Preach the Gospel

I can get used to it. I hope you will. I wanted to apologize for a couple of things to start off, and they always say, don't start off apologizing, but I want to say, I normally sound a little better than this, and after a week at summer camp, it seems like it happens every year. I'm out there yelling and encouraging and teaching, and by the time we get to Thursday or so, my voice starts getting weak, and it starts going away, and then probably by this time next week, I'll be sounding close to normal, and next time I talk to you all, hopefully I'll be better. I think I'll hold up all right through this. The other thing I wanted to apologize for is that my beautiful wife, Sue, is not with me, with our son. Connor is about just over eight months old, so you two kind of know what that's like, and he can hang in pretty well in that car seat for two, sometimes three hours, and after that, he's just done. He only bears up just so well, so he will come down. We're hoping, you know, before long, we'll come down, and they're looking forward very much to meet you, and Sue did pass on her greetings. Connor just said something like, blah blah blah, he'll pass on better greetings later on, and speaking of later on, I'm going to wait until after we get moved in and settled to give sort of my icebreaker and some of the background about myself. Just want to say, though, I'm happy I've got Appalachian in my blood and heritage. My wife, Sue, is from Kentucky originally, and my father was born in Athens County, Ohio, and his parents were in coal mining and such, so I don't feel like I'm straying too far from home coming down here. So, I consider it an honor and a privilege to be able to come here and be part of this congregation, and I want to say that as a lead-in to the message I want to talk about today, because I want to remind us that our calling is a special privilege. You know, it's an honor and a blessing that God the Father called each one of us. We didn't wander in here by accident. We're here because the creator of the universe called us out. Now, that wasn't because we were deserving in any special way. You've all read in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 where the Apostle Paul reminded us that not many wise are called, not many mighty or noble, but instead he called us, the common ordinary folk, to do a great work.

And, of course, that calling doesn't make us better than anyone else, but it does make us better off. Calling is a privilege that comes with a lot of benefits.

And I was talking to Mr. Raleigh, mentioning being healed after prayer. If you remember in Psalm 103, we remember the benefits. God forgives our sins. He's willing to forgive and buy that forgiveness through Christ's sacrifice. We can inherit eternal life. He heals our diseases. He provides good things for us. But having said that as preliminary, I want to remind us all that such benefits, or with such benefits, come responsibilities. There are responsibilities we have. Let's turn to the book of Luke chapter 12. Luke 12, I'm going to begin in verse 47.

This is towards the end of one of Christ's parables. I want to pick up on what he says towards the end, and we'll come back around towards this later on. But Luke 12 and verse 47, Christ said, That servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself, or do according to his will, will be beaten with many stripes. He who did not know but committed things deserving of stripes, will be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given from him, much will be required. To whom much has been committed, to him they will ask the more.

And that's an important thing. I want to focus in on that. To whom much has been given, much will be required. We've been given a lot. We've been given spiritual understanding. We've been given an opportunity to be firstfruits in Christ's kingdom.

So what kind of requirements or responsibilities are we talking about?

I'll warn you, I'm not about to pass the hat here. You know we don't do that. But what are some of our responsibilities? I'm making reference to some scriptures. We're going to turn to quite a few later on. But one of the first ones I want to remind you of is Peter wrote and said, Make your calling and election sure. That's in 2 Peter 1 verse 10, if you want to make note of it. Once you have that calling, your first responsibility is make it sure. Don't ever let go of it. You're responsible for making that your own. And then you go on, we've got a responsibility to mature and bear spiritual fruit. Christ didn't call us just to stay the way we are, but to bear fruit.

We have a responsibility to love our brethren and to care for them.

Of course, Christ said, By this all men will know that you're my disciples if you love one another.

Now, all of these are things that we do individually, and we should do. But the big responsibility I want to focus in on now and talk about through the rest of this message is something that we can do individually, but we also do as a group, as the church, and that is to preach the gospel.

We've been called to have a special opportunity, and God gives us that responsibility to preach the gospel. Now, that might bring the question, and I'm going to ask a lot of questions that I'm sure many of you have been living this way of life for many years, so don't mind if I remind you, because it's always good to revisit these truths. But people would ask, well, what is the gospel?

