MY FRIENDS, 2016 APPROACHES CAN WE SAY WE ARE NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL?

Dec. 30, 2015

MY FRIENDS, 2016 APPROACHES CAN WE SAY WE ARE NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL?

2015 ends tomorrow, the ball drops, shots will be heard, along with fireworks and then a new year begins. But, as God’s chosen how do we react to a world surrounded by “breaking news”?

A world where the principalities, and powers, and rulers of darkness and the spiritual wickedness in high places seem to be in complete control? A world where wars and rumors of wars are who we have become as a nation and a world?

A world where famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places, are only the beginning of birth pangs? And friends, what part will we play in finishing Christ commission, here, at the threshold of the promise land?

And are we proclaiming the good news of Christ second coming as we watch the great controversy between good and evil being played out on the world stage? Let’s not forget this controversy begin over six thousand years ago when Satan said “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” Is. 14:14 (NKJV)

And then all accusation against Christ were put to rest when Christ allowed Himself to be crucified. Crucifixion being “indisputably one of the cruelest and most barbaric forms of punishment in the ancient world.”

John 19:23 (NASB) tells us Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier” Which probably only left for clothing, if any at all a loincloth which the Roman soldiers would have had no such qualms to leave Him this way. Remember they are heathens, with no concept of who God is.

“From the time of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden, public nakedness has been a biblical symbol of shame Genesis 3:7-11(KJV)” So “Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, endured the cross, and disregarded the shame,[for our salvation]” Heb. 12:2 (KJV)

But then scripture also brings our responsibility into this controversy when it says “whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” Romans 10:11 (KJV) meaning we can also disregard this shame and the “suffering of this present time [because they] are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [at His appearing]” Rom 8:18 (NKJV)

So now it’s personal, so let’s go deep within and search our heart. And if we are children of God, then let’s ask ourselves, am I a-shame of the Gospel of Christ and what He did for me on Calvary?

And do our friends, family, love one’s, co-workers and neighbors know that this world is not our home?  And when is the last time we spoke to someone about the saving grace of Jesus Christ or passed out a tract proclaiming the name of Christ?

My friends, as God’s chosen, we are recipients of the good news of Jesus soon return, but the Gospel is not for the Saved, within our churches but for the unsaved outside in our communities.

Millions of God’s Chosen since Abel were not a-shame to proclaim the gospel of Christ and therefore lost their lives for the same message given to us that Jesus saves all who are sinking deep in sin.

A message proclaiming there is power in the blood and the word! And friends, for a little while, but only a little while grace still abounds. So as God’s chosen we cannot be a-shame of the good news, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes in that “one name given among men and woman by which we must be saved.”

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.