Sharing the Gospel

Transcript

GRM 934
2/27/2005
Sharing the Gospel
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


I want to talk to you about the gospel today. First I want to look at some verses with you and then I want to simply walk through the gospel so that we’re clear and our presentations are as clear as they need to be. Let’s start in John’s gospel and the 16th chapter. We looked at this passage in some detail and if by any chance you weren’t here or have forgotten you may want to get the tape and go back and refresh your mind.

In John 16 we’re in the last night of Christ’s fellowship with His disciples before His crucifixion, they had had the Last Supper together and now He is giving them instructions to prepare them for His imminent betrayal, crucifixion and those events. In John 16:7, but I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you, the Helper being the Holy Spirit. And His coming in His new and unique ministry through the church is dependent upon the death of Christ on the cross, His burial, resurrection and ascension to heaven. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin because they do not believe in Me and concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me. And concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. And as we noted when we studied this passage more fully, this ministry of the Holy Spirit will be carried out in and through those who are the followers of Jesus Christ. This is the focus of the ministry that He will have in and through God’s children, a ministry to the world as the message of Christ is proclaimed.

Back up a few pages to just before the gospel of John, the gospel of Luke and the last chapter of Luke’s gospel, Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24 is recording events that occur after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has suddenly appeared in the midst of His disciples and it’s on this occasion that He tells them in Luke 24:39, see My hands and My feet. It is I Myself, touch Me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. They needed confirmation that it was actually Jesus Christ raised from the dead. And so He offers that proof. Then note what He says in verse 45, then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Up to this point they had still been confused that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, has been crucified. It has troubled their hearts and brought fear to them. Now He helps them understand. He said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day. Now note this, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Been part of the sovereign God’s plan from the beginning that Jesus Christ would come and suffer and die and be raised from the dead, and then that the followers of Jesus Christ would carry the message of His finished work to all the nations of the world.

Turn over to II Corinthians chapter 5, just going toward the back of your Bible a little bit. Back through the gospel of John, Acts, Romans, I Corinthians and then to
II Corinthians chapter 5. We’re going to come to II Corinthians and then we’re going to go backwards in the books of the Bible. This context, Paul has talked about the fact that all of us as God’s children will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, the bema of Christ. II Corinthians 5:10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 11, therefore knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men. The recognition that a prime accountability that He had was that of proclaiming Christ. Paul said that fear of having to give an account before God, before the throne of Christ motivated him.

Look down in verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us, having thus concluded that one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Verse 17, therefore if anyone is in Christ He is a new creature, the old things passed away, behold new things have come. Now note carefully. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Underline that last phrase. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation, He reconciled us to Himself and those who have been reconciled to Him have been given a ministry of reconciliation. Obviously Paul and the other apostles led the way in this, but it’s not limited to them. Those who have experienced the power of God in salvation that has reconciled them to God have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

What is this ministry of reconciliation, this word of reconciliation? It’s the message of verse 19, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. That is the ministry that has been committed to those who have been reconciled. To pass that message on to others, to tell others the truth of how you may be reconciled before God, how you can have your sins forgiven. Verse 20, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This is an awesome passage. Remember Christ promised the Holy Spirit would come, be given to the believers, and that through believers He would convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Paul says we who have been reconciled to God, because we have heard and believed the message concerning Christ, that message now has been entrusted to us. So the end of verse 18, He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. The end of verse 19, He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, what do we do? We are ambassadors for Christ, we represent Him wherever we are, wherever we go. And we beg men to be reconciled to God. We share with them the message of reconciliation. God made the one who knew no sin, who was sinless, to take our place, become sin on our behalf so that we might be cleansed from our sin and become the righteousness of God in Him.

