Receiving the end of your faith, even THE
SALVATION OF YOUR SOULS. OF WHICH
SALVATION THE PROPHETS HAVE ENQUIRED
and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace
that should come unto you: searching what, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in
them did signify, when it testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1 Peter 1:9-11
Did you know that the prophets of old inquired and
searched to find out more about this great salvation that was
to be revealed to mankind? No one could fathom the depth of
God’s love and kindness towards His creation. No one knew
how this salvation would come to men. Peter described it
this way, “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should
come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11).
If the prophets of old searched out to discover and understand
our wonderful salvation, should the study of our salvation not be
a major topic of our own journey?
Salvation is a miracle!
Salvation is the greatest transformative miracle of the Holy
Spirit!
Salvation is the mighty Hand of God at work!
Salvation is the unbelievable mercy of God in action!
Demons cannot believe the salvation available to human
beings. Satan is filled with even more anger and hatred when
people are saved from his captivity and domination. Satan is
filled with wicked jealousy when he sees that human beings are
saved from hell.
How shall we escape, if we neglect so GREAT
SALVATION; which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that
heard him;
Hebrews 2:3
It is this “great salvation” that I am seeking to share about in
this book. This book will help anyone who wants to understand
our great salvation and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will
help evangelists to learn many different ways to preach the
gospel of salvation. It will help crusaders to fearlessly preach
the power-packed gospel of salvation.
I have been accused of preaching “basics”. To describe the
preaching of the “great salvation” in a derogatory way is to
reveal the unfortunate and embarrassing confusion that is in your
soul. To imply that someone preaches “great salvation” because
he does not have revelation of the Holy Spirit is to reveal that you
are spiritually empty! We are not called to preach new, current
and modern messages, but to preach the Word of God. What is
more current, what is more relevant and what is more important
than the “great salvation” that Jesus purchased for us with His
blood?
Christians do not understand our “great salvation” because
they are not taught pure salvation teachings. Pastors cannot
preach the gospel because they lack the ability to expound on
the profound statements of Jesus Christ. How many pastors can
speak for one hour on a profound statement like, “Come unto me
all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”?
Teaching the Word of God in church is quite different from
preaching the pure message of our “great salvation”. Many
Christians understand the principles of prosperity much more
than they understand the principles of salvation. Many believers
are good at preaching the principles of prosperity but not so many
can preach about “pure salvation”.
It is my prayer that through this book you will understand our
“great salvation” better and become an effective salvation gospel
preacher both in the church and outside the church.
Are you faithful with the glorious gospel?
According to THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL of the blessed
God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that
HE COUNTED ME FAITHFUL, putting me into the
ministry;
1 Timothy 1:11-12
To be faithful means to be constant, to be loyal, to be the same
and not to change. Are you faithful with the message of our “great
salvation”? Have you been constant with the message of “great
salvation”? Or have you changed the incomparable message of
“great salvation” into a message of financial prosperity?
Are you faithful with the glorious gospel or have you swerved
into vain jangling? Jesus was counting on your faithfulness that
is why He blessed you with this commission. Many pastors are
not faithful with the glorious gospel of our “great salvation”.
The message of prosperity is a good message, but cannot be
compared with the message of our salvation.
Jesus Christ did not die on the cross to make people rich! He
came to this world to save us from our sins! “And she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save
his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus’ mission on this earth was to destroy the works of the
devil and save us from our sins. No matter how you spin the Bible
around, you cannot change the pivotal message of the Bible. You
cannot change the message of salvation into a message of “How
to Become Rich”!
I believe in prosperity and it is because of that prosperity
that you are enjoying this book today. However, the fact that
prosperity is true does not make it the central theme of the Bible
or the central message of Jesus Christ!
Stop over-magnifying the fact of God’s prosperity!
Stop taking the message of prosperity out of context!
Stop misleading the church and giving the wrong impression
about Christianity!
