The Wrath of God in Redemption and Evangelism

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Pastor John Samson returns to guest host today's show and discusses the biblical gospel and how to share it with others. A simple way to evangelize.

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Welcome to the Dividing Line for today. My name is Pastor John Sampson. I have the joy and privilege of guest hosting while Dr.
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James White is away today. I pastor King's Church in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and it's a delight and,
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I say, a privilege to be here. 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.
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To someone who is a child of God converted and saved, they want to reach out to others.
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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.
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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
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Scripture. And there's not one passage we can turn to that outlines how to evangelize.
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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?
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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
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Bible says about God, what the Bible says about His gospel, and then build our evangelism around that, the record of God.
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Not what works, not pragmatism, not what will get a decision.
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But our job as Christians is to find out what is the biblical gospel and proclaim that.
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Paul said, Paul wrote, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. We're not to come up with our own gospel.
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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.
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And the phrase there means the gospel belonging to God. It's His gospel.
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Let not man mess with it. Let not man come up with his own. And Paul was very clear.
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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
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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.
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That's the revelation of God in Scripture. Anything else is a false God. We have to start with the biblical
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God. Along the way as I've sought to evangelize, there are certain things that have been very, very helpful.
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One of them is to confine the thinking to what the
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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.
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And if you look through the Scripture, there was not this one methodology, but there were certain concepts that were in place.
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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.
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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.
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And if we know anything about our Bibles, we know that on almost every page God reveals
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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.
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In the apostolic kerygma, the preaching of the apostles, there was not a mention of the love of God even one time.
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Is it wrong to speak of the love of God then? Of course not. I think the Bible is summarized in John 3 .16.
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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.
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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?
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In fact, when we talk to them oftentimes about the anger of God or the wrath of God, their response oftentimes is the
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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.
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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.
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They proclaimed the kingdom of God. They proclaimed the lordship of Christ, that He is the
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Messiah, that He's the one who has died and has risen. Death couldn't hold
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Him. And they proclaimed Him as the coming judge. Certainly.
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God commands all people everywhere to repent, Acts chapter 17, Paul said.
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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
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Bible says. And here's where we have to make a real change in our thinking,
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I think, in terms of the Western church. We try to think,
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I think because of people like Charles Finney, what will get people in the pews? What will get a decision?
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And yet, that's not really where the proclaimers of God in Scripture were coming from.
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They proclaimed the right message and left it to God as to the results. And the key figure we see in all this is
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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.
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In fact, when there was a big crowd, John 6 being evidence A, article
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A, the crowd left by the end of His sermon. He was certainly not out to get a big crowd, nor did
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He, after seeing the crowd leave, run after them and say, there'll be more miracles next week.
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Would you come back? I'll be giving free bicycles away. There'll be more food. I'll do what you want.
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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?
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You have the words of eternal life. But if we think the goal is to get people into church or to make a decision, we're starting off on the wrong footing.
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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.
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I had that experience just recently before I left the house. Finally, checked in the mirror and realized something's wrong.
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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
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God's converts. Charles Spurgeon makes the point very, very clearly. Christ's sheep will not be offended by Christ's voice.
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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.
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I'd rather have a church full of people who are true disciples than a large church where it's mainly goats.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Christian, to let it fly. Let the real, true gospel fly. Let it be proclaimed and leave the results to God.
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Ray Comfort has been a blessing in my life regarding his evangelism. And I think even he would say that there's not a one methodology that's going to work.
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No, we start with the biblical gospel and leave it to God as to what the results might be.
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But there's two or three things I picked up along the way regarding his approach that I think is entirely biblical.
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And 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.
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And you are somehow given this assignment knowing that everybody you're about to speak to will be dead within 24 hours.
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There's a condition. You're not allowed to tell them that. You know it, but you're not allowed to tell them that.
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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.
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And it's been revealed to you somehow that everyone you speak to is going to die within 24 hours.
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They're going to be there the next day and they're going to be dead. Would it adjust your message?
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Would it mean that you change your notes? Would you say what you would have prepared if you didn't know that?
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Or would it change things? Would there be more of an urgency about your proclamation?
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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.
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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.
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If you have to adjust your message in any way, if you have to say, you know, my notes 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?
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It doesn't cut it that day and it won't cut it any other day. I thought that was a tremendous illustration.
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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.
