Dale Partridge - Real Christianity # 102： What is the Gospel

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity.

00:00:10.680 My name is Dale Partridge, where each week I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological

00:00:16.100 and pastoral questions.

00:00:17.840 This is a 100% listener-supported audio ministry of Relearn.org.

00:00:23.940 And for those who don't know, our mission at Relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary

00:00:29.140 Christians to plant biblical, confessional, and missional house churches. For more information,

00:00:35.180 just visit relearn.org forward slash house. All right, guys, what is the gospel? Now,

00:00:43.040 there are so many different presentations out there. How can the average Christian share the

00:00:48.900 gospel with a friend or family member? This is a question that I get quite often. And I've done

00:00:53.760 a handful of episodes in the past on this topic, but I thought it was important to do another one

00:01:00.120 because sometimes just a certain angle or presentation of the gospel might register

00:01:05.800 with one person and it might not register with the other. So we're going to do another one of

00:01:09.400 those today. It's the most important thing that we do, right? The Great Commission is not the

00:01:13.880 great suggestion. So we need to be prepared and equipped to present a biblically accurate and

00:01:21.060 intelligible gospel presentation. But before we unpack this important discussion, I want to make

00:01:26.520 just two quick announcements. First, are you interested in planting a biblical house church?

00:01:32.680 If you are and you just feel a little bit unqualified or unprepared or not equipped to do

00:01:43.080 so, but you feel called, consider visiting stjustins.org. This is our companion ministry,

00:01:49.220 and it's a biblical house church planting school.

00:01:52.520 It's a one-year program.

00:01:54.020 We have some incredible faculty

00:01:55.460 that are teaching alongside of me,

00:01:57.280 and it's a great program to equip

00:01:59.880 the average Christian man

00:02:01.920 who wants to plant and pastor a house church

00:02:05.320 with everything you're going to possibly need

00:02:08.680 to get started from our own experience

00:02:11.260 as pastors who are in the faculty,

00:02:13.660 and it's just a strong program.

00:02:16.320 If you're interested in doing that,

00:02:17.440 Again, visit stjustins.org, and you can just apply for more information, and it would start

00:02:22.480 you through the process of the admissions inquiry and getting more on pricing and all

00:02:27.780 that matter.

00:02:28.340 So stjustins.org.

00:02:30.260 Second thing I wanted to talk about is if you're not quite there yet on St. Justin's,

00:02:36.980 but you're interested in learning more about house church and exploring the idea of biblical

00:02:43.300 house church, what does that really look like?

00:02:44.980 we have a free PDF download that you can get. It's a little ebook called The Basics of Biblical

00:02:51.760 House Church, and you can download that for free at relearn.org forward slash house.

00:02:58.000 Today's question is from Hayden in Nashville, Tennessee, and he asks,

00:03:02.540 Pastor Dale, I've been a Christian for seven years, and I am ashamed to admit that I have yet

00:03:08.100 to share the gospel with another person. I have spoken about Jesus. I have let others know that

00:03:14.320 I'm a Christian, but I have not proclaimed the gospel to another person. After much thinking,

00:03:21.040 I believe the reason is that I don't really understand the basic mechanics of the gospel,

00:03:26.960 and it makes it difficult to explain it to others. Can you share how you, or in a conversation,

00:03:34.340 would present the gospel to another person? Okay, good question, Hayden. Thank you for

00:03:40.660 asking that question, I can also empathize with you. There was a period in my journey

00:03:46.140 with God where I did not share the gospel because of fear and intellectual and theological

00:03:52.440 insecurities. We also live in an era of the church that hasn't taught Christians how to present the

00:04:00.500 gospel. Instead, they preach a motivational sermon series and encourage you to outsource

00:04:05.560 your evangelistic duty by simply inviting people to the church where they can evangelize them for

00:04:11.360 you. This is not biblical shepherding. The Great Commission is not the great suggestion, right?

00:04:18.640 Every Christian has been called to share the gospel. Now, does that mean that you need to

00:04:24.280 share the gospel with everyone that has a pulse? No. What this does mean is that when you find

00:04:29.620 yourself in a moment that the Holy Spirit convicts you to share the good news with a person that you

00:04:34.300 are with, you need to do it, right? James 4.17 says, so whoever knows the right thing to do and

00:04:41.840 fails to do it, for him it is sin. Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, I was once at a gas

00:04:47.620 station here in central Oregon, and here they fill up your gas for you, which is really nice,

00:04:53.860 especially when it's snowing. But I was waiting for gas to be filled up, and I was actually

00:04:58.940 watching a video on John Piper on presenting the gospel. And I actually felt called at the moment

00:05:06.680 to preach the gospel to the guy that was filling up my gas. And it's pretty rare that I'm not the

00:05:10.980 guy that's necessarily a street preacher, but I just felt called because I was talking to him.

