This is a sermon well worth your time.  You can access it here.  Jeff Noblit is my mother’s Pastor, and someone you should be listening to, if you are not already.  I first heard it back in 2007, and have only recently listened a second time.  I am confident of two things.  First, that this is a message that we must hear and obey from Hebrews 5:11-14.  Second, that it will be unpopular.  I would write more, but the sermon doesn’t need any help.

“The Gospel is the report of a pardon under the great seal of heaven, in Christ, to all who will take it in Him. “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Act 13:38-39). This pardon is proclaimed open- ly by the authority of heaven, full and free, without exception of any of lost Adam’s race, to whom the report comes. The soul by faith believes this to be true and applies it to itself, saying, “This pardon is for me! It is good and suitable to my case. I will therefore lean to this word of grace for my pardon and come in, for this is the Word of God that cannot lie.”

Thus saith Calvin,

“Let this then stand as a fixed point, that those whom the Spirit has inwardly taught rest firmly upon Scripture, and that Scripture is self-authenticated, and that it is not right for it to be made to depend upon demonstration of reasoning, for it is by the Spirit’s witness that it gains in our minds the certainty that it merits.”

It seems the trendy thing to do these days is to write a book about the Gospel.  Now, I am not saying I don’t think that is a good thing, I have read most of them, but gave up chasing them a while back.  I do want to direct your attention to an older (1990) Gospel book however, that I think is the best one yet.  It’s a little Banner of Truth booklet actually, authored by Jeffrey Wilson.  This very short book is power packed and priced low enough to be used as an evangelistic or teaching tool in one on one or group settings.  Stop what you are doing, go to wtsbooks and order a copy of this little gem right now.  You won’t be disappointed.  Hey, Wilson was writing about the Gospel, way back before the Gospel was cool.

90 years ago, Charles Francis Potter observed that, “Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism.  What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?”

Ok, so was he right?  Is he just an old religious extremist?  Is he just majoring on second and third order issues?  Well, consider an acknowledgement made by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism in 1980.

“Of special concern to secularists is the fact that the media (particularly in the United States) are inordinately dominated by a pro religious bias.  The views of preachers, faith healers, and religious hucksters go largely unchallenged, and the secular outlook is not given an opportunity for a fair hearing.  We believe that television directors and producers have an obligation to redress the balance and revise their programming.  Indeed, there is a broader task that all those who believe in democratic secular humanist values will recognize, namely, the need to embark upon a long term program of public education and enlightenment concerning the relevance of the secular outlook to the human condition.”

Think about that.  No, really, stop and just think about that.

Had a great time tonight at an evangelistic skeet shoot.  A guy put together plans to invite folks in church to invite folks not in church and they came.  We set up in a field and shot for a couple hours, and then took a break for a Gospel presentation and a personal conversion testimony!  Its great each and every time we share the Gospel, but there is something extra special about doing it while shooting shotguns.  Very creative idea, and a ton of fun!