Watchman Radio Hour

The modern gospel of give to get is a direct contradiction of the gentleness and compassion of the apostles toward those they came to reach. The apostles showed the gentleness of Christ in ministry. While the health and wealth preachers of today lord it over their flocks with prosperity messages and pressure to give to get, the apostles put on the role of servants and reached out to the people with love and compassion. We need the compassion of Christ and the love of Christ for people.

Today, we need integrity in ministry. This message is for the church and for those who preach the gospel. The church is weak because much of what it does lacks integrity. Preachers accepting large salaries and making few sacrifices doesn't help. The prosperity preachers proclaiming a gospel that is far different than the message Jesus and the apostles preached.

The gospel is a sacred trust. God has entrusted the gospel to us. We must preach it at all costs. We must boldly preach it. We must preach it with much conviction and power. We must pray for that power to come upon us that men may hear the Word and believe it in mass numbers. That's what happens when revival comes.

Today, we must not shirk back because the world opposes us or our message. We must press forward and boldly proclaim this message we have been entrusted with. We must not water the message down to please men but rather to proclaim God's truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. We must proclaim the gospel in spite of difficulties. Paul could have given up because he faced much difficulty in Philippi. Yet he pressed on to the next place and there took a bold stand for the gospel and found success. God will bless His Word and bless us if we are obedient to His command. We must press on with the gospel in spite of opposition.

The gospel is clear - A Judgment Day is coming and only those who know Christ will escape its wrath. Yet, we live in this society today that is blocking out all warning of such a day of Judgment. We don't want to hear about it. We don't want such teaching in our public squares. We live as a nation as if we are not responsible before God. This kind of attitude can lead only to destruction for many and the downfall of our nation. The wrath of God is coming and we need to know it and make preparations for it. Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath. There is a coming wrath and there is only one way of escape which is revealed in the gospel and that is through Jesus Christ, the only Savior. We must flee to Him for refuge before it is too late.

Today, people bow down and worship thngs lilke sports, automobiles, pleasure, sex, electronic gadgets, houses, clothes, and many other things. Anything can become an idol if we give that thing first place in our lives or substitute it for God. The gospel calls us to leave our idols and come to God. True repentance involves leaving our idols behind and following the Lord in our lives. Are we ready to give up our idols in this land? Are we ready to forsake them in order to follow the Lord? Are we going to continue to follow our idols and face the wrath of God for it or will we turn from them back to the God of our forefathers and be blessed? What do we want? God's wrath or God's blessing on this nation?

When the First Great Awakening came to America, it was accompanied by the powerful preaching of the Word of God by such men as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. The Holy Spirit road the chariot of the Word of God into the hearts of the people. Today our nation is in a great drought and is in need of powerful preaching once again. The early church proclaimed the Word of the Lord far and near and the whole world was changed. The proclamation of the gospel must have first priority. Today, power point presentations and friendly talks have replaced the powerful preaching of the Word of God in many evangelical churches. The great pulpits of the past have been set aside to make room for the worship team. Yet, have we not lost something vital in doing this? We need to return to the primacy of the Word of God being proclaimed from our pulpits with power and great conviction.

What we need today is a return to the Bible as our authority in the land. Our forefathers honored the Bible. Today's generation has fallen far from such honoring of God's Word. The only way that the nation is going to return to the Word of God is through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the land. This is what we should be praying for continually. The Holy Spirit opens hearts to receive the gospel. When the Holy Spirit comes in power, people start believing the gospel. Conversions take place in large numbers and Christians are renewed in their faith. This is what we need today.

Today, there is a need for the powerful preaching of the gospel. When Paul preached people responded with great conviction. He knew the Lord was at work among them. He could see the results and He was assurred of their election of God. Today, we need that deep conviction that came upon Paul's congregations as he preached. Today, we have gotten so caught up in our electronic gadgets that they have invaded the churches and replaced the powerful preaching of the Word that once occurred in our churches. George Whitefield preached to thousands of people without any electronic equipment and thousands were moved and came in droves to Christ. That's not to say there is not a place for electronic equiopment but today we have allowed our electronic gadgets to take the place of a power that once was among us - the powerful preaching of the Word of God. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to sweep the land and bring us back to the God of our forefathers. The greatest need of our nation today is not a better economy or more electronic gadgets or fancy automobiles. The greatest need of our country today is a national Spiritual Revival.

We must endure in hope. Paul commended the Thessalonian Christians and thanked God for them continually for their good works produced by faith, their labor in the gospel prompted by love, and their endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. They were enduring in hope. This is what we must do today as God's people. We must endure in hope. We must believe that there is hope for the future not only for ourselves as individual Christians but hope for the church and through its influence hope for the nation as a whole.