction. If some compelling force is driving you to do things even when you don't want to do them, you're not free. You're a captive.

Sin often comes to you with a sugar-coated covering. You taste it and "Wow!" you plunge right into it. After the sugar is gone, you taste the bitter portion and try to spit it out. But now it's lodged in your throat and you can't get rid of it. If you're controlled by a cigarette habit or if you've got to have a drink, don't tell me you're a free moral agent. You're a captive - and the bitterness is just pouring into your system.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has come to set free those who are captive. He can break every snare and deliver men from all the bondage of corruption that has held them in its power.

The third thing the Gospel does is "the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Today the Gospel will open the prison that you find yourself in.

When we were in Ecuador, the missionaries told us that if we get involved in a car accident, even if it's not our fault, the best thing to do is to go immediately to the airport and catch the next plane out of the country. When you're involved in an accident down there, guilty or innocent, you'll land in jail. You have to stay in jail until you can prove you're innocent, but you may not get a court date for five years. And in Ecuador they don't feed the prisoners. Someone on the outside has to feed you or you'll starve to death. And that's one of the nicer things about the jails.

I've also heard about the Mexican jails. If you get thrown in, your influence in the United States doesn't mean anything to the judge. They say the best thing is to stay out, because once you're in, you're really in. I don't know how true that is, but I don't want to experiment to find out.

Let's say that you're in jail in Mexico. You've tried every way to get out. You've written to the Mexican government, the American consulate, the UN. You've done everything, and you've finally concluded that you're not going to get out. So now you want to escape. Someone comes along and says, "I have a friend who can get you out."

We find ourselves in the prison of our own lust and sin. The good news comes that there's One who can deliver us, set us free, open the doors of the prison and liberate us. But we've got to put our trust in Him completely. We've got to commit ourselves totally into His hands, trusting that He can do what He has promised. We can be assured that He's already delivered thousands out of that same jail. He has set multitudes free from the bondage of sin. He can set you free today from your prison, if you'll give Him a chance.

There is an urgency in this Gospel of Jesus Christ. "...To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Though the Lord is offering you this freedom today, His offer is subject to withdrawal at any time. You see, Jesus Christ is under no obligation to save you at all. He doesn't owe you anything. His offer comes to you strictly because He is so good and loving that He hates to see you in a mess. So He offers to set you free.

However, this offer will be withdrawn - just when, we don't know. God told Noah, "My spirit shall not always strive with man" (Genesis 6:3). If you reject His offer today, you can't be sure whether the offer will be good tomorrow. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Corinthians 6:2). "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6). "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them" (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

We proclaim to you "the acceptable year of the Lord." "Now is the accepted time." Now is the time for you to receive this glorious Gospel. Now is the time for you to be set free.

There is coming a "day of vengeance of our God" (Isaiah 61:2). His offer will then be withdrawn and men shall experience nothing but what they justly deserve for their sins: the "day of vengeance of our God."

What will the Gospel do for you? Verse 3 reads: "to give unto them beauty for ashes..." I love the power of the Gospel! I've seen the effects of the Gospel, and I've seen it bring beauty for ashes. Some people are burned out, wasted, and destroyed. I've seen the Spirit of God take those burned-out lives and remake, remold, and reshape them into new and beautiful men and women.

I think of Mike MacIntosh, the pastor of our church in San Diego. When Mike first came to church, he was totally burned-out. He had taken so much acid and speed that he thought a bag was over his head and a .45 pistol was going off inside his brain. He would hear the explosion over and over. As I watched this handsome but totally burned-out young man, I wondered if he would ever recover from the damage done to his brain cells. I saw God take these ashes and begin to work with them - mold, shape, and change. I saw God restore Mike's wife and children. I saw God restore all that he had lost through his own folly.

Today, I see that beautiful young man standing before a glorious congregation in San Diego, with the glow of Jesus on his face and the love of Christ radiating from his life. I realize the power of the Gospel gives "beauty for ashes."