00:05:14.960 And I disobeyed that conviction and I started driving back home. And I remember that verse in

00:05:22.400 James 4.17 that basically said, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it,

00:05:28.080 for him it is sin. I turned around my car, four miles, drove back, got out of the car,

00:05:34.200 and presented the gospel to this gentleman. And so we just have to be obedient to these

00:05:40.840 convictions because you don't want to walk in willing sin. It was just too much for my heart.

00:05:45.260 Now, preaching the gospel is not based on a model, okay? Meaning there's really no one way to do it.

00:05:51.760 In fact, it's quite organic. In John 3, 8, Jesus says,

00:05:55.100 the wind blows where it wishes, and you heard it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or

00:06:00.940 where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Now, I know this is the reaction,

00:06:06.480 the result of the gospel preaching, that the Lord brings somebody to new life, or there's a

00:06:13.220 born-again experience. But this means that our central desire should be that our evangelism

00:06:18.240 efforts are God's evangelism efforts. We're not trying to do our own evangelism efforts. I've

00:06:24.840 too many Christians walk outside of the Spirit in an attempt to manufacture a spiritual moment. 0.98

00:06:31.020 And this is hollow ministry and not driven by the prompting or the directing of God. 0.84

00:06:35.800 It's driven by the strivings and zeal of men. And that's not what we want to go for.

00:06:41.440 So my first point is this. Evangelism is God's ministry, and you are simply a vessel

00:06:46.960 which he is going to use. And this means the first thing we must do is be yielded,

00:06:53.360 available and willing to be used by God, right? Romans 10, 17. We talked about this in the

00:06:57.900 previous episode from last week. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of

00:07:03.420 Christ. You know, God may use you to present the word of Christ. Now, this takes us to the

00:07:12.420 root of Hayden's question here, right? What is the word of Christ? I think as someone presenting

00:07:18.700 the gospel, you know, I'm not going to give you what to say. I'm going to give you some

00:07:22.680 principles behind it. And I think there's really four required points that people need to adhere to

00:07:29.300 during their presentation of the gospel. And so number one is that a person has to believe

00:07:35.740 that God exists and that he made them. Because if he made them, he has a claim and a right

00:07:43.440 to say how that person should live, how they ought to live. So that's number one. Number two

00:07:51.340 is that you have to believe that God has made it known to the world how his created beings,

00:08:00.500 human beings, should live, and that this person has failed to keep those commands.

00:08:08.700 Number three is that you have to believe that because they failed to meet his commands,

00:08:15.440 God is righteously angry. And because he is also just, he's going to require them to receive the

00:08:24.900 consequences for their disobedience, or as we call sin. Now, this is the bad news and should cause

00:08:32.600 repentance. Okay, so we've got a situation where you're not an autonomous being, independent. You

00:08:39.560 were made. Because you were made, there is a God who created you and told you how you should live.

00:08:47.740 You have failed to stand up to those standards, and you are in his wrath or judgment, and there

00:08:54.600 is a penalty due for those consequences. And this is bad news and should cause you to repent.

00:09:01.380 Number 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.

00:09:24.260 Now, 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.

00:09:37.560 So 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.

00:09:59.740 And so you have to believe these core things.

00:10:05.500 You know, it also goes on in Romans chapter 10, talking about the idea that you have to

00:10:11.200 believe that God raised Jesus from the dead too.

00:10:15.320 You can get deeper and deeper into theology arguments about what's required, what's not

00:10:19.060 required, because when you talk about one thing, you talk about everything.

00:10:22.600 But I think that's the core message right there, is that basically God made you, therefore

00:10:29.340 he has a claim on how you should live. You're not autonomous. He's made it known how you should

00:10:34.620 live. There's a law. You've disobeyed that law and are under God's wrath. That's bad news.

00:10:39.560 But God made a way out of that where you can be forgiven and reconciled to God,

00:10:45.140 and he will actually impute Christ's perfect, sinless life, his righteousness to you

00:10:52.260 through faith and belief in his son. So this should put some more breadth and meaning behind

00:11:00.040 the passage in John 3.16 that many of us have memorized, right? For God so loved the world

00:11:04.240 that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

00:11:10.980 See, this is just, again, you can wrap that message, that message of that scripture in what

00:11:15.460 I just spoke about. Now, notice that I said a person must believe at the front end of each of

00:11:23.260 those four points. And I say this because if a person doesn't believe that they're a sinner,

00:11:28.920 they can't be saved. That's critical. If they don't believe that there's a God, they can't be 0.60

00:11:35.580 saved. If they don't believe that they've broken God's law, then they can't be saved. Charles

00:11:39.640 Spurgeon once said, I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the

00:11:45.400 law. The law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's

00:11:52.320 heart unless you first send the needle of the law to make the way for it. If men do not understand

