GraceTrax

“FOR GOD so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him...” If you don’t understand the verses that follow John 3:16, the invitation to believe upon Christ may appear ludicrous. But the apostle John—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—provides a context for God’s redemption plan—a context that is often left out when references are made to that verse. The context begins in verse 17 and concerns the intention of Christ’s coming. 

 

What was Christ’s intention? He states it negatively in verse 17. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” That verse makes clear what Christ did not come to do—condemn the world. 

 

God did not send Christ into the world to condemn, but to save. Consider the last half of verse 17, “…in order that the world might be saved through Him.” He came to rescue and redeem, not to destroy. 

 

Jesus came to redeem us, and He’s returning to culminate that plan of redemption. Does that excite you, Christian? I’m getting more and more eager with every passing year. I think when we pass through the process of sanctification our longing for heaven intensifies. I’m ready to go! We’ve got it made, folks. We need to come to grips with what God has done for us and stop fearing affliction, sickness, persecution, and death. We have no cause for apprehension over those events. 

 

The most glorious event for you and me will be our dying and passing into eternity. Death is only a threshold for us. Understandably, that sounds odd to the world, doesn’t it? But we know rationally in our minds that death is the best thing that could ever happen to a Christian—dying and going to be with Christ. The truth that informs that glorious reality is found in this text: He came to save. 

 

Verse 18 continues that theme when it says, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already because He has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God.”  In other words, a sobering consequence accompanies unbelief. Whoever attaches his faith to Christ as the sole object—it can’t be faith in anything or anyone—will be saved from condemnation. 

 

No one who believes in Christ will suffer condemnation. All who believe in Christ—in heart, mind, and soul—will be saved. That’s the context for understanding John 3:16. In order to be saved from something, we must understand what we’re being saved from. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to remind people of this in my 39 years of ministry: We will never flee to Christ until we are persuaded that He is our sole means of escape. 

 

If you entertain the thought of an alternative route of escape, you will trust in your own flesh. Left to ourselves, we all do that outside of the Holy Spirit’s merciful work of conviction. So often God allows us to trust in those human, carnal, helpless means of escape, and then begins to move us into the realm of divine help. In a way, He funnels us away from trusting in our flesh until, finally, we look to Christ alone.  No one will look to Christ for deliverance until everything else has proven futile.  

 

Because of man’s carnal mind, he always chooses the carnal means of help over the spiritual, even though it will always prove futile. As an unregenerate audience to the gospel, we hear the message over and over, but cannot understand it. Then God’s divine light floods our minds and hearts and we see our true condition--along with His provision in Christ. Then all other carnal alternatives melt away and we see and believe in Christ. However, as long as those other alternatives appear useful, we will never believe in Christ; our flesh will resist and overpower us. 

 

It works like this: A person realizes his alienation from God, but believes he can simply attend church more regularly in order to get right with God. Perhaps he resolves to read his Bible more consistently, pray more fervently, give to charity, and read more Christian books. He’ll do anything to appease his conscience and convince himself of his right to enter heaven. That’s how the carnal mind thinks about and responds to salvation—and it’s damning! We may look to our church attendance, prayer life, Bible study habits, and even our so-called good deeds, but until we look to Christ alone we’re doomed. All other sources of hope are false. 

 

I believe one of the main reasons we’re failing in our evangelism efforts today is because we don’t understand the need for setting the context. If you approach someone and say, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” how do you think he’ll respond?  He probably won’t, because you’ve not given him a context. What you’ve told him makes no sense at all. He doesn’t understand his own sin. He doesn’t even know Who God is, or what God is like. That’s why the Bible emphasizes the importance of pressing the law of God upon an unbeliever. Scripture refers to God’s Law as the “schoolmaster,” the “superintendent.” It serves as a tutor, a guide to bring lost men and women to Christ so they may be justified through faith in Him. 

 

That’s the context of condemnation. Until a lost person senses the conviction of sin that comes from the Law and recognizes the darkness in his own fallen heart, he will never flee to and believe upon Christ. That is the role of the Holy Spirit—to convict, convince, and draw the sinner to Christ. It’s His work. May He do a fresh work in our families, congregations, neighborhoods, and city. Let’s pray to that end!    

AMONG the most glorious functions of God the Holy Spirit is the granting of eternal life to sinners. 

 

These words came from the Savior Himself, recorded in John 6:63 (ESV): “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” 

 

Regeneration (New Birth) is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit wherein the Spirit gives the sinner a new heart. This is prophesied in Ezekiel 36:26–27: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

 

The Holy Spirit also bestows upon the saints assurance of salvation. Paul spoke of this witness in Romans 8:16–17: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

 

The Holy Spirit breathed out the Holy Scriptures. The Bible speaks of the divine revelation’s origin in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.” 

 

Though we see in 2 Tim. 4:1 that God and Christ Jesus are spoken of and the Holy Spirit is not, it implies the inspiring of such words came by way of the Holy Spirit who does not bear witness of Himself but of Christ.

 

There is much to say of the Holy Spirit’s work, but space limitations prevent further elaboration. 

 

Remember this reality: The Holy Spirit not only regenerated us, He took up a dwelling place in our new hearts. He abides in us, loves us, cares for our needs, prays for us, watches over us, convicts us of sin and seals us—according to Paul’s words in Ephesians—until the day of our full redemption. 

 

Thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-equal, co-eternal, and co-substantial, ETERNALLY!

AS WE SAW last time, equality among the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is sufficiently revealed in the Scriptures. But there are functional variations within the workings of the blessed Trinity. 

 

A primary example of this functional variety is seen in prayer. For instance, we are taught by the Lord Jesus in His model prayer to pray in this manner, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven . . .” (Matthew 6:9-10).

 

Of course, praying to the Father does not negate the parallel work of the Son as Mediator. Without Christ, prayer rises no higher than the words flowing from our lips. 

 

But that is not all that occurs in true prayer. The Apostle Paul also gives us insight into the dynamic of prayer relating to the Trinity. In Romans 8:26 (ESV), he writes, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

 

So in this inexplicable union of the godhead, true prayer must flow through every person. The Spirit helps us in prayer; the Son mediates the prayer; the Father receives the prayer. Ultimately, the prayer terminates in the Father Who subsequently finds the answer in the One who intercedes by way of the Holy Spirit. What wisdom and insight beyond our capacity to fathom.

 

But there is yet more that the Holy Spirit engages in for the saints. First, it is said of the Spirit by the Lord Jesus Himself in John 15:26,  “But when the Helper comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me.” 

 

In other words, Christ’s words spoken during His earthly ministry are presently witnessed by the current work of the Holy Spirit here on earth.

 

Next time, we’ll take a look at the Holy Spirit’s primary role in redemption: granting new life to a dead sinner.  

IT IS NOT uncommon for people to get the impression that God the Holy Spirit is slightly subservient to God the Father and God the Son. 

 

Why? It is due to an unfortunate misconception related to the prevalent terminology, the third person of the Godhead. Such vernacular has very little real connection to biblical revelation, but it does seem to be latched to the language of theological lingo. 

 

The Bible never speaks of the Holy Spirit as a “third” person, though it is convenient for Bible scholars to attempt to make understandable something that is fully and completely incomprehensible. 

 

Clearly, there are three persons in the Godhead; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Furthermore, this prevalent order is not without biblical warrant, for there are occasions when that order is revealed in texts such as the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18–19 (ESV): “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’”

 

To understand the three persons of the Godhead, one must comprehend the Godhead’s unity. We know from concrete language within the divine revelation that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are co-equal, co-eternal, and co-substantial. That alone wipes out the connotation that one or two within the godhead could be even minutely inferior to the other.

 

Therefore, even though a procession exists within the Godhead, each member is to be worshipped, loved, and glorified as an equal. 

 

But it is not just a procession; it is an eternal procession. The Son is truly the Son of God proceeding eternally from the Father. The Holy Spirit, as believed by many Bible Scholars, proceeds from both the Father and the Son. 

 

The question may be, wherein do theologians contrive what may seem to be mere conjecture? The answer to that question is singularly found in biblical texts. Such as Christ’s own words in John 8:42: “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came (“I proceeded forth” in the Authorized Version) from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.’” The Lord also revealed the Spirit’s procession in John 15:26: “But when the Helper (The Holy Spirit) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”

 

Equality among the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is sufficiently revealed in the Scriptures. But there are functional variations within the workings of the blessed Trinity. We’ll take a look at that next time. 

For many people in our day, the appropriate title of this article could be "God or Government." Why? Because government often trumps God in their eyes.

Government is seen as the god who watches over us, feeds us, employs us, bails us out, rescues us and generally renders us unaccountable to anyone but ourselves. But for those who believe that God is the one who created us, equips us, watches over us and providentially guides us, the title should be "God over Government." Though such a concept is repulsive to many, it is precisely the case that God rules over the affairs of governments, men and angels, as well as the whole of His creation.

On the other hand, God's superintendence over all the affairs of government does not negate His decree to place delegated authority in the hands of government. This is explicitly stated in Romans 13. The practical application of the legitimacy of government's delegated authority is clearly indicated in Jesus' statement: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's (Mark 12:7).

