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Ambassador of Christ, Committed to the Local Church, Husband, Father, Disciple Maker, Chaplain, Airman.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Put Away Falsehood; Share the Truth

I heard a quote by C.S. Lewis the other week which has rewritten my entire motivation. Lewis said, "Whatever is not eternally useful is eternally useless." It stands on scripture,

Ephesians 2:10, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Galatians 1:10, "Am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."
Colossians 3:1, "If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

Beloved, Christianity is not congruous with the American Dream, we do not have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of stuff. It is not us who lives, but Christ who lives in us, we are not our own, we are bought with a price, we are to be content in times of plenty and times of need. But what we must do is preach the word, we must proclaim on the housetops what we read in our Bible, we must put away falsehood and share the truth with our neighbor.

There is no lack of scripture reference for the necessity of evangelism, Jude exhorted us to have mercy on those that are perishing, snatching them in pity from the flames, hating not only them, but also their garments which they have defiled. But why should we seek the salvation of those whose actions we hate? Because we are a people that had not known mercy but now have obtained mercy, having been dragged kicking and screaming into the light by the great and glorious King of Righteousness who died the most terrific death imaginable for a people who did not love him.

Saints, if the Christian were not to share their faith, they would be raptured at the moment of conversion. A select few witnesses, similar to the job that Dr. John MacArthur and myself want from Revelation 11, would stand there proclaiming John 3:16 until the person in front of us went zipping into Heaven, then we'd move onto the next. I imagine it would be quite fun. But it doesn't work this way, Paul said, and I desperately agree, that it is much better to go to Christ, but since our ministry is vital to souls here on earth, we stay.

God is the Creator of the universe, Christ is the Recreator of souls; Desidarius Erasmus said, "By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade." Beloved, a carpenter uses tools; you, as a blood bought saint, are that tool. Certainly God does not "need" us, he is the sovereign creator of the universe whom founded the principles of unconditional election and irresistible grace, but magnify your Lord by being a pliable and useful tool mighty in his hand. Do not fret, Christ will save his elect no matter how poorly you perform, but be certain that the more practice you have, the more effective you will be. I was saved by a preacher screaming on a street corner that the reason the world is going to Hell is because women are allowed to speak in church. Can you outpreach this man? He has at least one convert to his name, don't let him get more crowns than you.

Will you stand beside George Whitefield and brag on the huge house and big TV you owned during your stay on earth? Will you tell Jon Huss about the time you got insulted for the "christian" bumper-sticker on your car?

How about Jesus Christ? What will your excuse be for esteeming your life higher than his? You didn't know how to share your faith? Beloved, if you love Christ, you will obey his commands, and one of his commands is as unambiguous as it gets, "Study yourself approved so that you may show yourself a workman not ashamed."

Will you tell Simon Peter that you were afraid of being persecuted? The same Peter who bears the scars of an inverted crucifixion? Maybe your excuse is that you don't know if your motives are right; beloved, I don't know if my motives are right either, but you know what? Paul said it doesn't matter, preach the word. Perhaps your motives are to have a stack of crowns in Heaven, maybe your motive is that the Lamb that was slain receives the reward for his suffering. Paul, nor I, really care; as long as the word is preached, we rejoice. See Philippians 1:15-18.

Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel, woe to you if you do not preach the Gospel. How precious is the blood of the Lamb to you if you have not gone through the city and applied it to anyone? Read Ezekiel 8 and 9 and hope that you have that blood applied to yourself.

The steps to sharing your faith are simple.
1. Read Your Bible
2. Pray About It
3. Preach What You Read

These are enough, you can't convert anyone, Christ does that, but how blessed it is to be the instrument used by the Saviour God to redeem a soul, an event which is more monumental than the whole creation of the universe.

If you want more training, I beseech you to watch the following video:


In all things, preach, pray, and read your Bible. If you want to start small, begin by dropping Gospel tracts around, and then hand them out, my dear friends at customtractsource.com and onemilliontracts.com have been so helpful that I feel compelled to list them first, but many other tract sources exist, such as livingwaters.com and evangelismteam.com, but this is only a taste of available tracts. If you want to know if this works, watch this video:


The above video, while told in a story-like manner, has been checked for credibility and is 100% true.

Beloved, whether you've stepped over the line of hypercalvinism like me, or are a Wesleyan like Charles and John Wesley, it doesn't matter, preach the word, pray, and read your Bible, and God will use you to win trophies of grace to himself. He died for you, are you going to live for him? Will you set your mind on things that are above, or place your affections on things that are on earth?

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.