Well, the gospel, of course, is an Old English word that means good news. So when we say, you know, the gospel, it means good news. Now, when you go out there, you know, you'll see some Christian groups say, well, hear the gospel, believe the gospel. Now, that's a good start, but that would be like saying, well, listen to the good news, believe the good news, and then you'd follow up and say, well, okay, I'm ready to listen. What is the good news? Tell me the good news so I can believe in it. Now, some professing Christianity will follow that up and just say, well, it's Jesus Christ. And I shouldn't say just. I don't mean to demean that, because learning about Jesus Christ and his life and teachings are very important.

You know, the truth about Jesus Christ is good news, but that truth is part of the gospel message.

You know, there's more to it. We need to focus on what is the good news that Jesus Christ himself preached? What was his message? Well, there's a really good summary of it in Mark chapter 1. Let's look at Mark 1, and I'm going to begin in verse 14.

I keep my vocal cords lubricated here.

And remember, all four gospels cover the same material, but from slightly different perspectives, so they overlap and supplement each other. Mark is good for summarizing and putting things succinctly.

So we'll read in Mark 1, beginning in verse 14. It's the beginning of Christ's ministry.

It says, Now, after John was put into prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. So that's what the gospel was. It was about the kingdom of God. And this is what he said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

So repent and believe the gospel. Four points in that message, in that one little verse.

I want to make note of those. Number one, the time is fulfilled.

And what he was making the point of there is the time had come when the Messiah had finally arrived on earth. You know, the Jews living there and what was then known as Palestine, they'd been reading the Old Testament prophecies, some of them all their lives, and they knew that a Messiah was to come, that servant of God who would deliver them. Jesus was saying the time is fulfilled. Now, and then he said, the kingdom of God is at hand. Now, we need to understand, of course, that it didn't mean he was establishing God's kingdom on the earth right then, but that, of course, he was the king that was going to rule, and things were changing from that time on. We know that he met Satan and defeated him, and that Jesus qualified to rule this earth in his place. So the third part then is repent. You know, repent. Change your life and believe the gospel. That real belief will mean changing your life and conforming to it. Now, I want to revisit these four points a little later, because they're central to one of the things I'm leading up to, but we can see two broad things here in this message. Jesus preached the gospel, and when he said, you know, he said, believe the gospel, they didn't, if they were to say, well, what is the gospel? He'd say, well, I meant, he didn't say that. He said the gospel was of the kingdom of God.

So Jesus Christ preached the gospel, and that gospel was about the kingdom of God. Well, the next question then, well, what is the kingdom of God? Well, that might not seem that hard to us, but a lot of people out there think the kingdom of God is just this feeling or something that's set up in men's hearts. It's the, you know, the church. Well, we know better than that. You know, we know that a kingdom is a type of government. It's a, you know, a nation or a group of people ruled by a king. Matter of fact, I still think one of the best ways to describe it is the method that Mr. Armstrong used for many years. He said there are four elements of a kingdom. One, it has to have a king. It can't be a kingdom without a king. Two, it has to have subjects, people who are ruled by the king, and it has to have a territory. The kingdom can't just be some amorphous. It rules a certain area, and then it will have a set of laws. Or, you might say, a constitution. I like to mingle those two together. In the United States, the U.S. Constitution is our fundamental law, and all of our other laws are at least intended to be based upon it. Let's go a little further. Let's look at what some of the, some of what the Apostle Paul wrote about the Gospel. If you'll turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Because he'll actually address these four elements without necessarily saying so.

And I think it's interesting we think of 1 Corinthians 15 as the resurrection chapter, which it is. But it's often intrigued me when you read the very first verse. As we know, if you read through Corinthians from the start, you know, the Corinthian Church at that time was a group of people that were zealous, had a lot of spiritual gifts, did great things, but also had some problems. And the Apostle Paul spent a lot of these chapters correcting them, saying, you're doing this wrong, you need to straighten up here, this is a problem.

And then after all that, he begins verse 15, and he says, moreover, moreover, so in addition to all those things I told you, brethren, I declare to you the Gospel, which I was preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand. So the Apostle Paul says, I'm going to preach to you the Gospel, and what follows summarizes much of the Gospel. And it does have a very important point.

In verse 3, for I delivered you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. So the Gospel does inherently include Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. When I say the Gospel isn't just about Christ, I would never want to imply that Christ wasn't central to the Gospel.