This does not imply that government is equal to the authority of God, but that government has been ordained by God to carry a designated measure of authority in matters that have been duly prescribed in God's Word. Thusly, it is incumbent upon all Christians to render to such delegated authority all that is due within the limitations or boundaries set forth by Divine revelation.

To render means to give what is due or appropriate to somebody who has authority or power. Therefore, to render to Caesar is to give to governing authorities what is due and to render to God is to give to God what is due. Consequently, seeing that God, who is the ultimate and infinite authority, supersedes all delegated authorities, our ultimate allegiance is to be given to Him. Therefore, when delegated authorities contradict the authority of God, the ultimate authority of God supersedes the commands of God's delegated authority.

For instance, if the government commands us not to preach the Word of God, a responsibility God did NOT prescribe to governing agencies, God's command to preach the Word must be heeded over the government's command. When any delegated authority (parents, schools, government, etc.) contradicts God's written instruction in the Holy Scripture, that authority is overstepping his God-ordained boundaries. All delegated authorities possess such authority as prescribed by God and are therefore limited by divine ordination to their particular domains.

To further illustrate, consider a husband and father of a family who has been given delegated authority in his home by God Himself according to Holy Scripture. If another delegated authority, such as the government, oversteps its ordained realm and interferes with the rights and privileges of a man's God given authority over his family, then the husband's authority supersedes the government's authority in that particular realm.

If the government seeks to disallow biblical principles, such as prescribed discipline in the home, the husband must disobey the overstepping of the governing authority's regulation in order to carry out the specific authority that God has assigned to the father alone. However, if a father is proven to be endangering his children, or his wife, through physical abuse, then the governing authorities have the God-ordained right to punish the father as an evildoer as prescribed in Romans 13. Of course, this can be, and often is, abused by governing authorities that overstep their God-given authority due to the ever-increasing godless disapproval of God's prescribed means of raising children in the love and admonition of Christ.

The concept of corporal punishment (spanking children) in the home, which is clearly set forth in Holy Scripture, is under tremendous attack by the secular world. Many governing authorities are following suit by increasingly seeking to mandate the dissolution of such practices in the home, even though God's Word commands it. This is often carried out under the guise of social work, which is typically driven by a philosophy diametrically opposed to most biblical principles.

Christians must understand that though we must obey God's commands which often directly conflict with the ever-increasing overstepping of delegated authority's commands, such as the government's regulations, there is going to be a price to pay. It may mean prison or perhaps death in the future. but Christians must not compromise the Truth for safety.

Conversely, Christians must not overstep their authority and disobey the God-granted authority of the government in those areas where God has prescribed obedience to governing authorities. When we are summoned to serve, for instance, on a jury, we should obey such a summons unless we are providentially hindered.

If we break laws which do not supersede God's biblical commands, we must duly pay according to the verdict the law prescribes. If taxes are prescribed by the governing authorities, we must render whatever is due. We must seek, to the best of our abilites, to be exemplary citizens and properly obey governing authorities. We must also pray for others to properly carry out their God-delegated duties.

But when delegated authorities such as the government overstep clear boundaries that oppose our allegiance to the Almighty, we must first appeal to the governing authorities. If necessary, we must suffer for the faith with a clear conscience before God. Our forbearers understood such allegiance to God. They were prepared to suffer at the hands of cruel governments due to their genuine and faithful allegiance to Holy Scripture above man-made laws that opposed God's Word.

As a republic, we enjoy certain rights in this country. Our Constitution formally gives U.S. citizens the right for redress against the government, as well as laws that are established which are unconstitutional or place undue burdens upon the citizenry. We also have the right to vote in this country, directly engaging to some extent in the course of the nation's vision and direction.

Of course, the spiritual influence of biblical proclamation, holiness of life and prayer is our greatest means of influencing our nation toward righteousness. The power of politics as it relates to Christian influence is usually overstated and often causes believers to divide their attention. Thus, they diminish their influence upon the hearts of people.

While some engagement in politics is commendable for Christians, too much is detrimental and distracting seeing that legislation impacts the outer man and behavior while the gospel searches the hearts and enlightens the inner man.

Our republic's present trend, which is drifting exponentially downward, is to strip our nation of every vestige of past and present godliness. Of course, the government cannot rob the true Christian or the church of everlasting hope. But it can, and is presently engaged in, systematically repudiating the Theo-centric foundations of our forefathers. Furthermore, it is becoming more apparent everyday in our nation that godliness is considered intolerant, if not openly unacceptable. If this trend continues—and barring a spiritual awakening, in my opinion, it will—the practice of experimental godliness, as such, may be practically forbidden.

How will preachers and churches respond when our proclamation against specific sins is outlawed as being "hate speech" by the government? Will we alter the message and excuse ourselves by saying that we're simply obeying the governing authorities as stated in Romans 13? Or will we be faithful to God's Word and continue to preach the Truth at any cost, seeing that God's authority supersedes all delegated authorities such as the governments?

We may be fined very soon for preaching what the Bible clearly commands us to preach. Will our preachers and churches be willing to go to jail, lose our buildings and have our lands confiscated? Will we be faithful enough to willingly lose our employment due to our stand concerning biblical principles? Will we, as the Second Coming of our Savior approaches, be willing to die for the faith, if necessary, while being increasingly mocked and ridiculed by the world?

Most tragic and surprising to many Christians will be that the greatest opposition to our uncompromising message of God's Word will be from other churches. Many churches have already capitulated and relegated the Word of God to the shelf and replaced it with contemporary concerns such as global warming and how to have your best life now. Admittedly, those who sit under such preaching are experiencing their best lives now, because in the afterlife it won't be so hot. Well, actually it will be so hot!

When it comes to God and government, let us properly and joyfully render to each their due. But know this: God is eternal and the government is only temporary. If they are in conflict with one another, God's law must take preeminence over man's law. You may die for that stand now, but you'll live in glory for eternity later.

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Dr. R.A. Hargrave, Executive Director of GraceWorx Ministries, also serves as Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Inundation denotes an overwhelming accumulation, or more simply put, a flood. What seems more like an ever-increasing deluge is the incessant promulgation by secularists, as well as (sadly) evangelical Christians, of the impending doom that awaits us if we don’t buy into the green earth doctrine. 

With the threat of global warming and the ever-increasing religion of tree-hugging, we are being squeezed into submission through the use of shame. Shame on biblicists who buy into the theories of men who fundamentally deny the truthfulness of everything we believe as biblical Christians.  

Remember, many of these promoters of the soon-coming carbon apocalypse are the same people who tell us our ancestral cousins were monkeys. They are also the same group that promoted “global cooling” in the 1970s.

One of the biggest hypocritical progenitors of this foolishness supposedly invented the internet and actually won a Nobel Peace Prize for apparently convincing the western culture of the cataclysmic event that is just around the corner. That’s just grand for someone whose residence emits more carbon than most small rural towns in America. But don’t let the facts get in the way. 

What does the Bible teach us about these people?  It teaches they are false prophets. No surprise, the Word of God has sufficiently warned of the proliferation of such people as we approach the coming of Christ. Jesus warned His disciples that “many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). That includes preachers also. 

These men who claim to know the Word of God and yet carry the water for the neo-scientific community are, at best, falling for lies. They have failed to read the words of God to Noah after the flood-—words that the promoters of the green earth movement discount. God told Noah: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). Don’t let the words, “while the earth remains,” confuse you. The earth will remain until it ceases. But it will not be man’s carbon emissions that consume it. It will be Christ who does the burning up of the earth.  

Multitudes obviously still believe that the educators, who continue to cram these idols of earth down the throats of our children, must know more than God Himself.  This is not surprising, since our education system is filled with infidels a-plenty—though I must thank God for the few who stand firm in the Truth. What I don’t get is a man who claims to be called of God to preach the Word of God, yet he disseminates this nonsense. 

What say ye of God, dear sir, and what say ye of His promises, and what say ye of God’s proven faithfulness in the past, and what say ye, dear sir, of God’s faithfulness in the future? If a man can’t answer those questions correctly, he would greatly stimulate the progress of the gospel by resigning from the ministry. 

When God said that seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer will not cease while the earth remains, He effectively bludgeoned to death the free-thinking notions of the God-hating professors who partake in such folly. 

Why am I so convinced of this truth? It is simply this: natural religion (as revealed in Romans 1) and the Bible are so clear about it. Not only do we have the explicit promise to Noah, which in itself should be sufficient to convince all the redeemed, but God has given us more, much more. 

Why is it that the earth, in the minds of many, has replaced God as man’s sustainer? Who needs the Rock of Ages when you have Mother Earth to rock you in the cradle? This is not a scientific fact; it is a religion—the religion of the devil. It flows from what the Bible calls an exchange. If you are given a gift and you don’t like it, you can always exchange it for something you do like. 

This is exactly what fallen man has done regarding God. The Apostle Paul stated (Romans 1:24-25), Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 

For what did man exchange the most Glorious Being in the universe? Paul stated succinctly (Romans 1:23): images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. This, incidentally, explains why beating your dog will get you on the evening news while aborting your helpless, unborn child exonerates your love for the earth. 