Back up to I Corinthians, just before II Corinthians, I Corinthians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul writes of his experience when he carried the message of reconciliation, the good news concerning Christ. You know the gospel, the good news, ….., the eu on the front, the good message,…… the message, the messenger, the messenger brings the message, the good message of the gospel, the good news. I Corinthians 2:1, and when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. Paul said when I came to Corinth I didn’t come to impress you with my eloquence. I didn’t come to confound you with my wisdom. There was a movement that started to rise in evangelicalism back in the ‘40s, called neoevangelicalism. And one of the prime focuses of neoevangelicalism was we must develop a more impressive way of reaching the world with the gospel. And some of the leaders in that movement thought that we had to develop a Christianity and a message in our Christianity that so confounded the world they would have no choice but to acknowledge that Christianity is the only thing credible. A woefully inadequate understanding of sin. The sad thing, neoevangelicalism has become the theology of the church today. That’s not its only point. But we have determined that we must adjust the message in such a way that the world will find it appealing and credible. You ought to understand that it’s not God’s plan. That is man’s plan in opposition to God’s plan. Here Paul tells us how he carried out God’s plan. When I came to Corinth, a center which greatly admired eloquence and great speech, a center which had great emphasis on wisdom. Paul said I didn’t come with either of those. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came with the message of reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. No great flowery speeches, no great displays of human wisdom and intellect, the simply message of Jesus Christ.

Verse 3, I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. Keep this in mind. We talk about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we use an excuse, I’m just not gifted to do it, I just can’t do that, that’s just not me. Well what makes you think the Apostle Paul just was bold and fearless every place he went? He had a boldness but it wasn’t because he wasn’t afraid. He says when he came to Corinth he was with them in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Why? All you have to do is tell a simple message, the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we know what he meant. If you were going to go someplace tomorrow, go back to work, go to a family meeting, go to a neighbor and you’re going to share with them the gospel. All of a sudden our stomachs have a queasiness about them. But understand when he says there was fear, there was trembling. But you know what? That didn’t keep Paul from doing it. Being an effective witness for Jesus Christ doesn’t mean you’re fearless, it means you do what God would have you do in spite of your fear. Doesn’t mean that you’re so bold that nothing causes you to tremble, it means you do it spite of the fact you’re trembling.

Verse 4, my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Note he contrasts these—was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit in power so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God. We think oh we have to be clever, oh we have to do it in such a way that the world will be impressed, the world will be attracted, the world will have to admit to our superior intellect and wisdom, our cleverness. You know what ends up? People end up trusting in the work of man and not the power of God. The Spirit of God is the one who takes the message of Christ and drives it home to the heart and mind of a person. Now I might be able to overwhelm them with my great speech, my great wisdom, other means I use. But the danger of that is, then they end up trusting in what man has devised. The beauty of the message of Jesus Christ is its absolute simplicity. Paul said I came to the center of wisdom, the center of eloquence, and I made up my mind I would talk about nothing but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the payment for sin. Anybody who is a believer in Jesus Christ could do that. And Paul said I was afraid, I was trembling, I did it and the Corinthians are a testimony to that.

Back up to one more passage—Romans chapter 1. Paul talks about his desire to come to Rome. He’s already shared the gospel in the opening verses of chapter 1, which would have been the opening part of this letter without the verses as he wrote it. He’s talked about the prophecies of the Old Testament that pointed toward Jesus Christ. God gave the message concerning the coming of the Son of God. God spoke, verse 3, concerning His Son, born of a descendent of David according to the flesh, declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness. Here he talks about the work of God the Father, the work of God the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit, and he’s just starting the letter. He tells them about his great desire to come to Rome, and look at verse 14. I am under obligation, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to the foolish. So for my part I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation, to everyone who believe. Stop and think for a moment. Paul said he was a debtor. What did he say in writing to the Corinthians? We have been reconciled to God and He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. You know what that does? That places us under obligation. So he says I have a passion to come and share the gospel in Rome also, for the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. When you get to chapter 10 of this book he’ll say how can they believe in someone of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone to tell them? I’m under obligation, I have a debt. Think about it. We shall all stand before the bema seat of Christ. If you’ve been reconciled to God through faith in Christ, you will stand before the bema seat of Christ. You will give an account of what you have done, of your service for him. And one key area as one who has been reconciled, you have been entrusted with an obligation, a ministry of reconciliation to tell the lost the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul said knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men. And we understand something of that concept. The days and weeks and months can go by and we never speak of Christ to the lost. And some day we will give an account for that. Well I wasn’t eloquent. I didn’t ask you to be eloquent. I didn’t have the wisdom. I didn’t ask you to use your wisdom. Have you been born again by faith in Christ? Have you been reconciled to God? That can’t happen to you if you haven’t heard the message of Jesus Christ. Well if you have then you know what someone else needs to hear and know. You don’t have to impress them with your brilliance, you don’t have to win them over with your many arguments, you don’t have to woo them with this and that. It’s called proclamation evangelism. You just tell them, you beg them, you have a love for them. You don’t speak as one high and lofty, you speak as one who has been redeemed by the grace of God, one who by God’s mercy has been reconciled to God. And now you’re begging others to be reconciled by sharing the message with them and urging them, begging them to believe in Jesus Christ.

