WHY WE MUST PREACH THE GOSPEL
The churches of Christ
Greet
You (Romans
Men have derived many laws and honest Christians do their best to obey
the
ones that do not break God’s law. However, the Gospel - the word
of
God - is our only divinely written authority in all matters of
life.
The goal of our preaching and teaching is always to impress upon each
Christian
our duty to take God’s authoritative message to the lost. We want
the
lost to learn and obey the things from Heaven - not the things from
men.
But the questions are frequently asked, “What will become of the
heathen who never heard the Gospel”? Wouldn’t it be better for a
lost soul
to stand before our merciful God in the judgment having never heard the
Gospel
than for him to have heard and not obeyed?” If a person
understood
the real purpose and philosophy of the Gospel, he would never ask those
questions.
To set such questioners to thinking, we ask: “What would have become of
the
same heathen or lost soul if there had never been any Gospel”?
The
Gospel was designed to save a world already condemned (cf. Romans
To illustrate: a boat is rushed out to rescue a drowning man. He
refuses to be rescued, and is drowned. Now, why did he
drown? Some one replies, “he drowned because he would not get in
the boat.” WRONG!
The boat had nothing to do with his drowning; he drowned because he was
in
the water, and he would have drowned just the same had there never been
a
boat. Of course, his refusing to be rescued made his drowning a
case
of suicide.
Just so with the sinner. The Gospel is sent out to rescue the
perishing (cf. Romans
Many of our denominational friends are inconsistent when it comes to
saving souls. The inconsistency of some denominations is seen in
that they contend that God converts people through a direct operation
of the Holy Spirit, but yet they conduct evangelistic campaigns and
support missionaries. Consistency demands that they stand back in
silence and let God convert sinners that way. If their teaching
of a direct operation of the Holy Spirit
is true, there would be no need to preach the word. They should
dismiss
all their preachers. Why have a preacher to preach that souls may
be converted, if they are converted through a direct operation of the
Holy Spirit apart from the word?
If we have been Christians any amount of time, we are aware that Christ
has commanded that the Gospel be preached. “And he said unto
them,
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth
not
shall be damned” (Mark
What is the first part of this command? (Go and preach the
Gospel). What is the second part of this command? (Believe
and be baptized). It is as needful to obey the first part of the
great commission as it is
to obey the latter part. In fact, obedience to the latter part is
dependent upon man’s obedience to the first part. The Gospel must
be taken to those who know it not!
Below, we will study six Biblical reasons why the Gospel must be
preached
to others. First of all, it is impossible to have Gospel fruit without
first sowing the seed of the kingdom. Jesus taught in the parable of
the sower
that only the good soil (those who hear and understand the Gospel) will
bring
forth fruit (Read Matthew 13:3-8; 18-23). The point we must see
is
that the fruit was not produced until AFTER the sowing of the seed (the
Gospel
or word of God - Luke
Second, no one can please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6), and there
can
be no production of faith apart from hearing the word (cf. Romans
Third, men cannot be drawn to God apart from being taught of Him.
Only those who hear and learn of the Father can come to Jesus (John
A fourth reason why the Gospel must be preached is because Jesus placed
teaching
first in the system of conversion (Read Matthew
Fifth, the Lord’s word is the begetting power in the process of the new
birth.
The Bible says, “Being born again...by the word of God” (1 Peter
And sixth, where there is no preaching, there can be no salvation (Read
Romans