Getting it Right... the REAL Gospel According to Jesus!

Note: This entry shows as a formal apology to Pastor John F. Macarthur to whom I have severely misrepresented for the past few years.

Today people quote from the Bible and yet offer down a very watered down message.  I remembered to how Pastor Estus Pirkle once said how times have changed, how modernism has invaded the church and I began to read "Fool's Gold" and "Truth War" by Pastor John Macarthur on what is watered down preaching and how it literally kills the Church with FALSE converts.  So what is going on?  There's the danger of the watered down preaching that has reduced the real Gospel to a false one.  The Lordship of Christ is not being emphasized because it will look like "works salvation" when it isn't.  For one, I agree with what Arthur Pink and A.W. Towzer has to say you accept Christ in WHOLE and not just a fraction of Him.  When I received Christ as my Savior, I consciously received Him as the Lord of my life.  It's not about making Him as Lord, He is already my Lord ever since I rejected man's way of salvation for God's only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  

I began to think what resources could be available for witnessing?  It just so happened that I read the book "The Gospel According to Jesus" by Pastor John Macarthur and said, "Woah this book is what I've missed!"  So I began to read a few pages of the book, I couldn't get to sleep because the book was so entrancing and said, "We seriously need a revival in the churches or apostasy will destroy them!"  The whole premise of the book examined the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and how one can EXAMINE the truly saved vs. the apostates.  How can in fact I dare even consider wanton people who claim to be my brothers and sisters in Christ to be part of the family? NONE!  Seriously in fact so many people claim to be Christians YET their doctrine (faith plus works) and their lifestyles (so much for teaching works salvation) happens.  So as said, let him who sinned not teach salvation by works because they're all just as guilty (James 2:10-11).  Seriously there's got to be a MAJOR consideration to the Gospel of Christ, not just in part but in whole.  After all the song goes, "To destroy the WORKS OF THE EVIL ONE and the kingdom of darkness with Light and to rescue men from the LAW OF SIN... this is the Gospel of Christ!"  Rescuing men from law means setting them free from sin's bondage to the loving relationship with Christ as a slave with a Master who they cannot refuse to be slaves for!

So much for the really lousy preaching of "easy believism" to which I once considered myself as an easy believist until I did some self examination of my beliefs on Gospel preaching that made me find out I was a quasi-easy believist and a Lordship theologian and a Calvinist though not hyper in any way with these beliefs:

1.) Unless Jesus is presented for who He is, as Lord, NOBODY will see Him as Savior. 

• A Lordless gospel equals to a "gospel" where people do not see themselves as lawbreakers and in need for salvation.  Acts 16:31 says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."  Romans 10:9 says, "If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believest in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
• Believing Jesus as Lord is NOT optional, no true Christian can deny the Lordship of Jesus!  Nowhere in the Bible do true believers ever deny Jesus is Lord.  Ever noticed for once that Judas Iscariot NEVER called Jesus as Lord?  Many people have sin as their lord, their self-righteousness as their lord, other things as their lord but not Jesus.  Jesus is Lord of all yet not everybody accepts that. 
• In Luke 23:42, thief on the cross said, "Lord remember me when thou comest into Thy Kingdom."  The thief for sure KNEW who Jesus was- Lord!  There is NO instance in Scripture that says, "Savior remember me..." but all who received Him as Savior really called upon Him as "Lord".
• In Acts 2, Peter's first Sunday service as the first pastor of Jerusalem had him quote Jesus as both Lord and Christ.  
• When Saul saw Jesus, he recognized Jesus as "Lord" or "Kurious" which means supreme in authority.  He stressed out the Lordship of Christ.
• The word "Kurious" is mentioned 273 times in the whole New Testament.  He is not mentioned as Savior as much as Lord.  In fact, I preach Jesus as Lord because that is who He is.  Unfortunately the quasi-easy believist while preaching the Lordship of Christ, says he or she is against Lordship salvation without differentiating the Lordship theology vs. hyper-Lordship theology.
• A.W. Towzer said, "The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command.  He will NOT divide His offices.  You cannot believe on a half-Christ.  We take Him for what He is, the anointed Savior and Lord who is King of Kings and Lord of all lords.  He would not be Who He is if He saved us and call ed us and chose us without the understanding that He can also guide and control our loves." from "I Call It Heresy, page 18-19".  Again this is NOT works salvation but because those who refuse the authority of Christ in their lives will REJECT the Lord Jesus Christ!  Why would the Lord save those who REFUSE salvation?  After all didn't Jesus command, "REPENT AND BELIEVE."  And if a person insists on working his/her way to Heaven, then that person cannot be commanded as well.

2.) Unless a person is even willing to turn from sin, they will NEVER turn from unbelief.  Repentance of sin is really necessary for salvation in that sense.