Of course, He is. And that He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Of course, we do want to add that it's not just His sacrifice, but Christ's resurrection is so important. The fact that He lives is what makes it possible for us to be saved, because the Holy Spirit can now be in us and we can change. But another important reason of why Christ and His sacrifice is so important to the Gospel of the Kingdom, we'll see in verse 24. In verse 24, the same chapter, then comes the end when He delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule, all authority and power.

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For He has put all things under His feet. That's quoting from the Old Testament. But when He says, all things are put under Him, it is evident that He who put all things under Him is accepted. That's saying, Christ is going to have everything under Him except the Father, because the Father is the one that put everything under Him.

Now, when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. Mine does the same exact thing. So we see, I said, those four elements. Well, clearly the King is Jesus Christ.

Who are the subjects? Well, it says all things will be put under Him. Well, that means pretty much everybody. It also addresses the territory. All things will encompass the entire earth. Jesus Christ is going to be ruler overall. Let's turn back to the back in Revelation chapter 19. We'll see another aspect of this, just to make it very clear when we're talking about this happening and how it will be. Revelation 19 in verse 11.

I've always thought this was one of the most exciting sections of the Bible because it's Christ's actual return. In verse 11, Now I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. This is Jesus Christ we're speaking of here. His eyes were like a flame of fire. On his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself, and he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.

The armies in heaven clothed and fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So once again, that king that's going to rule the kingdom of God is Jesus Christ, and it says he'll rule all nations. So the territory is beyond dispute in who the people are. Now as the one element we haven't addressed yet is the law. So let's not leave that hanging. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew 5 and 17.

This is one of our long-time memory scriptures. I'm glad to be in a group of people who mostly know what I mean when I say that. I've been at summer camp with a lot of 13-year-olds, and I say, oh, this is a memory scripture. And they look at me and say, you memorize scriptures?

Then a lot of people who've been in the church a long time know there are certain scriptures that we want to keep in front of mind because they help pin down the truth and keep them clear to us. But Jesus Christ made it very clear what law would be the law of His kingdom. Beginning in verse 17, He says, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches them, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

So the law that Jesus was talking about is basically what's in this book. You know, God's law. The Ten Commandments, the fundamental law of love God with all your heart, soul, and might, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the basic underlying constitution for the kingdom of God. And Jesus Christ said, contrary to what is believed by many people out there, I'm not doing away with that law. It's all there. And he refers here to the kingdom of heaven. Now that might be a little confusing, I don't think, necessarily in this room, but we don't want to let that throw us off track. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God. It's just a different name for it. And he used it there because the king at this point is in heaven, but he's going to return to earth as we just read in Revelation. If you're taking notes, you might want to note Acts 3 verse 21. I'm not going to turn there, but there is where it says, you know, the heaven must receive him, that is Jesus, until the time of restitution. So he's there for a time. He'll return just as it says in Revelation and establish that kingdom that will rule all of the nations. So I would ask, isn't that good news?

Of course it's good news. We can add further the good news, as we mentioned earlier, Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, making it possible for us to be in that kingdom.

Another memory scripture, John 3 16, we're not far away. It's probably worth turning there.

Say, this is one memory scripture that not only we must remember it, but people going to just about any Christian church. And you used to see it always on Sunday during NFL games, somebody to have it up in the end zone. I haven't seen that lately. I'm not sure if they still do that or just camera goes away from it. But this is an essential part of the gospel. It's just sad that so many people in the world think that this is all there is to the gospel.

But John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

I'll make a reference to Hebrews 9 28 where it says, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. He was given as a sacrifice so that we can be part of that kingdom. We can be subjects within the kingdom. It's not my purpose here today, but we could go on and talk about how we will be rulers with Christ. We're preparing and training now. That is part of our responsibility as Christians. But as I said, I want to focus on that one responsibility that we have of preaching the gospel. Let's, if you will, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 again. As I said, I like to use a lot of scriptures. Someone told me that a young minister can't go wrong if he uses scripture a lot. My words might be a little off base here and there, but God's won't. So don't mind if I quote quite a bit. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 again will begin in verse 19.

