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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Do We Need To Preach The Law To Preach The Gospel?



There is a common teaching that the Law of God must be preached in order for the Gospel to be preached. In other words, that before you evangelize someone, that is, give them the Good News of Jesus Christ, and His death on the Cross for sins, and His resurrection, you must first preach the specific Laws of God to show them that they have sinned. Usually these specific Laws of God are given as the Ten Commandments.

But is this true? Do we need to preach specific Laws of God in order to preach the Gospel?

I believe the biblical answer is a definite “No”.

But first, I believe this "Law before Gospel" teaching idea has become an unbiblical tradition among many Christian teachers. Often, instead of going to the Scriptures and seeing if this Law Preaching is really commanded or required, they merely read of another teacher who has said it, and they believe it.

“Why, good old Charles Spurgeon taught that the preaching of the Law must come before the Gospel.” Or in more modern times, “Ray Comfort, the Way of the Master guy, teaches that you must give the Ten Commandments (or at least a couple of them) to somebody before you tell them the Good News.”

It’s often taught like this, “You have to give them the bad news, before you give them the good news.” Or, “If you don’t get them groveling in misery over their breaking of God’s Laws, they won’t be receptive to the Gospel. They will be flippant, thinking they don’t need salvation from anything.”

There are even several Scriptures that are sometimes used to prove the point of Law Preaching, and we’ll examine some of those. But I believe those Scriptures have been pulled out of the Bible to support this “tradition of men”, rather than the tradition coming from a good study of the New Testament.

Three biblical reasons why we are NOT called to preach the Law before we preach the Gospel.

1. All men already know in their hearts the moral law of God, and they know that they are sinners against God, and they suppress that truth in unrighteousness.

We already know from Romans 1:18 that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In other words, every man already knows that he is ungodly and unrighteous, and that he deserves God’s wrath.

How does he know this? Well, Romans 1:19,20 goes on to say two things. That the knowledge is within them, and that the creation makes obvious the attributes, eternal power, and divine nature of God.

But Romans 1:18 says another interesting thing. It says that men “suppress the truth in unrighteousness”.

They not only know they are wrath-deserving sinners, but they add to their sin by suppressing it, denying it. That’s why in verse 20 it says they are “without excuse”.

But that’s not all. The Jews, of course, in Bible times, would be very aware of the Laws of God, and the Ten Commandments. But we read in Romans 2:14-16:

“For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ.”

What does it mean? Simply this: God has placed in everyone his moral law, and given men a conscience to identify when they are doing wrong, which of course they do constantly. So again, they are without excuse.

They don’t need to hear, “Thou shalt not steal.” They know in their consciences. They know the beauty and just and wonderful truth of God’s character and what He requires. But, as Romans 3 tells us, “There is none righteous, not even one...there is none who seeks for God...there is none who does good, there is not even one.”

So again, all men already know in their hearts the moral law of God, and they know that they are sinners against God, and they suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

So if you’re witnessing or preaching the Good News of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins through the Cross, and somebody acts innocent and says they don’t need forgiveness because they live a pretty good life, you don’t need to prove anything to them. You can look them in the eye and say, “You know better than that. You know, just like I do, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And proceed to give them the Good News.

2. The Law has NO power for salvation. But the Gospel does.

In Romans 1:16, Paul says something that I believe we often forget. He says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for IT is the power of God for salvation to every one who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” In other words, to those who know the Ten Commandments (the Jews), and to those who don’t know the Ten Commandments from a hole in the wall (but they know very well that they are in constant violation of the moral compass that God has placed in their consciences).

Why? Why is this Gospel the “power of God for salvation”?

Verse 17 tells us. Because in the Gospel is revealed the righteousness of God, the only righteousness that will save us. The righteousness that we must receive as a free gift because our own "righteousnesses are as filthy rags".

That’s why so many people have been led to Christ by the so-called Romans Road, without the preaching of the Law. Because men are reminded that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23), and that the wages of sin is death or the wrath of God, but that the free gift of God is eternal life through faith in Jesus who died on the cross (Rom. 5:6 and 6:23), and that he did it out of love, demonstrating His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8), and that whoever believes in Him (Jews who know the Ten Commandments, or Gentiles who don’t) will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16), whoever confesses Jesus as Lord, and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, shall be saved (Rom. 10:9).

