“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)

First, is preaching the Gospel equivalent to missionary work? The answer is, “No.” Nowhere in Scripture is the word ‘missionary’ used as demonstrated by ‘mission’ organizations today. So, ‘Yes,’ the Gospel of Christ does not only stifle missionary work, but exposes it for what it is, a man-made religious work. Matthew 23:15- “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”Modern missionary work is making many proselytes (religious adepts), but not true converts to Christ as He is in Truth. Even worse, such who are caught in the broad net of modern missionary work are doubly condemned. Not only is there profession empty but they are sealed in their blindness.

Second, the True Message of the Gospel distinguishes itself from what men believe and preach today as the Gospel, what the apostle Paul called ‘another gospel,’ and a perversion of the Gospel, Galatians 1:6-10. There is only One Message that God blesses for the converting of His people that He purposed to save from all eternity. That Message is the GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Of Him in that He is the Origin of the Gospel (Good News).

1. Without Him being there from eternity as God’s Eternal Son and the appointed Savior and Redeemer Who should come to earn and establish the righteousness that God’s law and justice required, there would be no Gospel.

2. Without Him coming in the fulness of the time and working out salvation to the satisfaction of God the Father, there would be no Gospel. The Good News is not in telling sinners what they need to do, but what God has done to save sinners, by Christ’s blood and righteousness alone, and by God’s Grace alone. This Gospel is the declaration of God’s sovereign eternal purpose in saving sinners by the righteous obedience of Christ unto death and calling them effectually by His Spirit. Some will ask, ‘Since God has already chosen those who must be saved, and were saved by the LORD Jesus Christ when He finished the work at the cross, why then preach at all?’

The answer from Scripture is simple and clear:

1. God commanded it for His glory, Matthew 25:31.

2. It is a savor of Life unto life for those He purposed to save but of death unto death to those who perish, 2 Corinthians 2:16.

3. It is the means that God has ordained to call out His elect from the rest of the world, separating the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, Romans 1:16.