Preach the Gospel

Preach the Gospel

Dr. Jay Worth Allen

What does it mean to Preach the Gospel? Simply put, it means to state every doctrine contained in God’s Word, and to give every Truth its proper status. But what we call Truth today is oftentimes merely the traditions of our denomination. I’ve learned that from experience.

When I went to Seminary (Southwestern, Dallas Theological, Oxford’s Magdalen/Christ Church College, UK), I went to learn the Bible. But instead, I was taught the doctrines of those individual denominations. And they used the Bible as proof.

If you attend a Presbyterian School, what you’ll learn is all the Calvinist verses. Go to a Baptist Seminary, and you’ll be taught that tongues have ceased. In a Pentecostal College, you’ll learn that tongues are mentioned all through the Bible. A Seventh Day Adventist School will teach you that the seventh day is the right day to worship. All of us who have attended Theological Schools have, most often, learned denominational traditions . . . and they’ve got Bible verses as proof!

Most preachers are so conditioned by denominational traditions that if they are ever to do God’s will, He will have to open their heads, take out their brains, wash them in His Spiritual detergent, brush them off and put them back in Right-Side Up!

So what is Preaching the Gospel?

Well, it’s not giving people a slice of philosophical pie and neglecting the Truths of His Holy Book. It’s not leaving out fundamental doctrines of the Word, and preaching a denominational religion - which is no more than a Vapor, without any crystal-clear Truths.

No man can Preach the Gospel, without mentioning Christ’s name; nor can he preach Christ and Him crucified, and leave out the Holy Spirit’s work. If a preacher never says a word about the Holy Spirit, his hearers will reply, “We do not so much as know whether there be a Holy Spirit”(KJV).

A man cannot preach a Gospel, which lets the saints fall away after they are Called - suffering the children of God to burn in the fires of damnation, after having Believed. Such a Gospel (if one can call it that) is loathsome and contemptible - and is not the Gospel of the Bible.

A man cannot Preach the Gospel, unless he preaches Calvinism. I say that, not to offend, but because no man can Preach the Gospel if he does not preach Justification by faith without works; not unless he preaches the Sovereignty of God and His administering of Grace in this age; not unless he exalts the Electing, Unchangeable, Eternal, Immutable, conquering Love of God; nor can he preach the Gospel, unless he bases it upon the Particular Redemption, which Christ made for His Elect and Chosen people. Calvinism is simply a common term, which conveys the whole of Truth inherent in the Gospel.

Some men preach a fractional Gospel - only one single doctrine of it. You can’t say that those men don’t preach the Gospel at all, if they maintain the doctrine of Justification by Faith - “By grace are you saved through faith.” Call him a Gospel preacher if you will, but not one who preaches the whole Gospel.

Some men preach from what I call a Fifth Gospel. They have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’s Gospels, but they preach from another, Fifth Gospel. This Gospel consists of every verse and passage they’ve underlined and highlighted and that’s all they preach from. And thus the whole of the Gospel is never heard.

No man can Preach the Gospel if he leaves out, knowingly and intentionally, one single Truth of the blessed God and Savior. That may seem cutting, and may strike the conscience of preachers who make it a matter of principle to keep back certain Truths - but it is God who will Judge, not me.

Some men purposely confine themselves to four or five topics. You expect to hear, either, “Not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God,” or, “He that believes and is baptized” or “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” You know the moment these men step in to preach, you’re sure to hear nothing but Election, Baptism or the Roman Road that day. Such men fumble if they give too great prominence to one Truth to the neglect of the others. But, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the standard of the true Gospel.

Some preachers make an Iron-Ring of their doctrines, and if you dare to step beyond that narrow circle . . . watch out! You’re likely to be labeled a heretic. God bless heretics, then! God send us more of them!

Some preachers make Theology into a kind of treadmill, consisting of five doctrines, which are endlessly rotated; they never go on to anything else. Every Truth must be preached. And if God has written, “he that believes not is condemned already,” that is as much to be preached as, “there is no condemnation to those that are in Jesus Christ.” If it’s written, “O Israel, you have destroyed yourself,” then preach that as well as the next clause, “in Me is your help found.”

All who are entrusted with the ministry, should seek to preach all Truth. I know that may be impossible. That Holy-Mount of Truth has clouds on its summit. No mortal eye can see its pinnacle. But at least try to sketch the cloud, if you can’t paint the summit. Depict the difficulty itself if you can’t unravel it. Don’t hide anything. If the Mount of Truth is cloudy, then say, “Clouds and darkness are around him.” Don’t deny it. Don’t chop down the Mountain to your denominational standards, simply because you can’t see its summit. Preach all the Gospel.

If you, my dear preacher brother, want it said, “he’s a faithful minister,” then don’t keep back any part of God’s revelation. Preach the Gospel. And let the Flesh-Chips fall where they may.

Preach the Gospel
Published: 1 April 2011 on Freed In Christ! blogsite.
Published: 17 March 2011 in the Faith Column of The County Journal.

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