Are you heeding to the true gospel call?

Mat 16:24-27 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done."

To preach the true gospel of Christ’s to unconverted souls in this manner, namely, the gospel call that tells them that they must forsake everything they own and carry their cross, if they should desire to follow Jesus Christ, will cast many waters upon their candle-lit desires. For if their desire to follow Christ was merely rooted in their entertainment, joy, wealth and privileges in this world, then those solid hard-hitting words of Christ will immediately quench their entertaining thirst to believe. But if their candle-lit desires were lit by the matches of faith, then it makes the challenge set before them the more excellent, the more glorious and the more worthy a price to be attained at the end of their faith than at the beginning. Those with faith will be eager, although with exceeding help to overcome every hazard, to stay on the narrow road, to mourn in repentance if they should stray and to expect whirlwind times on their path to glory. Those with this burning faith will not be swayed by the arrows of suffering for they will say, ‘what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, famine, nakedness, danger, or gun, separate us from the Father’s electing love?’ ‘No, never can these things separate us because our faith is much precious than gold and silver which perishes.’ And if these faith carriers be met by men’s philosophy or reason, they shall say that these philosophies and reasons are empty and have no power unto godliness, for Christ is our wisdom.

Do you have this burning faith or are you destitute of this divine knowledge? Christ, in calling you to his gospel has called you to his cross and to your cross. It was his Spirit speaking through his beloved apostle who said that we must go through many trials and tribulation to enter the kingdom of God. You may say, sir, but we have no hardships in this land, there is a freedom of religion, we are an affluence society and many of us have much more than we need. My friend, is it not written that anyone who desires to live a godly life will be persecuted? It is written so. This tribulation is not merely external but it is also a tribulation of the soul. Have you no mourning over the remaining corruptness in your soul, have you no discipline for your body, have you no challenges for your culture, are you not in tears over its ungodliness and wicked ways, have you no love for sinners? If you seek first his kingdom, then persecution will come and greet you with a well-deserved kiss. We are not to run into suffering, but if godliness exposes us to them then let us pray that God will make us more godly. In my case it is true that when I feel a very godly soul that I feel a great burden of anguish for the lost, and more personally, my feelings rise high for a certain person whom my soul loves. I wish it gone but they are heavy upon me. Our desire for righteousness increases and in a land where there are many injustices, those with burning righteousness will seek to set the land on fire.

And also, if you feel no great hardships in following Christ then I recommend to you as well as to myself to make more personal sacrifices. Love wildly and give generously. Give to the point where it will cost you to give. Love to the point where it would make no sense to love. The true gospel calls us to deny ourselves and it is a sad thing in modern evangelicalism that we have reduced this call to a mere decision without any weight of substance or destitute of the real nature of what it means to follow Christ.

I mean when we have reached the point in a service where we call people to accept Christ but tell them that this confession only has to be made in their hearts because, of perhaps personal embarrassment, is almost a cry against the boldness that Jesus requires of his followers. I mean, if this is our teaching in a safe compound then what will the new believers think when they are in the world pressed hard to deny Jesus? It will be harder for them or even for us to stand up for Christ. In the first century Paul said in Romans 10 that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. What this meant was not a quiet attestation but a stance that says that Cesar is not Lord but Jesus Christ. The implication for this confession is death by hungry lions, or death by fire.

My friends, we must remember the gospel to which we have been called, we must take the gospel to our community without embarrassment, and we must live godly. Remember the solemn call of Christ and decide if you are ready to hold out his banner in a world that would crucify him all over again because of who He says he is.

Mat 16:24-27 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done."

 

K.Oni