Stop peddling the false “gospel of riches”!
You are misleading the whole church into the way of error
when you over-emphasize riches and prosperity and take it out
of proportion.
It is amazing that Apostle Paul warned the church to be careful
of this exact error.
But THEY THAT WILL BE RICH fall into temptation
and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,
which drown men in destruction and perdition. For
the love of money is the root of all evil: which while
some coveted after, they have ERRED FROM THE
FAITH, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:9-10
One day, I attended an open-air crusade organised by a great
man of God. This man of God was well known for his wonderful
“financial” ministry. This man of God was obviously led by the
Lord to reach out to the lost souls and to win more people to
Christ.
On the first day of this crusade, an invited evangelist preached
the gospel and won lots of souls to the Lord. On the second, third
and fourth days however, the pastor who organised the crusade
took to the stage and preached the Word. To my amazement, he
preached about financial prosperity for the next three days. I
sat in amazement as the crowd received a secular motivational
message instead of a pure “great salvation” message. This pastor
obviously had many wonderful messages on financial prosperity.
Somehow, he was unable to break away from those messages
of financial prosperity even at an open-air soul-winning crusade.
He simply did not know how to preach about our “great
salvation”. Of course, there were many people there who
congratulated him for his financial message at the crusade.
People may congratulate you but do not forget that it is the Lord’s
approval that you really need!
How Many Sermons Can You Get Out of John 3:16?
Some years ago, I read about how the famed evangelist
D. L. Moody learnt how to preach effectively. He met Henry
Moorhouse who promised to come to America and preach in
his church. When he eventually arrived in February 1868, he
preached for seven nights from John 3:16. He also counselled
D.L. Moody to “Teach what the Bible says and not your own
words and show people how much God loves them.”
This is perhaps the most beautiful, meaningful and important
piece of advice any minister could ever receive. Stay with the
scripture! Preach the words that are in the Bible! Show people
that God loves them! Do not use your own words! Do not use
your own knowledge!
All sorts of bondage and captivity have crept into the church
because people are deprived of the knowledge of salvation.
Therefore my people are gone into captivity because
they have no knowledge:…
Isaiah 5:13
I asked myself if I could preach for seven nights on John 3:16.
Preaching about salvation is not as simple as it sounds. We live
in a time where pastors rarely preach the “great salvation” gospel
of Jesus Christ. Indeed, many of us do not even know how to
preach about the “great salvation”. The knowledge of “this
beautiful salvation” and the different ways to present it is very
limited today. Anyone who embarks on the journey of being
an evangelist will discover for himself that the “pure salvation”
which we rarely preach about is a deep well of revelation.
A Pastor Must Do the Work of An Evangelist
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, DO
THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST make full proof
of thy ministry.
2 Timothy 4:5
A pastor must do the work of an evangelist because the
scriptures say so. To be a good pastor you must somehow get
into the work of evangelism.
A pastor must win souls!
A pastor must lead his congregation to win souls!
A pastor must teach about soul winning!
The Pure Message of Salvation
A pastor must teach salvation at crusades!
A pastor must teach salvation at breakfast meetings, concerts
and other church outreaches!
A pastor must do the work of an evangelist; otherwise he will
never make full proof of his ministry. Most ministers fulfil only
a section of their calling. Most of us could have done much more
if we were led by the Spirit. Your church would be larger and
more effective if you were to do the work of an evangelist. It
is time to release yourself from stereotyped pastoring that does
not involve evangelism. It is time to stop leaving evangelism to
people you consider to be “immature zealots”.
You must be an evangelist because that is the only way to be
a good shepherd. Read the following passage carefully and see
Jesus’ description of a good shepherd. Remember that the good
shepherd is a good pastor and a winner of souls.
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose
one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the
wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he
find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his
shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he cometh home, he calleth together his
friends and neighbours, saying unto them, rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over
one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and
nine just persons which need no repentance.
