GOSPEL-TRUE
There was no
“easy believism” in Paul's presentation of the Gospel. Decision was to be
accompanied and followed by devotion. Jesus Christ IS Lord and, therefore, MUST
be Lord in our lives.
Avoid a
sugared Gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek that Gospel which rips up
and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the Gospel
that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let
it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the
Lord to let his Gospel soak into your soul.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 48.538.
I do not
believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the law. The law
is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's
heart unless you first send the needle of the law to make way for it. If men do
not understand the law, they will not feel that they are sinners. And if they
are not consciously sinners, they will never value the sin offering. There is
no healing a man till the law has wounded him, no making him alive till the law
has slain him.
C.H. Spurgeon
I do not
believe that we can preach the gospel if we do not preach justification by
faith, without works. Nor unless we preach the sovereignty of
God in the dispensation of grace. Nor unless we exalt
the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah.
Nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the particular
redemption which Christ made for His elect and chosen people. Nor can I
comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called.
C.H. Spurgeon
If one’s greatest
problem is loneliness, the good news is that Jesus is a reliable friend. If the
big problem is anxiety, Jesus will calm us down. Jesus is the glue that holds
our marriages and families together, gives us purpose for us to strive toward,
wisdom for daily life. And there are half-truths in all of these pleas, but
they never really bring hearers face to face with their real problem: that they
stand naked and ashamed before a holy God and can only be acceptably clothed in
His presence by being clothed, head to toe, in
Christ’s righteousness.
Michael Horton
Joel Osteen and the Glory Story: A Case
Study, 2007, Westminster Seminary California.
Today, the
pressure to fill auditoriums and services has driven many pastors to place the
felt needs, or tastes, of the people above their duty to Christ. On every hand
we hear of the Gospel being molded into a non-confrontative
message intended to meet felt needs and impress the sinful heart. And, by most
standards, this new philosophy of church life is working, as more and more
auditoriums are filled with people hungry for a message that will affirm that
they are actually on fairly good terms with the Almighty. But the biblical
message is the message of the cross. It cuts right across the grain of the
modern age's preoccupation with pride, tearing down the façade and exposing the
wretchedness of the human heart… Unfortunately, while the modern “un-gospel”
may fill seats, it is the true gospel of sin and grace that is “the power of
God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16).
David W. Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 46.
Paul’s claim
[was] that the message he preached was the authentic gospel of Christ. It is
this: two things on which Paul pre-eminently insisted – that salvation was
provided by God’s grace and that faith was the means by which men appropriated
it.
F.F. Bruce
Paul – Apostle of the Heart Set Free,
Eerdmans, 1977, p. 102, www.eerdmans.com.
Three main
tendencies that can draw our hearts away from the centrality of the
gospel:
1.
Legalism, which means basing our relationship
with God on our performance.
2.
Condemnation, which means being more focused on
our sin than on God’s grace.
3.
Subjectivism, which means basing our view of God on
our changing feelings and emotions.
C.J. Mahaney
The Cross Centered Life, 2002, Sovereign
Grace Ministries, p. 22-23. Used by
permission of Multnomah Publishers, Inc.
Excerpts may not be reproduced without prior written consent of
Multnomah Publishers, Inc.
For the
gospel does not expressly demand works of our own by which
we become righteous and are saved; indeed it condemns such works. Rather the
gospel demands faith in Christ: that He has overcome for us sin, death, and
hell, and thus gives us righteousness, life, and salvation not through our
works, but through His own works, death, and suffering, in order that we may
avail ourselves of His death and victory as though we has done it ourselves.
Martin Luther
Preface to the New Testament.
Christ is
never fully valued, until sin is clearly seen. We must know the depth and
malignity of our disease, in order to appreciate the great Physician.
The Gospel of Luke, 1858.
A ministry
which is weak and flabby on the subject of sin is a useless ministry. A
preaching ministry that does not result in conviction of sin is useless. If it
does not wound, how can it heal? The good news is only for sinners.
Erroll
Hulse
Who Are the Puritans? Evangelical Press, p.
172.
A gospel that
does not confront sin is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
John MacArthur
Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 236.
This, then, is the gospel we are to proclaim: That Jesus
Christ, who is God incarnate, humbled Himself to die on our behalf. Thus He
became the sinless sacrifice to pay the penalty of our guilt. He rose from the
dead to declare with power that He is Lord over all, and He offers eternal life
freely to sinners who will surrender to Him in humble, repentant faith. This
gospel promises nothing to the haughty rebel, but for broken, penitent sinners,
it graciously offers everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter
1:3).
John MacArthur
The Gospel According to Jesus, © John MacArthur, 1988, p. 210.
A
preaching of the gospel that calls men and women to accept Jesus as their
Savior but does not make it clear that discipleship means a commitment to a
vision of society radically different from that which controls our public life
today must be condemned as false.
Lesslie
Newbigin
Foolishness to the Greeks, p. 132.
The nature of
Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He
announces a Savior from Hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so
many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake
of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and
worldliness.
A.W. Pink
We are not
encouraged to forsake our sin by having our senses amused or our preferences
coddled. The Gospel is inherently and irreducibly confrontational. It cuts
against our perceived righteousness and self-sufficiency, demanding that we
forsake cherished sin and trust in someone else to justify us. Entertainment is
therefore a problematic medium for communicating the Gospel, because it nearly
always obscures the most difficult aspects of it – the cost of repentance, the
cross of discipleship, the narrowness of the Way. Some will disagree, arguing
that drama can give unbelievers a helpful visual image of the Gospel. But we
have already been given such visual images. They are the ordinances of baptism
and the Lord’s Supper and the transformed lives of our Christian brothers and
sisters.
