(1 Corinthians 15:10) These words have become to me to mean more than a cliche, but rather a clear and concise statement of testimony.
I was raised as all men are, an Armenian in doctrine. Coming as I did to faith in Christ at the tender age of six, I often rejoiced in my good sense in doing so. My only regret was that I did not make this "decision" of
faith at an earlier age. The preaching of the pastors under whose doctrine I sat reinforced my thinking.
When at the age of 15, I felt the call of God on my heart to preach His word, I approached the task as did all the ministers whom I had listened to. I became as Charles Finney, an attorney for the condemned Jesus, seeking by reason and argument to persuade men to make a positive decision for Christ. I had often heard
Billy Graham in his vast crusades make his plea for men and women to "accept" Jesus and let Him same them. This was my approach to the gospel ministry for some 35 years.
Some15 years ago, the God of Grace began leading me down a path of difficulty by which He graciously taught me what the gospel is all about. Most people if observing the path of this journey would deny that God had anything to do with it. Romans 8:28 however, is still in the Bible. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
The God of purpose allowed my heart to be broken at my own failures time and again. I learned how desperately depraved I am in and of myself. I came to see and know in experiential ways what I have always known technically. There is nothing within me that merits the favour of God. When I am in position even now as a believer to choose my own way, all too often I still would flee from this gracious God. How is it that I ever came to Him at all?
Please indulge me to borrow from Mr. Spurgeon a few lines here that expresses more eloquently that I ever could what the Lord taught my heart. The following is taken from "A Defense Of Calvinism" by Spurgeon:
"When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul—when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man—that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."
I once attended a service where the text happened to be, "He shall choose our inheritance for us;" and the good man who occupied the pulpit was more than a little of an Arminian. Therefore, when he commenced, he said, "This passage refers entirely to our temporal inheritance, it has nothing whatever to do with our everlasting destiny, for," said he, "we do not want Christ to choose for us in the matter of Heaven or hell. It is so plain and easy, that every man who has a grain of common sense will choose Heaven, and any person would know better than to choose hell. We have no need of any superior intelligence, or any greater Being, to choose Heaven or hell for us. It is left to our own free-will, and we have enough wisdom given us, sufficiently correct means to judge for ourselves," and therefore, as he very logically inferred, there was no necessity for Jesus Christ, or anyone, to make a choice for us. We could choose the inheritance for ourselves without any assistance. "Ah!" I thought, "but, my good brother, it may be very true that we could, but I think we should want something more than common sense before we should choose aright."First, let me ask, must we not all of us admit an over-ruling Providence, and the appointment of Jehovah's hand, as to the means whereby we came into this world? Those men who think that, afterwards, we are left to our own free-will to choose this one or the other to direct our steps, must admit that our entrance into the world was not of our own will, but that God had then to choose for us. What circumstances were those in our power which led us to elect certain persons to be our parents? Had we anything to do with it? Did not God Himself appoint our parents, native place, and friends? Could He not have caused me to be born with the skin of the Hottentot, brought forth by a filthy mother who would nurse me in her "kraal," and teach me to bow down to Pagan gods, quite as easily as to have given me a pious mother, who would each morning and night bend her knee in prayer on my behalf? Or, might He not, if He had pleased, have given me some profligate to have been my parent, from whose lips I might have early heard fearful, filthy, and obscene language? Might He not have placed me where I should have had a drunken father, who would have immured me in a very dungeon of ignorance, and brought me up in the chains of crime? Was it not God's Providence that I had so happy a lot, that both my parents were His children, and endeavoured to train me up in the fear of the Lord?John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at it, too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of election, "Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards." I am sure it is true in my case; I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine." (end of Spurgeon quote)It was very much in like manner that my heart was taught the doctrines of Gods free Grace. Coming to understand that "Salvation is of the Lord" is more than cliche...
it is the lifeline of the believer. God does the choosing, the redeeming, the accepting,
the saving, the sanctifying, the persevering, .....all of it is of the Lord.
As Paul wrote in Romans 8:29-30, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
As a preacher of the gospel, when a man is taught of the Lord to flee his Armenian, will-worshipping upbringing; that of free-will of man being the means of salvation, he is faces with a dilemma. How does he ever preach the same way again.
I found at the first, a liberty in preaching the Gospel that I had never known before. I knew without a doubt that I was preaching truth. I was rather than exalting man as capable of making his own way to God, declaring his total inability to do nothing but look to the Saviour. God disperses faith as His gift of Grace as He Sovereignly wills to the sinner. The sinner's only hope is to plead, "God be merciful to me a sinner".
Glory of all glories, no man ever thirsts for Christ and comes to Him to be turned away.
(John 6:37) All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Whoseover will, let him come and take the water of life freely!
But, no man will come, no man can come except the Father draw him. These are the clear teachings of scripture.
It wasn't long, however, after I began to preach God on His throne, and man in the mire before Him, that I began to experience much conflict from the church. I had taken man off the throne of his free will. I had dared to state that if God Almighty doesn't show you mercy you will perish. I exalted a Sovereign Saviour and such a message was not kosher in the Armenian Baptist Church.
It was then that I began to hear council from those who agreed with me doctrinely, that "wisdom" was to be found in preaching the doctrines of grace in concealed terms so as not to offend the hearers.
If I were to be preaching in my present home church, where Grace is the constant message, then I was free to exalt God's Free Grace in the most clear and forceful of terms. However if I was in another church, I would be wise to conceal my message in terms that would make the doctrine unrecognizable. Thus, I would have the approval of men while I left them scratching their heads wondering what I meant.er
I have heard of a man who was pastor of the same church for many years. In other parts of the country where he preached in meetings, he was known to have strong Calvinistic beliefs and preached them. At his home church however, he died without them knowing that he "believed" and preached such things elsewhere.
I am left wondering what did he believe!
What's the difference in a man preaching strongly the doctrines of grace at home and then veiling his Calvinism when he goes elsewhere to preach? Is such a practice wisdom? I think not! Are we called to be the servants of God or of men? Do we so fear the persecution of men that we are unwilling to bear our cross?
What are we as men of God called to do? With what scriptural passage are we instructed to disguise our message to suit the occasion or the audience. Are we not implored not to fear their faces? How will this
generation learn the truth if the men of God pick and choose what we think men need to hear.
Was this the practice of Paul? Did he preach one message in Ephesus and another in Rome? I think not!
Paul said, "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." (Acts 20:27)
Men of God are responsible to "preach the word"! Some men fear they will not be invited back if they preach what they truly believe. If we trim or disguise our message to keep a door open where we can come back and further compromise the truth at a later date, we have denied the truth!
How can I in good conscious preach anything else but what I know to be the truth of God?
Permit me to refer in closing to Mr. Spurgeon:
"The late lamented Mr. Denham has put, at the foot of his portrait, a most admirable text, "Salvation is of the Lord." That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, "He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord." I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. "He only is my rock and my salvation." Tell me anything contrary to this truth, and it will be a heresy; tell me a heresy, and I shall find its essence here, that it has departed from this great, this fundamental, this rock-truth, "God is my rock and my salvation." What is the heresy of Rome, but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ—the bringing in of the works of the flesh, to assist in our justification? And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer? Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor."
Woe is me if I preach not the gospel!
Amen and Amen
