“Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”” –II Corinthians 6:1-3-
After learning about what God does in the salvation of men it is hard to understand how we play any part in this work, but we do. Paul actually says, about evangelism, “working together with Him”, so we are working with God for the salvation of people. The actual Greek for this word is sunergos which means work together or co-worker. Don’t get me wrong, “salvation is of the Lord” –Jonah 2:9 God killed His Son on the cross, God made us new creatures, God bridged the gap between us and Himself, but God has given us a role to play in the salvation of other people. Even though it is a rather small one compared to what He does. We have been given a duty as ambassadors of Christ to go and share the Gospel to the lost people outside these walls who are dying and going to Hell, but this statement also seems to have a promise attached to it and is very similar to the Great Commission. We are to step out of our comfort zone to preach the Gospel, but the phrase “working together” implies that we are not doing this alone. God is there. Listen to some of the last things that Jesus said before He left this earth, also known as the Great Commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus and now Paul give us a job to do, but in both cases promise us that we are not doing this alone, but rather as co-workers with God. Our part is to bring the message, “How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” -Romans 10:14-15-
God is working in this person as we are sharing with them. This work we do with God is very supernatural. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”-John 6:44 God is working on the person. We deliver the message, but if we were working alone not one single person would ever come to Jesus. The Father is drawing the person to Himself, the majority of the work in salvation is being done by God, be we are working together with Him delivering the Gospel to a lost and dying world in need of the Savior.
“We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain” We are pleading with people about their salvation. We are pleading with people to trust the Savior, we are telling them about their sin, their condemnation, and the way out. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”-John 3:36- We are appealing to people about their salvation, and our task should be much like these words, at times it will seem as an impossible task but this should be our attitude.
"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." Charles Spurgeon
We are appealing to them “not to receive the grace of God in vain”, our presentation of the Gospel should be similar to that of Jesus’ presentation. He did not call all men everywhere to just take it easy, or tell everyone within hearing distance that following Him would make their life better, make them rich, or whatever else could be added here. He called people to “repent and believe”. He called people to die so that they could find life. He called people to repent or forsake their sin and live a life wholly devoted to God. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”-Luke 9:23 We must not water down the Gospel for the sake of having more people come to an invitation or accept our message, coming forward at an invitation does not matter saying yes at the right times and praying along with you doesn’t matter. What does matter is whether or not that person has forsaken their sin and is trusting in the Savior. Oddly enough the things that we often times think are good can actually be damaging to the unbeliever. It seems that because of our modern ways of preaching the Gospel we run the risk of insulating people from hearing the real Gospel. Talk about a blind man walking toward a cliff getting a cd player playing the most beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace and not telling him he needs to turn around. People are yelling at him, but he cannot hear it anymore because he believes he has received something that will make his life better. We must get our message correct and warn people about God’s judgment that will come.
Show clip from ER
There is no half hearted commitment to Christ and people need to understand this, because as Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.”-Matthew 7:21 Many people on the day of judgment will cry out that they know Jesus, but the fact is not everyone will enter. As we spoke about before, born again people bear fruit in their lives. It may not be much at first, but they will bear fruit. So, Jesus can say without hesitation “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.”
With all of this being said Paul quotes an Old Testament passage of scripture to tell us about the urgency of getting the message to the lost. “For he says—In a favorable time I listened to you and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Today is the day of salvation, everyone that hears the message that we bring has not been promised another day of life. In fact, every minute you live on this earth is one less minute you have in your life. Today is the day of salvation. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” –Acts 17:30-31-
This urgency also has application in our own lives. As the Crow Mountain Students have heard over and over, 150,000 people die every 24 hours and a majority of those people die in their sins and end up going to Hell for an eternity, and this should greatly alarm us. This should motivate us for action to get out and seek the lost of this world no matter what the consequences are. Listen to what Solomon says about the person that never sows because they never find the right time to do so. “He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.” –Ecclesiastes 11:4- There never seems to be the perfect time to do anything on this earth. The point is there is never going to be the perfect time to plant a crop or reap a harvest. The same goes for personal evangelism, if you are waiting for the perfect time to go and talk with someone it is just never going to happen. If you are waiting for the perfect time to talk about that person repenting and placing their faith in the Savior then it will never happen. We must be bold and go and share our faith with the lost and dying people of this world, because they are dying and going to Hell.
We are co-workers with God, God is with us and God is working within that person as we speak to them about Christ. We are delivering the Gospel and always remember the Gospel is powerful. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile”-Romans 1:16 We speak as one with authority and we speak with the utmost confidence because God is with us and doing most of the work as we share the message. But we also must do this with a sense of urgency because today is the day of salvation and we don’t know what could happen to that person that we are not sharing the Gospel with tomorrow. We should not wait for the perfect time to share our faith, because it will never come.
God who is all powerful is working with us, the message we deliver is powerful, and this work must be done with urgency.
Dwain Minor