But don’t these folks know what they’re talking about? After all, they have “Doctor” in front of their names and are highly regarded by those of the intelligentsia. The Bible has something to say about that, too. Paul said (Romans 1:22) that, Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Verse 23 explains that these “wise fools” are the very ones who exchange the True God for their pet cat, Bambi or the Giant Sequoias along the Pacific Coast of North America. Or, to amass their gods into one, the green earth god!

It would be one thing if this foolishness terminated at loving dogs more than people and God, but that is not the case. This religion that is contrived in the heart of human depravity finally engulfs every area of life. For that matter, the congregants of such a religion and their fruits would engulf the whole universe and dismount God from His throne if they could get away with it. 

Of course, they cannot get away with it because God only allows so much credulity. God finally gives them over to it completely so that the very weight of their transgression crashes down upon their own heads. Paul said (Romans 1:26-27): For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 

This tells us, among other things, that when people who claim to be Christians approve of something that God blatantly disapproves of (as stated in Romans 1:26-27), they are calling natural what God has called unnatural. The fruit of this is that what is naturally unnatural, according to God’s own words, becomes natural because we have approved of it. Up is now down, right is now left, and wrong is now right! 

Therefore, we are calling God a liar. God said through Paul (Romans 3:4) that we must, Let God be true but every man a liar. But according to the common religion of the masses, we are to let man be true and God a liar! This explains to some extent why there is a hell. Creatures calling their Creator a liar is one of the greatest absurdities in the universe, and God will address it on the Day of Judgment.

We see not only the worship of earth as our sustainer, but we see the deterioration of the very foundations that have helped hold civilizations intact. From a political perspective (which is not my first priority), it can rightfully be stated that the religion of self-worship leading to earth worship that Paul addresses in Romans 1 is the very thing that has led to the downfall of the Western culture. 

If you do not believe that false worship is the culprit in such a fall, ask the citizens of the Roman Empire when you enter the afterlife. Of course, all cultures will eventually fail because they are temporal in nature, as well as fundamentally flawed due to human depravity. 

Some may conclude from all of this biblical logic, “So what! Who cares? What does all this earth worship have to do with me?” 

It has everything to do with you because if you fall prey to it, and/or your children are entrapped by its enticements, there will be hell to pay, literally. For God has sufficiently revealed Himself through the things that He has made, even His eternal power and divine nature, so that all men are without excuse (Romans 1:20). 

If you do not warn your posterity about the dangers of demonic persuasion and godless professors who market their faulty merchandise, as well as the price that will be paid by those who fall for Satan’s religion, you are an imprudent parent, to say the least. You may have taught them well about sports, books, education and success in this life, but you failed to teach them how to die in such a state as to take them to heaven.

The most certain event in which our children will engage is death. But, of course, it is the least prepared for by unwary parents.

Pity the person who constantly hears the regurgitations of false prophets and falls headlong into their devious designs. But concerning men who claim to be men of God, men of the Word, God-called men who stand up before those that they claim the Lord has given them charge over to lead and care for, and yet they warn not of false religion, I am indignant. These men actually promote the propaganda of pagans who hate the God of the Bible and the people who honor His name; what a travesty. 

To these men, I say: Descend from your pulpits and worship your false gods without infecting those little ones. Wake up! You cannot worship the creation and Creator simultaneously.

Finally, I must reveal my conviction as to the doctrine of a green earth, global warming and their attendants. I have no doubt that the earth is eventually going to succumb to global warming. However, it will not be those ghastly emissions that bring it about. It will most certainly be the coming of the Lord, wherein, the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and works that are in it will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10).

Therefore, seek refuge in the only foundation that will be standing when the fire melts away the transitory. Repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved from God’s wrathful judgment. Seek Him while He may be found. 

The day has almost ended and the night of eternal bliss or misery is rapidly approaching. Place yourself under biblical proclamation and take your family with you. Awaken, oh, sleeper!  Eternity with God is at stake, and the green earth will not suffice to save your soul. ONLY CHRIST!

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Dr. R.A. Hargrave is Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida. He is also the Executive Director and Bible-teacher for GraceWorx Ministries.

SOLOMON set forth the wisdom of purity’s value and fruit when he stated: He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend (Proverbs 22:11). 

Though humble in its deliberations, purity brings forth the fruit of the mighty and the noble. Might and nobility—of a godly sort—spring not from natural expressions of charm or giftedness but from a supernatural implantation of a principle of wholesomeness in the heart. It is this root that culminates in a life, which cascades into ever increasing revelations of overflowing joy and eternal pleasures. 

Unlike the hollow promises of carnal unions with uncleanness, which bestows temporal pleasures upon their clientele, purity promises chastening and discipline. This produces lasting delight and satisfaction forevermore. The path of such blessedness is narrow and strenuous for the weak flesh, but it is the way of safety and security for the wise.

While most press into the broad and popular way of the sinner, they ultimately find that destruction is their destination. Pleasures in sin “for a season” should remind us that it is too high a price to pay for its dividend of eternal misery. While many young people choose this well-traveled highway, they fail in their shortsightedness to see the distant desolation that lies in wait for their souls. Solomon also reminded us of this demise: 

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity (Ecclesiastes 11:9-10).

Because of the somewhat limited platform of a condensed quarterly like GraceTrax and the vastness of the revealed will of God as it relates to Christian purity, my remarks are truncated to a few salient points. Please consider four foundational elements-—vital points of Scripture-—that encompass a broad spectrum of essential aspects of purity.

First, for us to grasp the infinite value of this communicated attribute, it has been commended to us as an indispensible quality of heavenward souls. Jesus stated plainly in Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Of course, it is not to be mistaken as a foundational cause of new birth but as a fruit of the “new creation.” It is hidden away in the newly created principle of regeneration in that it is, in a manner of speaking, tucked away in seed form. For within the boundaries of the new man in Christ, purity abounds. It is not fully known at its inception to the external senses, but it is contained in all of its fullness within the inner man. 

It is only through the process of the Spirit’s sanctifying work within the believer that the potential begins to be seen in the child of God. The visible exercise of the remaining flesh disturbs its full fruition until our glorification extracts its revealed beauty before God and the angelic host. Still, it grows from one degree of glory to another in the exercise of spiritual growth. 

Secondly, that seed of brilliant purity contained in the saint of God is to be jealously pursued on behalf of the saints by those who have been given charge over the souls of men. Paul was jealous for the Corinthian believers, (2 Corinthians 11:2) so that they might be presented before their Savior and Lord as “pure virgins.” It must thusly be the pursuit of every man of God to conform to the great apostles’ motives in watching and caring for the souls set to their charge by the Savior. Lack of vigilance in this matter is the ruination of many souls under wayward shepherds. Let us not bear this judgment when the Master renders it in the day of reckoning.

A third element of this Christian asset of purity of heart, mind and soul is the necessity of all believers to carefully guard their purity through the spiritual means of due diligence. Though our new birth is monergistic—in that God alone brought it forth—our sanctification contains a sublime synergism whereas God engaged the will of man in the exercise of it. This seems to be Paul’s intention when he stated in 2 Corinthians 11:3 that he was  . . . afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Clearly, Paul’s theology, which is the Lord’s theology, demanded the responsible actions of the believer in caring for a sincere purity in devotion to Christ.  

It is important that Paul saw the battleground of these occasions to be in the mind and not in the actions of the believer. He said, your thoughts will be led astray, which ultimately entails a consequent action of sinful behavior. Purity is exercised in a faith that retains abiding thoughts (the renewing of the mind) of loving devotion to Christ, which burst forth into fruition through godly works of righteousness and a mortification of the flesh. 

This is set forth in a excellent fashion in Paul’s words to the Philippians: And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God (Philippians 1:9-11).

The fourth element that demands the attention of the sons of Adam is the prospect of divine judgment. No mortal will avoid it, though we seek many fleshly contrivances within our hearts to persuade the unknown deity to receive our rags of self-righteousness. 

Immortality is our lot as humans, and it must of necessity demand a final and eternal judgment and domain. God is the prosecutor of that judgment, and heaven or hell is the eternal domain of Adam’s posterity. According to God’s Word, most people will fall into the pit due to their impurity of heart and behavior that renders an offense before the offended Deity. 

Each of heaven’s entrants has also filled his lot of unrighteous thoughts and deeds before the Sacred Head. But it is the wholesome and infinite holiness of the Savior that remitted his debt through His meritorious act on the cross. Yet, it is true: we must all, according to the divine will and revelation of God, stand before Christ and give an account. The record of God’s unimpeachable and immutable Word communicates with unmistakable clarity the end of it all in the last book of the Bible:

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood (Revelation 22:14-15). 

Purity matters! Purity is demanded! Therefore, take heed to your souls in this matter and look to Christ in all His limitless purity and be ye saved.

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Dr. R.A. Hargrave is the Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida. He also the Executive Director and Bible-teacher for GraceWorx Ministries.

