Be Ye Doers. . . Of The Word!

It is very easy to read the Bible and read over a particular passage and not understand what it is saying. This may be what happens when reading this verse, 1 Corinthians 1:21 where it says. ". . . it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

Did I print that right? God calls preaching, in His Word, FOOLISHNESS? Surely I made a mistake. Look it up for yourself; that is exactly what it says! But how can preaching be foolishness? Many people put a lot of faith in preachers that preach the gospel.

Think of it like this: God gave Christians the awesome responsibility of preaching the gospel to the rest of the world, namely sinners. Why would He do that when He could have simply said HOCUS POCUS everyone has to serve Me, they have no choice in the matter. He could have said ABRACADABRA you are a Christian. Then He would never have had to worry about us forgetful, lazy, stubborn, procrastinating Christians doing a fair to slothful job. Let's face it, a being that can create this vast universe in which we live, raise people from the dead, cause the winds and the waves to obey His command, keep all things throughout the universe in a highly ordered state of existence — could easily make an individual, whom He created, follow Him if He so desired.

The question that we have to ask ourselves then, is why does He not "JUST DO IT"? The answer will become clear as we examine this topic.

Preaching The Coming Kingdom

In Matthew 4:17 we find Jesus preaching about a coming kingdom, "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." John the Baptizer also preached about this coming kingdom. Mark 1:15, "And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." When Jesus sent the twelve in Matthew 10:7, what were they sent to preach? "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand."

So what is this kingdom that all these faithful men preached about? IT IS THE CHURCH. They said it was at hand – that means the kingdom was almost there, it came on the day of Pentecost following the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

John The Great

Why go into a brief study of the Kingdom when the topic is preaching? We must understand that the kingdom is the Church to fully understand how great the message is that God has given us to take to the world. In Matthew 11:11 Jesus says these words about John the Baptizer, "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

Why did Jesus bestow such a dubious honor upon John the Baptizer? Was it because he was smarter than any of the other Old Testament characters? No! Was it because he was wealthy? No! Was it because he had political power? No! It was because of the message that he preached. He preached that the kingdom (the Church) was at hand and with this new declaration, he prepared a people for the Messiah. Luke 1:17, "And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Next we must note one more thing that Jesus said about John the Baptizer. He said that John was the greatest born of women till that time, then goes on to say that, ". . . he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (John)."

Jesus is saying that we, as Christians, are greater than John. Why? Is it because we are smarter, more wealthy or have political power? No! It is because our message is greater than John's. He could only prepare a people for the Church and the Messiah that was coming, but we can preach to them the Gospel of how they can enter into both the Church and Christ NOW by being obedient to the plan of salvation.

Believe
Repent
Confess
Be Immersed
Be Faithful Till Death.

Free Choice

Possibly one of the best known verses in the Bible is Joshua 24:15, ". . . choose you this day whom ye will serve; . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

God has always given man the choice to either accept Him or reject Him. In the beginning God gave Adam and Eve this choice and it has been a decision that each individual has had to make ever since. Could you really say that someone loved you if they were forced to love you? No! It is only by giving mankind the free choice to accept or reject Him that God can know who really and truly loves Him.

Some may say I thought that God was omniscience (all knowing). He is! Without a doubt God knows what we are capable of doing. But to think that He creates us and puts us here, knowing exactly those who will accept Him and those who will reject Him, is to say that we believe in the Doctrine of Total Depravity or Calvinism.

If God put us here and knew exactly who would and would not follow Him, then why would the Bible say, "choose you this day?" It wouldn't! You wouldn't have a choice.

Miraculous Following

I have head many people ask the question, "Why don't God show us a miracle? If He did, we would surely serve Him."

Remember the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus? In the story, both men died and when they became aware of their condition the rich man had a few requests. The last of which was, "send Lazarus to my father's house that he may warn my brothers, lest they also come into this place of torment." Now pay close attention to what Abraham says in reply to the rich mans request. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

Would this not have been a miracle, someone rising from the dead? Certainly it would. But Abraham said that they wouldn't believe a miracle if they wouldn't believe the written word that they had at the time and those who taught it. We have an account of a fellow by the name of Lazarus being raised from the dead in John chapter 11. Then in the every next chapter we find the Jews, who knew that he had been raised from the dead, trying to kill him rather than accept Jesus because of it. (John 12:9-10) It is interesting that the rich man said if one raise from the dead, people would believe him. Did not Jesus raise from the dead? And doesn't many still reject Him?

Foolishness Of Preaching
Not Foolish Preaching

Re-examine 1 Corinthians 1:21, it says, "The foolishness of preaching" — it doesn't say "with foolish preaching." There is a major difference in the two. The former is God's way, the latter is man's way.

It is very important that we don't confuse the two. Although it is God's ideal to use Christians in spreading the greatest news the world ever heard, we must be careful to preach the message as it is written in His Word.

Fools of God

Alexander Campbell was the first I ever read about using the term, FOOL OF GOD, applying it to himself. This term should apply to all of us. 1 Corinthians 3:18 reads, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise."

Brethren, if it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to get His Word out to a lost and dying world, damned to hell if they don't hear and accept it; shouldn't it please us to take it to them?

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