A Rebuke And An Exhortation

When preaching the Gospel, whether Open Air or One2One, it is of utmost importance that when preaching, we do so with the intent, desire and passion to draw the lost person TO Jesus Christ and His Salvation; not AWAY from Jesus Christ and His Salvation:

Mark 2:15 And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.

We see here that Jesus loved and sat with sinners and publicans.

Today, we see differently; we see disciples name calling, holding banners which are abominations and consorting against the lost with vile words and wicked practices.

Jesus Christ and HIS disciples sat with and ate with sinners and publicans.

The offended ones were most oftentimes the religious hypocrites and pharisees; rarely do you find a sinner or publican becoming offended at Jesus and His dicsiples in Scripture.

Today, however, so called disciples run about name calling, raising their voices in ambominable words and offending sinners and publicans!

When a sinner becomes offended, the preacher will many times say, "You just don;t want to give up your sin!".

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, rarely had to make such a statement...

Why?

The answer is simple:

He went about doing GOOD:

Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Today, people are self-proclaimed "anointed ones", running to and fro, doing the opposite of good and destroying that which God is seeking to build.

Comepare Christ's preaching with that of today's Open Air Preaching, and you'll soon see how wide the gulf is!

Today's Open Air Preacher will hold a sign saying, "God abhors you!" while Jesus, in contrast, does the absolute oppposite.

We see this perfectly exemplified in Mark 10...

Jesus preaches One2One in a public setting, to a rich man with great possessions.

The story didn't end well for the rich man, and it also didn't end on a great note for Jesus Christ either, looking at it from a human standpoint!

The rich man went away grieved, as he refused to give up his posessions, as Jesus had so commanded!

Mark 10:20-22 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.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.

Note that verse 21 tells us that before Jesus spoke, Jesus loved him.

Many Open Air Preachers begin their non God-Ordained Meetings by opening with, "God ABHORS you!".

They'll justify their twisted gospel preaching by quoting Psalm 5:5, ignoring the very Testimony of Jesus Christ when HE PREACHED.

1- Jesus LOVED

2- Then, Jesus SPOKE.

Now look at verse 22:

And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

We see that this meeting ended with a rich man turning AWAY from the very One who LOVED him.

Notice that nowhere does it state that Jesus then "began to abhor him".

Notice that nowehere in the text does Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who IS the Word, begin quoting Scripture texts on how angry His Heavenly Father is.

Notice that nowhere does any disciple begin frantically writing Psalm 5:5 on banners to convince this rich man that he's doomed for eternity.

Notice that no one rebukes Jesus for not becoming rude and mean while preaching.

Notice that that there were no news crews, upset students or an angry mob present.

Many things can be seen from this passage which fly directly in the face of much of today's Open Air Preaching.

Let's take two men for examples:

1- One man will go to a homosexual parade and LOVE the homosexuals, telling them of God's Word, His Wrath, His Love and His Salvation; namely, we could refer to such as a man as being Mark Cahill.

2- The second man attends homosexual parades with a huge entourage of "open air preachers" holding banners that say "God hates you!" and "God abhors you!"...namely, we could say such a man is Ruben Israel and all who march with him.

The first man, Mark Cahill, is like Jesus who loved the rich man.

The second man, Ruben Israel, is like the individual Paul the Apostle spoke of:

Philippians 1:15-17 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.

Mark Cahill would be the "other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel."

Ruben Israel wouyld be the "...Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely..."

You see, both men are preaching Christ; only one man is preaching Christ of LOVE, as Paul teaches and as Christ has SHOWN in the example of the rich man.

Now....

The result of preaching from a heart of love may be the same as the man preaching that God hates homosexuals; both may not gather in many souls.

However, as we see from Paul's writing, there's a RIGHT way to preach Christ and a WRONG and ABOMINABLE way to preach Christ.

The RIGHT way is GOD'S way, namely, as we see Jesus do.

The WRONG WAY is any OTHER way than God's Way!

Beloved, I'm not advocating a fluffy message... .

Hell is still hell.

Repent still means repent.