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There's an urgency about the true gospel. Second Corinthians 6 says, now is the accepted time.
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Now is the day of salvation. Oftentimes, I hear that verse quoted and people say, today is the day of salvation.
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Although that's certainly a truth, that's not exactly what Second Corinthians 6 says.
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It's now. We don't even know we've got the rest of today to repent. Another illustration
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I heard from Ray Comfort was the putting on of a parachute on a plane.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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You'll feel better about life if you put the parachute on. Oftentimes, that is the approach given in evangelism.
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Put on Jesus Christ. He'll make you feel better about yourself. He'll give you purpose to life.
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Life will be a lot easier with Jesus. But that's not the reason for putting a parachute on.
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It's certainly not that. It's to save you and rescue you from something calamitous.
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And that's what the biblical message of salvation is. We need to ask the question, what are we saved from?
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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.
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And you go around asking, what is the gospel? How do I get saved? And people will come up with all kinds of things.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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And like a spiritual birth person around them, like in a hospital, your job is to tell them quickly what the true gospel is.
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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
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United Kingdom. We should be equipped to do this.
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I brought with me a little guy. Don't know if you can see him. It's a
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Roman soldier. There we go. Roman soldier with all of the equipment, the uniform of that Roman soldier, what he would need.
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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.
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And I think what that is talking about is being prepared to share the gospel with people.
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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
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Lord Jesus Christ in salvation. And just like in driving, it didn't come naturally, but you need to be trained.
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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.
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So now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. I want us to go in our
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Bibles, if you have it, to Luke chapter 23. And let's talk, first of all, about what the biblical gospel is.
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And jumping into the story of the crucifixion, I'm going to pick up in verse 32.
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So this is Luke 23, 32. It says there, two others who are criminals were led away to be put to death with him.
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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.
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And Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I understand there's a textual variant there.
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We won't get into that. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching, but the ruler scoffed at him, saying,
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He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.
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The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the king of the
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Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the
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Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the
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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?
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And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong.
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And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
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And he said to him, Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.
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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.
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This was a man who was a criminal, a notorious sinner, definitely one whose so -called bad deeds would outweigh the good ones, right?
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Being nailed to the cross negates all further opportunity for good works to be done.
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Do we get that? He can't get off the cross and go and serve his community. He's about to die.
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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.
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If they represented their religion well, what would they say to the man on the cross in that scenario?
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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.
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I think that's just about a pretty true statement, unless you just say, well, we'll just leave it up to God.
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Who knows what he's going to do? What would the Roman Catholic say to the man?
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What would the Mormon say to the man? What would the Jehovah's Witness say to the man? What would some of the
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Christian denominations that miss it on the gospel, so -called Christians, what would they say?
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Well, you've got to get down and be baptized and do certain things.
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Here's the amazing thing that I will glean from this passage. Only the biblical
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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.
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Your suffering will end and you'll be with me in paradise. This criminal, what was going on in his heart?
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What would the spokesman for Islam say? What about the new age guru?
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What would he say? Let's get it in our minds. Only the biblical Christ with the biblical 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.
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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.
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We gain assurance because of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, but this man had
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Jesus telling him, you're a saved man. What could be better than that?
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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?
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What would you say? Well, we know what Jesus said. Nailed to the cross, works and service were no longer possible.
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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.
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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.
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And that portrays the true gospel so clearly. It's not of works so that anyone can boast.
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Someone embracing other than the biblical gospel can only scratch their heads in wonder at the precious words that are given to this man.
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In their system, such words would be impossible to say. I don't know anyone else in that Jesus gave instantaneous assurance of salvation to, but Jesus' words removes all doubt.
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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.
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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
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God? Obviously, the thief was now fearing God for him to be asking that question of the other one.
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He also knew he was getting exactly what he deserved. Look at the passage.
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He said, we indeed suffer justly. In addition, he recognized the innocence of Christ.
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He said to the other one, he's done nothing wrong. When he turned to Jesus and requested, remember me,
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Jesus, when you come into your kingdom, knowing that death was inevitable for all three of those crucified, he believed
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Jesus would triumph over death and therefore would be resurrected. That's quite a lot we're putting together right now.
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In affirming the fact that Jesus would come into his kingdom, he affirmed the lordship or even the deity of Christ.
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How much he knew of this, we don't know, but obviously he knew that Christ was indeed king.
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So he had an awareness of divine judgment. He knew the availability of forgiveness.