That’s the Gospel, and that’s the power of God for salvation.

3. There are no New Testament commands, nor New Testament examples for preaching the Law before the Gospel.

Now let me take a little side road first and say this: I love the laws of God. Every law that God ever spoke or inspired is a reflection of His Holy, Just and loving heart. And I want to know His heart, because I love Him. He put that in my heart, to love Him. He is my Savior, and He is my Lord. I want to know what He wants. And when I’m walking in the Spirit, I want to follow and obey Him with every fiber of my being. I can say, "Not my will, but Thine be done."

And so I agree with the Apostle Paul that the Law is good.

But you will search in vain through the Book of Acts or the New Testament Epistles for any COMMAND to preach the Law before preaching the Gospel. And you will search in vain through the Book of Acts or the New Testament Epistles for any EXAMPLE of preaching the Law before preaching the Gospel.

What you will see is an assumption by the Apostles that everyone is a sinner, and that they know it. Without exegeting the whole Book of Acts, one example will serve, especially since it specifically deals with some Gentiles. When Peter is called to preach to Cornelius, the Bible records pretty much his whole message in Acts 10 beginning at verse 34. Not a word is mentioned of the Law. But Christ is preached and Him crucified, for the forgiveness of sins.

This pattern is followed throughout the Book of Acts.

Objections

Well, let me continue with some objections. I’m not interested in human reasoning objections, but biblical ones. Let me deal with a few verses that are often used to make the claim that the Law must first be preached, and then the Gospel.

Psalm 19:7

It's usually quoted, “The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” The word “converting” sounds like salvation, but you will see in the margin, or in most translations, that the best translation is “restoring the soul” or “reviving the soul”. It’s likely not even a reference to salvation at all, but in any case, the Old Testament Psalms is not the most reliable source for a New Covenant doctrine.

Also, when the Psalmist refers to the Law of the Lord, he is not referring to the Ten Commandments or any specific laws, but to the Word of God in general, as it was then known. You will see this over and over in the Psalms. That’s why the reading of the Psalms can be so rich for us New Covenant believers who are no longer under the Old Covenant Law.

Romans 3:20

“...for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Although it’s true that through a specific law can come the knowledge of a specific sin, that is not Paul’s point. He is contrasting the inability of the law to “justify” anyone in God’s sight. In other words, no one can be saved through the law, he points out.

The best the law could do is show how someone has specifically sinned. But as we have already pointed out, man already knows he is a sinner, a breaker of God’s law, and suppresses that truth in unrighteousness.

1 John 3:4

“...sin is lawlessness”. The argument is made that lawlessness is the breaking of laws, and that this must be preached to show that someone has sinned. This is not only a little silly in view of what we’ve already seen about the heart and conscience of man, but it's not what John was trying to get across at all.

John was contrasting the true born-again believer with the false believer and saying that the one who practices sin has an attitude of lawlessness. Not just that they break God’s laws, but that the source of that law-breaking is a heart of lawlessness, and thus an unregenerate or unsaved heart. This has nothing to do with preaching specific laws to “prepare” for the Gospel.

Romans 7:7

Paul says, “I would not have come to know sin, except through the Law, for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” But the context shows that Paul is talking about the power of the Law to pour gasoline on the fire of sin.

Certainly Paul knew sin, even before he heard the law. All men do. But he’s making the point that the command or the law itself caused the sin to rise up in him. When he heard “Do not covet”, it made him covet all the more. Such is the heart of a sinner. Nothing in this section has anything to do with evangelism, or the Gospel.

John 16:8

“And He [speaking of the Holy Spirit to come], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”

This is supposed to show that the Law must be preached, because the Holy Spirit will convict of sin and judgment. But look at the next verse John 16:9:

“...concerning sin, because they do no believe in Me.” Do you see that? It’s not the Law itself that brings conviction. It’s the very Gospel itself. It’s the Good News about Jesus Christ.

And look at John 16:11, “...and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” See that? The work of Christ on the Cross has crushed the head of the serpent, to hearken back to Genesis. Sin has been paid for on the Cross and God’s righteousness is given as a free gift to those who will believe the Gospel.

John isn’t talking about Law in this section, but about the Gospel.

