Tuesday, June 4, 2019
A Life-and-Death Debate
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3)
I have been preaching for a long time now. I have seen a lot of generations come and go, from the Boomers and the Busters to Generations X, Y, and Z. But one thing that hasn’t changed over the years is my emphasis on the teaching of the Bible, and the preaching of the gospel. That never can change. It never will change. And it never must change.
The gospel “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16), and the gospel is under attack like never before. While the church always has had its little disagreements and has debated different things, the attack that I’m talking about is not a disagreement about preferred styles of worship music, the order of prophetic events, or the never-ending debate about the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.
This is a life-and-death debate, because there are a growing number of people who call themselves evangelicals who are questioning whether Jesus Christ really is the only way to salvation. They are debating whether all Scripture is indeed inspired by God.
Some of them would encourage us to engage in a dialogue and not in bold and decisive preaching. And we even have some who are telling us the most important thing the church should be focusing on is global warming.
This is not the faith that “was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). This is not the faith we are called to earnestly contend for.
I am all for being contemporary. I am all for being relevant. But we must be truthful. We must be accurate. And, most importantly, we must be biblical.
Let’s get our priorities straight. Let’s get back to our primary message, or we will lose what little influence we have as a church today.
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