The Gospel of Jesus Christ

I have lately been thinking about the best way to present the gospel to the lost. I used to do what Ray Comfort teaches at "Way of the Master," but have noticed a couple things that I do not like. So here is my attempt to write out the gospel, and I want to credit Thabiti Anyabwile for helping me understand the gospel better.


A good way to present the gospel is in four categories: God, man, Christ, response.


1. The gospel declares that there is a God, there is none like Him. He is eternal, infinite, righteous, all wise, all knowing, and He is Creator. We as creatures, owe our Creator all love, praise, adoration, and honor. So this holy God made us in His own image for fellowship with us, and he is angry with us because we are sinners.


2. All have disobeyed God, all have dishonored God, all have turned away from Him, and therefore all deserve to die separated from God for all eternity in hell.


3. God is not only holy and righteous he is also a God of love. So God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our flesh, our likeness, and lived a perfectly righteous life to satisfy the holy requirements of God. Jesus died, suffering the wrath of God to pay the penalty for the sins of the world on Calvary's Cross, so that the wrath of God would be removed. He was buried, resurrected three days later, ascended into heaven, and He will come again.


4. Everyone who repents of sin, and trusts in Christ have Jesus' righteousness credited to their account, and has their sin nailed to the Cross with Christ, so that they bear it no more. They are justified, a miracle happens, they are made new creatures in Christ Jesus, they are united to Christ, and all the benefits of Christ become theirs through faith, who in the promise of everlasting life, receive the joy of being in the presence of God's love and glory throughout all eternity!


Our appeal to the lost is that they would first hear this message, understand it, trust in Christ, call upon his name, for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. 

Savoring Jesus' Kingdom

I wanted to share something I've been doing recently in my Bible devotions. I was introduced to this method by a couple friends. Its called the SOAP method. The portion of Scripture I read was Luke 1:26-45 and I picked a couple verses that stuck out to me.


Scripture: Luke 1:30-33 (ESV). "And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in you womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."


Observation: The angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear a son named Jesus. Jesus will be great and his kingdom will have no end.


Application: Jesus, according to his Father, is the great one. Jesus is to be worshiped for who he is, the eternal King.


Prayer: Jesus, we thank you for showing us true greatness. We thank you for giving us complete access, by your grace, to your eternal kingdom. Help us to remember our eternal home, help us to live for your kingdom, and propel us to seek to expand your kingdom with the people around us.

Prodigal Love for a Prodigal Son

This is an excerpt from a sermon delivered by C.H. Spurgeon a long time ago. Spurgeon was preaching on Jesus' well known parable the Prodigal Son. The whole sermon can be read here. Enjoy reading about the love of God in Christ for you. Be encouraged in the gospel!

Spurgeon:

This poor young man, in his hungry, faint, and wretched state, having come a very long way, had not much heart in him. His hunger had taken all energy out of him, and he was so conscious of his guilt that he had hardly the courage to face his father; so his father gives him a kiss, as much as to say, “Come, boy, do not be cast down; I love you.”

“Oh, the past, the past, my father!” he might moan, as he thought of his wasted years; but he had no sooner said that than he received another kiss, as if his father said, “Never mind the past; I have forgotten all about that.” This is the Lord’s way with His saved ones. Their past lies hidden under the blood of atonement. The Lord saith by His servant Jeremiah, “The iniquity if Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.”

But then, perhaps, the young man looked down on his foul garments, and said, “The present, my father, the present, what a dreadful state I am in!” And with another kiss would come the answer, “Never mind the present, my boy. I am content to have you as you are. I love you.” This, too, is God’s word to those who are “accepted in the Beloved.” In spite of all their vileness, they are pure and spotless in Christ, and God says of each one of them, “Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honourable, and I have loved you. Therefore, though in yourself you are unworthy, through My dear Son you are welcome to My home.”

“Oh, but,” the boy might have said, “the future, my father, the future! What would you think if I should ever go astray again?”Then would come another holy kiss, and his father would say, “I will see to the future, my boy; I will make home so bright for you that you will never want to go away again.” But God does more than that for us when we return to Him. He not only surrounds us with tokens of His love, but He says concerning us, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God: and I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” Furthermore, He says to each returning one, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.”

Whatever there was to trouble the son, the father gave him a kiss to set it all right; and, in like manner, our God has a love-token for every time of doubt and dismay which may come to His reconciled sons. Perhaps one whom I am addressing says, “Even though I confess my sin, and seek God’s mercy, I shall still be in sore trouble, for through my sin, I have brought myself down to poverty.” “There is a kiss for you,” says the Lord: “Your bread shall be given to you, and your water shall be sure.” “But I have even brought disease upon myself by sin,” says another. “There is a kiss for you, for I am Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that heals you, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.” “But I am dreadfully down at the heel,” says another. The Lord gives you also a kiss, and says, “I will lift you up, and provide for all your needs. No good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly.” All the promises in this Book belong to every repentant sinner, who returns to God believing in Jesus Christ, His Son.

The father of the prodigal kissed his son much, and thus made him feel happy there and then. Poor souls, when they come to Christ, are in a dreadful plight, and some of them hardly know where they are I have known them talk a lot of nonsense in their despair, and say hard and wicked things of God in their dreadful doubt. The Lord gives no answer to all that, except a kiss, and then another kiss. Nothings puts the penitent so much at rest as the Lord’s repeated assurance of His unchanging love. Such a one the Lord has often received, “and kissed him much,” that He might fetch him up even from the horrible pit, and set his feet upon a rock, and establish his goings.

