The Wrath of God in Redemption and Evangelism

Welcome to The Dividing Line for today. My name is Pastor John Sampson. I have the joy and privilege of guest hosting while Dr. James White is away today. I pastor King's Church in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and it's a delight and I say a privilege to be here.

The Heart of God and the Need to Evangelize

I want to talk about something I believe is very close to the heart of God, and I hope to say it's close to the heart of every true child of God. To someone who is a child of God converted and saved, they want to reach out to others.

And so I'd like to talk about a simple way to evangelize. What we have in our Bibles is the record of God's disclosure. He discloses to us who He is. He doesn't have to do that, but He does that. He reveals Himself both in nature and especially in the Scripture.

And there's not one passage we can turn to that outlines how to evangelize. You'd think there would be, wouldn't you? You'd think there'd be a third or fourth Thessalonian somewhere where Paul says, now you're asking how do you evangelize?

Here's how you do it. So what we have to do, because there isn't anything like that, is put the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle and find out what the Bible says about God, what the Bible says about His gospel, and then build our evangelism around that, the record of God.

Not what works, not pragmatism, not what will get a decision. But our job as Christians is to find out what is the biblical gospel and proclaim that. Paul said, Paul wrote, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel.

We're not to come up with our own gospel. In fact, Romans 1 verse 1 is a key verse where the apostle Paul writes that he is a slave of Jesus Christ set apart for the gospel of God. And the phrase there means the gospel belonging to God.

It's His gospel. Let not man mess with it. Let not man come up with his own. And Paul was very clear. There's only one gospel. There isn't another, as he made clear to the Galatians. So as we put the pieces together biblically, we start with a God who reveals Himself as triune.

He is the God who is one in person, excuse me, one in essence, let's get it right, one in essence, three in persons. That's the revelation of God in Scripture. Anything else is a false God. We have to start with the biblical God.

Along the way as I've sought to evangelize, there are certain things that have been very, very helpful. One of them is to confine the thinking to what the Bible reveals rather than to come up with our own plan.

Oftentimes a plan can be good, but it can be problematic when we think that this is how we do it all the time. And if you look through the Scripture, there was not this one methodology, but there were certain concepts that were in place.

One of the things that was just amazing to me was when I read through the book of Acts one time looking for how the apostles preached. I thought that's a good place to start. How did they do it? The emphasis in our day seems to be greatly on the love of God.

And if we know anything about our Bibles, we know that on almost every page God reveals himself as a God of love. But what was very interesting to me was when I looked at the preaching of the apostles, they didn't actually mention the love of God in the book of Acts.

In the apostolic kerygma, the preaching of the apostles, there was not a mention of the love of God even one time. Is it wrong to speak of the love of God then? Of course not. I think the Bible is summarized in John 3 .16.

God so loved the world. His love for the world was seen in the giving of his son so that anyone who believes in him, all those who believe in him, would in no way perish but have everlasting life. That's how we know the love of God and what God has given.

He's given his son. And yet, isn't it true to say most unbelievers, if they've heard anything of the gospel, they've heard of the love of God? In fact, when we talk to them oftentimes about the anger of God or the wrath of God, their response oftentimes is, the God I know of is a God of love.

The one I believe in is a God of love. They've at least heard that. It's interesting. We need to start with what God says. And I believe that it's right to talk of the love of God. But the heavy emphasis on the love of God is certainly not seen in the preaching of the apostles.

They proclaimed the kingdom of God. They proclaimed the lordship of Christ. He is the Messiah, that he's the one who has died and has risen. Death couldn't hold him. And they proclaimed him as the coming judge.

Certainly. God commands all people everywhere to repent, Acts chapter 17, Paul said. So along the way, as I've sought to reach out with the gospel, I've thought it's so important to start with what the Bible says.

And here's where we have to make a real change in our thinking, I think, in terms of the Western Church. We try to think, I think because of people like Charles Finney, what will get people in the pews?

What will get a decision? And yet, that's not really where the proclaimers of God in scripture were coming from. They proclaimed the right message and left it to God as to the results. And the key figure we see in all this is Jesus.

Jesus. I want to follow him in evangelism. And he certainly didn't start by coming up with a plan that would get a big crowd. In fact, when there was a big crowd, John 6 being evidence A, article A, the crowd left by the end of his sermon.

He was certainly not out to get a big crowd, nor did he, after seeing the crowd leave, run after them and say, there'll be more miracles next week. Would you come back? I'll be giving free bicycles away.