And finally, let’s deal with the verse that is used most often to support preaching the Law before the Gospel:

Galatians 3:24

“Therefore the Law has become our tutor [or schoolmaster] to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.”

Here again, context is so important. Paul is not speaking here at all about individual laws which are broken and thus leading us to faith in Christ. He is speaking of a historical progression from the time of Abraham who is promised a Seed which will become the Messiah, through the time of the Old Covenant, which showed how man could not be justified by obedience to any laws, and led finally to the promised Christ, in Whom alone is salvation, through His death, to all who believe.

Speaking of Jews only, Paul says that the Old Covenant was a tutor, but not to show men they were sinful, but that they could not gain righteousness through the keeping of the Law! They already knew they were sinful, but they thought that their so-called good deeds could justify them. And since their good deeds could not justify them, they were led to the Messiah, whose righteousness was offered as a free gift, the only way any of us are saved.

Preach the Gospel, friends. Plant the Gospel, water with Gospel, and God will give the increase for His elect. That is our confidence, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do We Need To Preach The Law To Preach The Gospel?


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Do We Need To Preach The Law To Preach The Gospel?

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Honor Thy Father

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, June 19, 2011. Use this link: tinyurl.com/3dmp2r2
-- Embedded video below seems to not be working.


None Good But One

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, May 29, 2011.


1 hr. 13 min.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Pool of Bethesda

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, June 12, 2011

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Brokenness - Part 6 of 6

Recognizing Brokenness

The following are some evidences of brokenness. They are worth thinking about, one by one, not for the purpose of being discouraged because we fall short, but for the purpose of humbling ourselves before the Lord, that He may lift us up.

Dealing with issues of brokenness should never distract us from our wonderful Savior, and should never cause us to try to earn His love and favor by our Performance. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us because He chose to love us, even while we were His enemies.

Nothing can separate us from His love, including our lack of brokenness!

And while that wonderful thought alone might help us desire brokenness and surrender to Him, I repeat that His love and favor for us are not dependent on that love and brokenness.

Having said that, here are some evidences of brokenness:

1. All rights surrendered

2. Willing to be rejected

3. Transparent - willing to share weakness

4. Vulnerable - willing to share failures

5. A sense of total inadequacy in self strength - 2 Cor. 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God..."

6. A sense of adequacy in Christ through His strength - Phil. 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 2 Cor. 3:6, "...who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

7. Trusting God whatever - resting even with external turmoil

8. Obedience out of a love motive because I want to, not because I have to

9. Recognizing the power in weakness

10. Willing to be weak

11. Willing to fail

12. A readiness to let others receive credit

13. Genuine humility

10. Placing value upon those who have little or no value to yourself

15. A readiness to affirm (build up) others

16. Teachable

17. Willing to be out of control

18. Willing to be misunderstood

Another phrase for "brokenness" is "dying to self". I wrote the following in my Bible in 1985. I regret I don't remember who to give credit to, but it has been a great blessing to me over these many years:

WHEN you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely provoked, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ – that's dying to self.

WHEN your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence – that's dying to self.

WHEN you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any impunctuality, any annoyance; when you stand face-to-face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility – and endure it as Jesus endured – that's dying to self.

WHEN you are content with any food, any offering, any climate, any people, any raiment, any interruption – that's dying to self.

WHEN you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good words, when you are uncomfortable with commendations, when you can truly love to be unknown – that's dying to self.

WHEN you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances – that's dying to self.

WHEN you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart – that's dying to self.


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Brokenness - Part 5 of 6

The Part of Prayer In Brokenness

Few things are as important to our brokenness as prayer. All kinds of prayer.
--Petition (asking for things),
--Intercession (praying for others),
--Adoration (speaking lovingly to God about His wonders, attributes, goodnesses, etc.),
--Confession (telling Him what He already knows about our sins),
--Thanksgiving (is there any end to the list of blessings, not the least of which is His forgiveness of those sins we just confessed?)
--Praying the Scriptures (using verse-by-verse passages to prompt our praying, reinforcing our understanding of the mind of our Lord)
--Meditation (technically not prayer, but great to do in the same time-frame context, meditating for example on His attributes, His love, His Word).

This kind of prayer takes time, but how rich and blessed it is. As the saying goes, Prayer Changes Things, but just as importantly Prayer Changes Us.

