00:02:30.260Second thing I wanted to talk about is if you're not quite there yet on St. Justin's,
00:02:36.980but you're interested in learning more about house church and exploring the idea of biblical
00:02:43.300house church, what does that really look like?
00:02:44.980we have a free PDF download that you can get. It's a little ebook called The Basics of Biblical
00:02:51.760House Church, and you can download that for free at relearn.org forward slash house.
00:02:58.000Today's question is from Hayden in Nashville, Tennessee, and he asks,
00:03:02.540Pastor Dale, I've been a Christian for seven years, and I am ashamed to admit that I have yet
00:03:08.100to share the gospel with another person. I have spoken about Jesus. I have let others know that
00:03:14.320I'm a Christian, but I have not proclaimed the gospel to another person. After much thinking,
00:03:21.040I believe the reason is that I don't really understand the basic mechanics of the gospel,
00:03:26.960and it makes it difficult to explain it to others. Can you share how you, or in a conversation,
00:03:34.340would present the gospel to another person? Okay, good question, Hayden. Thank you for
00:03:40.660asking that question, I can also empathize with you. There was a period in my journey
00:03:46.140with God where I did not share the gospel because of fear and intellectual and theological
00:03:52.440insecurities. We also live in an era of the church that hasn't taught Christians how to present the
00:04:00.500gospel. Instead, they preach a motivational sermon series and encourage you to outsource
00:04:05.560your evangelistic duty by simply inviting people to the church where they can evangelize them for
00:04:11.360you. This is not biblical shepherding. The Great Commission is not the great suggestion, right?
00:04:18.640Every Christian has been called to share the gospel. Now, does that mean that you need to
00:04:24.280share the gospel with everyone that has a pulse? No. What this does mean is that when you find
00:04:29.620yourself in a moment that the Holy Spirit convicts you to share the good news with a person that you
00:04:34.300are with, you need to do it, right? James 4.17 says, so whoever knows the right thing to do and
00:04:41.840fails to do it, for him it is sin. Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, I was once at a gas
00:04:47.620station here in central Oregon, and here they fill up your gas for you, which is really nice,
00:04:53.860especially when it's snowing. But I was waiting for gas to be filled up, and I was actually
00:04:58.940watching a video on John Piper on presenting the gospel. And I actually felt called at the moment
00:05:06.680to preach the gospel to the guy that was filling up my gas. And it's pretty rare that I'm not the
00:05:10.980guy that's necessarily a street preacher, but I just felt called because I was talking to him.
00:05:14.960And I disobeyed that conviction and I started driving back home. And I remember that verse in
00:05:22.400James 4.17 that basically said, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it,
00:05:28.080for him it is sin. I turned around my car, four miles, drove back, got out of the car,
00:05:34.200and presented the gospel to this gentleman. And so we just have to be obedient to these
00:05:40.840convictions because you don't want to walk in willing sin. It was just too much for my heart.
00:05:45.260Now, preaching the gospel is not based on a model, okay? Meaning there's really no one way to do it.
00:05:51.760In fact, it's quite organic. In John 3, 8, Jesus says,
00:05:55.100the wind blows where it wishes, and you heard it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or
00:06:00.940where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Now, I know this is the reaction,
00:06:06.480the result of the gospel preaching, that the Lord brings somebody to new life, or there's a
00:06:13.220born-again experience. But this means that our central desire should be that our evangelism
00:06:18.240efforts are God's evangelism efforts. We're not trying to do our own evangelism efforts. I've
00:06:24.840too many Christians walk outside of the Spirit in an attempt to manufacture a spiritual moment.0.98
00:06:31.020And this is hollow ministry and not driven by the prompting or the directing of God.0.84
00:06:35.800It's driven by the strivings and zeal of men. And that's not what we want to go for.
00:06:41.440So my first point is this. Evangelism is God's ministry, and you are simply a vessel
00:06:46.960which he is going to use. And this means the first thing we must do is be yielded,
00:06:53.360available and willing to be used by God, right? Romans 10, 17. We talked about this in the
00:06:57.900previous episode from last week. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of
00:07:03.420Christ. You know, God may use you to present the word of Christ. Now, this takes us to the
00:07:12.420root of Hayden's question here, right? What is the word of Christ? I think as someone presenting
00:07:18.700the gospel, you know, I'm not going to give you what to say. I'm going to give you some
00:07:22.680principles behind it. And I think there's really four required points that people need to adhere to
00:07:29.300during their presentation of the gospel. And so number one is that a person has to believe
00:07:35.740that God exists and that he made them. Because if he made them, he has a claim and a right
00:07:43.440to say how that person should live, how they ought to live. So that's number one. Number two
00:07:51.340is that you have to believe that God has made it known to the world how his created beings,
00:08:00.500human beings, should live, and that this person has failed to keep those commands.