I want to walk through a simple gospel presentation with you. Everybody who has been reconciled to God must be ready to share the message of Jesus Christ. It’s an obligation placed on us by God. We will give an account for it. I may not carry out my obligation, that does not free me from my responsibility. It’s an obligation given to me by the fact I am one reconciled to God. I’m going to walk through the Roman Road with you. There are other ways to share the gospel, some of you use the stop tract. Some of you have another pattern. I’m not saying you ought to abandon what you do and use this, but I’m saying every believer ought to be ready at any time. Furthermore, not just ready, but willing to take the initiative. So often we pray oh Lord give me an opportunity and then we wait for the unbeliever to walk up and say, by the way, would you tell me how to get to heaven. Well if somebody did that we’re so tongue tied, by the time we get it out, they’re gone. You know they don’t know they’re lost, they don’t know that we have the answer. How often I’ve prayed, an occasion I’m going to see somebody, Lord open the door. Then I’m reminded, I’m sending you there, the door is open. Why do you think I’m sending you there? Now that doesn’t mean they’ll be responsive, the door may not be open in that way. But I am going there to be what? A light under the bushel? No, I’m to be a light with the bushel off.

I’d encourage you to have a tract, even if you use this in addition to the Roman Road. I think you ought to have something to leave with someone when you’re done. When you share the gospel with someone you ought to be able to say, let me leave you this tract. Take it and read it at your leisure. It will review some of the things we’ve talked about. I’d encourage you to read it before the day is over. I don’t know if I have time. That’s all right, put it in your pocket, you may find time. Who knows? They may go home, empty everything out of their pockets, put it out and lay it on the dresser. Now there’s no threat because you don’t know whether they’re reading it or not. Then go back, I just want to be an instrument that the Spirit of God can use to bring His truth to people. I just don’t necessarily want to just go out and say, here take this and read it sometime. I’m looking for an opportunity to talk to them first and foremost.

So let me walk through with you what we call the Roman Road. It’s simply a matter of using verses out of the book of Romans. If you don’t know any verses of the Bible you can share the message of Christ with someone. Now you must know the message of Christ, don’t misunderstand. Some people say I don’t know enough about the Bible. When you’re sharing the message of Christ, the gospel, you don’t necessarily want to give a display of your biblical wisdom and vast knowledge. You want to keep things focused, you want to share with the person how they can go to heaven.

So we have some questions we like to use. First question, have you come to the place in your religious experience where you know for sure if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven? Now how do we get into this? I don’t know. Talk about something. How are you doing today? You don’t look too good, are you feeling ill? How is the old pumper doing? Well that may be a little too direct. I don’t know. Maybe they have a car that looks nice. You say that’s a nice car, you had it long? You like it? Yeah, you like it? Yeah. You interested in cars? Yeah. That’s great, I like cars, too. I don’t have one that nice but I wouldn’t mind having one that nice. Is that a hobby with you? Well a little bit of a hobby. What do you do? Work here locally? ….. You from the city? ………….. You a religious person, go to church? Well when I’m not going to a car show I sometimes go. My wife likes me to go and I don’t mind going, probably good to go once in a while. Depends. I don’t know what they’ll say. Maybe they’ll say yeah, I go every week. I pick up on that however. What I want to do is lead to the point. Let me ask you a question. And if they’re not religious, that’s all right, the question is the same. I’ll just drop out the word religious. Did you ever think about life after death? Well, not a lot. I guess everybody thinks about it once in a while, but I don’t know that I really even believe…….. Let’s just take the possibility. Did you ever give any thought that if you were to die tonight, where will you spend eternity? Do you know that you would go to heaven? I don’t even know if there is a heaven. Let me ask you a follow-up question. Suppose there is a heaven. Now we don’t want to get sidetracked here because I don’t want to get sidetracked trying to prove to him there’s a heaven. How am I going to do that? How am I going to do that to an unbelieving mind who doesn’t believe the Word of God? He says I don’t even know if there’s a heaven. I say well that’s a logical doubt, but let’s just suppose there is just for our discussion. And you were to die tonight and God were to say to you, why should I let you into heaven. What do you think you’d say? Well, I never thought of it. Or, maybe you’re a religious person and say look I go to church every week, I’ve been baptized, I partake of the sacraments, I go to confession, if they’re Catholic. Or if they’re Protestant they say I keep the Ten Commandments to the best of my ability. I think I’ve been a good father, a good …… What I’m doing here is trying to clarify for them what they’re trusting in. They may not have thought a lot about it. I want to help them solidify in their thinking, I might summarize and say, you really think that doing your best to keep the Ten Commandments and being the best husband and father you can be is probably going to be enough to get you into heaven. Well I think so. It may be their baptism, their church. I want them to know at the beginning and clear in their mind what they’re trusting.