Conquest is a valiant concept which arouses the noblest thoughts of man. It causes his imagination to ascend as with the wings of eagles to heights far above his mundane existence. And though man is often raptured by the thought of its possibilities, many, if not most, are thoroughly convinced of its improbability. 

This explains the ground-level existence of the masses even among the saints. While the Bible says one thing, [we] shall mount up with wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31), we live as brutes, who, graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth (Daniel 4:15) like Nebuchadnezzar. What ought to be our legacy is often forfeited by our fear, which supersedes our faith. We find ourselves famished when we ought to be fighting and faltering when we should be finishing. 

For many, the thought of this brings discouragement because they reckon themselves too late for the charge. They cannot fathom being overcomers when they have spent their whole lives being underachievers. When their thoughts are aroused by such a possibility, they take heed to the accuser’s voice that tells them of their personal history of failure. Little do men know that it is their failures which have broken up the fallowed ground and created a greater longing for fruitfulness. 

Most have forgotten, if they ever knew it in the first place, that a conqueror is first and foremost a man who has been conquered. A biblical understanding of life is contrary to a worldly view of the same. One sees life as the true means of happiness, the other sees death. And to many people’s surprise, the Bible places death at the head of the table. 

Jesus said, in John 12:24, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” In other words the road to life is paved with death, death to sin, death to self and death to this world. Without question, it is the road less traveled, for it is the narrow road that leads to life that few will find. To the world, life is the means and death is the goal; to the Christian, death is the means and life is the goal.

When a man sees this highest and noblest route that the Great God has prescribed, he is at the beginning of his history of conquest. Of course, one must be fully aware of the two primary principles in a conquest, a conqueror and the conquered, for there is no conquest without both. Each one carries out his proper duty in this matter of conquest. The conqueror must vanquish the conquered enemy, and the conquered must relinquish his position at the hand of the conqueror. 

The very concept of victory demands its counterpart, which is defeat. Without defeat, there is no battle won and no victory secured. Thus, every conqueror must not only know his skills, he must know his enemy. The failure to consider one’s enemy is a failure to engage in the conquest. This is one of the ringing failures of the church today. “Let’s just love each other, hold hands and sway in the wind,” many say, while tragically, the enemy devours our posterity. 

Ironically, as the old saying goes, “We’ve met the enemy and the enemy is us.” How odd to think that the conqueror and the conquered are one and the same. And though Satan is a great enemy of the soul, he is limited to tempting a man, for he cannot make a man sin. A man is drawn away by his own lust. All Satan provides is the bait.  And though Satan is culpable in the matter, it is man’s soul that will pay his own debt. 

When Paul said in Romans 8:37, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, he was declaring his dependence on the One who alone could conquer the great enemy of sin—Jesus Christ. For sin and Satan cannot be overcome by mere fallen and depraved mortals. 

It is a Sovereign King that is necessary to overthrow our adversaries. It is a Great High Priest who alone can atone for our iniquities. It is a Prophet who must declare the revelation of gospel light to our souls. Only Christ fulfills these offices, and He alone leads us from one conquest to another. He has conquered our souls and made us whole by His shed blood. He will see us through to the end of our earthly pilgrimage till we make our way through the gates of glory and enter into His unveiled presence. 

You, dear Christian, have already conquered because Christ is your covering, and He leads you from victory to victory. It is not your willpower, your fortitude or your intelligence which secures the victory; it is Christ and Christ alone. Our eyes of faith fastened upon Him comprises the proper remedy for our indifference and fatigue. 

Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 3:18, And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. It is gazing at His glory that produces our continued transformation and final conquest in glory.

In this edition of GraceTrax, it is our hope and prayer that the saints see more clearly, that we are not only conquerors through Christ, we are “MORE” than conquerors through Christ who LOVES US! Get off the ground and take flight with the eagles. It is your divine right as a child of the King. 

I’ll see you at the banquet table.

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Dr. R.A. Hargrave is Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida.  He is also the Executive Director and Bible-teacher for GraceWorx Ministries.

It seems almost foreign to speak, at length, of the necessity of deliverance these days in the context of religious paradigms. That would imply, among other things, the presence of right and wrong, as well as spiritual life and death. It would also suggest the inevitability of a deliverer outside of one’s self, which diminishes the popular notion of the inerrant self-worth of the individual. 

 

The disposal of depravity and the ascension of inherent goodness in man have rendered such talk of deliverance as fanatical absurdity. Man’s upward motion is so philosophically inevitable in the minds of men that a call for a radical correction makes no sense. If man is walking on water, who needs to save him from drowning? If there is no damnation to avoid, there is no deliverance necessary. 

This is where darkness comes in. Though it is universally present at any given moment, the knowledge of it is suppressed by man’s enlightened foolishness. The pressure of that so-called enlightenment is so overwhelming that, for preachers, ignoring the reality of darkness is far more convenient. 

The effects of this are clearly seen in the user-friendly church movement, as well as the burgeoning emergent movement. For instance, the preacher, once generally known as a prophetic voice against the onslaughts of Satan’s worldly infestations in the church, has now joined the ranks of the fleshly promoters of human ingenuity and faulty philosophies. 

The clarion call for deliverance from darkness has been replaced by aggressive attempts to win the world through appeasement and capitulation. In this contextual delusion, the preacher may have gained the world, but he has lost his soul and the souls of his hearers. This apparition is not a potential path to destruction; it is destruction incarnate. And if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? 

This is what we can do. We can discern more readily the dangers of novelty in the church today and restore the tried-and-tested boundaries of biblical truth. The starting point is found at the beginning of man’s sojourn in the Garden of Eden. Death, which is the inevitability of darkness, engulfed the first Adam and thrust his posterity into unimaginable chaos. While no hope was assured, hope was most certainly procured through the tender mercies of the Triune God. 

The uncaused love of God made eternal provisions for a people to be delivered from the damnable rebellion against His sovereign majesty.  It also dealt a fatal blow to the great adversary known as spiritual darkness (sin) and its consequential death. 

It is the procurement of this deliverance from darkness that is at the very heart and soul of true Christianity. Furthermore, any hint of a dismissive attitude regarding the point, power and persuasiveness of that darkness is high treason against the truth of light.  Ethically driven homilies that relegate the person, power and work of Christ to the back burner are deadly for their hearers. But Jesus-preaching without Judgment-preaching is likewise damnable. 

Paul once addressed a philosophical crowd with a statement about an “unknown God,” but today we would serve our people well to remind them of an unknown Christ. Christ’s life is filled with judgment. His sermons often broached the subject of judgment and darkness. His death was an inextricable display of judgment upon Himself, brought on by His eternal Father’s wrath. Darkness and death are interwoven into the fabric of biblical revelation—so much so, that the deletion of it renders the rest of the story meaningless. 

It is often stated something like this: “As cold is the absence of heat, sin (spiritual darkness) is the absence of holiness.” I suppose an element of this is true, but it is not the whole truth. Sin is not essentially passive in nature. It is vigorously active in intent to suppress and ultimately supplant the majesty and worth of light (Truth), which is solely rooted in the Triune God Himself. This makes spiritual darkness the greatest of evils and the highest of all treason in the universe. 

Unlike the present pervasive relegation of sin to the level of a mere peccadillo, sin is both the father and king of all evils. It is of such an infinite nature at its root that it demands infinite punishment. The failure to grasp this truth diminishes and ultimately destroys the necessary basic construct for hell itself. The consequent reconstruction of a “hell-less” judgment or a “compassionate annihilationism” robs the gospel of its full meaning and renders the cross as finite instead of infinite in nature.  

In essence, according to this construct, light is attained without the necessity of darkness being dismantled and destroyed. This conclusion thoroughly ignores the biblical revelation of sin’s true nature and love’s great sacrifice.  Therefore, it is heretical at its very core, as well as an abomination to God Himself.  

What, one might ask, are the essential elements of gospel comprehension? First, the holiness of God must be set forth in the mind of the sinner. Without this element, sin, sacrifice and security are moot points. If God is not seen as holy, just and thoroughly righteous in His very nature and in all of His works, then sin is diminished as it pertains to its spiritual impact on the heart of the sinner. 

Essentially, the full impact of this fact is established through the preaching of the perfect law of God, the Ten Commandments. While many have rendered these “Old Testament Concepts” obsolete, the New Testament has further established and fulfilled these commandments. According to the New Testament, the commandments are necessary for many reasons, two of which are most essential. First, they establish the righteous demands of God upon His rational creatures. Sin is, after all, the transgression of His law. Thus, it necessitates our utmost attention to them. 

Secondly, these laws teach us about our moral inability to fulfill God’s perfect requirements (if we’ve broken one part of the law, we’ve broken the whole law). The Schoolmaster (the law) then leads us to a knowledge of our sin, as well as to a despair in our rebellion against God’s law. It also points our way to Christ, who alone fulfilled God’s holy and righteous requirements. Lawless preaching is pointless and powerless, for without the law, no sinner will ever be sufficiently driven to the only Savior.

