Building up believers and the New Testament church

God's Call to Ministry

The Gospel We Preach - The Power of God Unto Salvation

What is the true gospel? If we are going to be faithful as ministers of the gospel, we must know what the gospel is. The gospel being preached in most of the fundamental groups of our day is nothing more than a "cheap believism," rather than the power of God unto salvation.

The religious world has redefined salvation, and most of what is being preached is not salvation at all. In many cases the salvation that is being preached leaves people in sin; but the salvation that God gives us in Christ saves and sets us free from sin. In most cases the salvation of man is according to the letter, rather than life by the Spirit. The salvation man preaches, which he says is by grace, is nothing more than a salvation of works. This is why we are saying that we must come back to God and His way of ministry, being called and prepared by God.

I Corinthians 2:11b-13, "Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth: comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

I Corinthians 2:4-7, "And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory."

When Jesus was preparing to leave and go back to the Father, He told His disciples, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things..." (John 14:26). John 16:13 says, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth..." God has made full provision for the preparation of those He calls, and His provision is the Holy Ghost. The choice is still the same--God's way or man's way? Are we looking for the approval of man or God? Our choice will either throw us fully on the Lord, or right into man's institutions of higher religious learning.