Robert Anderson
BCM/D President and Pastor of Colonial Baptist Church, Randallstown, Md.
By Robert Anderson, BCM/D President and Pastor of Colonial Baptist Church, Randallstown, Md.
This is the age of the Gospel. Humanity is lost and separated from the living God of the Bible, but the good news is that heaven has foreseen our plight and made a way for every man to find their way back to God, and that way is exclusively through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the following verses from Isaiah, one of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa.53:4-6, ESV)
The message of the Gospel is still the only hope for the world today. Amidst all the ungodliness, debauchery, lasciviousness, and wickedness of our times, the Good News is the Gospel still works! Just recently, I have seen several people come to faith in Christ, and it was encouraging for me to see God at work.
It seems to me that every Gospel church should have six to seven evangelistic events a year. For example, VBS, summer Bible clubs, a special Christmas and/or Easter program, revival services, and block parties. By the way, how often do you hear Christians requesting prayer and publicly praying for unsaved people to repent and come to faith in Christ? In fact, I have a list of unsaved friends whose names hang on my wall in my office that I regularly pray for.
Forty-one years ago I trusted in the Lord Jesus to be my personal Savior at a revival meeting in Harrisburg, Pa., and my life was radically changed just as the Scriptures declared in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
However, I attended the revival because someone was loving and courageous enough to invite me even though she did not know me.
Having stated this, I believe that there are many more people outside our doors who are waiting to be challenged with the same message of salvation that changed my life.
Several years ago, a sister named Robin shared in a prayer meeting with tears in her eyes that she had a broken heart because God had been convicting her about sharing the Gospel of Christ with her boss, but she continued to put it off, and that day her boss suddenly died, and to the best of her knowledge no one shared with him the plan of salvation. At least, she knew for certain that she did not do it. She feared with great terror that her boss died and awoke in hell.
Therefore, saints of the Most High God, let us all go love our neighbors and share the Gospel before it is everlastingly too late.