Luke 15:4-7
According to Jesus Christ, to be a good shepherd you must
leave the ninety-nine and go looking for the one lost sheep. A
good shepherd looks for the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost
son.
In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus Christ teaches about
the “good shepherd”, the “good woman” and the “good father”.
The “good woman” looked for the lost coin and that made her
a good woman! (Luke 15:8-10)
The “good father” looked out of the window for his lost son
and that made him a good father! (Luke 15:11-32). The “good
shepherd” searched for the lost sheep and that made him a good
shepherd! (Luke 15:4-7).
These scriptures make it clear that to be a “good shepherd”
you must actively seek out the lost. Therefore a good shepherd
or a pastor is really an evangelist as well. I did not write the Bible
and I am simply quoting from the scripture. These scriptures
come from the words of Jesus Himself as well as from the letters
of Paul. They clearly reveal God’s intention for pastors to fulfil
their calling by doing the work of an evangelist.
My own experience as a healing evangelist has proved to
me that leaving the ninety-nine sheep and looking for the “lost”
does not diminish the church. Indeed, the church is stronger and
healthier when pastors do the work of an evangelist.
Develop the Ability to Explain Salvation
I once heard a lady describe how she had been saved when
she heard Billy Graham preaching on the radio on the topic,
“God commended His Love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners Christ died for us”. I thought to myself, “What a
wonderful statement and a wonderful message!” I desired
greatly to preach the message of salvation in an equally simple
way using the statements of Jesus Christ.
It is time for Christians and preachers to develop the ability
to expound on the profound statements of Jesus Christ. Some of
these profound statements about Jesus are:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
“There is no salvation in any other name except the name of
Jesus.” (Acts 4:12)
“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35)
“I am the living water.”(John 4:10)
It is time for pastors to teach, illustrate and explain the gospel.
The few stories in this book are intended to help the gospel
preacher bring alive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Often, the most
difficult part of preaching the message of salvation is in finding a
way to illustrate the simple truths of the gospel. It is my prayer
that this book will help lovers of the gospel message to preach
with greater strength and clarity.
Some pastors are power-preaching ministers who cannot
deliver a crystal clear message of salvation. Other ministers can
preach about the ABC’s of the gospel but cannot link it to the
power of God. It is time to blend the power of God with the clear
knowledge of the gospel of Christ as it is laid out in the Bible.
The gospel messages bring out the message of Jesus Christ
as a Healer and a Saviour. Those messages are critical when
evangelism is done in hostile regions where other religions
dominate. After all, our Jesus is a healing Jesus!
Pastors must also preach these messages of salvation in
the church. It has been wrongly assumed that the message
of salvation, the message of the cross and the message of the
blood of Jesus are well known and understood by all in the
church. Amazingly, it is often Christians who are blessed by the
message of salvation. When a preacher expounds the message
of salvation, Christians respond heartily as they hear their faith
being explained. It gives Christians great confidence to hear
about their salvation. Christians learn about what they believe as
well as why they believe what they believe!
I pray that many pastors will begin to teach about salvation
again. I pray that through this book we will drive out the canker
of “other gospels” that have replaced the teaching of salvation.
Today, the gospel of success, the gospel of prosperity, and the
gospel of wealth have replaced the simplicity of the gospel of
salvation through Jesus Christ.
Salvation can be taught from many different angles. Salvation
can be taught using the love of God, the sin of man or the dangers
of hell fire. You must endeavour to understand salvation in many
different ways. Different kinds of messages on salvation will
reaffirm and re-establish the ordinary Christian.
In the next sections of this book, you will understand the
message of salvation in different ways.
Indeed, you will discover that “pure salvation” can and must
be preached from many different and important angles. Every
preacher must be able to preach the gospel in a hundred different
ways. Over the last decade, I have been privileged to preach
most of these messages on salvation to thousands of eager souls
and I pray that you will also preach to thousands in your lifetime.
