Evangelism

When considering assurance of salvation, sooner or later we come to the question of saving faith. The ultimate issue concerns the nature of my faith, is it genuine or spurious? If I didn’t have some kind of faith, I wouldn’t be concerned with assurance at all. I wouldn’t even consider it.

However, if I have made a profession of faith in Christ, but am troubled about the reality of that profession, what I want to know is whether my faith is true saving faith, or something less. At some point I thought I believed in Christ, but is my faith now genuine or not?

Many refuse to allow questions about the nature of faith, at least in the heat of evangelistic efforts. Just ask Christ to save you, and if you are sincere, you will be saved. Never doubt it. To doubt that God saved you is to call God a liar, or so we are told. Some go so far as to assure people that “if you ever made this decision before, you don’t need to make it again. But if you have never before made this decision, you need to make it today, and if you do, you will be saved, never doubt it.”

A Sermon (No. 2330) Intended for Reading on Lord’s-Day, October 15th, 1893.

Delivered by C.H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington on Thursday Evening, August 29th, 1889.

When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.—Acts 1:6-8.

Republished from randywhiteministries.org by permission.

Once upon a time, churches met on Sunday mornings for “preaching services.” In these services, preachers preached the Word of God, often verse-by-verse. They were chiefly teachers of the Word, and the faithful attenders were the eager students. They carried their Bible, took notes, and (over time) became experts of the Scriptures.

Then, a thing called the Church Growth Movement changed all that.

The Sunday morning service changed from the “Preaching Service” to the “Worship Service,” which eventually changed to the “Worship Gathering,” and further changed to simply, “Praise and Worship.” The service became mostly filled with music, drama, and moments of introspection. The preacher became the “Lead Pastor” and the “preaching” gave way to a “speech” and, then, just a “talk or conversation.” The talk was about felt needs and everyday issues. It was filled with humor, emotionalism, and “go get ‘em tiger” conclusions. All this was done because the church thought it needed to soften its tone, lighten up, be authentic (whatever that means), and speak to the heart. Otherwise, the lost would never come to know Jesus.