"The oil of joy for mourning" (Isaiah 61:3). Many people today find themselves in deep depression and sorrow of heart, grieved not only over themselves and their inadequacies, failures, and inabilities to cope, but with all of society. Our glorious Gospel gives "the oil of joy for mourning." It will lift your life from depression, sorrow, despair, and despondency to joy and hope.

The Gospel will also give you "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isaiah 61:3). Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy leaden..." (Matthew 11:28). If the burden you're carrying is heavier than you can bear, if you feel pressed down by life and by your circumstances, our glorious Gospel will fill your heart and life with praises unto God. How glorious to see people who once wallowed in the dejection and hopelessness of this world now walk with a spring in their steps, a smile on their faces, and the garment of praise covering their lives. That's the elect of this glorious Gospel.

What is the purpose of the Gospel? That we "might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified" (Isaiah 61:3). God has done His work so that we might glorify Him. "To God be the glory, great things He hath done." As we see lives change - men and women set free and remade through the power of Jesus Christ, born again by the Spirit of God - we give glory to God for His work. These hopeless lives are now "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord." The changes are God's work wrought in them, and there is no other explanation for it.

So often a man who has fought against alcoholism has been defeated by it. His life is burned out, and he's now an outcast. You see him in the street in his pitiful condition. He has cried out for help. His family has tried to help him. But finally everyone has given up, and we call him a bum. As the power of the Gospel touches the ashes of his life and begins to turn him around, it changes and sets him free. The Gospel liberates him from that prison and makes of him a glorious person, beautiful to behold, a tower of strength within the community.

Only the Gospel can do that, and only God can be glorified for it. That's the purpose of the Gospel.

You ask, "Just what is the Gospel, the good news?" Just this: Though you have failed and sinned, God loves you. God loves you so much that He sent His Son to set you free from your prison. If you'll put your trust completely in Him, He'll free you today, change your life, and make you what God wants you to be.

We have a glorious Gospel, but there's only one difficulty. To be effective it has to be applied. A fellow once asked a minister, "If your Gospel is so great, why isn't everyone a Christian?" The pastor responded, "If soap is so good, why isn't everyone clean?" Does the fact of dirty people testify against the value of soap? No. It works, but you have to apply it.

I have answered your question. You just don't understand it.

I'm not whining to anyone. Just waiting for you guys to go ballistic again. You don't need my help for that.

(although it does happen faster when Poop Pile is around)

Fortunately, we have the Bible to dispel such Pelagian crap:

Hey Dr. E. Woody said "crap."

You gonna chastise him like you did me last week? Or do you only judge Arminians?

Point me to the post where you answered this question:

If sinful man doesn't even know what he needs, then how is it possible for him to seek what he needs in a sincere and faithful heart without there first being a change in his nature so that he can see what he needs?

Woody.

So, then, are you saying that your definition of total depravity allows that humans can behave with outward morality in accordance with the law?

As far as I'm aware, that's consistent with the historical Calvinist position.

Nope.

False dichotomy.

The problem lies in your premise:

"...whether God not only does something for man so that he can respond, but whether he goes so far as to do something so that he cannot not respond."

You have already agreed that man cannot respond without God doing something but it doesn't follow that therefore God must be doing something to prevent man from responding. I start with man cannot respond, period, without God doing something and unless God does something man will never respond of his own free will, not that God is preventing him from responding.

You and xzins would like to make God the great Soap
Egalitarian. Scripture and history prove you wrong.

"If man is not literally free to either accept it or reject it, then God has made the response on behalf of the man."

If you were blind but then miraculously received eyesight from God, would the seeing be yours or Gods? Would you bitch to God about forcing you to see?

...it doesn't follow that therefore God must be doing something to prevent man from responding. I start with man cannot respond, period, without God doing something and unless God does something man will never respond of his own free will, not that God is preventing him from responding.