Then say I’d like just to share with you very briefly what the Bible says is necessary for a person to go to heaven. Again …… I don’t believe the Bible, it’s full of errors and I don’t believe in creation, I believe in evolution. That’s fine, there are many people who have those beliefs and I don’t want to talk about those things or try to change your thinking on that. I’d just like to share with you basically what the Bible says about going to heaven, and see what your response is to that. But see we just want to stay on track and that’s good for me because then I don’t have to have answers about all the other things. What this person needs to know is about going to heaven. You know the Bible has a lot of books in it. The beginning book, Genesis, tells how things began. The book of Revelation tells how things end. There’s one book of the Bible that spends a lot of time clarifying what is necessary for a person to go to heaven. Let me just share with you what the Bible says on this matter. The beginning point for all of us, the Bible says, is to understand that we are sinners. Oh we’ve got a problem. Well maybe yes, maybe no. Most people that think rationally know they’re sinners. I have run into rare exceptions, but most people know they’re sinners. That’s why they go church, that’s why they have a guilty conscience and so on. But you know the Bible says the first thing we have to understand is that we are sinners. Listen to what the Bible says in Romans 3:10. I like to have a little Bible and if I come in with this they’re probably going to be a little afraid, it’s like walking in with a sawed off shotgun, you know. Everybody’s defenses are up. So you want to put a little pistol. It’s just as deadly, it’s just not as obvious. And you know I already have my marker in chapter 3, so I don’t have to say, where’s Romans. I’m nervous, I’m trembling, and I just flip that right open. And I also have a cheat sheet in the back, I wrote all the verses right here. There are only 6, so if I lost my way I just sort of peek in the back. I’ve also written in the margin. The first one I’m going to is Romans 3:10 and I write in the margin of that, 3:23. So once I get to 3:10 I know where I’m going next, it says 3:23. It says there is none righteous, 3:10, not even one. So the Bible says the first thing we need to understand if we’re going to go to heaven is we are not righteous as we are. And when it says there is none, not even one who is righteous, that pretty well includes all of us. That means I’m not righteous. There’s not even one, so I can’t be the one exception. There’s not one exception. It means you’re not righteous.

And furthermore he says in Romans 3, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. All sinned. The reason I like to have a New Testament, there’s something concrete for them if they do raise a question about what it says. Also a lot of people think the Bible is hard to understand. They say well everybody has their own interpretation. I don’t want to go down that road either because there are a lot of passages people may have disagreements over. And I don’t want them to come up with one for me because it may be one I don’t have a good answer for at the time. And besides I don’t them to get confused I know what they need. You know it’s like my going to heart doctor because I’m on the verge of a heart attack and I want to talk about the cramp I got in my little toe. And I keep trying to take the conversation to the cramp in my little toe and he knows we have to talk about my heart. So I know what he needs to hear, so I want to keep it on track. So if I have my Bible here and he says everybody has their own interpretation, I can say well it says there is none righteous, not even one. There may be parts of the Bible that are hard to understand, but that’s pretty simple, isn’t it? And it says all have sinned, well all means all, just like none means none, and have sinned. What is sin? And I think we have some verses I’ve added on here. I wouldn’t necessarily run to these, but I might have them in my mind so I could talk to him about it if there’s a question about sin. Most people have a sense of sin and guilt. If they go to church at all they have a sense, that’s why they’re going usually. Roman Catholics are great, they have a sense of sin, they go to confession. They have these things built in that have to be done with sin, have to deal with sin. Most Protestants have some concept of sin. I remember sharing the gospel with a 90-year-old lady who was in the hospital. I just got to this point and she says oh I know I’m a sinner, there’s no doubt about that I’m a sinner. And she did get saved that day. When you start out like that you have a running start.

