How do you preach Christ?

I'm a Calvinist. Calvinist preach the gospel and call people to believe it...

There are three things man must know for salvation to happen.

1) There is an all knowing, all powerful, holy God that hates sin.
2) All men are sinners and God will judge all men.
3) Christ came to save sinners.

All Calvinist then give the call to salvation to those who have heard the message and with the help of Holy Spirit have understood the message. They must want to be saved from their sins, not just saved from hell.

 

I don't believe a man can be saved before he realizes that he is lost. So I preach the ten commandments, the law. The law convicts of sin. Once a man realizes his condition, I preach Jesus crucified, buried, and resurrected. I preach salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. I preach repentance from sin toward God.

 

We preach repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ and Him crucified.

 

In the past we had many who preached heavily on sin and hell with little to no grace and heaven. As Sag38 once said they would preach you into hell and just leave you there.

Today the pendalum has swung to the other extreme. It is all grace and love and no true picture of the cross. Whch is all but completely denied in many circles.

What the real gospel is is a balance. We need not be fearful to rpeach on sin and hell. Any picture of salvation without that diminishes the cross. But neither do we need to leave them there. preaching lost people into the pit of hell without giving them the clear picture of glory is as mucha dostortion of the gospel as the other.

The word of God is christcentric. So should any biblcial message as it is all about him. And to paraphrase Charles Hadden Spurgeon we need to take any passage and make a beeline for the cross.

 

I am really encouraged by the responses to the OP. Watching Christian TV and listening to Christian radio, I had despaired of ever hearing the gospel preached again outside my own church.

I am so sick of hearing motivational speeches masquerading as sermons. I am sick of hearing prosperity preaching passed off as the gospel. Frankly, I have never heard a gospel sermon from a prosperity preacher.

I was reading this week about a seeker-sensitive megachurch, whose pastor surveyed those who attended (thousands each week). He read the results in shock. Turns out 45 per cent of those who took the survey do not believe in salvation by grace. More than half do not believe in the authority of scripture. And 53 per cent did not believe in that Jesus was the only way to salvation.

Guess how much gospel his listeners heard. The pastor's response to the survey results? "We going to have to change." We'll see.

 

I'm a calvinist pastor.

I just preach what I see in the text:

(1) I see humanity's radical corruption and inability to save self.

(2) I see that only a sovereign working of the grace of God can save humanity.

(3) I see that once saved by God and sealed with the Spirit of adoption, the believer is eternally secured.

And salvation is only experienced when a person puts his faith in Christ to save him or her because of the transaction at Calvary on behalf of sinners.

I don't ever mention Calvinism from the pulpit. I just preach what I see in Scripture.

Only on BB and blogosphere I mention Calvinism.

Notice that I didn't mention the five points of Calvinism.

 

Hey TC,

I didn't realize you were a pastor. Do you work full-time, vocationally? Were you ordained within a particular denomination?

RB

 

"Not ashamed of the gospel," I see! :thumbs: Ashamed of Calvinism?

Like I have said before, you seem to be a "closet" free willer, TC. You got the gospel right -- you got the dispie perspective regarding Israel. What was it again that you believe of Calvinism?

skypair

 

RB,

I thought you had looked at my profile before. It's all there. :thumbs:

 

Skypair, I hold to the doctrines of grace because I see them in Scripture. :thumbs:

 

Why do you always attack Calvinism?

Please take a break and just read the thread.

 

nunatak,

My favorite way is "The Roman's Road." It is simple, all in one place, printed on a tract that can me given to the one I am sharing with, and brings them to the decision of praying to receive Christ. Also, I can put a church stamp on the back so that they know where to go (as Zacchaeus did) where to hear it again or get discipled.


BTW, that wasn't an attack on Calvinism, James. It was a simple question meant to provoke a thought that could possibly be relevant to his faith.

skypair

 

I'm not a preacher, but if one is a Calvinist I certainly hope it drives his preaching.

I also think it would be just fine if one preached the doctrines of grace from the pulpit.

I've heard one such sermon, from Matthew 20: 1-16, the story of the man who hired workers at different times of the day, but gave those hired at the end of the day the same pay as those hired in the morning.

When the morning guys complained, the vineyard owner replied, "guys did I not give you exactly what we agreed on? The key verse to me is 15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?"

One may not see Calvinism in that passage, but God's sovereignty, and his mercy and grace toward the undeserving jump right out.

 

You have an interesting prespective, my friend. My own thought is that the first 5 sets of laborers were those who followed after Seth, Noah, Abraham Moses, and David and the 11th hour laborers is the church. Notice that these last a) come out of the field first (rapture) and are paid first.

I believe the response of the earlier laborers demonstrates the jealousy that the OT saints would have had and that their descendants will have over the disparity in treatment. But I see their Householder, Christ, saying that this division of the laborers was His necessary to fulfill His plan. IOW, there is always a sovereign purpose for God to exercise His will.

skypair