Home pagePerhaps there are a few among you who remember hearing the preaching of the Gospel! It would usually begin by talking about the holy, righteous and just God who created all of us. The oldest of our ancestors, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God looking for independence even though God had provided them everything they would ever need. Coming down the generations inheriting their sinful nature, all of us have sinned against God. When we hear this, some of us would begin to justify ourselves saying that we have not been particularly bad and that God would not punish us. But some others among us would remember what all we have done in our life, including all the sins nobody else knows, and begin to become convicted in our heart about what God knows about us. Then the preacher tells us that all of us have to stand one day before God for His judgment, and He would look into our records and bring out every sin in our life. By this time we would be feeling really troubled in our heart and mind and begin to think that our situation would be hopeless. That is when the preacher brings out the Gospel, the good news that Jesus has come with forgiveness for us, that His death was for our punishment which He bore in our place. Now God is willing to forgive our sins if we confess them and accept this salvation made available through Jesus. All who receive that offer by faith receive not only forgiveness, but they also get adopted as children of God and receive the opportunity to share an inheritance along with Jesus in the life to come.
When was the last time you heard this Gospel? The unfortunate thing is that without hearing this Gospel, repenting from their sins and receiving Jesus as their Saviour, many people are assuming they are Christians and on their way to heaven. This is in spite of Jesus saying bluntly, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn.3:3). This being born again is not something casual that happens without our knowledge. It is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in a person who repents and places his trust in Jesus for salvation. The Holy Spirit gives such people a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek.36:26,27). This causes an inner transformation in them, with their hearts now tuned towards God and against sin. This is another part of the salvation God gives, after forgiving our past sins. It is this transformation that has begun in our heart that assures us that we have been born again (1Jn.3:8,9). It is true that without being born again no one can enter heaven, because it is a most holy place where God dwells and no sinner can enter there. It is possible for us to enter there only after our sins have been washed away, and there is only one way that can be done, through washing by the blood of Jesus Christ which He has shed for us.
Now think of large numbers of people who are assuming that they are going to be in heaven, without ever facing the issue of their sin in God's sight, and asking for and receiving forgiveness from Him. Large numbers of people who have grown up in Christian families and who are church members assume automatically that they are Christians and automatically taken care of. There is nothing automatic here. Jesus said He is the Door, and we cannot enter into heaven without consciously and deliberately choosing to go through Him. Remember how Jesus told Nicodemus, a spiritual leader of the Jews and an Old Testament Bible scholar, how he needed to be born again!
Then there are many who wander into churches, stay on there because they like the music or the friendships there. After some time everyone begins to think of them as members of the church. Some of them begin to join in some of the church activities also. People even assume they are believers and safe to get married to because they have been in the church for so long! But if they have not been born again, they are not Christians!
Many churches do not work with the newcomers, share the Gospel with them, help them to commit themselves to God and become disciples of Jesus. They don't lead them to get baptised in water and the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:19,20). It appears that it is assumed that these things will happen automatically in the course of time!
Just think of what the church will become after some time, a collection of people with mixed sets of interests, just as what happened when the people of Israel left Egypt to go to the Promised Land (Exo.12:38). Many who were not Israelites went along with them, and became a source of great trouble for Israel later on (Num.11:4). Isn't this what is happening in many churches now? Those who have not been born again also rise to prominence because of their wealth or skills, and begin to get involved with the leaders of the church. But without having had a renewal of their mind by the Holy Spirit, they continue to think in natural, human ways, and this becomes a cause for many quarrels and divisions in churches.
When these things happen, some people start praying for revival. But revival is to strengthen the hands that have become weak. It is for people who knew the Lord once as their Saviour but whose hearts have gone cold over time. But revival is not what people need who have never experienced the new birth in the first place! What they need is the preaching of the Gospel! Churches cannot imagine that they have preached the Gospel at one time, and what they need is to study the Book of Revelation now, to give an example. No. Children are growing up in the church. New people are coming in. The Gospel needs to be preached again and again, and even for the people who have already been born again, there is need to teach the meaning of the Gospel in greater detail and how we ought to live after we have been born again.
Oh that God would stir up the evangelists, pastors and teachers in the churches to preach the Gospel in greater detail and explain the glory of God in showing us grace and giving us this great salvation! "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction" (2Tim.4:2).