Once again, we're going to tie in Christ's resurrection and his sacrifice to the kingdom of God. Beginning in verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. Or I think the old King James says we're the most miserable. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, all will be made alive, each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ that is coming. So when the end comes and he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, he puts an end to all authority and power. And once again, Christ will return and there will be a resurrection and he'll have the kingdom. Again, what good news? Boy, when you talk about spreading good news, it is good news. But let's branch off. Let's ask another question then. Why is it our responsibility to preach the gospel? I sort of just told you it was our responsibility, but you're not going to take it just on my word, I would hope. You know, we want to look in the Bible and see why should we be preaching the gospel? While you turn to Mark 16, I'll just give you the short and easy answer. This is one I'm practicing for when my son, Connor, starts asking me why. And sometimes I'll say, because I said so. The answer of why is it our responsibility to preach the gospel? We can say because God said so. He gives a direct command in Mark 16 verse 15. This is at the end of Christ's time on earth. He'd already fulfilled his physical life. He'd been sacrificed, resurrected, spent time coming back and meeting with the disciples and teaching them further. And then shortly before he ascended to heaven, that last time they would see him, once again, Mark summarizes things in a short order in a way that some of the other gospel accounts don't. But here in verse 15, very simply, he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Go to all the world and preach the gospel. A direct command from Jesus Christ, go out there and preach. And if you drop down to verse 20, and they went out and preached everywhere. The Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. So here in this case, Jesus Christ told them, go do it. And they went and did it. Let's see also in Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24 and verse 14. This is another very familiar scripture to those who have been involved in this work for a long time. Matthew 24 and verse 14. And I'm trying not to clear my throat in front of the microphone.

Once again, this is Jesus Christ speaking. And he says, in this gospel of the kingdom, once again, the gospel of the kingdom of God, will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. That's a pretty clear thing. And you think, we want Christ to return. We want the kingdom of God, even without him saying it. And I would say, this is a prophecy. This was not a command of the apostles. But if we want that, we want the kingdom of God to come, it might make sense. Well, when the gospel is preached to all the world, the kingdom will come. Well, let's get busy and start preaching the gospel. That's something we want to do. We want Christ to return. Let's turn ahead a few chapters to Matthew 28 and look at another record of Christ's instruction to the apostles just before he left them. So Matthew 28 and verse 18.

We're going to read 18 through 20 here.

It says, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, to go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now, this was a command.

Now, you might wonder, did Christ give two different commands? And Mark, he said, go and preach the gospel. Here he said, go and make disciples or go teach all nations.

Really, these are connected. They're two parts of the same thing. And you've all seen how it works in your lives. And for some of you, it might have been longer ago than others. But you know, we as a church, we go out and we preach the gospel to many. We go to all the world, and then some will respond. And of those, we start teaching. We make disciples. If someone says, I understand this gospel message, tell me more, we take the opportunity to teach them, and we care for them. Now, remember John 644 is another one of those scriptures we've heard many times where Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father draws him. So we can preach the gospel to as many people as we can possibly reach. And we want to do that. We know they're not all going to come into the church in this age. We know that many are called, but few are chosen.

But both of these, that preaching the gospel and making disciples is part of the mission of the church and our motto of the United Church of God. It says very clearly, preaching the gospel and preparing the people. We want to be doing that because Jesus said to do it. It's our duty.

And we know that the more we preach the gospel, the more people are likely to hear and see it. And you've seen the news, or you've heard the news on the radio or television, you see the newspaper. There's some bad stuff going on out in the world. And it's hard not to think that the end might be coming near. And we've got a clear review of that. There are people out there that don't know what's going on, but they know it's bad. And they start looking for answers. People who haven't given God a thought for a long time might say, things are looking pretty serious. Maybe I need to find out if God is involved in this and I want to get some answers. They might come across the Beyond Today TV program or the ucg.org website or get a copy of the good news and start looking for answers to their questions of what does all this mean. But we need to put the message out there. Let's look at another section where Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 10. Romans 10, and we'll begin in verse 13.

I want to briefly address the sequence of how this works. As I said, you've seen it in your own lives.