HT: Timmy Brister

Gospel-Driven Sanctification

This is a quote from Sinclair Ferguson. I was really instructed and encouraged. 


The first thing to remember is that we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual but from the New Testament’s point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality, that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only where our piety forgets about us and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety be nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.


HT: Tullian Tchividjian

Do Not be Ashamed of Christ!

Hi, my name is Austin, and I have a burden. I have a burden for the gospel to explode more in our communities. I have a burden to see many people reconciled to God and to spend eternity worshiping Jesus. This should be the desire of every Christian, our only desire should be that the great name of our Savior be lifted up high. 

However, I've noticed myself and other Christians have a tendency to be ashamed of Christ. I am afraid to speak of Christ in public, I am afraid to put the "offense of the cross" that the apostle Paul spoke of out there for everyone to see, and sometimes I am scared to let everyone know I'm a Christian. 


Indeed it is sin to be ashamed of Christ, but it does encourage me that someone in the Bible struggled with this sin as well. In 2 Timothy 1:8, Paul writes to Timothy, "Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God" (2 Timothy 1:8, ESV). It is clear from this verse that Timothy needed encouragement to persevere in proclaiming Christ. Furthermore, very few Christians have not struggled sometimes in this area.

Let's think now, for a moment, of how foolish it is for us to be ashamed of Christ. For one thing, when we were in our unconverted state, we were not ashamed to sin. We laughed and boasted in our sin. Some of us even made fun of other Christians, or silently in our head made fun of them. But now God has made us alive in Christ and we ashamed of bearing his cross?! Also Jesus was not ashamed of us, when he did the most humiliating sacrifice of all, bearing our sins. It is simply ludacris for us to be, in any way, ashamed of Christ.

What do we do? How should I, as a Christian, get over my fear of openly confessing Christ? 

We simply need to remember the gospel. We need to remember the great truth's of the gospel that humble us. We need to remember how bad we really are apart from God's grace. We need to remember how great a Savior Christ really is. We need to remember that God really does delight in saving sinners, for he saved us!! We need to remember that hell really is that bad. We need to remember that heaven really will be that good.

We must remember these truths, for it is in these truth's, that the gospel will begin to work in us, and we will feel convinced to share it with others. Nonetheless, we also will remember the great work that God has done for us, and we will rejoice in his grace given so richly to us. 

And lastly we must pray. 

Paul, for example, in the book of Ephesians, prayed for boldness, "and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel" (Ephesians 6:18, ESV). 

And so should we. We need to pray for each other. We need to pray that God would help us get over our fear, we need to pray that God would humble us, and therefore pray that God would raise up witnesses for the glorious gospel that we so love. 

My Encouraging Verse

Often I will turn the radio dial to 88.1 FM, which here in Omaha, is Klove.  I am not the biggest fan of Klove, I certainty will not put their sign on my car, but I enjoy some good Christian music from time to time on Klove. Everyone that listens knows that they have a daily encouraging verse. I think this is a great idea, we are people who need to be encouraged in our often discouraging world. However, some of the verses that they choose, leave me thinking to myself, that really is not that encouraging.  And then I started thinking about some verses that encourage me in my walk with Christ.


And my mind came to one specific verse. That verse is 1 Timothy 1:15,  "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost".


This verse should be continually on our minds as Christians. Why? Because, at one time, all of 
us were not Christians. We lived our lives alienated from our Creator, we spend all of our time indulging in the foolish desires of our flesh, and we lived basically all for ourselves. It is in this verse that we remember what our condition was before we became Christians. This verse reminds us that we, like the apostle Paul, at one time we're bad sinners. 


But, someone might be thinking, I do not see how this verse is encouraging. This doesn't sound like good news, it sounds like very bad news. Yes, your right, it is bad news that we are this bad. 


But as the verse reminds us again, Christ Jesus came into this world for people exactly like us! There is a Savior! His name is Jesus! This is indeed good news for us who, by God's grace, recognize our condition. We Christians must be constantly reminded that we are that bad and Christ is that good. For it is in these truth's that our worship for God is fueled and sustained. 


Let this verse be the encouragement you run to in your daily life. 

The Seat of Scoffers

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:1-2 ESV).


So I was reading Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones on these two verses in Psalm 1 and his explanation of the scornful man in Psalm 1:1. It left such an impression on me that I decided I would share.


"Walking, standing, sitting. This is a remarkable picture of the increasing grip that sin has on us all, the increasing hold that bad practices and evil habits have upon the soul. But there is another aspect to this progression, and that is the increasing paralysis that is produced by sin-how it causes a man or woman, and the finest things in them, always to degenerate, so that finally they are sitting in the corner and saying, "What is the use of anything? Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." "Sits in the seat of the scornful." What a description! There they are, useless and motionless; they do nothing, they affect nothing. They just sit and mutter and splutter out their cleverness. Scoffers and scorners. Do not listen to them. They are about as far removed from godliness and happiness as anyone can be. They have lost everything, and they have not hope at all; they just sit, paralyzed by evil and by sin."