• This is where repentance comes in- a repentance of one's sins and towards the Lord Jesus.  Repentance is a change of mind for the better (taken from metanoneia) and unless people change their mind about their sin, they will NEVER change their mind about the Savior.  The Bible calls to repent and believe the Gospel.  People who do not repent of their sins, who do not see themselves as GUILTY SINNERS will NEVER believe the Gospel.  In turn, salvation is only for those who are willing to turn from sin because there is NO WAY God will offer it to people who will not come because they love their sin (John 3:20, 5:40).  Jesus warned of people loving their sin so they refuse salvation.  Some people can even say, "Well I'm NEVER going to be a Christian and discard sinful living.  You Christians are a bunch of sissies!"  How sad!  That person never wanted to depart from sin!
• The rich young ruler was practically an example of this.  He was very wealthy, he was self-absorbed.  He didn't want to follow Jesus because of riches.  Jesus showed him the impossibility of salvation by human standards and getting the NARROW WAY.  When Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything, it was revealed how practically MOST rich people are loving their sin so much they will refuse Jesus.  Then the Pharisees followed with how much they enjoyed bullying people with their artificial morality- they loved it!  It's no wonder why they hated Jesus so much!  Entering the narrow road means there's no return to the old life.  Most people LOVE THEIR SIN enough not to enter the narrow way that changes their life, they choose to remain in their sins.  Many of the rich are in that road because most likely, their riches were made by their hands and they think they can buy salvation.
• Jesus will NEVER respond to a sin-loving heart because He knows such a person will turn away in unbelief and is not sincere in receiving Him as Lord and Savior.

3.) There is NO SUCH THING as a changeless salvation.  

• God DOES NOT merely save persons through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and leave them as is to sin all they please.  No, God in His mercy actually counts them righteous without their own works (Romans 4:5), makes them fulfillers of the Law and keepers of His Law (Romans 3:31), His grace changes their lifestyle from sin to service (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 2:11-15), He works in them (Philippians 2:13) and in fact the blood of Jesus is so powerful it gives them new insight.  In fact, there is NO such thing as an ex-believer (1 John 2:19).  In fact if a Christian is by any means given the righteousness of God, that simply means God changes their LIVES as well aside from merely declaring them righteous without a change in life.  Christians may sin and stumble but there is one big difference- they get chastised out of love (Hebrews 12:5-6) while God leaves the rest of the wicked world alone to their own destruction.  True salvation endures from day one until the end.  
• Charles Spurgeon said, "Although we are sure that no men are saved for the sake of their works yet we are equally sure that no man will be saved without them."  
• Arthur Pink also stated, "Divine grace is not bestowed with the object of freeing men from their obligations but rather with that of supplying them with a powerful motive for more readily and gratefully discharging these obligations.  To make God's favor a ground of exemption from the performer of duty comes perilously near to turning His grace into lasciviousness." from "Signs of the Times, pages 373-375)
• That is, true faith results to works.  In John 15:1-8, Jesus spoke of the vine.  There are the vines that bear fruit and those that do not.  Those that do not bear fruit are cast into the fire. These branches do not represent fruitless Christians because there is NO such thing.  Matthew 7:17-18 is clear that by their fruits Christians and non-Christians are known.  There is NO WAY that a true child of God will be cut down and thrown into the fire but the false convert will!  God prunes the believers but He throws away the Judas Iscariot branches to be burned.
• Every Christian becomes a doulos for Christ.  Doulos is the Greek word for slave.  God who instituted a non-oppressive type of slavery in the Old Testament where the master was liable to his slave's welfare, God treats Christians as that kind of slave.  No not the slave like the Hebrew slaves or in concentration camps. Today it is merely viewed as "owned servant" but that was really a "slave" for Christ because while a servant is not a slave, a slave is an owned servant that the master must care for and not oppress and this slave is obligated to serve His master.

4.) Eternal security (or as Calvin calls it as the perseverance of the saints) is not just a matter of once saved always saved regardless of how I live but rather that I will endure to the end because I have Christ in me.  

• True and eternal security means endurance to the end is present as its FRUIT not its ROOT and there is a difference.  True believers do not depart (1 John 2:19).  What God has started with any true convert, He will finish it. God sends trials to believers to assure them that their conversion is real and not false.  I cannot sin all I want because of imputed righteousness, in fact I long to serve God by the day.  I am a miserable backslider when I do backslide.  God gave me righteousness so how can I for even once think that I can use it as a license to sin?  I find the idea of salvation that is sure and secure to be used as a license to sin so repugnant because God's grace convicts me whenever I sin.  I get headaches so fast whenever I sin.  God chastises me whenever I fail to do my part.  What a wonderful Lord because of that!
• Arthur W. Pink said, "God does not deal with the believers as unaccountable automations but as moral agents just as their natural life is maintained through their use of means and by their avoidance of that which is inimical to their well-being, so it is with the maintenance and preservation of their spiritual lives.  God preserves His people in this world through their perseverance." as taken from his book on "Eternal Security" page 15.  That is, God gives perseverance to his people so they endure to the end as REAL and GENUINE PROOF of salvation.  
• In fact, every Christian is destined never to completely fall away yet by God's grace finish the race.  However opponents of eternal security or the conditional security crowd just want to hog the glory of themselves when they endure to the end.  However most conditional security people don't.
• John Macarthur stresses true salvation results to holiness.  Okay DO NOT believe it just because John Macarthur says it, it's Bible!  Paul Washer also warns against celebrity worshiping of pastors too.

Seriously, the book has also convicted me it's about time to GET THAT BOOK to the dead churches and its schools around.  It's time to bring revival.  Time to close with another Spurgeon quote:

"Another proof of the conquest of a soul for Christ will be found in A REAL CHANGE OF LIFE. If the man does not life differently from what he did before, both at home and abroad, his repentance need to be repented of and his conversion is a fiction. Not only action and language, BUT SPIRIT AND TEMPER MUST CHANGE. . . There must be a harmony between the life and the profession. A Christian professes to renounce sin; and if he does not do so, his very name is an imposture. . ."

God bless you all!