This brings us to the second essential element of gospel comprehension, which further elaborates on man’s knowledge of sin. Not only is the sinner to see God’s infinite holiness, he must see his own infinite sinfulness. The less holy God is, the more sin becomes less sinful. The more Holy God is seen, the more sinful sin becomes in the conscience. 

Therefore, if God is seen as infinitely holy, just and righteous, sin is seen as infinitely offensive by way of contrast to an infinitely holy God. The failure to see this is fatal to the sinner because of his failure to see the infinite justice of God in his own damnation, which he is not convinced he deserves. God’s way of salvation requires our death—to self and our sin. Many are sick of their sins, but they never die to their sins through the infinite worth of Christ’s sacrifice. 

Now for the third essential element of gospel understanding: the sacrifice of Christ. When one has been taught the truth of God’s infinite holiness, His Holy Law and man’s thorough sinfulness, he or she is brought face-to-face with the necessary deliverance from darkness. Seeing that God is infinitely holy and that man is infinitely sinful creates a dilemma in the conscience. 

How can the great chasm that divides sinful man from an infinitely Holy God be traversed? The answer is profound, yet simple. A Mediator is necessary. Christ has been given an eternal priesthood through which He mediates between the two extremities of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness. This is foundational in understanding the means of God’s deliverance from the excruciating reality of darkness into the incomprehensible light of Holy Trinity. 

Often this aspect of Christ’s work is partially understood and therefore misunderstood. While love is often the lone object of Christ’s work on the cross, God’s holiness and justice are functionally ignored. This is unfortunate in that both are necessarily and gloriously displayed on the cross of Christ. 

Though the limitations on the length of this article necessitate some brevity in this matter, it must be noted that Christ’s work was both active and passive. First, it was active by way of the life He lived while in the flesh. It was a perfect life, thusly qualifying Him as a Lamb without spot or blemish as typified in the Old Testament sacrificial rituals. Of course, His deity was the first qualification seeing that He was the mediator between God and man. But it was in his manhood that he represented our side of the equation through fulfilling what the first ancestor and federal head, Adam, did not fulfill—namely, perfect obedience to the Creator. 

Secondly, Christ work was passive in that He allowed Himself to be treated cruelly by His malefactors on our behalf. The ultimate manifestation of this was on the cross, where He suffered inexplicable pain and heartache on our behalf. Not only, as some so foolishly believe, did Christ suffer physical anguish, He suffered infinite spiritual agony because He became sin for us and suffered at His Eternal Father’s hand. 

He suffered what we, the sinners, would have suffered for all eternity in the Lake of Fire. He literally took the place of sinners, also known as substitutionary atonement, and died in our stead. Mercy and divine justice kissed on the cross and thus set sinners free from darkness and its impending wrath. What infinite wisdom eternally decreed such deliverance as this?

Now, the fourth and final essential element of gospel comprehension and deliverance from darkness. All of the above explanation of gospel truth is incomprehensible to the mind of man apart from the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. It is stated clearly that the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, is the one who convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. 

It is the sweet Holy Spirit that quickens the sinner and opens his spiritual eyes to see the Truth as it is revealed in God’s Word. It is the Spirit who woos and draws us tenderly to the Savior’s blood and takes out our stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh so that we may believe and be saved. The believer’s life and witness of truth are essential means of God’s grace, but it is the Spirit alone who brings life to the dead. 

It is clearly set forth in holy texts that we are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light by His work in our hearts. No man or woman has ever been brought to the Light of Truth without first being delivered out of the darkness of sin. 

Don’t buy into wrathless preaching or loveless preaching. Preach the whole council of God that sinners may see their plight and flee from the wrath of God into the arms of the everlasting love and mercy of the Almighty. 

Dear Lord, we beseech you, deliver us from the looming darkness of sin and sorrow!

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Dr. R.A. Hargrave is Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida.  He also serves as Executive Director of GraceWorx Ministries.

TO ADDRESS the subject of heresy and those who promote it is, ironically, considered heresy itself.  Heresy is defined as an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma … or dissent or deviation from a dominant theory, or an opinion, doctrine … or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards.(1)

The question is, Whose standards? Whose opinion, dogma or accepted beliefs? It should be understood that the trend of emerging truth in the church today is so fluid that to grasp it is like picking up water with your hands. The vast majority of Christendom considers standards, unchanging truths and dogma obsolete. Therefore, the heretic is now the one who refuses to deviate from the norm of absolute truth and embrace a relativistic “theology” which promotes and protects vacillation. 

Hermeneutics has been replaced with homogenization, and truth has been relegated to triviality. The entire concept of being heretical is redefined as the conviction that heresy is, in fact, a reality, and today’s “new heretic” is the one who adheres to that immutable conviction.

Redefinition is the new standard of the day, and reminders of the old standard are, at the very least, casually ignored. This mistaken position is dangerous in any field of study, but in the theological arena it is damnable. To replace the foundation of unchanging truth for the ever-changing whimsical notions of fallen humanity is an error too awful to fathom. Yet churches by the thousands are swallowing these fables every Sunday morning. Perhaps one of the greatest hindrances in combating such folly is the absence of addressing the reality of heresy. 

A subject that was once widely understood in the church is today tossed out as irrelevant, as well as extremely divisive, to the post-modern mind. It is this context that has created the new heretic. Heresy, therefore, which was once known as a false stand against the truth, has come to be known as an arrogant, narrow-minded stand for the truth. We who believe in the absoluteness of divine truth as revealed in Holy Scripture are the heretics, and those who embrace mutability are the new champions of love and compassion. We have, in fact, deviated from today’s norm and are therefore designated as ignorant, if not cultish, heretics. 

Before we implode at this despicable predicament, let us consider our options. We can join the emergers and the imaginers and enjoy the harvest of temporary fruitfulness and her accolades. Or we can stake our claim on the canon of truth and stand firm. I choose the latter, primarily because I have a difficult time hitting a moving target.  It is a moving target that these disseminators of falsehood are attempting to accomplish. They redefine the terms, reinvent the standards and regurgitate each other’s opinions. This week it’s this, and next week it’s that. 

Perhaps it arouses the curiosity of their followers because every day promises a new vision, a new direction, new priorities and the ability to expel last week’s old theology for this week’s new theology. They even have the luxury of catapulting those truths that weigh heavily on their consciences for newer, gentler truths whenever the next issue immerges from the minds of their inventors. 

How can we stem the tide of this heterodoxical dilemma and re-establish orthodoxy as the norm? First, we must recognize what we cannot do. We cannot open the minds and hearts of people to the truth of God’s Word without the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. What we can do, through a firm confidence concerning the Bible’s infallible veracity, is preach the truth of it. This, of course, requires courage, conviction and consistency in the pulpit, as well as the study. 

The ascendancy of vacillation is due largely to the laziness of orthodox men in the pulpit. While reading our books on the latest fad or the newest church growth phenomenon, we starve the sheep with half-baked sermonizing. You can be sure that a sentimental, self-help homily from a self-proclaimed professor of orthodoxy is not the prescription for turning the tide. Furthermore, the latest conference that promotes preaching by waving the Bible—but not actually preaching it—is not the answer.

We must establish a beachhead against the surge of heresy in our day, for it is a leaven that expands and multiplies exponentially with each passing day. Our retreat, as well as our stagnation, is not acceptable in this battle. For every lazy moment we spend as preachers of the Word of God, there is an advance of the enemy.  Like a cancer that reaches into the vital organs through its invading tentacles, heresy beats its path to the souls of men. 

While we are slumbering in our studies and the sheep are sleeping during our sermons, the heretics are marching onward. They are empowered by our negligence and emboldened by our complacency. All the while, the souls of men under our charge are falling into the pit. 

Stand up, gentlemen, like men of old against the onslaught of these promoters of poppycock. Wield the sword of God’s Holy Word against these purveyors of passing fads. Their end is certain, and the Truth will reign triumphant over them. 

The victory is ours, TAKE IT!

¹ Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/heresy.

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Dr. R.A. Hargrave is the Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida. Dr. Hargrave is also the Bible-teacher for GraceWorx Ministries.

“Just” is a word I often hear when Christians invite others to Christ. “Just pray this prayer . . .” 

Perhaps some may object to this observation since those words are simply the terminating point of the presentation of the gospel. All the other pertinent information has been duly established. But I beg to differ, at least generally speaking. Much, if not most, of the evangelistic approaches I observe through television, radio and internet ministries, as well as experientially for 33 years of vocational ministry, rarely, if ever, touch on the gospel’s necessity. Facts like the law, sin and its due wrath and judgment are usually left out of the equation. 

Occasionally, these vital elements are briefly mentioned but usually in a casual or surface fashion. What has happened to the church today to cause us to fall into such shallow proclamation? That, along with the biblical prescription for this malignancy, is what I am addressing here. 