00:11:59.880 the law, they will not feel that they are sinners. And if they are not consciously sinners, they will

00:12:06.340 never value the sin offering. That's Christ. There is no healing a man till the law has wounded him,

00:12:13.420 no making him alive till the law has slain him. So this is really important, the bad news before

00:12:20.040 the good news. For example, people who believe they are well don't go to a doctor, but those

00:12:27.260 who know that they are sick seek one out pretty quickly. This is why Jesus said in Luke 5, 31-32,

00:12:34.360 those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call

00:12:39.320 the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And this is why the good news must always begin with the

00:12:45.080 bad news. Again, without the bad news, the good news is no effect. So Hayden, to answer your

00:12:49.760 question, how do I personally present the gospel? I don't have a specific formula or outline that I

00:12:55.140 use. I think the solution to this problem really is twofold. First, you need to understand the

00:13:01.060 biblical gospel deeply in your mind and in your heart. Now, what you heard at church

00:13:08.740 or what you thought it was isn't necessarily the right thing.

00:13:13.820 You need to really evaluate what the scripture says

00:13:16.500 against what you currently believe.

00:13:19.520 But what the Bible says about the gospel is really the central,

00:13:23.200 it's the core part.

00:13:24.840 Second, what I want you to do is you need to have a genuine comprehension

00:13:28.100 of that biblical gospel in your own life.

00:13:30.520 I truly believe that you can't explain what you don't understand

00:13:34.620 or you can't offer what you haven't experienced.

00:13:38.740 And sadly, thousands of people in the church are walking around calling themselves Christians

00:13:42.740 because they were a victim to what I call and what many pastors call easy believism,

00:13:47.520 right?

00:13:48.160 Or decisionism.

00:13:49.880 They pray to prayer, they go to church, they read the Bible every now and then, but they

00:13:53.760 don't have a clue about what the gospel really means because they've never experienced it

00:13:58.760 themselves.

00:13:59.980 A quote that I use often from Dr. Stephen Lawson, he once said, the only thing worse

00:14:06.340 than not having the assurance of salvation

00:14:09.280 is having the false assurance of salvation.

00:14:12.720 Now, guys, we're in an era of the church 0.97

00:14:14.420 that is filled with false dead converts

00:14:17.540 because they really never heard the true gospel.

00:14:22.300 They believe that God loves you

00:14:26.960 and has a wonderful plan for your life, that gospel.

00:14:29.640 And they jumped on the moral, philosophical,

00:14:33.220 religious bandwagon,

00:14:34.600 but we're actually never born again. So Hayden and anyone else listening,

00:14:41.360 what I want you to do is I want you to just study the scriptures, really understand

00:14:45.340 the gospel, really understand the narrative of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Study the words

00:14:52.560 of Christ. Study Romans is a great book. Bury yourself in God's word. Seek to understand the

00:14:59.000 beauty of the gospel. And then experientially try to really translate what was happening in your

00:15:04.160 own heart. And again, measure that against the scriptures because our emotions aren't always

00:15:08.560 honest to us and we need to measure those against scripture. I'm going to give you a few resources

00:15:15.120 for anybody that wants to look into this more. And these two resources, actually, I think I have

00:15:20.300 three resources, will be available at the post page for this episode at relearn.org. You just

00:15:26.820 go to the search function and you can type in the title, which is what is the gospel? This is also

00:15:32.840 episode 102. And so this should be able to be found that way as well. But you just go there

00:15:38.720 and I'll have these three links there. There's a YouTube video that is titled, What Must Someone

00:15:44.380 Believe in Order to be Saved? It's by John Piper. Great short video to watch. There's a book that I

00:15:51.880 read that I'll link there as well called, What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert. Short book, really

00:15:57.720 great read, Breaking Down the Gospel. Another book that is a deeper understanding of how the

00:16:04.860 gospel works, the mechanics of the gospel on the back end for the believer, not necessarily for the

00:16:09.080 lost person, is titled Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul. Again, you can go to the site and find

00:16:15.460 those links there. That's it for this episode, guys. Hopefully that was helpful. If you guys

00:16:19.740 are a regular listener to this show, we just ask you that you leave a review. You don't even need

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00:16:37.980 the algorithms work based off of how many ratings you have and how many downloads you have. So this

00:16:42.240 really does help get this show in the ears of other believers. On that note, my name is Dale

00:16:47.420 Partridge, and we will see you guys next Wednesday.

00:17:17.420 by visiting relearn.org forward slash house. Lastly, do you have a theological question

00:17:22.760 you would like answered on the show? Submit your question at relearn.org forward slash

00:17:27.400 question. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Real Christianity. We will see you next Wednesday.

Dale Partridge - July 15, 2020

Real Christianity # 102： What is the Gospel

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