And as I said later on, I'll talk more about how I came into the church and members of my family, because we fit in this model in a couple of ways. There is more than one way that God can call people, but he gives us the job of preaching the gospel, and then he works through it. So, Romans 10, beginning in verse 13. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how then shall they call on him and who they have not believed? You can't call him if you don't even believe him. How shall they believe in him if they haven't heard of him? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? So, there's a sequence. For them to call on God, they have to believe that there is a God. To believe that there's a God, they have to have heard of him. If they're going to hear about him, somebody needs to tell them, and that somebody needs to be sent out. And in verse 15, how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

So, there we go. They need to be sent. Sent by Jesus Christ, at least indirectly by his command here, but also sent by the body of Christ, which is the church. That sound needs to go out to all the earth. Interesting thought came to my mind. Well, thought was brought to my mind. As I said, I was at summer camp Catubic last week. I got a chance to work with Mr. McNeely, Darris McNeely, who writes for some of the magazines and does the television program. I met him years ago. He used to direct the camp at Heritage, and so I'd known him. We spent a fair bit of time together.

Towards the end, he pointed out something interesting. He said, among younger members of the church, there are a lot of young people who believe that the church was built by things like the summer camp, and by the Ambassador Bible Center, and such like that. Some in the church want to focus all of our energies on that, because they believe that's how the church is built.

He said, those who are older understand that God built the church, but he built it through preaching the gospel. Through this sequence, the gospel is preached, and then through that preaching, God draws some, begins to use the spirit to open their minds, and then they come to the church and we begin to teach them. He was making the point that summer camp is great, so is ABC, but we can't do those through the exclusion of preaching the gospel, fulfilling that responsibility that Christ gave us.

Now, I do want to stop and address one important question, and I've learned that there are some other church organizations that believe this as a firm doctrine. There are some out there that would say, well, Mr. Armstrong preached the gospel to all the world, and he fulfilled Matthew 24, 14, the prophecy that the gospel will be, I'm talking too fast, I can't get the words out, the prophecy that says the gospel will be preached to all the world, and then the end will come.

Some people say, well, Mr. Armstrong did it, it's done, now all we need to do is sit and wait till Christ returns. Well, I want to tell you that I don't believe that's the case. The United Church of God does not teach that that's true, and I hope that you don't believe that's true.

Now, when I say that, I'm not meaning any disrespect to Mr. Armstrong. You know, many of us here, perhaps all of us, were a direct result or an indirect part of his work. God worked through him, preached the gospel, and we came into the church. And I think that in many ways, he did preach the gospel to all the world. What I mean to say is that doesn't absolve us of responsibility for us to preach the gospel. We want to keep doing that work. For one thing, let's look at some factors that I think will show this. Let's go back, well, no, let's not turn there. Mark 16, verse 15, we read earlier, Jesus Christ commanded them, go preach the gospel.

Now, some might say he was talking to the disciples who were right there, and they went and preached the gospel. But we'll see if we look at some other scriptures. There are others that we know weren't there that did so. Let's turn to Acts, chapter 8. We're near there now. Acts, chapter 8, just a little ways away. It'll be Acts 8, verse 4.

We'll see a case of many people participating.

Now, this is the case, of course, the church began in Jerusalem on that Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And the brethren continued to meet together. God added many to the church, and things were thriving for a while. But then after a time, God allowed some persecution to come on the church. And many then scattered and went out. And we see that here in Acts 8, verse 4. It says, Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

That's not only the disciples that were there that Christ met with before He rose into the heaven, but the many who were scattered, they went out and preached the word. And I'm pretty sure that word included the gospel of the kingdom of God, and God worked through them. Let's also now turn to 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9, and we'll begin in verse 16. Because we know, and we know that we know the Apostle Paul was not there when Christ gave that command, because he soon afterwards was persecuting those people. He was one of the ones that was throwing people in jail and trying to stop that way of life until Jesus Christ, you know, from heaven knocked Him down and struck Him blind and said, I've got a job for you. And when the Apostle Paul was doing that job, we'll see here in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 16, Paul says, For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. So the Apostle Paul said, I have to preach the gospel. Now he goes on in the following scriptures to show that knowing that he had persecuted the church, he wanted to try to make up for it. So he said, I have to preach the gospel. For me doing that, I don't get any special reward for preaching the gospel. So the one thing I'll do beyond that is I'll do it for free. I won't accept the tithes, you know, from the church to help pay my way any more than necessary. So you read accounts of him working. You know, he worked as a tentmaker to support himself as much as possible. But preaching the gospel, he considered part of his duty. He had to do it. Let's also turn to John 17.

