Preach The Gospel

Introduction

Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Please allow me a moment of your time with which to express my sincere appreciation for the way the services have gone this morning. They have been dignified and lovingly presented by men who care about God, care about his word, care about his people. And I’ve been impressed with the way that the services were conducted this morning, and I think God was glorified, and that’s the important consideration. Words have values, just like money. Some words are just more valuable than other words. One of the most valuable words in the English language is the word family. It just conjures up in your mind all kinds of warm feelings. It conjures up in your mind the idea of devotion. It brings to your imagination the kind of love that exists between brothers and sisters.

It brings to your mind the filial feelings of devotion you have for a godly father and a wonderful and godly mother. And there’s so many things that pertain to the family that the word just brings to our thoughts all kinds of pleasant memories and things that we have enjoyed together. And I feel that way this morning. I feel that way with regard to you, because you are my family. And I’m so pleased about that. I feel that way because it has been especially pronounced to me this weekend with the Harkwriter family. I know Brother J.D. Harkrider. He’s passed 95 years old, if I recall correctly. Look at his people, ladies and gentlemen. Look at the people who are seated here this morning, who came from his loins.

And that wonderful lady to whom he was once married before she left to go to her father. Look at what they did for the Lord. What a wonderful thing to know that your family is in the fold of safety. That you have your children close by so that when you die, they will say it’s okay. He was ready. Family is important. Let us not neglect it. And let us rejoice in it. And let us never forget what is the extended family of God and how that we are so vital and important to one another. We’re trying to extend that family this weekend. We’re trying to the best of our ability to inspire people to talk about Jesus. To inspire people to regulate their conduct in such a way so that they are influential around the areas of their sphere of influence.

So that others seeing in them the good works that they do may be constrained in their own lives to glorify God. We’re trying to get people motivated to do more in the area of teaching other people. I’m sure you are already aware, and I won’t insult you by saying it, but the word motive and the word motor are kin. And what we need is more motivation. We need people that are motivated to do what they can to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m convinced, as we pointed out last evening, that influence is a part of that. On Friday, we talked about Paul’s driving force. His motive was threefold. He said, I am debtor both to the Jews and the Greeks. And he said, I am ready to preach the gospel.

That was the fact that he felt he had an obligation, a responsibility, and he also had a privilege of extending the gospel message to as many people that he could possibly do in his short span of life. And then the third thing he says, I do it with a passion. I do it because I feel a strong persuasion. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And so he tells us in no uncertain terms that we have a motive for doing that. Threefold motive duty, privilege, passion. We have an influence, everybody has that. So we never lack for somebody to talk with.

1. Fundamentals Are Absolutely Necessary

We never lack with some for somebody to discuss the things about Jesus Christ. I want to talk with you this morning about the fundamentals of teaching these people. I’m convinced, first of all, that fundamentals are absolutely necessary. Fundamentals are what you build on. Jesus, when he was on the earth, talked about the man who built his house upon the sand. That’s a fundament, ladies and gentlemen, that he built on. And it wasn’t a very strong one. And when the inclemency of the weather was brought to bear against it, it fell, and great was the fall of it. But he said there was a man who had a fundamental building in mind when he built his house and he built it on a rock. And all of the various vicissitudes of life were brought to bear against it, and it stood firmly in the face of adversity.

2. Faith Comes From Hearing the Word of God

So fundamentals are important. Fundamentals are just exactly what we need in this idea of evangelism. We need to understand what we believe. Do you understand what faith is? The religious world in general has so diluted and so polluted faith, the whole concept of it, that it’s refreshing when you come in with this fundamental fact about faith. Faith comes from hearing the word of God. Faith is simply the presentation of information and then evidence in support of the fact, and then it produces a settled conviction. And faith is not something that is ethereal. Faith is not something that’s shadowy and can’t be told. Faith, ladies and gentlemen, is the real bedrock foundation on which the Christian system rests. It’s what it’s all about. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is not what the religious world in general thinks about it.