Mark
Dever and Paul Alexander
Doing Responsible Evangelism, taken from The
Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers,
Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 55, www.crosswaybooks.org.
So what are
the essentials of [the Gospel]? We can sum them up in four words: God, man,
Christ, and response.
1.
God is our holy Creator and righteous Judge. He created us
to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever (Gen. 2:7, 16-17; 18:25; Matt. 25:31-33).
2.
But
mankind has rebelled against God by
sinning against His holy character and law (Gen. 3:1-7). We’ve all participated
in this sinful rebellion, both in Adam as our representative head and in our
own individual actions (1 Kings 8:46; Rom. 3:23; 5:12, 19; Eph. 2:1-3). As a
result, we have alienated ourselves from God and have exposed ourselves to His
righteous wrath, which will banish us eternally to hell if we are not forgiven
(Eph. 2:12; John 3:36; Rom. 1:18; Matt. 13:50).
3.
But
God sent Jesus Christ, fully God and
fully man, to die the death that we deserved for our sins – the righteous for
the unrighteous – so that God might both punish our sin in Christ and forgive
it in us (John 1:14; Rom. 3:21-26; 5;6-8; Eph. 2:4-6).
4.
The
only saving response to this Good
News is repentance and belief (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 3:7-9; John
20:31). We must repent of our sins (turn from them and to God) and believe in
Jesus Christ for forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation to God.
Mark Dever and Paul
Alexander
Doing
Responsible Evangelism, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway
Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 51-52, www.crosswaybooks.org.
Here’s the
[Gospel] message in four parts:
1.
God,
who is perfectly holy, just, and good, created us to display His glorious
character and rule.
2.
We
rebelled, choosing to display our own glory and follow our own rule, earning
God’s just wrath against such sin.
3.
God
sent His Son to reestablish God’s rule by living the perfect God-imaging life,
dying on the cross to pay the penalty for God’s wrath against sin, and rising
in victory over sin and death.
4.
We
are now called to repent of our sinful self-rule, confess Jesus as Lord, put
our trust wholly in His finished work on the cross, and live the obedient and
free life He means for us to live.
Jonathan Leeman
Reverberation,
Moody Publishers, 2011, p. 195.
The
Gospel…is good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God – about what He is and
what He did. He is the Word “made flesh” (Jn. 1:14). It is He whom the Father
sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin” (Rom 8:3). He was lifted up
(Jn. 12:32) and crucified – He died – He was buried – He rose again on the
third day – He went up into heaven and sat down on the Father’s right hand (Eph
1:20) – He ever lives to make intercession for us (Rom 8:34). In these simple
facts, which a child can understand, is contained the glorious Gospel of the
blessed God.
Horatius Bonar
Christ
is All, Preface, 1855.
We
must first be careful to present the gospel clearly – God, man, Christ, response.
God is our holy Creator and righteous Judge. All people have sinned against
Him, both in Adam as our corporate representative, and in our own lives
individually. That sin deserves eternal death – separation from God in Hell.
But God sent Jesus Christ to die the death we deserved for our sin and
reconcile us to Him. And He requires that we repent of our sins – turn away
from them – and believe in Jesus Christ’s divine righteousness and substitutionary sacrifice.
When we do – and only then – God credits us with Christ’s righteousness,
and begins to bring our character into conformity with His holiness.
Paul Alexander
Altar Call Evangelism, ©9Marks. Website: www.9Marks.org. Email: info@9marks.org. Toll
Free: (888) 543-1030.
No
man is interested in a piece of good news unless he has the consciousness of
needing it; no man is interested in an offer of salvation unless he knows that
there is something from which he needs to be saved. It is quite useless to ask
a man to adopt the Christian view of the gospel unless he first has the
Christian view of sin.
J. Gresham Machen
God Transcendent, 1949.
The gospel offer of Christ includes all His offices, and
gospel faith just so receives Him; to submit to Him, as well as to be redeemed
by Him; to imitate Him in the holiness of His life, as well as to reap the
purchases and fruits of His death. It must be an entire receiving of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
John Flavel
Works of John Flavel.
What are the
essential components of the gospel?
1.
The character of God. The Bible describes God as holy (Ps.
99:3, 5, 9; Rev. 4:8), righteous (Ps. 11:7), just (2 Thess. 1:6), and perfect
(Matt. 5:48). He hates sin and has nothing to do with it. In fact, He pours out
His justified wrath on sin (Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6).
2.
The character and nature of man. At the same time, the Bible describes
man as having a sinful nature (Ps. 51:5), hopelessly separated from God. We are
unable to please God in and of ourselves (Rom. 8:8). We have all sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We cannot save ourselves, and we
deserve the wrath of God (Rom. 2:5).
3.
God’s love for man. Yet despite our sinful ways, God has
shown His great love for us (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8). In His mercy, He sent His
Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. On the cross Christ paid the
full penalty for our sins and became the object of God’s wrath (2 Cor. 5:21).
4.
Man’s response to God. If we confess and turn away from our
sins and believe in Jesus Christ and the work He did for us on the cross, we
can be saved (Mark 1:15; Rom. 10:9). If we possess faith to trust in God and
the love He showed us through Jesus Christ, we are genuine Christians. We are justified
– we receive forgiveness of our sins and are credited with Christ’s
righteousness, Jesus’ life of perfect obedience (Rom. 3:24-27). In short, God
restores our relationship with Him and adopts us into His family because of His
grace and not because of anything we do (Gal. 2:16; Titus 3:5).
Karl Graustein
Growing Up Christian, P&R, 2005, p. 41-42. Used by Permission.