John 17. This is part of the account of Jesus Christ's final Passover with his apostles.

And we know there are several chapters of direct instruction to them. And then in John 17, John recorded a full prayer that he made to the Father. And we'll see some of Jesus's attitude towards those who would follow the original twelve disciples or twelve apostles. John 17 and verse 20. I'm going to extrapolate a little here, but he says, and Jesus praying to the Father says, I do not pray for these alone, that is, these who are here with me, but for those who will believe in me through their word. So Jesus said, I'm praying for these men here, but also for those who are going to believe these men. I think if Jesus was praying for their well-being and such, there's the implied responsibility would also pass on. He told those men, you go preach the gospel, make disciples in all the world. But I think the same way the praying for their well-being continued to those who were called through them, that responsibility of preaching the gospel, we could consider to also pass through. And that includes us. We were taught by someone who was taught by someone who was taught by a chain going all the way back to Jesus Christ. So I think that the blessing of this prayer Jesus Christ asked continues on to us, but so does our responsibility to preach the gospel. Now, some might say, well, yeah, that's okay. That applied back then. But what if Matthew 24, 14 has been fulfilled? What if it's been preached to all the world, and so we don't have to do it anymore? Well, I would answer that alone still would not negate Christ's command. In Matthew 16, 15, he didn't say, preach the gospel to all the world until it's been done and then stop. He didn't include any expiration date. And for that matter, perhaps the gospel has been preached around the world many times. Now, there's plenty more to do. Let's turn to the book of Luke, chapter 12. So you get a feel for what Christ expects from us and fulfilling our responsibilities. Luke, chapter 12, will begin in verse 40.

Rather common parable, but I think this shows what Christ expects of us.

Matthew 12, verse 40. Therefore, you also be ready. The Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect. We don't know when He's coming. Then Peter said to Him, Lord, are You speaking this parable only to us or to all people? Jesus didn't answer that, but He gave the parable to explain. He said, Well, who then? Who is the faithful and wise steward who His Master will make ruler over His household, to give them their portion of food and do season? Blessed is that servant whom His Master will find so doing when He comes. Truly, I say to you, He will make Him ruler over all that He has. So, Peter asked, Is it just for us or who else? Jesus didn't say for you and all these other people, but He said basically for whoever the Master finds so doing. So, whoever I find doing this work when I come back, that's who this applies to. But He says, If that servant says in his heart, My Master is delaying His coming, begins to beat the male and female servants and eat and drink and be drunk, the Master of that servant will come on a day when He's not looking for Him, and an hour when He's not aware and will cut Him in two and appoint Him as portion with the unbelievers. And if that servant who knew His Master's will and did not prepare himself or do according to His will, will be beaten with many stripes. So, here we say, We know the Master's will. It's laid out for us. It's His will that we be doing His business, which includes preaching the Gospel. You know, we read earlier on here in verse, the latter part of verse 48, to whom, I'm losing my place here, for everyone to whom much is given from Him, much will be required. I've gone a little bit of a circle here to remind us of that. We've been given a lot. We have a requirement on us. Well, another question then. How do we preach the Gospel?

If I've got you convinced by now, actually, I suspect I didn't have to convince you most of you were on board as soon as I said it, but always good exercise to prove things from the scriptures. How do we preach the Gospel? In general, there are two different ways that we can do it. One is by what we call an overt proclamation. Speaking the truth, explaining it to people, sometimes just putting it out there. The other way is by an indirect witness, by us living by the teachings of God in His way and showing people what this way is like. We do this as a group, as the church, especially as a group. We proclaim the Gospel a great deal. We proclaim the Gospel through the television, through the Internet, by publishing magazines and booklets. And, of course, well, I've got the Internet twice in my notes. Never mind. We can use the Internet as many times as we want, though. It's interesting, as a group, in some cases, we have an opportunity to provide a witness as well. I'm sure the people who work at this hotel are seeing a witness. This group comes in on Saturday mornings, and hopefully they see a witness that they're happy. There's a good feeling about them, and they leave the room clean. They don't steal from us. There's things like that, and they might say, I wonder what it is about them. And, you know, the Feast of Tabernacles is even more that way. And when a large group of people come into a city and we all live a certain way, it makes an impact. And similar methods are available to us as individuals. Now, I would say we can or we could preach and speak directly as individuals, but we tend not to that much, partly because it's not as effective, and we're very aware of John 644, that none can come unless the Father draw him. But there's another way we do speak directly when it can be effective. If you'll turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter, right after Hebrew is there. 1 Peter 3 and verse 15.