3. Repentance Is a Change of Mind About Sin

I believe that Jesus Christ is the is the Son of God is the affirmation of a fundamental fact of faith. That’s what that’s all about. And what it what it implies from that is that I not only believe that Jesus Christ existed, I not only believed that he was a miracle worker, I not only believed that he influenced the people, I not only believed that he was buried and resurrected again the third day, but I believe what he said. I believe everything he taught me. When Paul said, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, he’s not talking about possession there. He’s talking about God, the Christ gospel. He’s talking about Christ in the gospel. And so that’s fundamental to our faith. And repentance, ladies and gentlemen, has been so diluted, so minimized and become so insignificant that nobody talks about it in the religious world anymore.

We’ve got to be the kind of people in teaching other people that show them that repentance, ladies and gentlemen, is not just feeling sorry for your sins. He says in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 10, godly sorrow worketh repentance. Godly sorrow is not the repentance. Godly sorrow works repentance. Repentance is turning. Repentance, rather, is not turning. Repentance, he said, repent and turn again in Acts chapter 3 and verse 10. So repentance is not the turning. We need to understand that. Repentance is a change of a man’s mind with regard to sin. We need to present the facts about sin. That’s fundamental. That’s what causes people to repent. They become sorry for the ridiculous state in which they’ve gotten themselves involved. They’re immersed in ungodliness and filth, and as a result of that, when it’s brought to their attention, they feel conscience stricken.

4. Baptism Is Immersion

And well they might. Because sin is a crime, as we pointed out last night, against God. And we need to let people understand that repentance has more to do with than just feeling sorry for your sins. It’s a determination to turn. And that’s what conversion is all about. When you decide that you’re going to make a change, then it works certain things, as the Apostle Paul points out in that context. It makes certain things possible. It’ll make you a better person. But you repent, and then baptism, ladies and gentlemen, is not what the religious world gives it. Baptism is not some kind of sprinkling on somebody. Do you know that it’s not even possible to grammatically make baptism sprinkling? Do you ever think about that? Repent and be baptized.

Repent and be baptized. You are buried with him in baptism. You can’t sprinkle a man. If you did, you’d have to cut him in all kinds of pieces or liquefy him some way or the other. That’s the only way you and you can’t pour him either. If you pour him, you’ve got to liquefy him first. So he when we talk about baptism. Baptism is immersion. It’s being planted. Paul said, Know ye not that so many of us as we’re baptized into Christ, we’re baptized into his death. Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. We need to learn those things ourselves.

5. Know What to Do to Be Saved

You need to ask yourself the question this morning. If somebody came to me and asked me, what must I do to be saved? Could I turn in the passages? Could I turn to the passages and say, okay, here’s what Jesus says about that. Could you do that? If you can’t do that, may I say with all kindness and yet with all candor, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. If you call yourself a Christian and you can’t tell somebody what you did in order to become one, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You need to know these simple facts about the gospel. You need to know the Jesus’ story. You need to know why he came. You need to know where you went when he left.

You need to know how to tell people what Jesus said is necessary for your salvation. That’s fundamental. It’s something that you build on. And it starts there. I’m afraid sometimes that we want to start in the middle. We want to start after we’ve already been. We want to start with growth and all of these things when we don’t have anything to build on yet. If you don’t understand, and you can’t find the scriptures about what to do to be saved, I want to encourage you this morning to repent and make up your mind. I said, make up your mind, just like you make up your bed, folks. Make up your mind that you’re going to learn what to do to be saved. You’re going to learn what to tell somebody to do to be saved.

6. Went Everywhere Preaching the Word

Somebody came to your job and they said, I’m going to be working here with you and I need some instruction. Could you tell them what to do? That’s fundamental. If they’re going to work at the occupation that you’re involved in, it’s fundamental that you tell them, okay, here’s this knob, here’s this switch, here’s this lever, you push this knob and flip this switch and turn this lever, and this thing will go. I don’t care if you fly in airplanes. The fact of the matter is you’ve got to have some instruction. And the people of God must be ready. It’s interesting to me that in Acts the 8th chapter and verse 4, when the great persecution arose after the stoning of Stephen, the scripture says that they were scattered abroad, all around the area.

And then it says in verse 4, as many as were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Hear me now. It does not say as many as were scattered abroad went everywhere teaching the word. You say, well, what is the distinction? There is a distinction. All preaching, ladies and gentlemen, is teaching. But not all teaching is preaching. Teaching does not have motive. Preaching has motive. Preaching is not just the distribution of the information, but bringing people under the control of the information, causing them.