The Church Must Ask: “What Is The Gospel?”

The Church Must Ask: “What Is The Gospel?”

Pastor Vincent - 6 February 2014

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The Holy Spirit is given to testify the gospel and magnify the power of the gospel. So the simplest question to ask is: “What is the gospel?”

If we never get the gospel right, we would have easily mistaken the work of the Holy Spirit.

Personal Testimony: Now, if I am a salesman, selling an all-powerful smartwatch. It can tell you everything you want to know. It can make your life real convenient. You can check your blood pressure, you can order food, you can pay your bills from here. And I invited all of you here in this grand place to tell you how good this smart watch is. How good is its function, how all-powerful it is. And u can call me anytime through this smartwatch and I will be of help to you. But be careful, there may be imitation of this smartwatch. Now, to tell you how exquisite this watch is, I’ve to also tell you, you’ve been specially invited to this wonderful place. And I tell you how much this sound system cost which I am using to speak to you now, so that you hear me clearly. And also all these top notch people I’ve employed to help me run this sales job. And u come here, not interested in my smart watch. You’re only interested in my sound system, or only interested in talking to my guys, or merely just enjoying the air-conditioner and ambience of this place.

Now, if that is the case you would have come in vain. You are as good as not knowing anything that I am telling you. You’re as good as not communicating with me.

Now it is the same thing today. The pathetic thing about the churches today is it never ask: “What is the gospel?” It focuses on church building. It runs healing session. It talks about personal testimonies. But what is the gospel? And what is the full and authentic gospel? “Well, it doesn’t seem to be the concern of many churches nowadays. “Well, as long people kept swarming in, do some good works, give their service and tithes to the church, talk about the life changing experiences, and then after the meeting exercise some gifts, so that you happy, I happy, everyone happy, and that’s it”. Now, come to a point, you have to ask: “Is that the greatest distraction from knowing the gospel?”

* The Holy Spirit will not be satisfied when the gospel is not being fully, clearly and boldly proclaimed through the church.

* Then you ask: “What is the gospel?”

>> The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation for all those who believes. God in His sovereign grace (without any human help and human intervention) completed His salvational work through His Son, and the effect of that work, which is the forgiveness of sins is given to anyone who receives it through faith, and faith alone. And that faith has not only made us a new creation, it has also propelled us to live new lives – lives that are set apart from the world.

  • And that’s why you are here in church.
  • That’s why your joy and blessing is bound to the communion of saints.
  • That’s why you are compelled in your heart to share the good news of Jesus to others.
  • That’s why you cannot go on living in sins. That’s why you are disciplined and chastened if you carry on in your disobedience.

Example: And that is why if you look at the life of Esau and Jacob, what do you notice? Jacob’s life was full of chastening and refining like ours. Right? But if you look at Esau, there were never once mentioned in the Bible that Esau was disciplined or chastened by God. In fact, after many years when Esau met Jacob in Paddan Aram, Jacob was limping, but Esau was in the pink of health. And when Jacob tried to find favour in Esau’s eyes by giving him hundreds of livestock, Esau was so rich that he said: “Bro, I’ve already have plenty, keep all these for yourselves”. But why is this so? Esau was as much a sinner as Jacob is. Because God loves Jacob and chastened him, and to eternal glory he will go. But God hated Esau, and to eternal damnation he will go.

That’s why you see. The Gospel should give us a whole new understanding about ourselves, and the World. It has given us “New identity, New Life, New destiny”, which is different from what the World understood, my brethren.

So if the church teaches the gospel, believers will be given a whole new perspectives and worldview, and by that they will understand the work of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit who loves, who leads, who guides, who chastens the children of God, so that they will keep treading on the narrow path, and to eternal glory they will go. The question is does believers know God, know themselves, and know the World this way?  If not, something is wrong with the gospel the church preaches. It has preached an earthly treasure, not a heavenly treasure. Now, the fundamentals of the church is the gospel. It has to get this right before everything else.

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Pastor Vincent Choo
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Vincent serves as the President of The Blessed Run Church. He is also the Senior Pastor of The Life Church and Missions (Singapore) and is an ardent missionary to the Chinese World. He currently lives in Singapore with his wife, Qiufen, and has three kids, Mary, David, and Caleb.

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