00:08:08.700Number three is that you have to believe that because they failed to meet his commands,
00:08:15.440God is righteously angry. And because he is also just, he's going to require them to receive the
00:08:24.900consequences for their disobedience, or as we call sin. Now, this is the bad news and should cause
00:08:32.600repentance. Okay, so we've got a situation where you're not an autonomous being, independent. You
00:08:39.560were made. Because you were made, there is a God who created you and told you how you should live.
00:08:47.740You have failed to stand up to those standards, and you are in his wrath or judgment, and there
00:08:54.600is a penalty due for those consequences. And this is bad news and should cause you to repent.
00:09:01.380Number four is you have to believe that God, not out of a requirement, but out of his grace, love and mercy, sent his only son to the earth to live a sinless and perfect life for the very purpose to die in that person's place or to die in your place.
00:09:24.260Now, to take the consequences, this is what Jesus did, is to take the consequences that you deserved for your sin so that by belief or faith in him, you will be right with God forever.
00:09:37.560So Jesus did two things, right? He paid the penalty you deserved, which created the forgiveness that you needed. And then he imputed or applied Jesus's righteousness, his perfect sinless life, to you through faith. This is the good news and should cause joy and obedience.
00:09:59.740And so you have to believe these core things.
00:10:05.500You know, it also goes on in Romans chapter 10, talking about the idea that you have to
00:10:11.200believe that God raised Jesus from the dead too.
00:10:15.320You can get deeper and deeper into theology arguments about what's required, what's not
00:10:19.060required, because when you talk about one thing, you talk about everything.
00:10:22.600But I think that's the core message right there, is that basically God made you, therefore
00:10:29.340he has a claim on how you should live. You're not autonomous. He's made it known how you should
00:10:34.620live. There's a law. You've disobeyed that law and are under God's wrath. That's bad news.
00:10:39.560But God made a way out of that where you can be forgiven and reconciled to God,
00:10:45.140and he will actually impute Christ's perfect, sinless life, his righteousness to you
00:10:52.260through faith and belief in his son. So this should put some more breadth and meaning behind
00:11:00.040the passage in John 3.16 that many of us have memorized, right? For God so loved the world
00:11:04.240that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
00:11:10.980See, this is just, again, you can wrap that message, that message of that scripture in what
00:11:15.460I just spoke about. Now, notice that I said a person must believe at the front end of each of
00:11:23.260those four points. And I say this because if a person doesn't believe that they're a sinner,
00:11:28.920they can't be saved. That's critical. If they don't believe that there's a God, they can't be0.60
00:11:35.580saved. If they don't believe that they've broken God's law, then they can't be saved. Charles
00:11:39.640Spurgeon once said, I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the
00:11:45.400law. The law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's
00:11:52.320heart unless you first send the needle of the law to make the way for it. If men do not understand
00:11:59.880the law, they will not feel that they are sinners. And if they are not consciously sinners, they will
00:12:06.340never value the sin offering. That's Christ. There is no healing a man till the law has wounded him,
00:12:13.420no making him alive till the law has slain him. So this is really important, the bad news before
00:12:20.040the good news. For example, people who believe they are well don't go to a doctor, but those
00:12:27.260who know that they are sick seek one out pretty quickly. This is why Jesus said in Luke 5, 31-32,
00:12:34.360those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call
00:12:39.320the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And this is why the good news must always begin with the
00:12:45.080bad news. Again, without the bad news, the good news is no effect. So Hayden, to answer your
00:12:49.760question, how do I personally present the gospel? I don't have a specific formula or outline that I
00:12:55.140use. I think the solution to this problem really is twofold. First, you need to understand the
00:13:01.060biblical gospel deeply in your mind and in your heart. Now, what you heard at church
00:13:08.740or what you thought it was isn't necessarily the right thing.
00:13:13.820You need to really evaluate what the scripture says