Man’s Absolute Necessity of a Savior

 I was thinking recently about the fundamental mission of Christ’s Church. What exactly is that mission? Before retirement I was a traveling salesman. I had a product that I was trained to sell. The customers that I called on had a need for the type of product I was selling.The essence of my training was to proclaim the necessity of the product that I was selling. I had many competitors that were selling a similar product that I was selling. My basic function was to show customers that they needed “my product” ...period! At times I was successful and at other times my competitors were successful.

So how does this relate to Christ’s Church? As we look around at the people we come in contact with on a daily basis, do we find that most sense their need for a savior? Or do we find that most have no need and even no thought of a need for a savior? Are any aware that reconciliation to God requires an understanding of alienation? Or...will all just go to heaven upon the death of our bodies? In my opinion, I think most feel the only necessity for entrance into heaven is death...NSR...no savior required. Have you been to a funeral lately? Have you been to a celebration of life event? There and elsewhere they always seem to say or indicate that your loved ones, no matter their earthly spiritual condition, are looking down from heaven and are smiling at the proceedings. R.C. Sproul asked R.C. Jr..when he was around 6 or 7 years old...”If you were standing before God and he asked why should I let you into my heaven...what would you say to him?” His son said confidently...”because I’m dead”! This seems to be the answer many would give at any age of their lives. Heaven is granted to all who meet that single requirement...death.

It is the Church’s fundamental function to proclaim the absolute necessity of a Savior.  ‘The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness”(Romans 1:18) “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”(Rom 3:23) When this is done will all see their absolute necessity for a Savior. No...Jesus said many times over, “he that hath ears to hear let him hear”. The Church is, and it’s members are to be involved in proclaiming the gospel faithfully to him that hath ears and it is God that must open the ears so that the natural man is able (has the ability) to hear the spiritual proclamation that Christ died for sinners. (“the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God I Cor 2:14,....faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Rom 10:17, “Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jonah 2:9) So, in where ever and whatever God has called us, let us be involved in the proclamation of the good news of the gospel that Christ died for sinners. Redemption and reconciliation has been finished at the cross and that all who have ears to hear will hear and will understand their absolute necessity for a Savior who reconciles us, who delivers us, and saves us from the “wrath to come”.

Dave Van Inwegen 03-27-2022

The Raising of Lazarus

 John 11: Excerpt from R C Sprouls commentary on the Gospel of John.

The day before I preached on this passage at St. Andrew’s, the space
shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas while heading for a landing
here in Central Florida. All seven astronauts aboard were killed. I watched television coverage of the tragedy for hour after hour that day, but the same picture was shown over and over again.

It was the image of the spacecraft disintegrating and leaving a trail of smoke in the air. I couldn’t help thinking what a catastrophe this was for the families of the people who had been instantly destroyed, but I also thought that if there were believers among those crew members, just as quickly as they died, they were in heaven. If they were believers, they could not die. Yes, they died biologically, but biological death doesn’t disturb the continuity of living, personal existence for God’s people in the slightest.

Hallelujah and Hosanna

Listen to this moving story of R C Sproul's dog Hosanna and how it relates to Abraham and Issac; (move the time slider to the 25 minute mark to pick-up the story of Hosanna)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVrLDSQGcZ0

Spring is Coming.It's in the Air

The Gospel

The Gospel is the good tidings that God revealed to us in Christ Jesus.
     All mankind was represented in Adam and in his fall all of us became the children of wrath sentenced to death and separation from God.
     Jesus Christ, the second Adam, takes man’s nature upon Himself fulfilling every jot and tittle of the law and takes upon Himself the punishment and death due us.  Since He was sinless death could not hold him and He was raised for our justification.
     Now by command of the Father this mediation is preached to all men everywhere that upon repentance and belief in Him not only are all our sins forgiven but also we will spend ETERNITY with Him in heavenly bliss.
                           NOW THAT’S “GOOD NEWS”.

A REVOLUTIONARY PRINCIPLE

I found this paragraph in my wife’s old 1957 college text book used in her class on “Journalism”:

“In 1900 when my grandfather, Frank Noyes, helped found the modern Associated Press and embarked on 38 years of service as first president of that news agency, he and his associates were pretty sure they knew the answer to the question, how to tell the truth.  Their answer was a thing called “objectivity”.  It was a very good answer, too.....

The Associated Press realized at the start that it couldn’t possibly cater to the opinion whims of all the different publishers receiving its service. It set out to correct the situation by instituting the principle and practice of "objective" news coverage. Gradually, as time went by, this “revolutionary principle” became accepted as the Number 1 item in the creed of the responsible press all over the country. It wholly changed the face of the newspaper world, and it set the pattern for a full half-century of journalistic growth and progress." (Newbold Noyes, Jr.) (Interpretative Reporting, 3rd Edition Macmillian Co, 1957)

Today...this would still be called a “Revolutionary Principle”.  Certainly this is not one of the current principles practiced by many in the main stream media today.

The Iceberg Illusion