But if they have a doubt…….what is sin. People today have suppressed the idea of sin. Well the Bible says, and I know it’s I John 3:4, but I don’t have to go into…….. You know the Bible says that sin is lawlessness, it’s rebelling against God, it’s breaking God’s law, it’s going contrary to what God requires of us. But you know the Bible also says that the one who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, it’s sin to him also. So sin is not only overtly violating what God has said, there’s a ……just not doing what God told me to do. I mean we understand that. We have a law in our country that says you must pay your income taxes. Well I just ignore it. I’m guilty for not doing what I knew I should do. I’m just guilty of an offense in breaking the law as if I went out and broke the speed limit or robbed a store. Both are offenses for which I am accountable. So sin basically is rebellion or disobedience toward God. Man is not righteous in every area of his life and so we are guilty before God.

Usually this first point is not overwhelming. Everyone realizes they haven’t been the perfect husband. Some person might say well look I don’t think I’m that bad. I’m not talking about your being that bad, I’m just talking about that you do acknowledge your sin. If I talk to your wife, would she say you’re a perfect husband who has never lost his temper, has always done every act of kindness you should do? Well, I’m not perfect, I’m just not that bad. Okay that’s all right. People understand we’re all sinners.

Now the next point is the crucial one. Most people will admit they’re sinners, the problem is most people don’t understand what that means. Of course we’re all sinners, there’s nobody perfect. What I want you to understand next what the Bible says the penalty for our sin is. What does it mean to be a sinner? And in Romans 5:12 God tells us, therefore just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men. For all have sinned. We have a pattern here. Sin, man, the world. Here the Bible tells us how sin came into the world. First man rebelled against God and that brought sin into the world. Well I don’t know that I believe that account of Adam and Eve. That’s fine, I’m not going to get into the argument over that, either, at this point. It is not necessary for us to resolve all the questions about that right now, but the Bible does explain how sin got into the world. We look around the world, the world could be a miserable place. There are wars and murders and crimes being created all over the world. We may not accept this explanation, but it is one, and the fact of the matter is there is sin in the world. And the Bible tells us it got into the world when the first man rebelled against God, and then death came into the world as a result of sin. Dead came through sin into the world, so the Bible tells us that when sin came into the world, death came into the world. Death is connected to sin. Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin is death. God says here’s what man is paying for his sin, it’s death. Now I want to explain here what death involves. When you talk about death to people, they think of physical death only. I might say you know it’s important for us to understand what death is. The Bible tells us there really are 3 kinds of death. Physical death is the most obvious. You know what the Bible says happens when a person dies physically. Says their spirit, they as a person leave their body. James 2:26, the body without the spirit is dead. So when the Bible talks about death, it’s not speaking of ceasing to exist, of annihilation. You know most people think there is something after this life.

I was watching a program on TV, a friend had died, an acquaintance. And these people were talking about his death and they say well we know he’s up there looking down on us. I’m sure he’s smiling as he sees what we’re doing. You know the first reaction might be to say that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. But you know it’s also an opportunity. You know what, you’re right. That person didn’t cease to exist when they died. I want to pick up on the point we can develop. They’re not looking down on us smiling, but I can pick up with you’re right, death isn’t the end of everything. So the Bible does say that when we die physically you as a person will leave your body, you will be separated from your body. That’s what physical death is, separation of a person from their body. But you know the Bible says there is another kind of death, it’s called spiritual death. It’s separation of a person from God. Ephesians chapter 2 says we were dead in our trespasses and sins, so even though we’re alive physically, we are dead. Remember what the idea in death is? Separation. We are separated from God because of our sin. Then the Bible says there is a third kind of death which is eternal death, the second death. That is separation from God for eternity. Someone separated from God for eternity will be in hell.

