When George Whitefield was shut out of many church buildings, the door did not close on the gospel. It opened into the fields.
He said:
“I believe I never was more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields. I now preach to ten times more people than I would if I had been confined to the churches.”
Whitefield understood something many forget. The power was never in the building. The power was in the Word of God, preached in dependence on the Holy Spirit, with Christ set before sinners.
The building walls could be closed against him, but heaven was not closed. Pulpits could be denied to him, but fields became pulpits. Men tried to restrict the preacher, and God used that restriction to carry the gospel farther.
“And daily in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42).
When Christ has work to do, opposition often becomes the road by which the gospel travels.
Thank the Lord that ministry is so painfully difficult sometimes - it forces us to rely on the power of the Spirit working within us instead of on our own strength.
Once the Bible is no longer received as the very Word of God, man loses the only final authority strong enough to judge him, correct him, and lead him into truth.
Without Scripture, every standard begins to shift. Morality becomes opinion. Truth becomes preference. Sin becomes whatever the culture dislikes for the moment. Worship becomes whatever man finds meaningful. Even God becomes a figure reshaped by human feeling.
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
That is why the authority of Scripture is not a small issue. If God has spoken, then His Word stands above the church, above tradition, above experience, above reason, above culture, and above every human authority. We do not sit over Scripture as judges. Scripture sits over us.
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
The moment man denies the Bible as God’s Word, he does not become free. He becomes ruled by another authority, usually himself, his age, his desires, or the loudest voice around him.
“The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting” (Psalm 119:160).
The church does not need a softer Bible, a corrected Bible, or a Bible made acceptable to the modern world. We need to bow before the Word God has given, because only His Word can expose our lies, reveal Christ, and make the man of God equipped for every good work.
“So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗲𝘁: “Behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Matt 12:41).
𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀𝘁: “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here” (Matt 12:6).
𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴: “Behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matt 12:42).
Before I ever took my first breath, the Lord saw the whole story of my life with perfect clarity.
He saw every failure, every sinful thought, every season of wandering, every hidden weakness, every foolish choice, and every moment where I would grieve Him. Nothing about me surprised Him. Nothing appeared later that He had not already known from eternity.
“Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all” (Psalm 139:4).
And yet, in mercy beyond all understanding, He set His love upon me in Christ. Not because He saw strength in me. Not because He saw future worthiness in me. Not because I would prove myself faithful. He loved because He chose to love, and His grace was rooted in His own eternal purpose.
“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).
This is what breaks pride. God did not wait until I became clean before He showed mercy. He knew the depth of my sin before I knew it myself, and still Christ came for me, bled for me, bore wrath for me, and brought me to Himself.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
How can the soul remain proud before such mercy? He knew me fully, and still did not cast me away. He saw the worst in me, and still gave the best of heaven for me.
That kind of love does not make a man casual. It brings him low. It makes him worship. It makes him tremble with gratitude before the God whose mercy was never blind, never weak, and never uncertain.
“We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
The believer’s salvation rests fully on Christ, not only in what He has done at the cross, but also in what He continues to do now as the risen Lord.
We are reconciled to God through His death. Our guilt was placed on Him, wrath was satisfied, sin was judged, and the debt we could never pay was paid in full by His blood.
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10).
But Scripture does not stop there. The same verse says we are also saved by His life. Christ did not die and then leave His people to keep themselves. He rose from the dead, lives forever, intercedes for us, preserves us, and brings us all the way home.
“Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10).
This is the comfort of the Christian. Our salvation is not hanging on our weak grip. It rests in the hands of the living Christ. The One who died for us is now alive for us, praying for us, keeping us, ruling over us, and ensuring that not one of His sheep will be lost.
“Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
So we are not saved by a dead memory, but by a living Saviour. His death secured our pardon. His life secures our perseverance. The cross removed our condemnation. His resurrection life guarantees our final glory.
“Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
@MilkToastOnRye I always appreciate your posts.
This post made me think about Provisionism.
Jesus doesn't/ can't save a person apart from that person choosing by an act of his "free-will" to be saved.
That Jesus is not the same Jesus found in the bible.
Thanks
1. There is one and only one God.
Deuteronomy 4:35: “Yahweh, He is God; there is no other besides Him.”
Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel! The Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one!” (cf. Mark 12:29).
Isaiah 43:10-11: “Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. I, even I, am Yahweh, And there is no savior besides Me.”
Isaiah 45:5, 21: “I am Yahweh, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. … And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”
1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God…”
James 2:19: “You believe that God is one. You do well.”
2. The Father is God
Philippians 2:11: “…every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
3. The Son is God
John 1:1, 14, 18: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. … the only begotten God…”
Hebrews 1:8: “But of the Son He [the Father] says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.’”
2 Peter 1:1: “…the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
4. The Holy Spirit is God
Acts 5:3-4: “…why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? … You have not lied to men but to God.”
5. The Father is a distinct person from the Son.
Matthew 11:27: “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
John 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
6. The Holy Spirit is a distinct person from the Father and from the Son.
Isaiah 48:16: “And now the Lord Yahweh has sent Me, and His Spirit.”
Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Luke 3:21-22: “…while He [Jesus] was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’”
* * *
Since (a) Scripture teaches that Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct persons;
and since (b) Scripture calls each God,
and since (c) Scripture teaches that there is one and only one God;
therefore (d) Scripture teaches that the one divine Being subsists eternally in three coequal, coeternal persons.
The one who denies the Triune God denies the only God who exists.
The only Jesus who exists is the eternally begotten Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the true God, one in essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Worshiping someone else and calling him “Jesus” does not make that person Jesus, and calling your false god “Christ” does not make you a Christian.
“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” — 1 John 5:21
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” — 2 Corinthians 13:14
Love is not love. God is love and love is what the God who is love says it is. Love is neither self-existent nor self-defined. God alone is self-existent and all true love comes from Him and is determined by Him.
https://t.co/NDNZmrcV1E
Sometimes the fiercest resistance to the gospel does not come from the open unbeliever, but from the religious man who thinks he already has Christ while refusing the truth of Christ.
To preach Christ crucified in a pagan world is hard. But to preach the true gospel in a professing Christian world that has grown comfortable with false gospels, shallow grace, man centred religion, emotional experiences, and powerless morality is a different kind of warfare.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:3).
The lost man may know he is outside. The religious man often thinks he is safe while sitting under lies. That is why false Christianity is so dangerous. It uses Bible words, speaks about Jesus, sings worship songs, and still hides the sinner from the holiness of God, the guilt of sin, the necessity of repentance, and the finished work of Christ.
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).
This is why the true gospel will always offend religious pride. It strips man of boasting. It gives no room for self righteousness. It tells the moral man he is still guilty, the emotional man he still needs truth, and the churchgoer that nearness to religious activity is not the same as being in Christ.
“They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him” (Titus 1:16).
So yes, there is deep warfare in preaching the gospel inside the visible church today. Not because the gospel is unclear, but because many have learned to protect their idols with Christian language.
The hardest ground is often not the street outside the church. It is the heart inside the pew that has heard enough truth to become familiar with it, but not broken by it.
Nothing is more assurance producing than this reality: Before the foundation of the world, God chose to save me for Christ’s sake. And whom He chooses, Christ buys; whom Christ buys, the Spirit, in time, makes alive and unites to Christ through faith; and whom the Spirit makes alive, the whole Godhead preserves to the end. (see Romans 8:28-39)