I'll be, there'll be more food. I'll do what you want. If only you'll come back. No, he turned to his own apostles and said, are you going to go away too? And Peter, of course, said, well, where else can we go?

You have the words of eternal life. But if we think the goal is to get people into church or to make a, quote, decision, we're starting off on the wrong footing. It's like buttoning up a shirt and getting the wrong button in the wrong hole, and it's going to be wrong all the way down.

I had that experience just recently before I left the house, finally checked in the mirror and realized something's wrong. And it was wrong at the top, and that's why it was wrong all the way down. Thankfully, I was able to check before I left the house.

But if we get it wrong in terms of where we're to proclaim and what we are to proclaim regarding the gospel, we're going to have perhaps converts, but they're not going to be God's converts. Charles Spurgeon makes the point very, very clearly, Christ's sheep will not be offended by Christ's voice.

And that allows us, knowing that it's God who saves, to proclaim the right gospel, the biblical gospel, and leave the results to God. I'd rather have a church full of people who are true disciples than a large church where it's mainly goats.

I want sheep. And to have sheep, then they need to hear the words of the shepherd. He is the one who leads and guides his sheep. He is the one who says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and no one can pluck them out of my hands.

Those are the words of Jesus. And so it allows the proclaimer of the gospel, whether he be a preacher or it be someone just sharing their faith as a Christian, to let it fly. Let the real, true gospel fly.

Let it be proclaimed and leave the results to God. Ray Comfort has been a blessing in my life regarding his evangelism, and I think even he would say that there's not one methodology that's going to work.

No, we start with the biblical gospel and leave it to God as to what the results might be. But there's two or three things I picked up along the way regarding his approach that I think is entirely biblical.

He gave an illustration, I'd like to share it, of the assignment given to someone to preach to an audience who are in one of the two towers on 9 -10 -2001, the day before 9 -11. And you are somehow given this assignment knowing that everybody you're about to speak to will be dead within 24 hours.

There's a condition. You're not allowed to tell them that. You know it, but you're not allowed to tell them that. And you've prepared a message to speak to perhaps someone, some group who are meeting on the 11th floor of one of the towers, and it's been revealed to you somehow that everyone you speak to is going to die within 24 hours.

They're going to be there the next day, and they're going to be dead. Would it adjust your message? Would it mean that you change your notes? Would you say what you would have prepared if you didn't know that, or would it change things?

Would there be more of an urgency about your proclamation? Would you talk about, hey, God has a wonderful plan for your life? Well, not if you know that the plan is that they're all dead in 24 hours. I don't think that would be legitimate, right?

If you have to adjust your message in any way, there should be warning bells going off in your mind that what you're doing is not preaching the true gospel. If you have to adjust your message in any way, if you have to say, you know, my note's about seven principles for business success, and then put a little bit about Jesus in at the end, if that's not going to cut it when you know they're all going to be dead in 24 hours, you know what?

It doesn't cut it that day, and it won't cut it any other day. I thought that was a tremendous illustration. If what you would have said needs to be changed because you now know they're all going to be dead in 24 hours, what you would have been saying was not the right message, not the gospel anyway.

There's an urgency about the true gospel. 2 Corinthians 6 says, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Oftentimes I hear that verse quoted, and it says that people say today is the day of salvation, although that's certainly a truth.

That's not exactly what 2 Corinthians 6 says. It's now. We don't even know. We've got the rest of today to repent. Another illustration I heard from Ray Comfort was the putting on of a parachute on a plane.

Why would someone do that? Not to improve the flight, but in case of an emergency, in case of a calamity, if the plane's going down and you have to jump, you wear the parachute not because you believe it's a good fashion statement, but because it's going to save your life.

That's why we put on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why there is a need to be saved, saved from the impending calamity of an audience with God without being right with Him. That is ultimately what salvation is.

He made that illustration about someone putting on the parachute with the idea being, as he was told, it will improve the flight. You'll feel better about life if you put the parachute on. Oftentimes that is the approach given in evangelism.

Put on Jesus Christ. He'll make you feel better about yourself. He'll give you purpose to life. Life will be a lot easier with Jesus. But that's not the reason for putting a parachute on. It's certainly not that.

It's to save you and rescue you from something calamitous. And that's what the biblical message of salvation is. We need to ask the question, what are we saved from? Another illustration, the final one I'll use of Ray Comfort was you're given three minutes to live because you've got a knife in your back and you go around asking, what is the gospel?

How do I get saved? And people will come up with all kinds of things, but we need to be able to approach that kind of a person and say, you know what, here it is. These are the things you need to know.