Now this is the dilemma we have. The Bible says the penalty for your sin is death. And that includes not only dying physically, but being separated from God in this life and separated from Him in hell for all eternity. The problem we have to resolve is, how can I pay that penalty and not be separated from God in hell forever. Well I can go back to what they said, they said well I’ve been baptized and I partake of the sacraments, I try to keep the Ten Commandments. I can go back to that, you know the penalty for our sin is not being baptized, the penalty for our sin is not partaking of the sacraments, the penalty for our sin is not keeping the Ten Commandments. The penalty is death, which includes separation from God for eternity in hell. How are we going to pay that penalty here, have that penalty paid? We are in a hopeless predicament.

But God has intervened and so the Bible tells us in Romans 5:8, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You know we know that God is a God of love and we want to have that concept, too. They don’t have a concept of the righteousness of God, but they like to think of Him as a God of love. And Romans 5:8 says God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. You know God says you were in a hopeless predicament, you can’t do anything for yourself. But I’m a God of love, I’m going to intervene, and I’m going to pay your penalty for you. I’m going to have my Son leave heaven, come and be born into the human race, suffer and die by being crucified on a cross so that He can pay the penalty for your sin. Now how can He pay the penalty for everyone? Well it’s the Son of God, He is a man, but He is also God. So in His dying on the cross He can pay the penalty for the sins of everyone.

But there is one final thing we must understand, the Bible says. You know it’s as though I came to the city of Lincoln and I’m a multibillionaire and I say I’m going to put enough money in the bank here in Lincoln to pay everybody’s debts. And everybody who is willing to have me pay their debts can go to the bank and sign on the bottom line and their debt will be paid. But anyone who doesn’t come and sign, their debt won’t be paid. And I’ve put enough in for everybody, but you must respond and receive the gift. And in Romans 10:9-10 God say, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness. You see what you have to do, you have to believe in your heart the truth that we’ve just talked about, that you are a sinner condemned by God to hell. But His Son, Jesus Christ, came and died on the cross and was raised from the dead to pay the penalty for your sin. And if you will trust in Him alone as your Savior, God says you will be saved and then you can confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You are revealing with your mouth what is in your heart.

We’ve walked through the simple steps of the gospel, right? Anybody can do that, I can do it as fast as I need to, I can elaborate if I have to. But that’s it. I might ask him, does this make sense to you? Is it clear? Well I don’t know that I believe that. But it is clear to you, this is what the Bible says. If you’re going to go to heaven, you understand, this is what God says in the Bible you will have to do. Well I understand that’s what we read in the Bible, but I don’t necessarily believe it. I can understand that. You are in the place, now, of having to make a choice. You understand the choice is between two options. The penalty for your sin will be paid. God is a sovereign, holy, righteous judge, He just cannot pass over the penalty. And it would be foolish to say I’m going to take my chances when I get to court. The judge has already spoken, you’re guilty. You are condemned. When you stand before Him it will just be for sentencing, the outcome is already determined. You don’t want to bet on yesterday’s game, the outcome is settled. So your penalty for your sin will be paid. Either you will pay it and that will mean you will continue to be separated from God in this life, you will experience physical death and you will go out into the eternal sufferings of hell and then there will be no hope. Or you can respond to the love of God that He demonstrated by having His Son leave heaven and become a man so that as the God/Man He could die on the cross and pay the penalty for your sin.