Grace still means Grace.

I forever disdain any change to the Message of the Gospel!

I also, however, disdain the MANNER in which many so called Open Air Preachers present the Gospel!

Some will defend the Open Air Minister's abominable actions by saying such things as, "I've met this man! He's the most loving man I've ever met!"

However, during a homosexual parade, when holding signs which are abominable and dispicable, the homosexal doesn;t sense, see, know or experience that love that the Open Air Minister's friends speak so highly of.

"Touch not my anointed!" is another phrase which is used when voices rise up against false gospl preaching.

1 John 2:20, 27 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things....But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

The "anointed ones" are all who walk with God and keep His commandments, as 1 john 2, in context tells us.

NO ONE is among any "elite" anointed group!

Don't believe that lie if anyone rattles that phrase off to you when testing and proving all things, Beloved!

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

We are called, commanded and EQUPIIED to test and try all spirits purporting to be of God.

The hateful Open Air Minister may accuse you of preaching a fluffy message, because you refuse to bow to his unScriptural ideologies of Open Air Preaching; don't bow!

The abominable Open Air Minister may call YOU names, call YOU a fraud, call YOU a contentious person; don't bow!

Beloeved, the Gospel Message must NEVER be compromised by preaching or associating with those who bring shame and reproach to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

RUN FRO YOUR LIFE if you encounter such a one as to preach a message of BAD News rather than the Gospel, which is GOOD NEWS!

The Mark Cahill's of the world are impacting the Kingdom of God for Christ!

The Ruben Israel's of the world are demeaning, defaming, harming and hurting the name of Jesus Christ, and they're masking their wickedness under the banner of "We're preaching the Truth! We're not compromising!"

Beloeved, I exhort you to follow the example of Christ, who "loved him".

I encourage you to stand fast in the Word, for the sake of the Gospel.

The offended individual will almost always be the religious hypocrite and pharisee; the sinner and publican will most always come to Christ or leave; but when they leave, they leave grieved, as we have seen in the above text in Mark... they almost always will not leave hating you and the God you are telling them of; namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Preach God's hatred for sin!

Preach the Love of God!

Preach hellfire!

Preach Heaven!

Preach Repentance!

Preach Christ and Him Crucified!

PREACH! PREAH! PREACH!

But in your preaching...

Be sure that when he leaves, he knows that you LOVED HIM and that he leaves GRIEVED over his sin; not hateful towards your God!

I personally know both Mark Cahill and Ruben Israel.

I think they both love Jesus and both love the lost. Though their styles are different.

But that's just me. I've personally been encouraged by the fellowship I have had with both of them.

Mark has been very fruitful with his books, encouraging many to start sharing their faith one2one.

And Ruben has been very fruitful raising up open air preachers. His ministry now has 32 chapters all over the US. And he's seen homosexuals and many others repent and come to Jesus.

God bless them both!

answer me this:

why is this poster listed as anonymous?

was this poster booted in the space of 24 hours?

what is going on here?

Greg, Mike, what is going on here?

neil

to the anonymous one, I have a comments and questions for you.

I can only guess that your reason for anonimity is so anyone who knows you will not be tempted to write you off but rather listen to your message. I don't know if it has fully worked but thats fine. I believe you have made some good points. I really do.

My question is this; Do you open air preach? Not have you but do you?

God bless, John

I just watched your "preaching" at Georgia Tech and I painfully sat thru as you excoriated that young woman who was asking you heartfelt questions, and you DID NOT respond to her with Jesus' love, you responded to her with a hard, cold hearted, mean-spirited hate filled rant.

Brethern, you watch this and tell me what you think of this exchange:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiV_NOp_YlE

Now there is a young woman out there somewhere thinking believing feeling that Jesse's rant is how a follower of Jesus comports the Message of Grace and Salvation thru Christ Jesus.

Thats just great, you might have stumbled this young woman FOREVER.

