The Kind of Preaching America Needs
By Evangelist Michael Kearns
Texts: II Timothy 4:1-5; I Corinthians 1:17, 18, 21; Titus 1:3
Introduction: America needs preaching that is doctrinally sound. That’s why it does matter what you believe! People who sacrifice doctrine for unity are not being more spiritual nor are they acting in accordance to the Bible. We don’t need to argue and divide over every little thing but we do need to stick with some basic truths found plainly in God’s Word. America is filled with people who are confused about various issues that are so plainly recorded in God’s Word. Both lost and saved people are confused about many things today. We need a revival of preachers and teachers and individual Christians to be settled in some things and be able by God’s grace not to be tossed about with every wind of doctrine and at the same time deliver the truth of God’s Word to everybody possible. With this in mind, let us hear about the kind of preaching America needs to hear today.
REPENTANCE
Repent means to change or turn; to think and feel differently about something. The Bible is a book that says to all men everywhere, “REPENT!!!”
People need to be told to repent for at least these reasons:
1. The conscience, if not seared, is awakened to face the reality of right and wrong.
2. A person is forced to face his own sinful condition and given the spiritual light needed to choose to admit that he is a lost sinner and in need of the Saviour.
3. This gives reason for eternal concerns and shows in part why Jesus died on the cross.
Luke 13:3,5; Acts 2:38,40; 17:30;
Luke 24:46-48
America needs for those preaching, teaching, and witnessing to call for genuine repentance. Matthew 3:1-9. If people are going to profess salvation and get baptized, and join a local church, then they should prove it by a life that has evidence of change for God’s glory!
RIGHTEOUSNESS
Acts 24:24, 25- When Paul preached to Felix concerning the faith in Christ, “he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come”.
Righteousness means this:
1. The Bible teaches absolutes-there is right and wrong! A gray society needs this message!
2. The Bible teaches that none are righteous and anything that we would attempt to call righteous is nothing but filthy rags!
3. The Bible teaches that we need to get the righteousness of Christ imputed and imparted to us.
4. And then the Bible teaches us once we’re saved to put on the breastplate of righteousness and to live and walk in such a way that reflects Christ in us to those around us. This means that we allow God to mold our lives to the image of His Son and that we do not continually try to be conformed to this world.*
*By the way, God’s purpose in your life is found in Romans 8:28-30. This is to be of Jesus and like Him in all things. We are born of the Spirit and then we are to walk in the Spirit that we may walk as Christ.
America needs to hear that only the righteous Son of God
can wash away sins and save the soul and give eternal life!
REGENERATION
This means another generation or a new generation. Simply put, it means to get a new nature that you did not formerly have. To be regenerated means to be born again spiritually.
1. John 3, “Ye must be born again.” America needs to hear the new birth preached and so does the average local church!
2. II Corinthians 5:17, “a new creature”. People need to be made aware that to know God in a personal relationship means being a completely different person!
3. Romans 8:14-17, To be born of the Holy Spirit means that there will be evidence in walking in the same Spirit.
4. Ephesians 2:1-10, People need to know that God quickens the soul who trusts Christ as Saviour and then ordains that quickened soul to walk in good works. Why?
1) As a blessing and testimony to the church
2) As a testimony to the lost
3) As proving one’s love for God and Christ.
5. Titus 3:4-7, Regenerated by God’s grace, mercy,
Spirit and Son. Regeneration is a divine work of God!
6. I Peter 1:23, Born again of the Word of God
7. I John 3:9; 5:18, a new nature evidences itself by not sinning and by doing right! This new man in Christ cannot sin and so people need to be aware that if they always want to sin and never do right, there’s no new nature and they are not saved!
RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST AND ALL MEN
America needs to hear some Holy Ghost preaching on the fact that the Son of God died, was buried, and raised again and is coming again and lives forevermore!
1. I Corinthians 15:1-4, The Resurrection is an absolute part of the Gospel and is a fundamental element in the Bible doctrine of Jesus Christ. A person who rejects this truth is not saved nor can be until the heart is changed about this all-important matter.
2. Acts 2:22-24, 32, Peter preached it on the day of Pentecost to the Jews and others there.
3. Acts 4:10, 31, 33, Peter preached it to the Jewish elders.
Peter and John again witnessed of the resurrection after praying and being filled with the Holy Spirit. One mark of a Spirit-filled Christian is power to witness of Christ’s resurrection.
4. Acts 17:30-32, Paul preached it at Mars’ Hill to people who believed all kinds of things. He certainly was on ground for people to accuse him of being too narrow-minded and fanatical! Even though America is a mixture of many religions and doctrines, people still need to here about the one true way to God if they would believe and be saved.
5. And then there will come a day when the saved shall be
resurrected to be rewarded and spend eternity with God and then another day will come when the lost will be raised up to stand before God and be damned forever in a body that will never cease to go without torment or pain.
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