How Shall They Hear Without A Preacher?

By David J. Stewart | October 2012
Click Here for MP3 Clip for Article (275 kb)

Romans 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

       What an incredible Scripture... HOW SHALL THEY HEAR WITHOUT A PREACHER? You can't catch any fish if you don't go fishing. Matthew 4:19, “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Every Christian ought to consider them self a fisher of souls for the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the background MP3 clip you are hearing, the lead singer of The Four Galileans sadly states, “many times we don't have time to preach!” When I first heard this shameful statement by a professed child of God, I was and still am deeply saddened every time I hear it...

“Many times we don't have time to preach, we have to let the song bring the message.” —SOURCE: Album, ENCORE (live concert), The Four Galileans

What a terrible thing to say! The world is going to Hell and you don't have time to share the Gospel? It takes about one minute to properly share the Gospel message...

You simply explain to your audience that we are all sinners according to the Scriptures. There is a penalty for our sins, which is eternal damnation in the fires of Hell. But God in His great love and mercy sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ into the world, to go to the cross and suffer, bleed and die for our sins. Jesus paid it all! Christ died, He was buried and He raised up miraculously three days later. That is THE GOSPEL by which we are saved, if we believe. If any person will acknowledge their debt of sin, and receive Christ's sacrifice as full payment for their sins, then they are saved immediately and eternally. You are born-again, born anew by the Spirit of God, the very moment you believe the Gospel of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God. Repent of your unbelief and believe the Gospel to be saved. It's that easy, free and simple.

Now is that so hard? The Four Galileans can sing their hearts out for an hour or two, but they don't have 60 seconds to preach the Good News (Gospel) of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a fallacy to claim (or even think) that music can effectively lead someone to Christ for salvation. Music is not God's method for getting souls saved. 1st Corinthians 1:21 says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” The truth is that the preaching of the Gospel is as foolishness to this sinful world. Many of the people showing up to hear Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) are not saved; others are saved but they're either backslidden or immature as new believers.

Certainly, music has its proper place in the churches; yet, God's chosen method for bringing lost sinners to Jesus Christ to be saved is through the foolishness of preaching. Certainly nobody thinks singing is foolishness, but it's not God's method to get people saved. You can sing all the music you want, to reach out and “touch” the listeners as you've just heard in this brief clip. The Four Galileans are one of my top favorite bands of all time. I have all their LP records and they are dear to me. I love their song, I'VE BEEN BORN AGAIN | MP3. I just think it's a sad testimony when any Christian claims not to have enough time to preach the Gospel message. I thought that is what it's all about, that is, getting people saved.

That's like a birthday party where everybody's too busy having fun to eat the birthday cake. That's like having so much fun riding the lawnmower that you don't have time to cut the grass. That's like a gas-station that's too busy selling coffee and donuts, but they don't have any time left to pump gas for their customers. That's how insane it sounds when a Gospel singer (who's famous around the world) says he doesn't have time to tell the audience how to get to Heaven. Many believers will one day in eternity have the blood of countless lost sinners on their hands, because they never shared the light of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ with them...

Redeeming The Time

2nd Corinthians 4:3 and 1st Corinthians 9:16, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost ... For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!”

In Romans 10:15 God calls the feet of the soul-winner “beautiful.” Do you know why God said “feet” and not lips or tongue? It's because the most eloquent tongue and greatest words of wisdom are totally worthless if the feet are too lazy or inept to go as the Bible commands in Matthew 28:19, “GO YE...” Most believers never get past the GO YE part.

The KINGSMEN QUARTET used to sing a popular little song that went...

Excuses, excuses, you'll hear them every day.
And the Devil he'll supply them, if the church you stay away.
When people come to know the Lord, the Devil always loses
So to keep them folks away from church, he offers them excuses.

We're hearing all sorts of excuses these days not to use the King James Bible. We're hearing all sorts of excuses these days not to go to church on Sundays. We're hearing all sorts of excuses these days not to preach against sin from the pulpit. We're hearing all sorts of excuses these days not to have a Bus Ministry. We're hearing all sorts of excuses these days not to preach the Gospel.

All across America entertainment has crept into our churches and has replaced preaching. You'll be fortunate at the end of a sermonette to hear the pastor make an appeal to trust Jesus, which is NOT the Gospel message. 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 plainly defines THE GOSPEL as Jesus' DEATH, BURIAL and RESURRECTION three days later. Leave out those elements and you have a false plan of salvation. The cross upon which Christ died must be included, where Jesus' precious blood was shed for our sins.

Unsaved people think that the miracles of God are foolish. Unbelieving skeptics don't believe that the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin (i.e., no earthly father) and they think it is utter foolishness that Christ miraculously raised up from the dead after three days. Salvation is a miracle of God (John 1:13). Most people today refuse to believe in a miracle-working God, but that's the only kind of God that forgives sinners and gives to them eternal life by simple faith in Christ Jesus.

It is my opinion that the band is ashamed of the Gospel, afraid to preach and be counted as fools for Christ. I'd hate to think that they just love music more than getting lost people saved. I can't even believe that they include this apostate statement on an album sold to millions of people... WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL!!! It's is truly tragic and a poor reflection upon their Christian testimonies for the Lord. The Bible teaches that God chose preaching as the vehicle by which to bring men to Jesus Christ to get people saved. Singing is not what God chose! Dancing is not what God chose! Converts is not what God chose! Crusades are not what God chose! God chose PREACHING THE GOSPEL MESSAGE!!! If there's no preaching, there's no conversions. God does NOT save people through music. He cannot, for it is the seed of the Word of God by which men are born-again. 1st Peter 1:23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” Without the seed of the Word of God there can be no new birth. The Word of God must be preached, which is God's choice! Please understand this!