This is what you need to do. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Here's why. It's not the case that you can say, you know what, come down with me to some hall and there's a pastor and elder there who'll be able to lead you in a prayer.

No, you need to be ready. You might be on the scene of an accident where someone is thriving and clinging on to life and they are needing to be helped into the kingdom of God. And like a a spiritual birth person around them, like in a hospital, your job is to tell them quickly what the true gospel is and if you've got three minutes, can you do that?

And just like driving a car, it didn't happen naturally because you actually had to have perhaps a number of lessons as I did in the United Kingdom. We should be equipped to do this. I brought with me a little guy.

Don't know if you can see him. It's a Roman soldier. There we go. Roman soldier with all of the equipment, the uniform of that Roman soldier, what he would need. And what we're talking about here is what Ephesians calls the shoes of the gospel, the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace.

And I think what that is talking about is being prepared to share the gospel with people. And so what I'm seeking to do in our time together today is equip the people of God, those that are listening and watching, with a simple way to do exactly that.

So that if you have someone in front of you who's got three minutes to live, you can be very sure about how to share your faith with them and lead them all the way to heaven so that they meet with the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation.

And just like in driving, it didn't come naturally, but you need to be trained. We need to be trained in how to do it. Oftentimes, pastors, preachers are very good at telling people of the need to do this, but not so good at telling them how to do this.

The Biblical Gospel in Luke 23 and the Thief on the Cross

So now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. I want us to go in our Bibles, if you have it, to Luke chapter 23. And let's talk, first of all, about what the biblical gospel is. And jumping into the story of the crucifixion, I'm going to pick up in verse 32.

So this is Luke 23, 32. It says there, two others who are criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him. And the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

And Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I understand there's a textual variant there. We won't get into that. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching.

But the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.

There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

I've often contemplated this scene in my mind and a potential scene whereby the proponents of all religions were given the opportunity of addressing this thief on the cross and what they would say to him.

This was a man who was a criminal, a notorious sinner, definitely one whose so-called bad deeds would outweigh the good ones, right? Being nailed to the cross negates all further opportunity for good works to be done.

Do we get that? He can't get off the cross and go and serve his community. He's about to die. He's almost at this three minutes to live scenario stage. But it would be an interesting conversation, wouldn't it, to hear what each religionist would say to him.

If they represented their religion well, what would they say to the man on the cross in that scenario? Apart from perhaps universalism, which is the heresy that says that everybody's going to be saved anyway, each religion spokesman would require that the man would need to come down.

I think that's just about a pretty true statement, unless you just say, well, we'll just leave it up to God. Who knows what he's going to do? What would the Roman Catholic say to the man? What would the Mormon say to the man?

What would the Jehovah's Witness say to the man? What would some of the Christian denominations that miss it on the gospel, so-called Christians, what would they say? Well, you've got to get down and be baptized our way.

You've got to get down and be baptized and do certain things. Here's the amazing thing that I will glean from this passage. Only the biblical Christ with the biblical gospel could turn to the man and say, because of what is happening in your heart and what you've done, you'll be with me in paradise today.

Not eight million years from now, not eight weeks from now, but today your suffering will end and you'll be with me in paradise. This criminal, what was going on in his heart? What would the spokesman for Islam say?

What about the new age guru? What would he say? Let's get it in our minds. Only the biblical Christ with the gospel could say, because of what's happening here, because of your faith, faith alone, not works, works excluded here, you're going to be with me in paradise today.

And this was a man in all of church history, I don't know anyone else who would have that kind of assurance where Jesus says, you're a saved man, you're going to be with me in paradise. We gain assurance because of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, but this man had Jesus telling him, you're a saved man.

What could be better than that? He gave him full assurance of salvation, absolutely. So, lining them up, if they all had three, four minutes to talk to the man, what would they say? What would you say?

Well, we know what Jesus said, nailed to the cross, works and service were no longer possible. It was a totally hopeless case, except that the one crucified next to him was somehow able to save and rescue him by what he was doing, rather than what the man was doing.

Only the real biblical Jesus with the real biblical gospel could announce to a criminal that before the day was over, he would be with him in paradise. And that portrays the true gospel so clearly. It's not of works so that anyone can boast.

Someone embracing other than the biblical gospel can only scratch their heads in wonder at the precious words that are given to this man. In their system, such words would be impossible to say. I don't know anyone else in the Bible that Jesus gave instantaneous assurance of salvation to.

But Jesus' words removes all doubt. Can we know what was going on in this man's heart? Well, we don't have perfect understanding, but putting the pieces of the biblical text together, we can get quite a good picture.