Jesse, you are like a 5 year child with a Bic lighter and a crate of dynamite, you are playing with Holy Things, you are playing with peoples lives in the context of eternity, and YOU are the one who needs to repent, and rethink just what you are doing, and you best believe I'm going to hop on my email client right now, and bar you from sending me any more of the news of your "ministry".

Greg, Mike, you might think that my post was best suited for a PM, but I'm calling this one out in the public square, because it is wrong, it is anti-christ, and it is defaming and ruining the Work of the Cross, and if you don't like that, boot me too, make me "anonymous", cause if the ministry of some of these open air preachers is the Face of Christ that we are presenting to the lost, watch out.

Schma, which means "hear me!" in Hebrew.

neil

the reason a poster is listed as 'anonymous" is that they were probably booted from the website.

Bartle,

Chill out dude.

Actually, that young women in the video I'm told broke down in tears of repentance and spoke with a preacher for a long time after I had ministered to her. God was working on her.

The Holy Spirit wants to convict the world, not comfort the world. The Holy Spirit comforts saints in persecution, but He convicts sinners in sin. And as preachers, we must work with and not against the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit wants to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come [b]John 16:8 [/b]. So if we are to work hand in hand with the Holy Spirit, we must not comfort sin, neglect righteousness, and ignore the judgment to come.

The Apostle Paul had this relationship or partnership with the Holy Spirit when he preached. "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." [b]Ac 24:25[/b]

Nonetheless, some would argue that Paul was wrong and he only turned Felix off just as John the Baptist turned Herod off by calling him a name - adulterer. But that would just be further proof that God's ways are not their ways and that God's wisdom is what many call foolishness.

When Jesus preached, he told people what they were doing that was evil. And the result was that many hated him and crucified him. [b]John 7:7[/b]

A role that the Holy Spirit plays in the conversion of sinners is that of conviction [b]Joh 16:8 [/b], but a preacher too must seek to have his messages convicting. [b]Tit 1:9 [/b]

How far we have fallen from biblical preaching. I'm sorry you don't like that video Bartle. It's full of the love of Christ and the fear of God. The preaching was about, what Gideon Ousley called, "The disease and the cure". I preached about sin and preached about the Savior.

I'm not trying to reconcile God unto the world, I'm trying to reconcile the world unto God. I'm not trying to make God acceptable unto sinners, but I want to see sinners made acceptable unto God. It's not about sinners accepting Jesus, but it's about Jesus accepting sinners. [b]Ro 12:1[/b]

Sinners are not victims. They are criminals [b]Lu 19:27[/b] . And in a Spirit of love and humility, we need to confront these criminals and tell them that it's either eternal jail [i](hell)[/i] or the pardon [i](Jesus)[/i] offered by the judge [i](God)[/i] upon the proper conditions [i](repentance and faith)[/i].

But, my preaching wasn't meant to please you. It wasn't meant to please anybody, except for God. And if it's true, that that young women turned from her sin and turned to Jesus, then all of Heaven rejoices.

"By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil." [b]Pr 16:6[/b]

"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" [b]2Co 5:11[/b]

sorry, I don't do "chill out" too well, especially when I see wrong being done.

as far as the young woman concerned i would venture to say, that the tears of hers were of grief and bewilderment at having been slapped down by you, and the long time she spent with the preacher was probably asking, 'do I have to be like him (you) to be a Christian?"

I noticed, in your account she didn't talk to you, and that is not surprising.

"chill out dude", to which I say "repent dude", your off the rails.

[b]I've only begun [/b]to publicly confront sin and to call sinners to Jesus!!

I'll preach repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ until the end of my life! When God calls a man to be a preacher, He didn't consider retirement. I'll preach till I die.

If the world doesn't like it, I'll weep over it but I won't repent from it! If weak kneed, spineless, lukewarm pew dwellers don't like, I'll encourage them but never allow them to discourage me.

If I'm locked in prison I'll preach from my cell. If they cut out my tongue I'll make bigger banners. But either way, until my last breath, I'll be calling this sinful world back to God!

