The Great Commission Christs last command must become our first priority. His last command was to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Millions, yes untold millions have to this date not even had one single serving of the Bread of Life! While in the Western World the church continues to squander billions on newer and more elaborate edifices and millions and millions on entertaining Christians! The mandate of our Lord, was not to get everyone saved, while this would be wonderful, yet it remains unthinkable. Jesus emphatically taught the gate to life is narrow and few there are who will find it. Rather the explicit instruction to that faithful few, just hours before He returned to the Father was to Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Let the Christian church arise and take this command seriously and begin to move out into the ripened harvest fields of the earth, with a renewed passion for the lost and with a renewed determination to give everyone an opportunity to hear and be saved and then we will have every reason to expect the return of the Blessed Bridegroom, for a Bride made up of some from every tribe and nation. The Scriptures plainly state that This Gospel must first be preached to all nation, then cometh the end. The end has not come because the Gospel has not been preached to all nations and peoples. Untold millions are yet untold! Yet some will dare to suggest that the matter of foreign missions is being taken seriously. God help us! The two fundamental principles governing Liberty World Ministries are as follows: 1) The priority task of the church and para-church organizations must be that of world evangelization. By world evangelization we do not mean reaching everyone for Christ, but rather that of giving everyone an opportunity to accept Christ. Were we to assume for one minute that to evangelize a city for example, meant that of getting everyone in that city saved, then we could rightly assume that, that city would never be evangelized. On the other hand, if to evangelize a city is to give everyone in that city an opportunity to hear the Gospel that they might be saved, then it is entirely possible to evangelize a city or country. Reasoning based on this logic will allow us to move ahead and make the assumption that many countries, cities and towns have been evangelized. Again, based on this logic could we not assume that Canada and the United States is completely evangelized. The people of every city, town and community in this country have many opportunities of hearing the Gospel. Now that is not to suggest that they have taken this opportunity or that they will take the opportunity. However the table has been set for them, if they refuse to eat or neglect to eat, then the responsibility for that refusal or neglect becomes theirs. The Gospel is available in a multitude of ways. The Gospel is preached daily on any number of television stations, on any number of radio stations and that around the clock! There are literally thousands of Bible believing churches of churches and sometimes two and three at a given intersection. There is a army of Christians sharing their faith attempting to reach people for Christ. There is a multitude of Christian organizations that have telephones lines and E-mail lines and web sights available on a toll free basis so that any can call at any time and hear the Gospel. There are endless thousands of Bibles in homes and hotels across the land. There are millions of Gospel tracts published and distributed across this land every year. Evangelistic campaigns, conferences and seminars are conducted every year by the thousands. How could any thinking, honest person possibly suggest that this country is not evangelized! When Jesus sent the disciples out to preach the Gospel and they returned telling Him of a city that did not respond to their message, what did He say? He emphatically informed them to leave that city shaking the cities dust from their feet as they left! Christ went on to say that in the judgment it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city! Today in Canada and the United States we have a generation who has not only the opportunity to hear but has heard numerous times and sometimes over and over again. Now someone will undoubtably ask, well may they not eventually respond? To this question we would reply - People will be judged in view of the degree of light they posses. The great evangelist Charles Finney said of such people, these will be judged according to the light that has been available to them, whether or not they have responded to that light. He went on to say that the heathen in unreached cities and countries who die in their sins will walk the corridors of the damned ten thousand years without having reached the depth that these people who have had the light available to them and have rejected it. This beloved is a very solemn thought! Without any doubt the church needs to rethink its approach to present day evangelism. The late Oswald J. Smith of the Peoples Church in Toronto would refer to those in the third world who have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel as those in the back rows. He would ask time and again, Why should those in the front rows, those who have heard, why should they hear time and again when there are those in the back rows who have never had one serving of the Bread of Life. No one has a right to have two servings of the Bread of Life until everyone has had at least one serving. Christs last command must become our first priority. His last command was to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Millions, yes untold millions have to this date not even had one single serving of the Bread of Life! While in this land the church continues to squander billions on newer and more elaborate edifices and millions and millions on entertaining Christians! The mandate of our Lord, was not to get everyone saved, while this would be wonderful, yet it remains unthinkable. Jesus emphatically taught the gate to life is narrow and few there are who will find it. Rather the explicit instruction to that faithful few, just hours before He returned to the Father was to Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Let the Christian church arise and take this command seriously and begin to move out into the ripened harvest fields of the earth with a renewed passion for the lost and with a renewed determination to give everyone an opportunity to hear and be saved and then we will have every reason to expect the return of the Blessed Bridegroom for a Bride made up of some from every tribe and nation. The church might well ask the question - Why has God left the church, the body of Christ on this earth? Let us consider the question in view of the assumption that it is in the plan of God to unite the church, the body of Christ, the Bride of Christ with Himself. This being the view held by evangelicals. Why has God not already united the Bride with the Bridegroom? Is it because the Bride is becoming more attractive and suitable? I doubt that this would be argued by any sincere person. Why is God delaying this great Day? We can only conclude that there is indeed a very good reason for this delay. It would seem only reasonable that the delay is due to the failure of the church to take seriously the Mandate of Christ to go into all the world and preach the Gospel! The Scriptures plainly state that This Gospel must first be preached to all nation, then cometh the end. The end has not come because the Gospel has not been preached to all nations and peoples. Untold millions are yet untold! The church has lost the passion it once had for a perishing world. Most churches see their parish as being the radius of a twenty minute drive on Sunday morning. How unlike that of John Wesley and the early Methodist movement, when Wesley stated, The world is my parish. How many churches today see the world as their parish? Most churches today are not taking the matter of world missions at all seriously. Many churches spend far more on entertainment than on foreign missions. Often the missionary budget is not more than 10% of the entire budget. 90% being spent on our programs and a pitiful 10% left for foreign missions or even less. Yet some will dare to suggest that the matter of foreign missions is being taken seriously. God help us! The need is great the hour is late. Millions of souls are yet unevangelized. To each generation of Christians is given the task of communicating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the generation in which it finds Itself. - Dr. Steeves
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 23:36:05 +0000
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