This is an important... you might not always think of this as being part of preaching the gospel, and yet it is very much so.

Peter writes here in 1 Peter 3.15, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now, this is the new King James says, Be ready to give a defense. The old King James says, Be ready to give an answer. I kind of like the sound of be ready to give an answer because people say, Why are you like this? Why do you go to church on Saturdays? Why don't you keep Christmas or whatever? Be ready to give an answer. But actually, the word in Greek did mean a little more than just an answer. The word that they translate defense could be translated like a legal argument. Be ready to give an explanation, a thorough explanation based on God's word, which means you have to know it. Now, I'll mention before my prior job and before being called into the ministry, I went to graduate school at Texas A&M, and I wrote a long thesis dissertation. And at the end of it, you go before a board of professors, and you have to do what's called giving a defense. The same word here. They'll ask you questions. Why did you do this? How do you support this thesis that you made? And you have to give a defense. You have to explain it and assert that you're correct. You know, God wants us to be able to do that for His word and His way of life. We need to be ready. I just skipped something. While we're in 1 Peter, skip, if you will, turn to chapter, or the beginning of the chapters, verse 1.

This is one example of how this could work. It says, wives likewise be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives.

And there's another place you can make note of this without us turning there. In 1 Corinthians 7, in verse 16, Paul writes a similar thing, saying, how do you know if you're married to an unconverted person, your conduct may win over your mate? And that's what Peter's saying here. In other words, you need to be ready to give the words, but the words aren't as important as your actions, and God might decide to start calling that person. And it's true for men as well as women. I think in the case of my own family, my wife Sue, back in the, I think it was around 64, 65, her father was called into the church. And he started living this way of life, and he went to his wife and said, I believe this is right, I have to do it. She thought he was crazy.

So my, and she would talk to people and say, my husband's gone nuts. He's going to church on Saturday, and he won't eat regular bread one week out of the year. But as time went by, she said, well, I'm his wife. We've got two little boys. He's going to go to church. We need to be together as a family, so I'm going to go with him. And as she sat there and she listened, and she read the scriptures that were being referred to, God started opening her mind. And she thought, well, this is true. This is right. And she eventually was baptized. And years later, she became a deaconess in the church. God used her husband and his conduct to bring her over.

Now, we have to heed Peter's admonition, both by our conduct and by our words.

Watch out, this is meant to be a split sermon, not a sermon. Mr. Smith, I'm close to wrapping up. But when I say be ready to give an explanation, it doesn't mean a full, long dissertation. Sometimes just a brief answer is good. If someone says, you know, why don't you keep Christmas? Sometimes just the answer of, well, I don't think it's biblical, and the Bible teaches that we should keep other days. For some people, that's plenty. You know, why do you go to church on Saturday? Well, I think the Bible teaches to go that day, and that's when Jesus and his disciples did. Now, that might lead to other questions, and it's great if it leads to other questions. You want to be prepared to answer those. What you don't want to do is say, well, here, read this booklet, you know, or here, here's my minister's phone number. Call him. Now, if someone wants a booklet, that's fine, you know, and if you want to give him the minister's phone number, I guess that means it'll be me, which means I'll have to give you a phone number as soon as I have one. No, that's, that's great, too, but always be ready to give a reason why you do things. And then you can get more information as it goes, but you want to do that. You want to be part of this preaching the Gospel. Proverbs 26, verses 4 and 5, I'll just quote it to you, basically says, answer a fool according to his folly, so he doesn't seem too wise in his own eyes. Then the very next verse says, don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest, now I can't remember what it says, but basically saying, whether you answer a fool or don't answer a fool depends on the circumstances. So when someone asks you a reason of the hope that lies within you, the answer that you give will determine, will be determined largely on their attitude, how much they really want to know. Preaching the Gospel doesn't include arguing or trying to convince people against their will, but it does include giving an answer and telling them the good news of the Kingdom of God. That can include the fact that Christ was sacrificed to pay for our sins. It certainly can include the fact that there's going to be a resurrection. I remember a personal example when I was in school in Texas. I shared an office with two other people, a tiny little cramped space, and one of these fellows was as liberal as you can get as far as his political ideology and such. He was nominally Christian, but he was curious, why don't you keep Christmas and all these things I did different? Somehow the question of the resurrection came up, and I explained to him, well, I think it's partly he thought, are you saying we're all going to hell because we don't live like you do? No, no, I don't believe that. I explained there's going to be a resurrection in which everyone who's ever lived is going to have an opportunity to know God's way and to accept it and live that. So people living now are not condemned. Most of them aren't saved either.

