Till the nets R full

Sometimes we think that all God requires of us is that we pray for this world. Prayer is good, but God has chosen "The foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."(1 Corinthians 1:21) We are asked, "How will they hear without a preacher? "(Romans 10:14) Are you that vessel that has said to God, "Here I am Lord, send me"? (Isaiah 6:8) Are you prepared to come out of the prayer closet and obey the Great Commission?

A. W. Tozer said, "Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late-and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience." There goes another minute. Gone forever. Go share your faith while you still have time.

Paul exhorts Timothy to "Guard the Gospel". To proclaim it fully and in tact!

. Not meddled with. not fooled with, not dressed up, not diminished. In tact!

That they know the difference between an approach which sells the gospel as a commodity.

Which goes to people and says essentially:

Christian: Would you like to have Jesus in your life?

Non Christian: Well exactly why do you have this in mind?

Christian: Well… I mean are you interested in joy?

Non Christian: Oh yeah I would like to be happy.

Christian: What about peace?

Non Christian: “I like peace.”

Christian: Direction?

Non Christian: ‘I am a purposeful sort of person.’

Christian: Fulfillment?

Non Christian: 'I like fulfillment. Oh I see, so if I just stay where

I am right now & want joy and peace and direction and fulfillment,

I have Jesus in my life is that it?’

Christian: Yes.

At this point the Christian thinks they are doing a great

job on the gospel and explaining it very well.

Non Christian: Well what are you supposed to do?

Christian: Well you have to believe.

Non Christian: What do you have to believe?

Christian: You have to believe that Jesus is God’s son.

Non Christian: Well I already believe that Jesus is God’s son.
Now at this point the person is getting into deep difficulty if they do not know the gospel because by their definition this person is actually a Christian already you see. Because they want joy, peace, fulfillment and everything and they are happy to get it from Jesus Christ. You are supposed to believe Jesus is the son of God and they already believe that. So the thing is a total dog’s breakfast! And they don’t know where to go from there.

They tell the person to make a commitment. The person makes a commitment. They don’t know what it means. They don’t really know what they’re committing to. They come at the end of a service. Everybody gets them hyped up and has them make a commitment.

And three months later it’s clear they made a commitment but they were never converted. And they were never converted because they never heard the gospel. No one ever told them that the problem in their life was that they were alienated from God. They were in bondage to themselves because of their sin. They were in conflict with other people and in conflict with themselves because they were inalienably distanced from God on account of sin. This irrespective of whether they wanted joy, peace, fulfillment, direction and all those other things. Irrespective of whether they liked the idea of Jesus Christ being added to their lives as if it was sort of a special religious package like Pepsi Cola or something. Why would anybody want a Savior unless the person was a sinner?

This is so pressingly important. We wouldn’t let plumbers or electricians work in our home if they were as clueless about their craft as many are about the gospel.

Homeowner: Oh what are you going to do with those pipes?

Contractor: Well you know, I haven’t really decided. I was thinking

maybe stick one up here and curl one over there and... you fancy one up there?

Homeowner: Beats me… I don’t know. What are you going to

do with all those wires?

Contractor: I was just standing here asking myself the same question!

Look at this mess what is this?

You would be going “out of here… Get out of here!” And so are some of us with the gospel. “Well I don’t know, I’m not sure, I think perhaps, maybe”… and so on. It’s imperative that we know the gospel. If you don’t know it you can’t guard it and you won’t be able to guard it from error. You won’t know when someone is telling something that isn’t the gospel because you don’t know what the gospel is. It’s like if you don’t know what the currency is you might be prepared to take on a few $3 bills.

Guard it!

Alistair Begg – Truth For Life ministries