Singing makes no appeal to the human heart. At best, singing could be used in an attempt to appeal to the human heart, but still there is no direct appeal. However, through preaching there is a direct appeal made right to the soul to receive Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Christ Who died, was buried and resurrected for our sins.
 

Winning Souls Is Every Believer's Duty

Proverb 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.”

Granted, only God can save a soul. Our part is simply to preach the Gospel. Did you know that it's not even our job to point people toward the Savior? That's right. The Bible says in Galatians 3:24-25, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” It's God's Law (Ten Commandments) that point men to the Savior. Romans 3:19 says, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

And again in Romans 7:13, we read “Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” So the purpose of God's Law is to show all men their exceeding sinfulness and our need for the precious Savior! This is why we tell people that they are sinners when we witness to them. This is how you begin to share the Gospel, that is, by giving them the bad news first, telling them that all men are woeful sinners who deserve to be punished by God in the Lake of Fire forever and ever!!!

Singing doesn't convey this message. I've never heard a So-called Christian singer get up and sing to their fans that they're all going to burn in Hell forever. That WOULD offend a lot of people. The Gospel is offensive. People get offended when you say that they deserve to be set on fire and boiled alive forever. Unsaved people don't comprehend that truth, because they've never repented (changed their mind). It's mandatory that as part of a gospel presentation that we show people from the Bible that they are woeful sinners. If done properly, then that person will see their need for Christ.

This is exactly why Jesus told the young rich ruler in Mark 10-20-22 to go sell all that he owned and give it to the poor...

Mark 10:21-22, “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.”

Jesus WASN'T giving the young man a plan of salvation; but rather, He was using the Law the way it was intended to be used, that is, to show the young man his inability to save himself through the keeping of the Law. The young man contended that He had kept ALL the Commandments of God. Jesus pointed out that he had been covetous and in fact, had not perfectly kept the Law. Thus, this young man needed to figure out on his own that he needed Jesus Christ as His Savior. I have witnessed the Gospel to umpteen Roman Catholics throughout my life, but they just wouldn't get saved.

Catholics are raised up from the time of birth with the horrible mindset that the life you live determines where you will spend eternity. They are trusting in the almighty Roman Catholic organization to get them to Heaven. They are in for a very horrifying surprise when they stand before God in eternity, and He rejects them, having the angels cast their body and soul into the fires and torments of Hell forever and ever and ever!!! It will be their own fault for not obeying God while here on earth! Salvation is a supernatural miracle of God (John 1:13) in response to our faith in Jesus as the Christ.

You don't have to get up behind a big pulpit to proclaim the Gospel (but thank God for all such men of God). It may be a simple gospel tract that you left for someone in a public place. I often hand a gospel tract the checkout cashier when I'm in a store. I always include a gospel tract if a give some money to a homeless person. I always leave a gospel tract with a generous tip in restaurants. When I forget to bring gospel tracts, I get upset with myself for not being soul-conscious for Jesus! Most believers are selfish and couldn't care less. Every Christian should have a personal gospel tract ministry. I like the tracks written by Dr. Curtis Hutson from the Sword Of The Lord. I like “Salvation Plain And Simple” by Dr. Curtis Hutson a lot. It's a little brochure that explains salvation more thoroughly. “How To Know You Are Going To Heaven.”

Amy Grant stated early in her music career...

“I'm a singer, not a preacher, I'm not looking to convert anybody” —CCM Diva Singer, Amy Grant, Los Angeles Times, 5/4/84, p. 2-c

Just like The Four Galileans, Miss Grant prioritizes the music over preaching the Gospel message and getting people saved. I guess in the Church of Christ (of which Amy Grant is a member) doesn't emphasis sharing their faith publicly. It makes you question if Amy Grant even believes in a literal Hell that burns with fire and brimstone (Revelation 21:8 - King James Bible). Amy Grant is an awesome singer, and so are The Four Galileans, there's no question about that. But sadly they have sold out to the industry to make money. I can't find even one mainstream religious singer who shares the Gospel message on their website. The religious music industry is just as worldly as the sinful and unsaved world. There's really no difference. Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is of the Devil!

The Bible makes an earnest appeal to each and every believer in Romans 10:14 that people will not be saved if they don't hear the Gospel, and how will they hear it if there's no preacher? It's tragic that singers (especially Amy Grant, because she is the most famous religious singer in history) don't have a concern for lost sinners. They'll raise money for the poor in other countries, but they have no interest in spiritual matters. And they all hobnob with the Roman Catholic religion, which is the biggest satanic cult on the planet, teaching that the sacraments (manmade tradition) can get people to Heaven. It's all a big deception! Every pope since Pope Pius XII in 1950 has taught that unbelieving people can get to Heaven, even if they have NO FAITH! Blasphemy!

Jesus plainly taught that except a man be born-again, he CANNOT enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5-7). Only by faith in the finished redemptive work of Christ can any man be saved. There is no human effort involved in salvation. Jesus has paid the debt of our sins in full. It's a gift, based solely in God's grace and mercy. God loves us and wants us to be with Him for eternity, and He has promised to give us ALL THINGS (Romans 8:32) to make us happy as His children in eternity. It can all be yours simply for the taking, but you must receive it all by faith on Jesus' precious name, “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Romans 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

The Gospel
(Salvation is by Grace, Through Faith, Plus Nothing)

Where The Burden Rests In Salvation
(Biblical salvation rests solely upon Jesus Christ)

END OF ARTICLE

3rd John 1:8, “We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.”

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HE THAT WINNETH SOULS IS WISE!
(Dr. John R. Rice)

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