He asked a few more questions, and I explained somewhat about the second resurrection.

And at the end, I thought he would say I was nuts, but he said, well, that comforts me. That makes me feel better. You know, in a sense, in just a couple of minutes, I preached the gospel to him a little bit. He wasn't converted, but I'd preached the gospel. I want to mention something coming up here that we all want to be aware of, and it's a chance for the church to preach the gospel in a way we haven't in a while. In September, we're holding the Kingdom of God public Bible seminars.

I don't know if you've seen the latest good news yet.

I've got the big double-page spread advertising these. I think this is really a neat thing.

And we're doing them around the country. It's an opportunity for churches to host a public seminar, invite people to come in and basically hear a person, rather than just a magazine, talk about how they're going to go or talk about the gospel. The way it's set up is there's meant to be one about every four months, and they go in a cycle of fours, and they're based on Mark 1, verse 16. Jesus came preaching the gospel when he would say, the time is fulfilled. So the first one in September, the theme of that is going to be, the time is fulfilled. And it'll talk about world events and what's going on in the news and showing that mankind's way of living can't go on much longer. And then the next one will be saying that the kingdom of God is at hand. The third one will be on the subject of repentance, and then the fourth one will be, believe the gospel. So we're going to build these around Jesus's words and striving to preach the gospel. And one of the good things about it is people will be invited to come to the church meeting hall, where there will be, you know, it won't be sitting in front of television, there'll be people there. They're going to be scheduled on the Sabbath, and the regular church members will come, but also members of the public could come, and they won't know who's a member of the church or not. But they'll know that, hey, I've been getting this magazine, there are other real-life people who get this magazine as well. And, you know, they're not all nuts. You know, they're regular people, and they can fellowship and start learning about God's teaching and His way of life. Now, the ministry is going to handle the preaching. You know, and it'd be various, some of the pastors, some elders, perhaps even some some deacons will get up and do the talking, but having people in the audience that are friendly to the message is going to be very vital. And people who might, you know, someone might ask, oh, are you a part of this church? And you would say, well, yes, I've been attending since, what, 1962 in some cases. And they might ask a question, well, what do you believe about this or that? And you can give an answer or at least partly lead them in the right direction. And it's a special opportunity I'm looking forward to the church doing. Now, I don't want to go too far off on this. I'll mention we're already making plans for hosting one in Portsmouth, and Mr. Smith is making plans for hosting one in Houston. So we're sort of, I'm not sure if we're going to be ready to do one here in Prestonsburg in September, but I haven't ruled it out entirely. In some areas, they're doing one on the 10th and September 10th, and then in the other congregation on the 17th. Or if we decide we need a little more time, we might say, well, then when the next one rolls around, I think it'll be in February. Maybe we want to host one then. But I would say, whether we host one here or not, I hope you'll be praying for the success of them. It's an exciting new way of preaching the gospel.

Actually, it's an exciting old way of preaching the gospel. You know, it's something Mr. Armstrong was doing back in the 1930s, and God worked through that. I hope he'll work through this again.

And what I want to say, you know, we'll talk more about what we can or can't do here in the area, but when we started this message reminding us that, you know, we have a tremendous privilege and a blessing in this, the calling to this way of life. But with that blessing comes responsibility.

God called us into the church not just to save us. Now, some of you have heard that before, because Mr. Armstrong used to say, you weren't called into the church just for your own sake. You were called to help do the work. He's got a job for us. Jesus Christ told his disciples, preach the gospel and make disciples. With God's blessing on us and his help, I encourage all of us, let's go out and let's preach the gospel.