Originally written by Pastor Alberto Rendon
Today is September 11, 2014, and again we have our dinner in the home of one of our church members whose 1 year-old son celebrates his birthday today. And tomorrow again there are two birthday invitations for dinners. Wow...! It's good to be a Pastor.
I have been writing in my previous posts in the past few days that we are
always having invitations for dinners sometimes lunch. We thank God
for that. That's life of a pastor if you have church members and friends.
As I gave my exhortation, I remembered the day when the twin towers in USA collapsed. And it reminds me about the importance of preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the sinners.
I want to share to you today a message taken from the book of Philippians which Apostle Paul considered the most important need of humanity in which without it we will not become Christians or followers and or believers of Christ. And, more likely we will not go to heaven.
The Importance of Preaching the Gospel of Christ
Philippians 1: 16-18 "Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."
What I saw from these three verses in the book of Philippians chapter one is the importance of preaching the gospel of Christ. What Apostle Paul meant here, is that in his time there were those who preached the gospel of Christ with bad motives, but others in goodwill. For him, he has no problem of what the motive of the preacher is, as long as Christ is preached and because of that he has the reason to rejoice.
Apostle Paul was rejoicing and he urged the believers in Philippi to rejoice with him because Christ has been preached in any way.
To the Apostle Paul the preaching of the gospel of Christ is so very important no matter of what has happened to him. In fact, he defended it, he has been loyal to it, he was willing to die for it and eventually he encountered and have suffered the difficulties still nothing could move him.
The Gospel of Christ is the key to heaven
When I was a young people, there was a song that we always
rendered in a special song in some of the Bible services we have conducted
in our Christian denomination. The title of that song is "Prayer is the
key to Heaven".
I am careful of the title of that song because it might be misinterpreted by others that
it's only by prayer we can enter into heaven, in other words if you are
prayerful you will go to heaven or if you have prayed a sinner's prayer
you are bound for heaven, it is because prayer is the key to heaven, and I will tell you it is not prayer that opens the door of heaven, but it's the gospel of Christ.
I believe, prayer is the key
to heaven in terms of our needs that we are asking God to give us. But
prayer is not the key we can use to enter heaven, although you pray for your
salvation, but it is not the primary thing so that you will enter to
heaven.
The gospel of Christ is the most important thing before anyone ever known Christ. It is the gospel that the devil is being afraid because he knows that it is the key to heaven. That is why he has blinded many people, lest they will be enlightened by the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4).
The devil has no problem to convince people to believe in God, in fact many people are deceived by him through this doctrine, just believe in God and it is enough. But I tell you the truth, believing in God alone is not the key to heaven.
Faith in God is not enough to go to heaven.
Many known Christian denominations that do not emphasize about the importance of the preaching of the gospel of Christ. They are more on doctrinal issues, like their belief of God. They have been in debate about the belief of God, that God is oneness, trinity, dual and so forth. They have more time on these issues, they spent more money to educate students to depend of what they believe is the truth. They have been concluded that if people do not believe with them in their belief about God, they are of the devil and will not go to heaven.
It is shocking to know that their salvation is based on the minor doctrines about the belief of God. I tell you, whatever belief about God you have, either you are a trinitarian, a unitarian, only one God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ is just a man and others believe that Jesus is only a mighty God and not the Almighty one, and Jesus is only a prophet and so forth. Your belief is not enough to go to heaven.
To go to heaven is to believe the gospel of Christ. There is a big difference between believing in God and believing the gospel of Christ. That is why Jesus said.
John 14:1-2 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."
Jesus Christ meant to say here that you must believe in God and believe also in him because he will be preparing a place for you in heaven. So it is not enough to believe only in God, but you must believe in Jesus Christ. The gospel that has been preached as recorded in the Bible is about who Jesus Christ is and of what he has done.
Faith in God is believing that there is God existing, and faith in Jesus Christ is believing of what he has done for us. Hence, we understand that there are two kinds of faith - faith in God and faith in Jesus Christ others called it saving faith.
To speak about faith in God, or having a genuine faith in God cannot really save a man and it is not the key to heaven. How can you imagine those people who crucified Christ? These people are religious, they believe in God more than the others, you cannot question their faith in God, because they have a genuine belief about God. And, I think they have the truth about a belief of God, but they did not believe in Jesus Christ.
Even though, they have faith in God, but they do not have faith in the gospel of Christ. And, by the authority of the epistles in the Bible that it is to believe the gospel (Romans 1:16) of Christ that you can be saved then those who do not actually believe the gospel are absolutely not saved.
The Saving Faith Brought by the preaching of the Gospel
To have a saving faith means, being enlightened by the gospel. Having the understanding of the real spiritual situation that man is bound for judgement because he is sinner and there is no other means to be saved except by trusting Jesus Christ and on what he has done on the cross.
But no one is being enlightened or have received the saving faith without a clear presentation of the gospel. There must be a preaching of the gospel. Apostle Paul rejoiced when he heard that there were people who preached the good news of salvation, no matter of the motivation of the preacher. It is because he did not focus on the preachers, but on the people who can hear the preaching of the gospel.
The real Christians are the people who have the saving faith or enlightened by the gospel. They are the true believers of Christ. In the Christian countries most people believe that becoming Christian you must be a member of a Christian church through being listed in the church membership, even if he does not understand or hear the gospel of Christ, so he thought that he is already a Christian. Biblical Christian is not like that. Biblical Christians are believers of the gospel, they have the understanding of what the gospel is all about.
It's the gospel they have believed, received and is stored in their mind that unlocks the door in heaven. That is why I believe that the key to heaven is the gospel and the key to saving faith is the preaching of the gospel..... It is very important to take note that the preaching of the good news is so very important, so that the people whose actual spiritual situation is destined to eternal judgement might believe and receive and they will be saved. Unless people are enlightened by the gospel they will not be saved from the penalty of their sins.
Preaching of the gospel is considered by Bible scholars the great commission. It is because Jesus Christ has commissioned his followers to preach about him, of who he is and what he has done for sinners. That's the gospel, it's about Jesus Christ.
Mark 16:15-16 "He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
Without preaching of the good news sinners cannot hear about Jesus Christ and of what he has done for them so they cannot receive saving faith, they are not saved and it is sad to say, that they will be condemned, as the word of God says.
This is my desire and intention why I have this website, so that by means of this I can preach the gospel about Jesus Christ. Through this means we can reach the whole world where there is internet connection. And, if it happened you finished reading this message please use the social media logo below to share this message to your friends and you can help me spread the gospel.
I believe many that can read my articles are already in Facebook, Tweeter, Google+ and so forth. So if you have your social media please share this message and every post on this website to your friends and or email to your email lists. Let's proclaim the good news together, not only for the sake of Christ and our obedience to God, but for the sake of our loved ones and friends.