Ok we're in agreement. God does not prevent man from responding. I never said he did. I never implied that he did. You are (as is typical of GRPL's) reading more into the text than what is there. So do you now want to respond to my statement:

"If you believe simply that God's grace and the work of the holy spirit provide the ability for man to freely respond to the Gospel, then you have to believe that man is also free, at that point, to reject it. If man is not literally free to either accept it or reject it, then God has made the response on behalf of the man. You can't hide from that conclusion."

So what is it? Does God make the response, or does man, at that point, freely respond or freely reject?

Can you give me a verse that balances with Rom 2:14b when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them

Can you give me a verse that balances with a sinner's natural ability to do lawful things according to the accusatory conscience given him by God that says a sinner has no idea what his need is?"

I'm trying to remember. Is "a sinner has no idea what his need is" a bible verse? Serious question. Is that in there somewhere (or something remarkably close to it)?

Is it also calvinist that their consciences are refined enough sometimes to accuse themselves as sinners and sometimes to defend themselves as non-sinners?

So the calvinist view of total depravity allows for good to be in humans?

***It's in Post #58. But you'd rather play your goofy games than admit it.***

Wow, you must be some kind of mind reader cause I didn't ask my question until Post #63, which was a response to your post #58.

So, do you actually want to try and answer the question?

Woody.

Wow, you must be some kind of mind reader cause I didn't ask my question until Post #63, which was a response to your post #58.

Nope. Not a mind reader at all. But I do fully understand your pattern of taking something that's been said and trying to twist it into something else.

Which is exactly what your question does.

I explained it. Maybe someday you'll understand.

***Is "a sinner has no idea what his need is" a bible verse? Serious question. Is that in there somewhere (or something remarkably close to it)?***

It's in one of those Total Depravity verses which you Arminians love to deny. But, hey, your acknowledgment that it is in there "somewhere" is encouraging that after repeating the same verse hundreds of times, it actually seeps into your free-will addled minds.

Woody.

Is "a sinner has no idea what his need is" a bible verse?

I dunno x. I can't proof-text it. That's just the way I kinda see it.

One man's "crap" is another man's fertilizer.

If man is not literally free to either accept it or reject it, then God has made the response on behalf of the man. You can't hide from that conclusion."

PM, they are dealing with different people.

1. God enables Man A to respond.

2. God does not prevent Man B from responding, nor does he do anything for Man B that enables him to respond.

3. When God enables Man A to respond, then that is the endgame. The "enabling" is simply the first step in an automatic process. The dominoes then fall all the way up to glorification.

Therefore, God has done everything for Man A.

BTW, if you want to whine to the mods and get that "chapter of 'Calvinists in the Hands of an Angry Mod'" opened then be my guest. It is the modus operandi (sp) of Arminians when they make themselves look like fools with the things they say and want to get the thread shut down.

.....and then you immediately post this?

This little whine of mine I'm gonna make it howl. This little whine of mine I'm gonna make it howl... make it howl... make it howl...

LOL.....man, - you're going to get this place shut down for good

It's inspired disruption woody

congrats

36 posted on 01/07/2004 5:51:38 AM PST by PFKEY

Hey, PFKEY, guess what -- you've just been in a terrible accident, and you're dead (it's an anology, follow me through on this).

However, I have a pair of electro-shock paddles on hand, and I can bring you back -- if I so choose.

Now, if I choose to shock you back to life, you are going to breathe -- for breathing is what living men do. Is breathing necessary for life? Sure, living things require oxygen. Is it you who are doing the breathing, or me? Obviously, you. So was it your choice to live and breathe? No, it wasn't. You were dead -- you weren't choosing anything.

It was my choice which caused you to live and breathe (again, in this example), not yours. So you are doing the breathing, and breathing is necessary for life -- but the fact that you live and breathe was all of my choice, and none of yours.

"Rather than look to the power of the gospel message itself, they look for heresies in every word nit picking every jot and tittle looking for something that they can point to as a hidden theological error and then miss the glorious picture that surrounds them."

Ain't that the truth!

Thanks for the post. I've only read part of it and will have to come back later. But it's refreshing to read something with scripture in it. :O)

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18. Our Glorious Gospel