As I sat pondering the out working of the gospel many are holding to today, I become overwhelmed with a deep sorrow. This social gospel that does not challenge the hearts of mankind to pursue holiness. This gospel that condones the very things the Lord Himself condemns.
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:5-8
My prayer and heart’s desire daily, is that the wells of true salvation will be unblocked in those that proclaim the good news. So the pure rivers of life giving water will flow from the mouth of every believer, to bring salvation to all that hear them, rather than a toxic flow of a social gospel that promises spiritual life but can’t deliver it.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5…
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
The power that Paul was talking of was the power of a Holy Life that produced the virtuous flow that flowed from Jesus when the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of His garment. Or that flowed through Paul into the napkins he laid his hands on, that brought healing and deliverance to those that touched them. Or the shadow of Peter that fell on the afflicted and healed them!
If this were not true, then why did he make this statement 1 Corinthians 5:9-13?
I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
Come on church lets get back to a gospel that will save them that hear it. And let us declare what Paul declares in Romans 1:16-18…
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.