Speak His Word in Simplicity

2007

Brett: What we were talking about earlier is that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, as opposed to being able to relate and attach it to something for a Muslim or whoever to believe. It’s more powerful than that.

Mark: The Gospel is the Power of Salvation, not our logic, our reasoning, our cleverness, our effort, or our passion. It’s “unlearned and ignorant men” that have been with Jesus, that don’t consider what to say or how to say it (Matt 10:20), but just speak the Living and Active Word that lays bare the motives of the heart. It’s a matter of speaking the truth in love and letting the Holy Spirit—who Jesus said He sent to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment to come. It’s trusting that God will do His part if what we say is pure and true, even if we stumble over it. But it’s just the Good News.

We knew one guy one time that was an alcoholic, just a young guy in his twenties, just a total derelict. He’d wander kind of through the neighborhood at times. This was a few years back. I got to know him a little bit. One night two or three of us were talking to him about Jesus. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ok, I agree with that. Bla-bla.” But he was a total renegade, a hoodlum and drunkard. Anyway, it occurred to me that what I needed to ask him was, “You say agree with us. So, what you are saying is that you need the Blood of Jesus to wash away your sins. You agree with that.” He could not get himself to say the word “blood”! I mean, it was just the most bizarre thing you’ve ever seen. Because he could talk freely about all sorts of stuff. “Yeah, I agree with that. I know you’re right. I agree I need to change my life.” But it was all just at a superficial level. But when he kept saying, “I agree with that,” and of course you knew by his life that he didn’t, again, it occurred to me to say, “Tell me. Say it out of your own mouth that you need Jesus’ Blood to wash away your sins. You say agree. Say it.” And he couldn’t get the word to come out of his mouth even though it appeared he was trying.

So, there’s one evidence of many—not only from the scriptures themselves but from real life—where the Word of God is Living and Active, and the Holy Spirit comes and participates in the process. And no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Spirit. I mean, it really is true that He sent His Spirit to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. And if we’ll just speak the simple truth, the Good News is the Power of Salvation. It’s a very freeing thing that we don’t have to be complicated, smart, knowledgeable, articulate, eloquent, Biblically literate to some huge extent, or any such thing. But just the very words of God relating to the Blood of Jesus and faith in that Blood and repentance, and the Name of Jesus above every name—just that simple Truth and the Holy Spirit participating—is the Power of Salvation. You don’t have to “understand” the Hindus at work, or the Islamic “issues,” or all that stuff in order to be useful to God even with one another, let alone with unbelievers. It’s a very refreshing thing that we’re not in a battle of world religions, evidences and apologetics, all these creation facts and all that stuff. All that’s well and good, but really has nothing to do with the Power of Salvation per se. All it does is potentially soften the soil and remove some of the arguments, perhaps, in certain instances.

Even so, as I was saying a little bit earlier, nobody said a word to me about why catholicism was hocus-pocus voodoo nonsense. They didn’t have to. I heard the truth, and it just shredded me. I kind of just looked in the rear-view mirror: “Oh, yeah, I did used to believe that, didn’t I? Oh, yeah, I did spend all of my life up until now hearing that five or six days a week in mass, in catholic schools, and all of that.” I’d been totally brainwashed for twenty years. And in a heartbeat, all that stuff just seemed stupid to me, and nobody told me it was wrong. A lightbulb just popped on, and I saw truth, and that truth made the other stuff just idiotic. It just didn’t hold any water. I spent the next five years discovering why all those things were just ridiculous and unbiblical. But I didn’t know the Bible well enough to have any idea how I could have proven that those things were wrong. I knew that was wrong. Oh, well, here are ten verses that demonstrate that. I learned that three years later. Nobody showed me those scriptures and I said, “Oh, ok, I won’t be a catholic anymore.” That’s just not how it happened. And I’m convinced that if anybody were to have done that, it probably would have just hardened me. It wouldn’t have helped me any. The Good News is the Power unto salvation, and the Spirit convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin, and no one can say “Jesus is Lord”--unless they’re convinced? No. Except by the Spirit. It’s not so much an issue of what we become convinced of based on a set of facts. That’s why that man couldn’t say the word “blood.” He just couldn’t say it. There was nothing in his mind that said, “I shouldn’t say that word.” It was a supernatural issue. And that’s the level that we’ve got to understand and pursue these things with.