What is clear from the gospels of Matthew and Mark is that the man had been amongst the many who had mocked Christ, yet seemingly out of nowhere, he turns to the other thief and says, don't you fear God?

Obviously, the thief was now fearing God for him to be asking that question of the other one. He also knew he was getting exactly what he deserved. Look at the passage. He said, we indeed suffer justly.

In addition, he recognized the innocence of Christ. He said to the other one, he's done nothing wrong. When he turned to Jesus and requested, remember me, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom, knowing that death was inevitable for all three of those crucified, he believed Jesus would triumph over death and therefore would be resurrected.

That's quite a lot we're putting together right now. In affirming the fact that Jesus would come into his kingdom, he affirmed the lordship or even the deity of Christ. How much he knew of this, we don't know, but obviously he knew that Christ was indeed king.

So he had an awareness of divine judgment. He knew the availability of forgiveness. He believed Christ was the true king and that in Christ there was hope even for him. He knew of the coming kingdom and he wanted to be part of it.

As God opens our hearts and minds to the one true biblical gospel, we'll also find in Christ the full assurance of salvation. He's the one who saves. He's the perfect savior. As we turn away from all attempts at self-justification, like this thief, knowing that it is by grace that we're saved through faith and all this is the gift of God, not a result of works, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, we too will enjoy the sweet saving mercy of God.

What a testimony to the gospel this thief is. His testimony is exactly the same as mine and it's the same for every Christian. God saves sinners by means of the perfect work of the perfect savior plus nothing.

Hallelujah. Based on the sure foundation of scripture alone, God justifies the sinner by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone. And that's the only way anyone is ever saved and that's true in the old covenant and the new.

They believed in God and his revelation and they were justified by what Christ would do. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, Genesis 15, 6. The righteousness of Christ was transferred to his account though Christ had not yet come on the scene.

God credited the righteousness of another by means of imputation to Abraham thousands of years before Christ came. Now thousands of years after Christ has come, God justifies the sinner in the exact same way, by means of God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

There's only one gospel and that's true in both old and new testament and that's really the point of Romans 4. If you read what he's saying, I'm proclaiming nothing new. Evidence A is this is the way Abraham was justified and evidence B is this is the way David was justified.

You read the opening verses of Romans 4, he's saying that this is not a new thing. This has been the gospel all along. The law could never save but even in the law system there is redemption and atonement and imputation.

What It Means to Be Saved and the Wrath of God

So understanding that, we understand that to be saved is to be rescued. We Christians are very good at using our own kind of vocabulary and it's oftentimes never understood by those around us. We do have our own lingo, we have our own jargon and we use the word saved and we have unsuspecting neighbors, colleagues, friends and we ask them, are you saved?

And usually we receive only puzzled expressions in response. They're desperately trying to understand this but they have no reference point whatsoever from which they can draw to assess what we're asking and then provide an answer.

The Christian on the other hand, seizing the wonderful opportunity to evangelize usually pounces on this hesitation and oftentimes I think very little is communicated. We need to understand and we need to make it clear there's a need to be saved from something.

When we use the word saved and the Bible uses that word oftentimes, that's what salvation is, to be saved. It's a biblical word. The scripture says whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved, Romans 10 13.

But what is it referring to? What is it that those who call on the name of the Lord are saved from? Let's look at this word saved. Even in our English language we use it very frequently even in the world of sports.

We talk of a goalkeeper making a great save or a boxer being saved by the bell and when used in that kind of context it doesn't have any eternal significance. The goalkeeper doesn't provide eternal life for his teammates when he makes the save but he merely prevents a calamity conceding a goal to the opposing team.

The boxer doesn't gain heavenly immortality because the bell rings but the sounding of the bell prevents a calamity. It's signaled the end of a round when it looked like for sure the fighter would lose the fight.

Again the word save refers to being rescued from a calamity. So what does the Bible mean when it talks about need to be saved? What do we need to be rescued from? Well again the Bible is very clear on that and the ultimate rescue is to be saved from the wrath and anger of God.

If we turn to Romans chapter 5 we see this. Romans 5 jumping into the passage verse 6, for while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him look at this next phrase from the wrath of God saved by him from the wrath of God.

There's also a verse in first Thessalonians that talks of Jesus and his coming where he rescues us from the wrath of God. The Bible speaks of this wrath over 600 times in the Old Testament alone. It's not something that just was emerging from a out of sorts prophet sometime it's a regular occurrence to see God as a God of wrath.