When I read Paul’s inspired words in Romans 1:16, 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, I find myself dismayed by what I hear coming out of many preachers’ mouths. To equate “just pray this prayer” with Paul’s weighty revelation is like comparing ants to elephants. For many today, it is blasphemy to question the legitimacy of what appears to be an extremely compassionate gesture to invite people to pray a sinner’s prayer. Most would ask, “What could possibly be wrong with the practice?” To put it bluntly, everything!  It is not so much the practice of imploring the lost to seek the Lord through prayer; it is the isolation of such a practice from the gospel itself. It is a valid concern as to what information leads up to such an invitation. After all, there is a “casting the pearls before the swine” to think about when we invite the sinner to Christ. This may explain why so many simply trample the invitation under foot and tread on the blood of the precious Savior. 

There is, of course, the prominence of sinners who have prayed the prayer, often multiple times, who wouldn’t dare step foot in the gathering place of the people of God. They do not read the Bible, attend to the due worship of God, care for and fellowship with the saints or engage themselves in the spread of the gospel to the lost. They simply stand at the front door and say, “I’ve already prayed the prayer.” 

From personal observation I have found the “I prayed the prayer” sinners to be the most difficult to reach with the gospel of Christ. Give me a drunk in the gutter any day of the week over a self-convinced “I prayed the prayer” sinner in the pew who has been told never to examine or doubt his salvation. 

What could possibly motivate the church to abandon the gospel of saving-power for the shallowness of simply gaining a vocalized decision from individuals? Though I cannot know the motives of people who use such an approach, I can give an opinion. First, let it be stipulated, in my opinion, that there are many who have merely been taught such an approach and are simply obeying their leaders. They often do so with pure motives and a true desire to see the lost come to Christ. Their motives, if pure, are commendable, but never having measured their practices against Scripture is tragic. 

If these same dear people who love their Savior were taught  clearly the power of the gospel, they would turn the world upside down. Instead, they watch the vast majority of their converts fall by the wayside, and they secretly ask themselves the question, “Why?” I know of many churches that baptize hundreds every year and yet the attendance in public worship lies dormant or actually declines. What perpetuates such foolishness in our midst?

Here are five possible reasons for the proliferation of this shallow practice of evangelism: 

First, simply put, ego. Yes, the ego of the preacher who wants to be described as one who has so many thousand in his church is a problem. Of course, today, when we hear of a church of 6,000 members, it usually translates into approximately 1,000 people attending to the public worship of God. Think about it: would you rather be introduced at the next conference as the pastor of 6,000 members or 1,000 members? There is nothing worse for a preacher (in the flesh) than to be introduced as the guy who formerly had 6,000 members but now has only 1,000. 

As a preacher for the past 33 years, I am letting you in on a little trade secret-—preachers have egos. Since I am a pastor, you need to carefully scrutinize what I am saying and not embrace it simply because a preacher said it. I often tell my congregation that the greatest misconception in the pew today is that the preacher in the pulpit knows what he is talking about.

 If our words are not validated by God’s Word, then our word is of no eternal benefit to anyone. Of course, when our egos get in the way, all of that goes out the window. Furthermore, is it not true that in the church today we often get caught up in numbers and our own self-importance instead of the glory of God? 

Secondly, we want to build our churches. If this was a biblical responsibility given to the pastor, it would be one thing, but it is not. Christ did not call any preacher to build the church. He said in Matthew 16, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” He didn’t say, “Preacher, you build it.” He said, “I will build it.” The late Dr. Adrian Rogers made this profound statement years ago, “God didn’t call me to fill the pew, He called me to fill the pulpit.” 

The sad reality, however, is that many preachers and churches are willing to do and not do many things in order to accomplish what Christ never expected from them. If a man or a church gets so caught up in building the numbers of the church, they will be tempted to do whatever it takes to accomplish that end. 

Pragmatism has become a god today in the church, and whatever works is considered the test of validity. Of course, that is false. If we measured the ministry of the prophets, the Savior and the apostles by the criteria of success today, they would not be able to conduct any seminars. The prophets were usually hated and rejected. Jesus was scorned, hated, rejected and crucified; and the apostles were all martyred, with the exception of John who was banished to an island for preaching the gospel. 

When men want accolades for the number of converts at their feet, they are willing to exclude all kinds of vital information. If motivating a sinner to the place of repeating a prayer is the goal, then the less we say to him about what Christ and His apostles taught, the better. This is exactly the cause of much of the death in the church today—false converts created through egotistical motives and the desire for importance at the next rally. 

The third reason for this shallowness is more subtle. I call it employment. Many preachers, some of them very young with precious wives and children, are afraid for their jobs. They know in their hearts and minds that things are not right in the church today.  They are also cognizant of the fruitless labors of the prevalent evangelistic approaches of our day. But the alternative to such vain tradition is turmoil. 

Ask this question: “Would my preacher get away with saying in his pulpit what is being stated in this article?” The peer pressure, the deacon pressure and the dear little praying grandmother pressure all, sadly, place a great restraint upon the preacher to keep his mouth shut about what is wrong in the church. Plus, there is denominational pressure. If he does not tote the line of the latest denominational approach to evangelism, he must be a Calvinist. (Whoops! That was a Freudian slip.) I have actually heard it said, that this new approach or that new method in evangelism is going to turn the world upside down. Whatever happened to the plain old gospel of Jesus Christ? If it was good enough for Paul and Silas, it ought to be good enough for us. 

There is a fourth reason for the continuation of invalid approaches to the very important task of evangelism: peer pressure. “What will the brothers say when I get fired for preaching the whole counsel of God? It will be a blemish on my resume, and then no one will want me. I will be knocked off the preaching tour, and I’ll never be the moderator of the association or the president of the pastor’s conference.” When we succumb to these pressures, we lose the anointing of God on our preaching, and our ministries follow suit. What we should seek from the Lord are men of God who are not interested in climbing the ladder of success and are not frightened by the threat of termination or losing their annuity. Lord, give us men who love God, love His Word and love those to whom they must preach. May there be the fear of God in his heart and a fire in his bosom for the glory of the Great Sacred Head above all else!

The final reason for the proliferation of shallow practices in evangelism is the most simple to understand.  It is disobedience, characterized by a case of cowardice when it comes to proclaiming the truth to people no matter what the cost. Though we clearly see Christ driving off the rich young ruler with the whole truth of the matter right before our eyes, we continue to abbreviate the truth in order to gain associational recognition or denominational accolades. What will my favorite professor think of me if I go against the flow? What if the upcoming recognition at my alma mater is rescinded due to my stand? What if the Sunday School attendance board hanging in the sanctuary shows a decline from last year?  What if that decline was due to my disallowing a prospective new member (who recently prayed the prayer) from joining our church because he is living with a woman out of wedlock? I know of a preacher who was fired because he would not allow a Mormon (who denies the deity of Christ) to preach in their church building at the community Easter sunrise service. 

Folks, what are we coming to in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? “Ichabod” is a bad word in the Bible, but it could be etched on the doorpost of many of our churches due primarily to this one fact: we will not preach the gospel in its entirety because of the conflict it will create. Conversions will decrease, membership will decline and people will be angered and leave the church. Praise God! Though it may seem foreign to many, that is the very track we must tread if we are going to see true revival in the church today. Conversions, as they are presently understood, need to decrease. Lost people are filling the rolls of our churches and even a “little leaven,” according to the Word of God, destroys the whole lump. Membership should decline, because if we had integrity, we would stop the false pretense of promoting a number that even the FBI could not validate. Even the scenario of people getting angry (due to biblical proclamation of the Truth) would be progress from the sad and silly problems that are usually reserved for what the color of the carpet is or where the preacher should stand after the sermon. 

Jesus would rather us be hot or cold than to be lukewarm (Revelation 3:16). May the Lord knock us out of our indifference and stir up the wicked so that the righteous may be convinced that no carnal weapon is sufficient for our task. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled (2 Corinthians 10:4-6 NKJV). 

Can the gospel save? Yes, in fact, it is the only thing that can save. The Holy Spirit exclusively uses the gospel to save the lost. Furthermore, there is to be no contrived addendum of man attached to its contents. The gospel is sufficient for the salvation of all who hear its precious truths. It is necessary because of man’s fallen and desperate state. In fallenness we find our present lot, and we must be warned of the eternal consequences. 

Our sins are muted by a godless culture and a cowardly church, and Satan aims his arsenal at the Law of God. It is the Law that is the schoolmaster to drive us in despair to the Savior’s bosom. For as Paul said, I would not have known covetousness until the law said you shall not covet (Romans 7:7). 

Conviction of sin comes only by the clear and forceful proclamation of the Ten Commandments and their demands. Perfection is required of any who would gain entrance into heaven, for if we break any part of the law, we have broken the whole law. The lack of this sort of preaching and witnessing is the cause of such indifference in the hearts of lost people around us. While we only proclaim the love of Jesus to them and plead with them to pray a prayer, they know little or nothing about the awful demands of a Holy God’s perfect law. The Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul (Psalm 19:7). How then can conversions take place in the hearts of men who have not heard of God’s demands? There is no need for a remedy if there is no known malady. God’s wrath is kindled against the wicked because we have broken His holy law. 

