Preaching the Facts of Jesus, is NOT the Gospel

So, today's podcast is understanding the difference between preaching about the gospel, which happens a lot, and actually preaching the gospel.

There are many people who will say, yeah, I go to a church that preaches the gospel because they hear the word from the pulpit, gospel, they hear the word.

But to say the word does not mean you actually gave the truth that is centered in that word.

So what's the difference? So, I'll give an example, and then Justin, I'll let you continue on here.

If someone stands up and they say, we need to preach the gospel, and then they give the facts of Jesus's life, so his virgin birth, his life, miracles, death, resurrection, and they give you all of those facts, and then they even give you the facts of men, the frailty of men, the depravity of man, the necessity of man, man can't believe, that's all great.

And I would say that is a part of the gospel. But if you never get to the thing that sets it apart from every other religion, because right now,

I'll tell you this right now, Catholics, for the most part, are going to believe in the virgin birth, death by resurrection of Jesus Christ.

They're going to believe in that. They're going to believe that Jesus is the great high priest. They're also, in some respects, going to believe that all human beings are sinners.

That doesn't separate you from a Roman Catholic. What separates us from anyone out there, including

Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Catholics, what makes us evangelical is that Jesus Christ's death, birth, and resurrection is presented to humanity, to the sinner, as a free gift of grace with zero requirements, with no actions, nothing on the response of the sinner, other than the grace of God.

Other than that they receive and believe, and even the ability to receive and believe is grace, all is grace, grace, grace.

So, if you preach the facts of Jesus, and you never present the truth of grace, which is the final cap end of the gospel, you actually never preach the gospel, you presented truth, and there's a difference between presenting truth and presenting the gospel, and I know it feels like we're splitting hairs, but Justin, tell us why this is not splitting hairs.

Justin Perdue I'm going to pick up on that word truth that you just threw out there, John. I have observed this many times as well, over the course of a number of years, where guys who are preaching in local church contexts or at conferences or wherever, will get up and get very fired up about the truth.

I mean, I'm talking like spit flying, wiping the sweat off the forehead.

We need to stand for truth and preach the truth and be unashamed of the truth and say the hard thing, and you and I are in complete agreement with that.

We do want to be very precise and stand for the truth, and at the same time, there is, like you just said, this component that is so often missing from this sort of truth proclamation.

You get, like you said, a lot of facts. You get a lot of dealing with the biblical text and a concern for sound exegesis, but we never actually get to what

I would say, and I know you agree, is the point of the entire scripture, that Jesus Christ, the

God -man, God the Son, who took on flesh, came to do for sinful man what sinful man could never do for himself, and he came to fulfill

God's law and atone for man's sin and to accomplish everything necessary for our salvation, and then, like you already alluded to,

John, nothing is left to be done other than to trust Christ, to rest in Him, to look to Him, to hope in Him, to turn, like that repentance piece, that metanoia change of mind piece, is a change of mind about God and myself and about Christ and the way of salvation, and so that's incorporated in faith, but what are we doing?

We're casting ourselves upon the grace of God and Jesus Christ, and so what's missing, most pointedly,

I think, from so many sermons and from so many conference addresses and everything else, is the thrust of the

Bible that's encapsulated so beautifully in, like, Isaiah 55 .1, where God offers, out of His own grace and mercy,

He offers to sinners what we need for free. It costs nothing.

It doesn't require anything of us. Isaiah 55 .1, the

Lord speaks to the prophet, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

That's the invitation, and it's all, like you said, it's all of grace, it's unmerited, you could never earn it, you could never do it, and God says, here it is, in my son, and it's free.