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Michael Tao
When I first came to Canada and joined this church, it was interesting to find out that most of the church members attended both the morning and evening services. The messages in the morning services are more salvation oriented and the evening ones Christian conducts. Besides these two, there are also a mid-week service, which is for prayer meeting and Bible study. In a smaller town, there may not be first-timers in each service, however the gospel was given in every Sunday morning. I asked one of the elders in the church if there was anyone attending the church was not yet saved. His answered was no, everyone in the church proclaimed Jesus Christ except some small children.
At that time, I did have a question:
- "why do we, as believers, have to listen to these messages of salvation?"
- "Is there a need to do so; or just to go there to show our support? Or for the fellowship afterwards? "
One day I was studying my Bible, Titus chapter three started to shed some light in this area. Titus was a young pastor, trained up by Paul, and in Titus 3:8 Paul advised Titus to to affirm certain things constantly. The word "affirm" means confirm, declare, or ratify, and from v.3 to v.8 we can see what these things are.
"For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another" (Titus 3: 3).
We might have never thought that we were that bad; but indeed we were all sinners, and enemies of God before our conversion. We were serving our desires, the Bible calls them exactly what they are: lusts and pleasure. We were fighting our way for the worldly recognition, and for our material goals. We want to excel, to self-actualize, and these are the very best disguise for selfishness and pride. We were no use and no good to God at all.
"But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared" (Titus 3:4).
The kindness and love of God is shown by opening a door to us so that we can escape from eternal damnation. God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross as our substitute. Due to His sinless perfection, His blood and death pay off all the sin debts of men. This is a free gift, the best bargain one has ever been offered. The condition is we have to receive this free gift and to acknowledge who the Giver of this free gift is. We do this without meeting him, so is by faith.
"Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of generation, and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
This free gift is given not based on our good work, although many may think they deserve God and heaven because they have clothed the poor, fed the hungry and visited those in need. To show how great our works are is like boasting on a filthy rag (Isaiah 64:6). The work of salvation has been completed by God, God also gives his believers the Holy Spirit as a seal of His own children.
"Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ saviour"" ( Titus 3:6).
Without taking this path, no one can come to God. It is through Christ and Christ alone, not through Christ's earthly mother, Mary; nor his disciples. The richness of life starts after our acceptance of Christ as our Saviour and our Lord.
"That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7).
Only those that believe will be deemed as righteous by God, and only the righteous can be with God in Heaven. But this righteousness is not due to men's effort, but by Grace - something we do not deserve to have. We are then called heirs, which are the sons of God, even the joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). This is not an empty title; it is a position, a covenant which was written by the Blood of Christ, and cannot be altered.
"This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men" (Titus 3:8).
Paul here very clearly advised Titus, to allow those "(they) which have believed in God" to maintain good works, Titus had to affirm these things constantly. But what are "these things"? They are the things Paul just mentione from vv3-8; that is the gospel!
Why did Paul advise constant message of salvation to the believers?
Paul did this because although we are the children of God, we still need the affirmation of the gospel. And it is very common for the believers to be plagued with doubts.
We have doubts because it is against our human nature to put our faith into something invisible. Our mind is very much material oriented and it keeps telling us whatever things cannot be seen, or heard, they just simply do not exist. Many Christians have doubts about the existence of God and their own salvation, because we cannot feel that we are saved; even though in God's eyes, our salvation has not departed from us for one moment .
The Doctrine of Creation is also not convincing to our logical thinking. Genesis 1 & 2 just sound too naive to believe anyway. We would rather choose to believe the universe came from a big bang instead of being purposefully and carefully made. We are indoctrinated by the false science (1 Tim 6:20) at school and in this world.
Our doubt also comes from the perplexity that it is too easy to be saved, and to inherit all these good things. Our pride says our salvation cannot be true because we have not worked for it.
Also, the promise of Heaven is too much for our depraved human mind to comprehend. We have no idea what eternity is, we do not even know what a 100 years feels like, to be with God and reign for ever is mind boggling. Even we are truly God's children, but as long as we are living in this world, we will question, we will be in doubt, and the devil never stops his tempting.
When we have doubts, Satan will bring in more doubts and more fears of death (Hebrews 2:15) to defeat us. Christians should turn to God to overcome these doubts and fears, but a defeated Christian will turn to the love of money. Hoping that with money, he can purchase good health, comfort, care and attention. A defeated Christian will think, judge and behave like a natural man. There will be no peace, nor joy in life.
There were also other apostles which had the same viewpoint as Paul, let's see what they say.
II Peter 1:10 says, "give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for ye do these things, ye shall never fall". Peter said we need to put in our best effort to make sure we are saved, he said this to those who had both been called and elected! The word "fall" here means to be consistently in a weak and poor spiritual condition and is open to temptation and failures. However Peter recommended a secret of never falling, that is we have to constantly affirm our salvation. If we do not make sure our salvation diligently and constantly, we are bound to fall.
Jude 3 says, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints". The word "contend" means struggle, strive, fight or compete. The Bible says here that the believers should earnestly keep the faith which was once delivered unto them.
I John 5:13 says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God". They certainly had known they had eternal life, however John told them once more. The message of salvation need to be preached to believers also.
Conclusion
From these letters written by Paul, Peter, John and Jude, we thus conclude it is an obedience to the Bible for preachers to preach the gospel in season and out of the season to the believers and unbelievers. It is a sure way for the church to continue to maintain good works, and not to fall into sin.