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He believed Christ was the true king and that in Christ there was hope even for him.
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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.
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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,
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Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, we too will enjoy the sweet saving mercy of God.
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What a testimony to the gospel this thief is. His testimony is exactly the same as mine and it's the same for every
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Christian. God saves sinners by means of the perfect work of the perfect savior plus nothing.
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Hallelujah. Based on the sure foundation of scripture alone,
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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.
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They believed in God and his revelation and they were justified by what
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Christ would do. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,
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Genesis 15, 6. The righteousness of Christ was transferred to his account though Christ had not yet come on the scene.
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God credited the righteousness of another by means of imputation to Abraham thousands of years before Christ came.
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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.
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There's only one gospel and that's true in both Old and New Testament and that's really the point of Romans 4.
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If you read what he's saying, I'm proclaiming nothing new. Evidence A is this is the way
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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.
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This has been the gospel all along. The law could never save but even in the
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Lord's system there is redemption and atonement and imputation.
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So understanding that, we understand that to be saved is to be rescued.
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We Christians are very good at using our own kind of vocabulary and it's oftentimes never understood by those around us.
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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?
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And usually received, we receive only puzzled expressions in response.
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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.
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The Christian on the other hand seizing the wonderful opportunity to evangelize usually pounces on this hesitation and oftentimes
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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.
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When we use the word saved and the Bible uses that word oftentimes, that's what salvation is, to be saved.
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It's a biblical word. The scripture says, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved,
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Romans 10 13. But what is it referring to? What is it that those who call on the name of the
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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.
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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.
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The goalkeeper doesn't provide eternal life for his teammates when he makes a save but he merely prevents a calamity conceding a goal to the opposing team.
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The boxer doesn't gain heavenly immortality because the bell rings but the sounding of the bell prevents a calamity.
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It signaled the end of a round when it looked like for sure the fighter would lose the fight.
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Again, the word saved refers to being rescued from a calamity. So what does the
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Bible mean when it talks of our need to be saved? What do we need to be rescued from?
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Well again, the Bible is very clear on that and the ultimate rescue is to be saved from the wrath and anger of God.
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If we turn to Romans chapter 5, we see this. Romans 5, jumping into the passage, verse 6,
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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.
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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.
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Look at this next phrase, from the wrath of God. Saved by him from the wrath of God.
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There's also a verse in 1 Thessalonians that talks of Jesus and his coming, where he rescues us from the wrath of God.
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The Bible speaks of this wrath over 600 times in the Old Testament alone.
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It's not something that just was emerging from an out -of -sorts prophet sometime. It's a regular occurrence to see
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God as a God of wrath. Two incidents in the book of Exodus will help our understanding.
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In Exodus 22, God says, You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.
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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.
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Then later on, when the children of Israel make for themselves a golden calf to worship, the
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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 I may make a great nation of you.
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But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O 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?
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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?
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Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
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Let me quote Dr. James Montgomery Boyce regarding this. It is evident in this passage that Moses' appeal to God is not based either on imagined innocence of the people, they were not innocent,
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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.
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No doubt is expressed that wrath is a proper reaction of God's holy character against sin.
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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.
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On the contrary, wrath is God's consistent and unyielding resistance to sin and evil.
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In the first passage, it is wrath brought on by sin against others, widows and orphans.
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In the second passage, it is wrath brought on by sins against God. You'll read in Boyce's book,
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Foundations of the Christian Faith, page 248. Nahum chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 and verses 6 through 8 says this, the
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Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful.
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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
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Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
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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.
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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.
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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,
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I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill. In the
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New Testament, the wrath of God is also very clearly seen. There are two main words for wrath that are used.
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First, thymos in Greek means to rush along fiercely, to be in the heat of violence or to breathe violently.
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It refers to a panting rage. The second word in Greek is orge. 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.
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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.
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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.
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Romans 2, 5, but because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when
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God's righteous judgment is revealed. Are we feeling the weight of this bad news yet?
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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.
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Although he is ruling and reigning now, it will be seen that he is exactly doing that.
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He is the righteous king. When he comes, it'll not be like his first coming when 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.
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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.
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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
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Although this refers to a future event, the scripture reveals that the wrath of God is a present day reality.
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Think of John chapter 3. It's where we get verse 16. It's also where we get verse 36.
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains, abides on him.
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I can't think of a worse calamity than this one, facing the fury of the wrath of God against our sin.
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And it's perfectly right and just for God to do this. As I say, 1st
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Thessalonians 1, 9 and 10, we wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead,
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Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. That's what biblical salvation is all about.
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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.
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The fierceness of the wrath of God. What a deliverance. What a rescue. God sent his
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Son to save us from his wrath. To put it in clear terms, we're saved by God, from God.
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And then we could say for God, for him and his purposes. We're saved by God, from God.
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On the cross, Jesus bore our sin and God poured out his wrath on him in our place.
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He took the punishment we deserved as he bore our sins in his body on the tree.
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1st Peter 2, 24. Jesus bore the wrath of God on behalf of his people.
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He propitiated. He removed wrath by means of his sacrifice.
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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.
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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.
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You shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins.
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God's wrath is now revealed and will be revealed and yet God in the gospel offers
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Christ as the covering, as the propitiation, as the savior, as the substitute.
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He is the lamb of God who takes away our sin. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
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Hebrews 2, 3 says. The answer to this rhetorical question is clear. If we neglect this great salvation, there will be no escape.
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Indeed, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. A dreadful thing.
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Hebrews 10, 31. So here's the good news. Romans 10, 9 and 10.
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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.
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For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
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For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Call out to him.
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Call out to him now. That's the biblical gospel. To be saved by God from God.
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By means of grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. So how do we sum up the teaching of the
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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.
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But one thing that has helped me is to just define five big words and concepts that we need to get over to people.
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And if you've got a pen and paper and can write this down or put it on a notepad, put it in some form that you can take a look at.
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What I would encourage you to do is work to the point where you could share this in three minutes with someone.
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Here's the five big words. God, man, sin,
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Christ and faith. God, man, sin,
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Christ and faith. Let me try and explain that. When I talk with someone, let's call this gentleman
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Tony. Tony, here's what I need to tell you if you're wanting to understand the true gospel.
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There is a God. Our conscience tells us so. There is a God. And he's made us all in his image.
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Mankind is given this status in creation of being made in the image and likeness of God.
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And yet all mankind has sinned with grieved
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God by our choices, by our words, by our thoughts, by our actions.
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And each of our sins is a treasonous act.
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To act against a righteous ruler is one thing. To act against the righteous ruler of the universe, who has every right to demand perfect obedience from us, is ultimate treason.
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But God is not only this God of righteousness and anger and will justly punish us for our sins.
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He sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has made something called an atonement.
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He went to the cross to bear the sins of all those who would ever believe in him. This Christ lived a perfect life and died this atoning death so that anyone who believes in him, let me walk you through John 3 16.
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God's love for the world. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
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And Tony, if you'll trust in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, God gives us full assurance of salvation because Jesus will always save those who come to him.
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He gives us that promise. How do we come to him? The answer is in repentance and faith.
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Repentance and faith are like two sides of the same coin. Repentance means to change your mind.
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Change your mind about God, about who his son is. Believe in him. Turn away from all you know to be wrong.
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Trust in Christ and his work as our substitute and you'll be saved.
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That's it. I don't think that takes three minutes to say that. Tony, are you ready to call on him?
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I don't believe we necessarily have to lead him in what we call the sinner's prayer. Again, you don't see that in the scripture.
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But allow Tony to cry out and say, come to Christ. Allow him to save.
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Repent of your sin. Trust in him. Jesus save me. I'm so glad that Jesus on the cross didn't lead the criminal in, quote, the sinner's prayer.
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Remember me, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom. That's all he said. I don't believe God is looking for us to walk through a certain prayer.
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It's not a prayer that saves. It's Jesus who saves by means of a prayer. Yes, we are called to proclaim him and cry out to him, but it's not the wording that saves us.
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It's understanding who God is, this triune God, the real God, because any other
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God is a false one. And that's why the God of Mormonism cannot save, because the
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God of Mormonism doesn't exist. God is triune. He's one in essence, three in persons.
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And he's always been God. He's not matured from manhood towards God.
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He's always been God. In the beginning, God, as far back as you can go,
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God was there. And John chapter 1 says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was
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God. In verse 14 of John 1, and that word became flesh. As far back as we can go, the word was already there face to face, pros with God.
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There was an eternal relationship there in the Trinity between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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And this God has said, let us make man in our image and our likeness, knowing that man would sin.
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And God devised a plan even before ever there was a creation to save man.
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What a God of love this reveals. We're just going through these concepts,
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God, man, sin. What sin is? It's a treasonous act to defy him, to say,
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I will do things my way. I will have my right of ownership to myself.
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And God says, I've never given you that right. We do not have that right. But instead of just leaving mankind in darkness, in sin, he sent
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Jesus, the light of the world, and says, what you do with my son really, truly does count, because I'm providing a door of hope.
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And all the way through our Bibles, we see God providing redemption. He did it for Adam and Eve in the garden, providing the covering by means of a slain animal,
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Genesis chapter 3 reveals. And all the way through with Abraham, with Noah, with David, with all the people of God through Old and New Testament alike.
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Abraham, the lamb was slain, the ram caught in the thicket, the lamb that is the
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Passover lamb of Exodus chapter 12, that saved and rescued the people of God from certain death, a huge and ultimate calamity there.
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And Jesus is that Passover lamb. So many pictures of this throughout the Bible. But if we just got just a few minutes with this gentleman named
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Tony. Tony, you know, there's a God, you know, he's made you in his image, your conscience testifies to that.
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And as we walk through the law of God and his commandments, what is clear is you've not loved the
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Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And that's true for you and for me. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.
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We've done our own thing. Doesn't your conscience attest to that? You're not perfect and God's standard is perfection.
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And we're all under sin, the judgment of sin. But God has sent his son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And anyone who calls on him will be saved by his work, who he is and what he's done.
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He went to the cross for sinners. First Timothy says Christ has come into the world to save sinners, not merely try to, but actually do it.
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And he'll save anyone who calls upon him in repentance and faith. Repentance is going one way and then making an about face, turning and going in the complete opposite direction.
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Rather than running from God, we're running to him, saying, God, my only hope is you.
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Being reformed gives some people the idea that we don't do this thing called evangelism. I love evangelizing because that is the means by which
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God saves his elect. Some people say, well, if God is this elect people, then they're going to be saved no matter what, right?
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They're going to be saved, but God not only decrees the ends, which is the salvation of the elect, but he also decrees the means by which they will be saved.
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And that's why there's no confusion in the apostle Paul's mind when he writes Romans 9, what we know of Romans 9, we call it that.
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He just wrote a letter to the Romans, which speaks of God's sovereignty and election, and he follows it up with Romans 10, which is the clear call to get the word out, preach the gospel.
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Yes, there is an elect people, but how shall they hear without a preacher? Do you see that?
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There was no confusion in the apostle Paul's mind whatsoever, putting what we know of Romans 10 right after Romans 9.
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God has an elect people, and he has mercy on whom he will, and he will have them for himself, this elect group.
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But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they've not heard?
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And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
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So as people who would seek to embrace the entire Bible, let's not say
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I prefer chapter 10 to chapter 9, or I prefer chapter 9 to chapter 10. Let's believe and embrace all that chapter 9 and chapter 10 tell us.
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God is sovereign in election, and he calls us to take the gospel out to people. We should get much more in the habit of sharing our faith.
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I want to stir you up, and I want you to be equipped. I want you to have the shoes of the
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Roman soldier of Ephesians 6 prepared for the presentation of the gospel of peace, and I want you to think about having tracks available to hand out to people.
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It's not a week go by that I don't hand tracks to people, either through a drive -thru or people that I meet.
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Someone does a good job for me, I've got a track. It's readily available from Ray Comfort's ministry, a million dollar track.
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There's some great tracks, some fun things he has available, a million dollars. Oftentimes when people do a good job,
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I say thanks a million, and they smile because they see this million dollar track.
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They don't know that there's something on the opposite side that tells them how they've sinned against God and how they can be saved by believing in Christ.
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You can go to livingwaters .com and search their site for this and many other things, but I'm just in the habit of doing this.
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A track is like a little soldier that is there to jump out at any time and help people come to Christ.
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I remember hearing the story, I want to encourage you with this, of a man who was giving his testimony, he was in the meeting, and he said,
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I was converted in a hotel room in Saudi Arabia. I don't live there, I was just visiting there, and I'd had a track in my wallet for three years.
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I'd at various different times gone through my wallet and got rid of things that were superfluous, things
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I no longer needed. I came across this track many times and I think, you know, one day I'll read this, but not now.
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He did this several times over the three years until one day he was in this hotel room in Saudi Arabia, very bored, unable to sleep at night, jet lag was happening, and he took out his wallet and he found this track again.
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He thought, you know, I've had this thing for three years, I'm going to read it, and he read the track. I don't think it was this one, it was something else, and he was converted that very hour.
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Just think, all that time, that track had been available to him, but it's only when it was read that it had the effect on him, and he was converted three years later.
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You and I don't know what the result will be, only eternity might tell us what the result will be of having a track and putting it in someone's hand, but God uses means.
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I want to encourage you and stir you up to share your faith with others. I so believe in tracks,
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I wrote one called The Trial, which goes into the scenario of everyone upon death having the appointment of the courtroom with God, and on what basis could we survive that trial and be put in right standing with God, and it's only through the work of the
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Savior, what he does for us. I'm just going to jump into part of it here, whereby
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Satan has addressed the judge and said this, a good judge, a good
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God, must be a good judge. The facts are clear, you must find this one guilty.
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Your own record in Proverbs 17, 15 states, he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the
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Lord. For you to acquit this one would mean that you are not righteous yourself.
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I must find this one guiltiest charge. I rest my case. The judge then calls upon your defense attorney to address the court.
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Here's what the Lord Jesus Christ says, righteous father, the case made by the prosecution is indeed true.
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I will not dispute the charges made. However, I will submit to this court two pieces of evidence in the defense of my client.
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Exhibit A, the passive obedience of Christ. Let the record show that on Calvary's cross, the sins of this one was transferred to me and I bore the full punishment demanded by your high and holy justice.
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I was wounded for his transgressions, bruised for his iniquities. The chastisement that brought him peace was upon me and by my stripes, he was healed.
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Isaiah 53, 4 and 6. Exhibit B, the active obedience of Christ. Let the record show that I, the second person of the adorable trinity, became a man, was born of a virgin and lived a righteous life on earth, always pleasing you, righteous father.
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I lived the life you demanded in your high and holy law. Just as this one's sins were transferred to me on the cross and I suffered the penalty due to him in his place, so also all the acts of my righteous life were transferred to his account.
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For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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2 Corinthians 5, 21. Righteous father, if you'll indeed check the record, you will see that this man's sins have been paid in full.
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And in fact, the only record concerning this man now is that he lived my life.
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For my life was imputed to his account legally and at your good pleasure.
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For it was decreed that this should happen in the eternal council of the divine trinity before the foundation of the world.
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Then God, the judge, addresses the court. Having checked the eternal records and the validity of exhibits
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A and B, the case made by the defense is both true and satisfactory in this court for the purpose of dismissing all charges made against this man.
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Would the accused please stand? In that my son has borne your punishment in full and has imputed his righteous life to your account,
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I declare you not guilty, but more than that, righteous in the splendid righteousness of my son.
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I can do this because my wrath due to you was borne by my son.
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He has paid for your sins in full. You are justified in my sight forever.
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I am at peace with you. Your sins I will remember no more. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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Romans 5, 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. If salvation depends on the believer's deeds, our salvation is only as secure as our faithfulness.
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But justification is a legal word from the courtroom and for the believer in Christ, it's a past tense event through the person and work of Christ alone.
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Justification, to be justified, means not merely just as if I'd never sinned.
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Do you hear that word justified? Just as if I'd never sinned. It's much more than that. It is that, but it's more than that.
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It's just as if I'd always obeyed. This peace with God is not some temporary ceasefire in hostilities, but is the eternal, immutable, irrevocable standing of the believer with his
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God. I trust that you're encouraged in your faith and feel more confident to share it with others.
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And if that's not the case, take some time, and like you did when you learned to drive, or if perhaps that's still ahead of you, understand this.
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You can do this. You can learn and use those five concepts. I think it's not the only way to do it, but I think that's what
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I've come up with biblically as the way to share our faith. Talk about God, talk about man, talk about sin, talk about Christ, and talk about faith in him.
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It's not faith that saves, but Christ who saves through faith. It's been a delight to guest host this
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Dividing Line, and I trust your heart is stirred to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
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We've talked about a simple way of evangelism today, and I trust that your heart is encouraged.
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Praise the Lord. Be praying for Dr. White on his journey and as he ministers in various parts of the world,
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South Africa, England, and Northern Ireland. God bless you as you walk in the light of his word.