If we pray with our brokenness and surrender in mind, we will be a long way toward truly "loving God and enjoying Him forever".

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Brokenness - Part 4 of 6

2. The second thing that hinders us from being broken is self-centeredness. We want our own will, not His. We want things to go the way we want them to go. We are angered when our will is crossed. We will seek to escape or dodge the trial in our life, instead of letting it shape us. We want what we want, and we will jolly well do whatever it takes to "make it happen".

When we see this in others, we are repulsed. It sickens us to see this, whether it's a child throwing a temper tantrum, or an adult thinking only of themselves. We see its evil so clearly in others, yet sometimes we despise it in others only because of our own self-centeredness. Sort of, "How DARE you think you are the center of the Universe! Don't you know that *I* am the center of the Universe? What about ME?!!?" Of course we don't say this, we only think it.

There is no direct remedy for this self-centered, self-indulgent, self-ish, self-aggrandizing attitude, except the work of brokenness itself.

And so we see a circle of brokenness. The more we are broken, the more we can be broken, so the more we're broken, and so the more we can be broken.

We may want to keep this in mind before we make foolish vows to the Lord. For example, I heard a song on the radio the other day that went like this:

"The Cross demands allegience. I'll give nothing less than all!"

Yeah, right. All!!?? Nothing less than "All!!??" Get real. We've got some breaking to do.

Unless you're Jesus Christ, you'd be wiser to stick with Keith Green's musical thought,

"Just keep doing your best, pray that it's blessed, and He'll take care of the rest...He's gonna do it...He'll take care of the rest."

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Brokenness - Part 3 of 6

There are two things that hinder us from being broken:

1. Not recognizing the hand of God in our trials, as a means of breaking and shaping us. Joseph, in Genesis 50:20, recognized that God had meant Joseph's awful trials "for good", even though his brothers had meant it "for evil". We would be wise to recognize our own trials and life situations as God's means to break and shape us.

I still remember a sermon I heard over 25 years ago, at a little Baptist church in Dallas, Texas. I remember it was a blue church. The walls were blue, the pews were blue, I think even the choir robes were blue. Anyway the guest preacher for that day was a guy named Jack Taylor, and he said something I never forgot.

He is a Southern fella, and so he said God "fixes fixes to fix us" (Yankee translation: God brings things into our life to mold and shape and break us. I'm qualified to translate, because I've been in Tennessee now since 1986).

Anyway, he said this profound thing that I've never forgotten:

"If God fixes a fix to fix you, and you fix the fix instead of it fixing you, then God will have to fix another fix to fix you."

One ol' boy preacher I heard just last week understands that (or at least his wife does). He laughed because some trial happened to them, and his wife said, "I wish you'd have learned that from the Lord last time, honey, so we wouldn't have to go through it again."

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Brokenness - Part 2 of 6

Brokenness is seemingly never total. It's an ongoing process. But to the degree we are broken before God, to the degree that we are dependent on Him, to the degree that we are surrendered to His will, it's to that degree that we are able to walk by the Spirit.

And sometimes brokenness is a three-steps-forward and two-steps-back deal, which can be frustrating.

But the Catch-22 is, that the more we can rest in, and cooperate with, and accept the *process*, the better the process goes along.

Conversely, the more we are frustrated and annoyed at the process, or even fight it, the bumpier the process goes along. This is called "kicking at the goads", a reference to stubborn oxen kicking against the sticks used to prod them along.

Jesus has promised that His yoke for us is easy, and His burden for us is light. We may not feel that way sometimes, but it helps to remember it, and it certainly doesn't make it easier and lighter if we fight it.

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Brokenness - Part 1 of 6

The word "brokenness" never appears in the Scriptures.

Yet we know by inference that it is one of the most important concepts to the Christian life.

It's expressed in such passages as 2 Corinthians 12:9...

..."My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

or Luke 22:42...

...not My will, but Yours, be done.

Brokenness is that state in which we recognize our own weakness and limitations before God, and rest in Him, rely on Him, lean on Him, and surrender to His will.

Don't miss this: "Surrender" is a big part of brokenness.

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Sunday, June 05, 2011

What Nicodemus Didn't Know

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, June 5, 2011: