It was two days before Charles Spurgeon was to take the pulpit at London's famed Crystal Palace....this was October 7, 1857....and with workers up in the galleries preparing for the crowd....the Prince of Preachers took to the pulpit to test the acoustics for that crowd that would exceed 20,000! With no microphones in those days Spurgeon bellowed out...."BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!"
One of those workers up in the peanut gallery heard those words and was shaken to the core. He went home and confronted what he heard....the command to....Behold the Lamb of God! On his deathbed he told of how he was converted....and word got back to Charles Spurgeon on this.
For the first ten years of my Christian walk....roughly ten years....I was of Arminian belief. If you do not know what that is....it is the belief that man has a free choice in being saved. Consequently....Arminian believers do everything that they can to in effect talk a person into faith in Jesus Christ. There were seven men at my workplace who I talked into saying a prayer of faith. This was almost forty years ago. As time went on they showed no increased interest in God's Word or anything involving the Christian Faith. There was another man though. I didn't talk him into anything. I didn't even really know him well. He sought me out....and asked if I would lead him in a sinner's prayer! He has since then treasured the gospel of Jesus Christ. I talked to him only a few days ago.
If you are confused by my definition of Arminianism then I suggest that you simply Google....'election'....along with 'R. C. Sproul or John MacArthur or John Piper.' My purpose here in this post is to point out that God does the saving. He does the choosing. Please don't give up on this because of your gut reaction....but let these men explain what is happening in salvation.
Would anyone who has read at all into these posts think that I do not attempt to lead readers to Christ? It is not that we who see what God's Word says on this do not evangelize! Think of the names of the greatest evangelists and missionaries of the history of the church....and just about all of them believed that it was God that does the choosing....and regenerates a heart....upon which the regenerated person then....chooses Christ!
This does not mean that those with Arminian belief are working against the gospel. Billy Graham is a prime example of this. If God demanded perfection in our evangelizing then I would have been the first to get the boot.
That Spurgeon episode demonstrates that it is the Word of God that converts....not the efforts of the evangelist. This is not a great divide between us....but it is a divide great enough that we must hold fast to what we know to be true!
So the title of this post is in bold letters...."BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD." Should God have mercy upon the least of the least of believers who evangelize....that being me....then one reader here....it may even be you....might read those words....as the Holy Spirit is convicts through those words!
Addendum: I'll give you three YouTube's for you to consider:
R. C. Sproul....Unconditional Election. What is Reformed Theology.
John MacArthur....Christ's Honor and Our Blessing.
John Piper....TULIP Seminar, Part 6.
And as I do so often I recommend the wonderful film....C. H. Spurgeon; The People's Preacher....which can easily be Googled....because in it you will see how the greatest preacher of the 19th century was converted by one verse....Isaiah 45:22...."Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: For I Am God, and there is no other."
Someone once asked R. C. Sproul if he thought that he would see Billy Graham in heaven.....R. C. Sproul believing in Sovereign Grace and Billy Graham having Arminian inclinations. Sproul said...."No....I do not believe that I will see Billy Graham in heaven....because Billy Graham will be so close to the throne of God....and I will be so far away from the throne of God....that I will be lucky even to get a glimpse of him"