Furthermore, He is fair and just in casting our souls into a sinner’s hell (something usually ignored in gospel presentations) and could do so at any moment. We deserve it, and no man will truly repent of his wickedness until he knows what he justly deserves. This, of course, is not only accomplished through a clear understanding of the law and its rightful demands but also through a proper view of the character of God. 

God is holy and demands perfection. He will not even look upon sin. He hates it with a perfect hatred. While today’s prevalent approach of producing converts overlooks the wickedness of the prospect, God does not. In Luke 13:3 Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” Of course, the need to repent is often mentioned (usually in passing) in gospel presentations, but it is not adequately addressed. Repentance is not simply a change of mind.  It possesses a resulting fruit which John the Baptist referred to when he said to the hypocritical religious leaders of his day, “bring forth fruit meet for repentance” (Luke 3:8). 

When a preacher today says, “Let’s get the sinner to pray and we will deal with his lifestyle later,” he is putting the cart before the horse. A man living with a woman must be confronted with his sins (consider the Samaritan woman). If he is truly being saved by the power of God through the gospel of Christ, he will gladly acquiesce to His Savior’s demands. Again, see Jesus’ approach with the rich young ruler and notice the manifestation of his refusal to follow Christ’s commands. “If you love me,” Jesus said (John 14:15), “you will keep my commandments.” 

Don’t misunderstand or misinterpret what I am saying. Salvation is not by works; it is by grace through faith. But works always attend the true work of salvation. The Bible states unequivocally in Matthew 7:15-20, You shall know them by their works. God knows by their faith, but we can only know by their works. When churches receive people who openly practice sins against God, they are bringing judgment upon themselves. 

When the good news of Christ is broadcast to those who already know the bad news, it finds fertile ground. When one who does not know his lost condition is invited to salvation, the message is nonsense to him. For instance, if you diminish the bad news and tell people that if they “pray this prayer,” they will be happier, they will be better parents or children and they will have peace forevermore, then they may likely take you up on it—but for the wrong reasons. 

Repentance is not present on such occasions. If they do repeat your prayer, they may simply be covering their bases; or to put it plainly, they may be “buying fire insurance” with this prayer. I have always been amazed that anyone turns down that offer. On the other hand, if you have tediously taught them over time about the law of God, the nature of God and His rightful vengeance against the high treason of His creatures, then the good news becomes truly great news to sinners. Response at that point may be more like this. “What?! God, who may justly cast me into the eternal pit, is offering mercy to such a poor and pitiful sinner as myself?” 

How would you prefer for your prospect to respond? “Lord, thank you that I’m not like one of these other people,” or “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner!” Incidentally, if the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, we do not need to assist by getting someone to repeat a prayer that is not even found in the Bible (Look up your approach and see if that is true). If the Holy Spirit has performed a supernatural work on the sinner through the truth of the gospel, isn’t the sinner so overwhelmed by the truth of it that he is able to breathe a prayer to God, like, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner”? It makes sense if you have given the bad news before the good news. Sinners will cry out to God with great joy when they know exactly from what they are being saved. 

The Savior did what they could not. He was perfect; they are sinners. He fulfilled in His earthly life all the demands of God’s laws; they could not, due to their moral depravity. He, the infinite Son of God and Son of man, suffered the vengeance and wrath of God the Father that could have only been paid otherwise by the finite sinner through eternal torment in the lake of fire. By their Master’s resurrection and continuing intercession, they are secured by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. 

Here are two concluding observations. First, be careful how you approach the sinner. If your approach is not exemplified in the Bible, you are treading on dangerous ground and may be leading people farther from the truth though you truly intend the opposite. For instance, consider the prominent notion of God’s love being the dominant element in teaching sinners the truth. 

It often goes like this: “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” Isn’t that circumventing the fear of God and giving premature hope to the sinner? The force of the law has not been applied, so the schoolmaster (as Paul referred to it), has not been activated to drive the sinner to despair. When we use popular approaches like this one, is it not extremely deadly since it is actually diametrically opposed to God’s own words? 

Heed to the facts: God hates the sinner and will cast him into eternal perdition if he does not humbly submit to the Great Sovereign God. If that thought makes you angry, take it up with God, for the Word says in Psalm 5:5-6, The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. Stop telling people what you have been taught by preachers, and tell them what God has already said. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), and the prevalent evangelistic approach seeks to circumvent that very thing. 

The application of hard truth is necessary, but it does not negate the love of God. When the sinner sees the awfulness of sin and the gravity of his offense, the love of God becomes what we often sing about, Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound of it to the convicted sinner over against the sinner who has only been told of the love of God and possesses no fear of Him. Is this not exactly what Jesus was referring to when He said in Luke 7:47 (NKJV), “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”?

Finally, there are those who have been saved through the sharing of an evangelistic outline. And though the law, sin, judgment, holiness and other pertinent truths were not adequately covered, the hearers were convicted and brought to repentance and faith. It is important, however, to know why such an occurrence occasionally happens. Perhaps many others have taught them the truth of Scripture about these vital elements of the gospel. Some plant and some water, but only God can bring the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). You may ask, “Then why rail against the prevalent approach to evangelism when some are being saved?” 

Three quarters of a century ago in this country, the majority of people were brought up hearing the Ten Commandments, preaching about God’s judgment, and so forth. They knew the malady and were apt to listen when the remedy was given. 

The problem is that we are living in the post-Christian era in this world. Our young people do not know the commandments, which drive them to Christ, because the Law of God has been removed from our institutions. The commandments are rarely heard in the church house. Most young people who attend church cannot name three of them. And who preaches hellfire and brimstone these days? All we are left with is, “Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” 

Does that sound at all like Jonah’s message to the Ninevites, Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost, Stephen’s message to Jerusalem, or Jesus’ message to the religious leaders? As we go about telling the good news, no one is aware of the bad news, which makes the good news not so great. 

We must repent of this ignorance and stop shopping for converts the same way we get cash out at an ATM machine or slide a card at Wal-Mart. The old saints knew that God could save the sinner in a moment, if it pleased Him. They also knew that the common means was through due diligence, fervent prayer, living a godly life before the lost and teaching them the whole truth about the Holy God and the Savior’s blood. 

The church must repent of the kind of evangelism we are practicing today.  The church must return to believing that the Gospel is the power God unto salvation. It is not a man’s salesmanship that the sinner needs; he needs the Truth, the Truth that will set him free. 

One last warning: our popular approach today is producing masses of lost converts. Some of them are filling our churches with dissension and chaos while others are joining the ranks of the hardest to reach. In effect, they have been vaccinated with Christianity. They have acquired just enough of the truth to keep them from getting the real thing. The cure: not the contrivances of men ... but the Gospel of God. 

_____________________________

Dr. R.A. Hargrave, President of GraceWorx Ministries, serves as Senior Pastor of Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Where the rubber meets the road ... the first word that comes to mind is “friction.” Obviously, a lot of heat is produced at the point of the rubber meeting the road.  To my chagrin, it took me more than a decade of ministry to discover that. When theory, or in our case, theology, is practically applied in the body of Christ, the consequences may produce conflict.

Theology is kind to the student in the seminary, but the practice of it in the church house is often an extremely hard pill for the congregation to swallow. Getting one’s theology into practice is one of the more challenging aspects of a pastor’s responsibility; that’s why it is often left undone. Why stir the hornet’s nest when theory alone keeps the peace?

That’s the question I answered a few years ago in my own life and ministry. Now I am hopeful that my journey will be helpful to others. I must stipulate, however, that what you may discover in this lesson may not lead to a bigger, brighter field of service or to greater heights of glory on the denominational ladder.  Instead, it may lead to a journey with some degree of suffering and perhaps even a large dose of being misunderstood. But before you jettison yourself from such a life of potential hardship, be reminded that the Savior was Himself a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Clearly, being a man of such trials is not in opposition to a life of holiness and lasting joy, for Christ is the purest example of such a paradox in the human experience. No one ever knew the heights of the joy the Son of Man experienced in His Father’s presence nor the depths of His pitiful suffering at the hands of man.  No one can fully realize the vengeance of His own Father upon Him due to His vicarious endeavor on the cross.

These are not merely words of an introduction.  They are foundational to one’s Christianity being richly lived out. Make no mistake about it, true Christianity is not merely to be contained within a man but is to be proclaimed through a man’s actions and words. The same is true of a local body of believers known as a New Testament church. If theology directs only the mind but never stirs the heart and imagination of God’s people to action, then it is a dead theology. Faith without works is dead, according to the divine revelation, and any notion of the possibility of a workless faith is foreign to Holy Writ. The sad reality on many occasions is that Bible-preaching churches take great comfort in the correctness of the theory of the church while never becoming bold enough to endure the friction caused by actually putting it into practice.

Here are a few lessons I have learned over the years as to the attitude one must possess when entering a field of ministry. When I came to my present charge in 1989, I was filled with two great convictions that spurred me onward in the face of nagging opposition.

First, I was convinced that God had called me to the gospel ministry and had providentially led me to the church I presently serve.

