The Effectiveness of the Gospel

Romans 9:6 KJV

Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

Though there are reasons to have as Paul described it "great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart" on account of those who are not saved and who turn aside from the faith, this is not to say that the Word of God is without effectiveness. Like the Jews who had every advantage and yet only a remnant of them turn out to be genuine followers of the Lord, so we discover that very few of those who have tasted the blessings of Christian faith are really disciples of Jesus Christ.

• Though they may put on a show and act the part of the believer
• Though they may pretend to serve God for a time
• Though they, through the strength of their own flesh, push themselves forward in Christian circles a while

sooner or later they stumble in the path. Christ must carry us through the way that leads to eternal life or we would all stumble. It is this that eventually reveals that their faith was not the true deal. 

But though we see a lot of stumbling, that does not mean that the Bible has been ineffective. There are also those who, though having every reason to stumble, just go on. 

A friend of mine who recently went to be with the Lord was one of those. He got saved. And his faith sustained him through every sort of trial. He did not understand why everything that happened to him happened.

His lot was to become a fundamental Baptist, a group of Christians that have always been the smallest contingent of believers. We have never been the popular church movement.

• His parents mocked a ridiculed him for his weight and for his faith. As far as I remember neither of them ever got saved but he kept on going.
• He faced a time when he had to attend church without his wife, but he kept on going.
• He struggled with finances. But he kept on going.
• There were those who rejected him because of his weight. But he kept on going.
• When I left Astoria and it became obvious that he could not stay in the church, he stepped out into a lifelong dream as an evangelist and kept on going.
• When he got MS and became bound to a wheelchair he kept on going.
• When he had a breakdown that changed his personality. He kept in going. 

He and others like him demonstrate the effectiveness of the gospel.