Two incidents in the book of Exodus will help our understanding. In Exodus 22 God says you shall not mistreat any widower or fatherless child if you do mistreat them and they cry out to me I will surely hear their cry and my wrath will burn and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

Then later on when the children of Israel make for themselves a golden calf to worship the Bible says that God speaking says now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that may make a great nation of you but Moses implored the Lord his God and said oh Lord why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you've brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand why should the Egyptians say with evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

Let me quote Dr. James Montgomery Boyce regarding this. It is evidence evident in this passage that Moses' appeal to God is not based either on imagined innocence of the people they were not innocent Moses knew it nor on the thought that wrath was unworthy of God.

Moses appeals only on the basis of God's name and how his acts would be misconstrued by the heathen. No doubt is expressed that wrath is a proper reaction of God's holy character against sin. Dr. Boyce goes on to say God's wrath is not arbitrary as if God for some minor matter or according to his own caprice simply turns against those whom he formerly loved and favored.

On the contrary wrath is God's consistent and unyielding resistance to sin and evil. In the first passage it is wrath brought on by sin against others widows and orphans. In the second passage it is wrath brought on by sins against God.

You'll read of that in Boyce's book Foundations of the Christian Faith page 248. Nahum chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 and verses 6 through 8 says this. The Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful.

The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Who can stand before his indignation who can endure the heat of his anger. His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble.

He knows those who take refuge in him but with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of his adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness. Again we could talk at length about the reality and the nature of the wrath of God.

Psalm 2. He will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying as for me i've set my king on zion my holy hill. In the new testament the wrath of God is also very clearly seen. There are two main words for wrath that are used first thymos in greek means to rush along fiercely to be in the heat of violence or to breathe violently.

It refers to a panting rage. The second word in greek is orga. It means to grow ripe for something with the noun form revealing that this wrath has been slowly building over a long space of time. It is a gradually building anger that rises in intensity and therefore is not so much a sudden flare-up of hostility which is soon over but rather as leon morris defines it a strong and settled opposition to all that is evil arising out of God's very nature.

Romans 1 declares that this wrath of God is a present day reality. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 2 5. But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself. On the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment is revealed are we feeling the weight of this bad news.

Yet i don't believe we'll appreciate the amazing good news of the gospel until we do. Jesus is coming back to rule and reign although he is ruling and reigning now it will be seen that he is exactly doing that.

He is the righteous king when he comes. It'll not be like his first coming. When he comes he came as a humble baby born in a manger. But he's coming back as king of kings and lord of lords to enforce his rule.

Revelation 19 15 declares this. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the almighty.

Although this refers to a future event the scripture reveals that the wrath of God is a present day reality. Think of john chapter 3. It's where we get verse 16. It's also where we get verse 36. Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.

Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains abides on him. I can't think of a worse calamity than this one facing the fury of the wrath of God against our sin. And it's perfectly right and just for God to do this as i say 1st Thessalonians 1 9 and 10.

We wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead. Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. That's what biblical salvation is all about. Whose wrath is it. It's God's and yet it was also God's idea to save all who believe in Christ from this ultimate calamity.

The fierceness of the wrath of God. What a deliverance. What a rescue. God sent his son to save us from his wrath. To put it in clear terms we're saved by God from God. And then we could say for God for him and his purposes.

We're saved by God from God. On the cross Jesus bore our sin and God poured out his wrath on him in our place. He took the punishment we deserved as he bore our sins in his body on the tree. 1st Peter 2 24.

Jesus bore the wrath of God on behalf of his people. He propitiated. He removed wrath by means of his sacrifice. That's what propitiation means. That's why we as reformed people believe in a real and definite atonement that takes place at the cross where he bore the sins of many.

As the scripture says. He gave his life as a ransom for many. He fulfilled the prophetic word given to Joseph by the angel recorded in Matthew 1 21. You shall call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins.

God's wrath is now revealed and will be revealed. And yet God in the gospel offers Christ as the covering as the propitiation as the savior as the substitute. He is the lamb of God who takes away our sin.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation. Hebrews 2 3 says. The answer to this rhetorical question is clear. If we neglect this great salvation there will be no escape. Indeed it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God a dreadful thing.

Hebrews 10 31. So here's the good news. Romans 10 9 and 10. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified.

And with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Call out to him call out to him. Now that's the biblical gospel to be saved by God from God by means of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Five Words for Explaining the Gospel in Three Minutes

So how do we sum up the teaching of the bible and condense it to the point where we can share that gospel with others. If someone has a long time to talk with someone we could go into more detail. But one thing that has helped me is to just define five big words and concepts that we need to get over to people.