Secondly, and this is most vital in maintaining sanity in the ministry, I was so thoroughly convinced of the first conviction that I knew that man could not take away what God intended. To put it bluntly, I stopped being afraid of the people. I don’t mean that in an arrogant or disrespectful way. Simply by virtue of the fear instilled in me by the Sovereign God, I began to see man’s vengeance as relatively puny. Clearly, I’m not stating I was convinced that if I stood for and demanded the actual practice of the truth the Bible taught that I would not be fired. I knew it could happen, and there were times I actually prayed for it, seeing that it appeared at times to be the easiest way out. I was not being convinced so much as to what the church would do, but as to what God would do. And what was I convinced that God would do? I was convinced that He would work all things for my good and His glory according to His infinite wisdom and eternal decree. This is true freedom from the bondage of pleasing men and the fear of losing one’s employment.

Unless God raises up men who are unafraid of facing spiritual obstinance, rebellion and threats, we will continue our present slide into the abyss. If you think that the actual engagement of biblical truth in the very life of the church is going to be without hostile battles, then, please, for the kingdom’s sake, get out of the ministry and let battle-readied men stand in your stead.

Here are a few concrete examples of putting faith into practice in the local church and the consequences of it. First, when I came to Ormond Beach, Florida, I was thoroughly reformed in my soteriology. I believed in the two paradoxical truths of God’s absolute sovereignty and man’s full responsibility as taught in the Word of God. I was also convinced of the necessity of preaching by exposing the texts of Scripture to the extent that I informed our leaders and congregation that the entirety of our practice would be measured by the Word of God. It would encourage you, I’m sure, to tell you that the people lauded me as a great man of God and followed the course I believed God had set for the congregation. But I would be less than honest in doing so.

What did happen was that people started leaving—not just a few here and a few there. Dozens at a time became so vehemently opposed to my convictions of truth that some even informed the local newspaper about my poor policies and beliefs, which ultimately made print. An “anti-Roy rally” was staged at a local park where hundreds showed up with signs seeking my removal from the church. I was almost expunged from the great state of Florida. Some even signed a petition to send me back to Arkansas. I was so frustrated that I told them to bring the petition in, and I would sign it.

What was this all about? I was preaching the Word of God and admonishing the church to practice biblical truth. The church had been under a rather liberal pulpit for the preceding seven or eight years—with the exception of my immediate predecessor, who believed the Bible but was run off in less than 15 months.

After four years of losing members, there was a brief respite. But, soon, new battles arose. When people began to listen more carefully to the content of my preaching, some of the members began to make accusations about my Calvinism. Though I did not use the terminology at that point in my ministry, preaching through Romans soon exposed the “hideous” fact that I believed in divine, unconditional election. When I was being called to the church in 1989, I had explained my convictions, but the people apparently didn’t understand. People all over Greater Daytona Beach still approach me and ask me if I’m the preacher who believes in predestination.  Their query is not usually for the purpose of exercising compassion upon the perceived, poor, misinformed preacher.

What a sad and tragic reality it is when people who are in church every Sunday deride the preaching of doctrines that are taught explicitly in the Scriptures.

Riverbend, the church I pastor, is still called by prominent Christians in our area “a cult.” Ironically, that label stems from our belief in the great and wonderful Doctrines of Grace that men like Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Whitefield, Edwards, Dagg, Boyce, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones and other great stalwarts of the faith embraced, as well as the prophets, Jesus and the New Testament apostles. The exercise of the opponents’ consternation of such preaching, however, has been exponentially compounded not by the theory of it but by the practical application of it in the lives of God’s people.

The opposition to actually practicing what is positionally set forth in the biblical text continued. After the first round of friction in our church, some peaceful days were ordered by the good hand of God upon us. I began to realize that neither my practice, nor the practice of the church I pastor, was actualizing what we believed to be true. For instance, in believing that God is sovereign in salvation, that regeneration is monergistic and that true conversion is of the heart, the practice of the “altar call” became a source of conviction to me and most of our people. Some may not be aware that our denomination generally holds the altar call as the primary means of salvation in the church. The removal of such tradition would appear to be co-equal to, if not greater than, the perversion of an established Christian doctrine.

When we removed this practice, a number of people left, never to return to our fellowship. Some of them questioned how people could be saved without the altar call. Scary, is it not?

Then there was the New Testament teaching of church discipline which, in practice, we were disobediently ignoring in practice. When I began to teach in greater detail the Scriptures concerning this doctrine and to implement the practice of it for purity in the body, for repentance and for reconciliation for the wayward, a couple hundred people departed from our fellowship. Most of them stated that we had become a church of hate and judgment. By that time, however, our precious people at Riverbend had learned the high cost of believing and practicing biblical truth. They were battle-ready, and God used them mightily as a witness to the Daytona Beach area.

Finally, we began to desire as a people greater purity of truth and practice in the fellowship. We required a much stricter scrutiny in receiving members into the body—not unbiblical scrutiny but a demand for fruit meet for repentance, as John the Baptist had preached. I have observed for many years that it is apparently easier to join a local church than it is to join the Moose Club, where men wear funny hats. So frivolous are we in our acceptance of warm bodies that the FBI could not find most of the members of our churches.

When I came as senior pastor in 1989, we had more than 3,500 members. I have labored in the vineyard for almost 18 years and whittled it to 1,400 members. Of course, in 1989 only 375 members attended on Sunday, and today we sometimes have more showing up for church than we have members. Almost 900 of them actually attend on Wednesday nights to worship God and learn more of His greatness. Membership, in the Bible, means covenant relationship and accountability, and we take that very seriously.

From this flowed greater demands on our leadership in the church. We now require all of our leaders to sign annually, before the congregation, an Affirmation of Faith, largely based on the 1689 Baptist Confession. Hundreds of leaders sign it in one of the more moving services of the year. It not only gives each of us an opportunity to affirm publicly our theological convictions, it also confirms in the hearts of our children and young people that we mean business when it comes to the work of the Almighty. This practice adds biblical solidarity to the training of our observing children, who are also learning catechisms and discovering the great truths of Scripture.

Looking back on the ministry at Riverbend, I see God’s hand of providence guiding us through each phase of maturity. As we launched into the practice of New Testament revelation, we realized the altar call was an unbiblical practice.

Without an altar call, we preach to minds and hearts the call to repentance and faith in the full, rich merits of Christ’s active and passive obedience. We are thoroughly convinced that the preaching of the whole truth of God’s holiness, love, wrath and mercy initiates the true invitation to salvation. Our church now glories in God over the salvation of a soul, instead of patting the preacher on the back for giving a powerful altar call. This has also produced a people who speak of the things of the Savior in their homes, at school, in the workplace and on the playground. The Lord has blessed us over the years with a multitude of converts who continue through perseverance to prove the validity of their faith. Though we have been attacked primarily by other church people in the community due to theological misunderstandings, the Lord has given us great favor among the unchurched, unreached people of the community. Christ has continued to build His church. Great inroads have been made in our area, with many churches reexamining their theology and practice. I encourage you to remain faithful, as God’s Word is always triumphant over faulty philosophies.

After my first eight years of ministry at Riverbend, we relocated from a five-acre campus to what has become a 112-acre campus. When I see 1,300-1,400 people on a given Sunday, as well as a full house on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, I rejoice—not in the size but in the blessings of a people determined to live out their days for the glory of God.

Many are convinced that a church cannot thrive without acquiescing to a man-centered ministry. “User-friendly” is the battle cry of our day, but to that, I say, FOLLY! I certainly want to encourage young preachers that God is still on His throne and that many people are hungering for the meat of Truth — not only the Truth as it is taught but also as it is lived out by a congregation. Size is not the issue in my understanding of true biblical ministry. Faithfulness to the truth and the glory of God is what ought to drive us. Small is not necessarily godly, nor is big necessarily ungodly. God’s providence determines all of that. Let us rest in Christ and exercise our faith for all to see so that they may glorify our heavenly Father.

Don’t let anyone convince you that truth and the practice of it must be relegated to the back-burner if we are to win the minds and hearts of Twenty-First Century man. Man’s root problem never changes; it is depravity which holds us captive. Therefore, preach doctrine, the law, judgment, hell and heaven, life and death, mercy, grace and love in all of their fullness. Preach the riches of Christ, and let all of your doctrine flow forth from the precious blood of the great Redeemer so that it may retain its life-giving power. Don’t buy into the dead, lifeless theology of our day. Keep pressing onward, young preacher, and lead a people to believe and practice the truth of God.

We are not to be driven by pragmatic principles. We are to be driven by theological truth which points the way to our hope and rest, which is Christ. Numbers are not our passion; the glory of God is. God didn’t call us to build His church. Christ said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Thank God! The church we build is constantly pummeled by the minions of hell. But the church, the true church that Christ builds, triumphs over the foes.

May the church believe the truth. But let her also never forget to practice it. Where the rubber meets the road, there is always friction. But I prefer the heat to a cold church any day of the week. Fear not, young preacher, young missionary, young teacher. “Be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Then you can die and enter the gates and hear from the blessed Savior, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21).

Everything else is vanity!

_____________________________

Dr. R.A. Hargrave, Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida, is also the President and Bible-teacher for GraceWorx Ministries.

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