Now again I don’t want to slam doors. This might be somebody I work with, this may be a neighbor, this may be a family member. I want to beg them, as Paul said, to be reconciled to God. So I want them to know, but I don’t want them going away saying we could never talk about it again because I’m offended they didn’t “buy,” so to speak. You know I want them to know, I would love for you to trust the Savior now. Is there any reason you wouldn’t want to receive the free gift of life that God has provided in Christ. I just don’t think I’m ready. Well I can’t make you do what you’re not ready to do. But you understand God gives you an opportunity now, that opportunity may or may not present itself. Let me give you a copy of a little tract that will go over what we’ve talked about. Put it in your pocket, take it, read it sometime, maybe tonight before you go to bed, maybe later this afternoon. Just read through it, it’ll just review what we talked about. Consider carefully, where will you spend eternity? I might ask them, would you mind if I had a word of prayer with you? Depends on the situation, and I can pray for them again. Lord, thank you for the opportunity we’ve had to talk about your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, that your Word is clear, that we are sinners and we deserve an eternal hell, but you are a God of such great love you had your Son die for us. And now we have the gift of life offered freely, if we will but turn from our sin and place our faith in your Son. Thank you for the privilege I’ve had to talk to so-and-so here, use his name. I pray that you’ll help him as he thinks about these things. Clarify his thinking, help him to see and understand the urgency of his situation. And commit him to the Lord in prayer. You might say, thank you for the privilege of talking about it. I’ll be praying for you and I hope that you’ll get to trust Christ. I don’t know, may come back. You know there are people I see again that have opportunity, maybe someone I see regularly who through contact. That doesn’t mean I’m going to get on him and he’ll say oh no I have to hide, here he comes. You know the next time I see him we may not talk about it. I want to be sensitive even if he says you know I read that little tract you gave me or that little booklet. Obviously the door is open. If I see him I don’t want to make him uncomfortable. I might just remark, I mentioned the car example. I might say how does the car run? Some day you’ll have to give me a ride in that, and go on. And that takes the pressure off. He doesn’t have to be afraid, oh every time I see him he’s going to be after me. But that doesn’t mean sometime down the road I might ask, did you ever think anymore about what we talked about, about heaven. Did you get a chance to read that little tract? No, I forgot all about it. I hope you will give it some thought. You know there is nothing more important than knowing where you’re going to spend eternity. So I have opportunity to bring it up, but I can’t beat on him, I can’t make him trust the living God. But I can give him the opportunity.

We were in Romans 10, and it’s Romans 10 that tells us faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. That’s why he talks about the feet of those who bring the gospel, their beautiful feet, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring these good tidings.

Now think about how many people we come in contact through the week. And we will give an account to God for the obligation, the debt that has been placed upon us to share the message of reconciliation that someone shared with us. We must be ready. I must be more than ready, I must take the initiative. I’m going to talk to people who don’t know they’re lost and on their way to hell. I’m going to talk to people who don’t they’re desperately sick. I’m talking to people who are without hope in the world. I can’t wait for them to bring it up. I want to be looking for opportunities, I want to be guiding the conversation. We can talk endlessly about the mundane things of this life. Think about how many people you talked with this week that were unbelievers, and you talked about a lot of mundane things. Did it ever cross your mind to bring up the gospel? Another good reason to have a tract and a Bible with you. It’s a constant reminder. What’s that bulge in my pocket. Oh, I should be talking.

Do we know the fear of the Lord? I’m going to give an account, and what an honor to be let loose in the world today, having experienced the reconciliation to God through faith in Christ because someone shared the message. And now God says now you have the debt, go and tell someone else. Sometime you’ll do it like Paul did, in weakness, in fear, in trembling. But that’s all right, the power of the gospel does not depend upon your courage. It depends upon the clarity of the message and the work of the Holy Spirit. And really I don’t even need to know one verse by memory, because I have my marker in the right place. And I have that verse marked, 3:10, there I am. And I can write in the margin, 3:23, and if I fall back I have it in the back. I’m ready to go, I’m armed, all I need is someone to talk to.

Let me encourage you two things, and then we’re done. Practice. What you ought to do is practice so that it’s the most natural thing in the world for you to do this, walk through this procedure, if this is the one you’re going to use. If you’re going to use the tract alone, use the tract, practice it so much it’s just the natural thing for you to do. The question, have you come to the place in your life where you know for sure if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven. Well I can’t be thinking, how does that go—have you come, well you know I had a question to ask and I can’t quite remember how it goes. I have to be ready, and it’s got to be natural. Then the follow-up. Let me ask you a second question. Suppose you were to die tonight, I realize this is just hypothetical, but suppose you were to die tonight and you’re standing at the gate of heaven and God says to you, why should I let you into heaven? What would your response be? I know that’s not the way it is, as far as ……., but this is hypothetical. What I want to do is clarify, because in their response to that they’re going to tell me what they’re trusting, what they’re hoping is going to be sufficient to get them into heaven. And it’s not for my benefit primarily, because as a believer I know what you know. As one who has been reconciled, we all trust in our own works. I want to be clear to them that this is a matter of significance. They ought to know what they are trusting in. So I’m helping clarify it for them.