"When may a revival be expected? When the wickedness of the wicked grieves and distresses the Christian." [b]Billy Sunday [/b]

"If we are to better the future we must disturb the present." [b]Catherine Booth [/b]

"We need some hell-fire preaching on repentance." [b]Leonard Ravenhill[/b]

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and tell my people their transgression" [b]Isa 58:1[/b]

"And they went out, and preached that men should repent." [b]Mr 6:12[/b]

I've only begun to publicly confront sin and call sinners to Jesus!!

(edit) Its not right of you to add to a post without including the word "(edit)" The only sentence you had put up when I responded was the sentence I quoted.(end edit)

That last statement of yours smells so prideful and arrogant that I pray that God has mercy on you when He begins to deal with you.

or maybe He'll just let you go down your path, after all Jed Smock is getting old, maybe you might be the Jed Smock of the 21st century.

where's the Grace Jesse? the humbleness, meekness, humility.....the Love of Jesus, where is it? I don't see it in your ministry, All I see is hardness, and an inability to accept any correction. And I am not the only one who has testified to this.

Go ahead, you pound your breast just like that praying pharisee, have at it, just remember, at the end of the race is the Judgement Seat.

remember that.

[b]"I've only begun....."[/b]

Lord have mercy.

where's the Grace Jesse? the humbleness, meekness, humility.....the Love of Jesus, where is it?

Watch that video again. I [b]continually [/b]said, "Come to Jesus Christ and be forgiven. Come to Jesus Christ and recieve mercy. Forsake your sin and recieve grace."

There is only grace and mercy for sins that sinners repent of. There is no mercy, but only judgment and wrath, for unrepented sinners.

Bartle,

I'm just a bit curious as to your views on this video of Ray Comfort open air preaching back in the day. I think it's a very good video but some say that it's a "jerry springer" type approach to open air preaching and also that it's "unloving" and "judgmental" etc etc.

Just curious as to your thoughts.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5143732711244307573&q=ray+comfort+in+season&hl=en

I watched that video three times, and you did not "say" anything, you "ranted" in a harsh confrontational tone and tenor with lost hurting and broken people. There was NOTHING in your message that conveyed thru your presentation the love and healing that Jesus had for the lost and sinsick. There was nothing there in the Power of the Gospel that would make the lost "envious" of the Divine Joy a Christian has, that would make the sinner envious of so great a salvation.

only a form of vituperative religious bile spat upon them, and THAT is not the Heart of God.

Well I had to run back to my tariler so I could get my earphones to listen to Jesse preach.

I have preached open air many times. I know all the dynamics that can take place. It is a hrd thing for those who do not preach open air to understand whats really going on. The majority of the christian community views it as negative and unloving. However those who say this often will not openair preach themselves.

Jesse I thought you did fine. The interaction with the women was actually very good, for both of you. I think you are gifted and just stay in prayer and the word.

bartle we have had a few good talks on this forum. I have to respectfully disagree with your strong judgment of this as being "antichrist".

I would hope you would rethink the harsh things you have said to jesse about 5 yr old with a bic lighter etc.

sincerly and respectfully, John

John,

It's good to hear from a fellow open air preacher.

I'm glad you enjoyed the video too.

Where are you located? Maybe we could do some tag team preaching some day.

Currently in Iraq with the Army. It will be a while before I am able to open air again. Perhaps someday we will meet and be able to do that. In the mean time keep up the "good works" in Christ!

God bless you Jesse, John

Jesse,
before I answer your leading question on the ministry of Ray Comfort, let me ask you a question: why do you make videos on your preaching?

Why not just do them?

Why do you have to have a video to show everyone?

Do you want me to show you video's on my ministry?

Oh wait...there are none, because the Lord sees my ministry, quietly and selflessly. He makes the videos, and in Him I rest, and I pray and in faith I know that thru Jesus' love I touch His children, the lost of the world, plant the seeds, and He harvests the fruit. He keeps the record, he sees all, and remembers all.

Heed my word, take that expensive video cam and toss it into the nearest body of water, coz it is an idol of self exhalation. It is not a tool, it is a stumble.

I've said enough for tonight, in my spirit, I feel that you aren't even hearing.