So you’re trusting in the Ten Commandments and being basically a good person, that that will be sufficient to get you into heaven. Let me just share with you, if I could, just briefly what God says in the Bible is necessary for going to heaven. You know there is a book that God has focused on heaven specifically. You know there are other places we could go, but the book of Genesis is about the beginnings, the book of Revelation about the endings and the book of Romans does unfold this, so I want to limit it to one book. And it helps me keep on track because we've already determined the one thing we’re going to talk about. And they may get off track and say you know I had some friends and he claimed to go to church and talk about heaven and he ended up leaving his wife and doing all that. But you know those are sad things and some things are hard to understand, but let’s not lose track of what our focus is. We want to find out what God says in His Word is necessary if we’re going to go to heaven. I want to keep pulling it back to this, back to this. You know like the doctor. I may keep saying, you know that pain, I could walk better if I didn’t have that pain in my little toe. He has to keep pulling it back and say, Gil you know, let’s stay on track here and talk about your heart. We get your heart fixed, I think we can take care of the toe. Well my toe is bothering more than my heart, I don’t have any pain in my heart, I have a pain in my toe. Yes, but your real problem is your heart. I have to keep it on track. Part of the problem we have in witnessing, we think we’ll open a door to talk about something and the next thing they’ve run us all over creation and we think I couldn’t even answer half his questions. Don’t try. Be like Paul. I didn’t come to you with a display of wisdom. I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We’re going to talk about one thing, and we’re going to talk about this from beginning to end. Because let’s face it, if he trusts in Christ as His Savior, the other issues he has about the Bible will dissolve. Doesn’t mean he’ll know everything, but the real problem is his hostility toward God and his hostility toward the Word of God and he comes to hear about the Savior and trust Him. So we present the truth of Christ.
Let me encourage you to practice. Up to this very day I’ll go in and close myself in a room, sit at my desk and talk out loud, walk through this. I have an imaginary person sitting in that chair, not specific people, but I imagine sometimes it’s a person who may be a university professor, sometimes it’s a person who stops after work. And I’m just talking out loud, not in my mind, out loud. Because I want to hear myself asking them the question, have you come to the point in your life, in your religious experience where you know for sure if you died tonight you’d go to heaven? Well suppose you were to die tonight, let’s just take a hypothetical case, and you were standing at the gates of heaven and God said to you, why should I let you in to my heaven. What do you think you’d say? I don’t have any idea. That would be a bad spot to be in, wouldn’t it. If you tell God you don’t have any idea He might say I don’t think I want you here. Then what are you going to do? I just want to keep going over this in my mind so that I know it backward and forward. You know I go to the doctor I want him to know backward and forward what he’s talking about. I want him to know where we have to go. I don’t want to tell him, I don’t even say well don’t you think if you open me up here and went in this way it would be better. What do I know about it? Doesn’t mean I won’t tell him, but I want him to say no, that’s not good for this reason. So when you’re sharing, know where you want to go. Practice, practice, practice. Then decide, twice this week I’m going to share this with somebody. If you don’t have any other reason, tell them your goofy preacher presented something to us and he said go out and try it with someone who will give you a chance to share it, and give an idea what they think. So he wants me to walk through this, it will only take a few minutes. I’d like you to listen and tell me what you think. And you say, that’s deceitful. No it’s not. You ought to know. If you bumbled around and couldn’t get through it, he’ll tell you, I didn’t have any idea what we were talking about. So yeah you do. But say could I go through this with you, it’ll take a few minutes, let me practice on you. And you tell me what you think, how I did. Fine. But do it. Go home and practice on each other and then go out and share it.

You know this is amazing to me, this is the gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. You know there is no other way for a person to get saved on the face of the earth, but by hearing the simple message we’ve gone through and believing it. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the power of the gospel. Thank you that Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth so that He might be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thank you that in His body on the cross He paid the penalty for our sins. Thank you, Lord, that we’ve experienced reconciliation because in your grace somebody shared the message of Christ with us. Through faith in Christ we were reconciled to you. And now we have been made debtors to the gospel. We have been given the obligation of carrying out the ministry of reconciliation, which is of the greatest honor, the greatest privilege to share with others who are like we once were—lost and without hope in the world. But we can share with them the simple message of Jesus Christ. Lord, may we do it even in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Lord, may we share this message with family and friends, coworkers and strangers, that the Spirit of God in your grace might carry the message of Christ to hearts and turn them from their sin to the Savior. Use our testimony for your honor and glory in these days we pray. In Christ’s name, Amen.