The Gospel

I am trying to put together a complete representation of the Gospel that can be printed and given to people who God may be calling. I would love to gather input from my readers on this project. The empty parenthesis will eventually have scripture references.

Here is what I have so far:

Are you one of God's chosen?

Ephesians 1:4-5 and Romans 8:28-30 clearly teach that God has already chosen those who are destined to live with Him for eternity. The question is who has God chosen?

How do you know if God has chosen you?

The bad news!

By one man sin entered the world ()and every person since that day is fatally infected by sin. Sin is any act that defies God's commands, but more importantly, sin is what and who we are. Every single human person has sinned(Romans 3:23). God demands nothing less than death as payment for sin(). As sinners, we do not posses the capability to change what we are. Can a blade of grass will itself to become an ant? Can an ant will itself to become human? Can a sinner will himself to become righteous? The answer to all three is indisputably no! There has never been a blade of grass that became an ant, there has never been an ant that became human and there has never been a human that made himself righteous. We all deserve death and eternal punishment as the rite consequence of our very nature, and sadly, most of us will().

The good news!

A relatively small number will be called out of sin() and made to be new creatures(). Just as, by one man, sin entered the world, by one man, sin is conquered()! You see, God loves His chosen so much that He gave His only Son, the only sinless human, to pay the cost of our sin. Jesus' death is the only death that fully satisfies the cost of sin. Jesus became sin for us so that he could die in our place! If Jesus died and stayed in the grave, we would have no assurance that our debt had been paid, but Jesus did not stay in the grave, he truly conquered death and was raised out of the grave back to life and because of this, we know that our debt is paid. Jesus now gives his righteousness to those who receive the truth about him(). God's chosen are saved only by God's grace through faith, not by good works so that no one can brag about his own righteousness(Ephesians 2:8-9).W

When we are chosen by God, in Jesus, we become a new creature(). The sinner becomes righteous and his life begins to reflect that change. None of us know exactly who God's chosen are until they begin to live for Jesus.

BUT!

YOU can determine if you are living for Jesus by analyzing your own habits and priorities. Do you truly have a desire to serve God, OR do you pretend to live for God so that you gain the acceptance of others?

If your habits and priorities don't reflect a changed person, it does not necessarily mean that you are not “chosen” it only means that you have not yet understood and believed the truth about Jesus YET. Your damnation isn't sure until you leave this life through death, for only then is your chance to repent gone.

Where will you go when you die?

All you have to do is believe that Jesus is God(), died, rose again, and paid the price for our sin.

If you truly believe, then you are guaranteed to become a new person with new habits and priorities, and a place in heaven with God.

If you pretend to believe, you may try to live a new life, but without God's choosing, you will eventually follow the masses to eternal death and punishment in hell.

If you are one of God's chosen you can be sure that you will eventually believe!

Believe on Jesus today and start your new life!

David

Thanks to Pastor Jay for allowing me to post the following information.

David

John tells you how you can know you are saved and how you can be assured of your salvation. He writes in 1 Jn. 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.” What are the “These things” that John is talking about? Look up the verses below and see if you have assurance of salvation.

Gives you assurance you are not saved:

1:6 Say you have fellowship and yet walk in darkness
1:8 If you say you have no sin and are self deluded
1:10 if you say you have no sin which is as to make Jesus a liar
2:4 If we do not obey God's commands
2:9,11 If we hate our brother
2:15 if we love the world
2:19 If we depart from the Saints
2:22-23 If we deny Jesus is the Christ
3:8 If we practice sin
3:10 If we do not practice righteousness
3:15 If we hate our brother
3:17 If we are stingy, selfish, and greedy
4:5 If we speak like the world
4:8 If we do not love
4:20 If we do not love other believers
5:10 If we do not believe in the Son of God
5:12 If we do not have the Son

Gives you assurance you are saved

1:7 If we walk in the light and are in the light
1:9 If we confess our sins
2:3 If we keep His commands
2:5 If we keep His Word
2:10 If we love our brother
2:17 If we do the will of the father
2:19 If we do not go apostate
2:23 If we confess Jesus Christ
3:7 If we practice Righteousness
3:9 If we don't practice sin
3:16 If we sacrifice for others
3:18-19 If we love with deed and truth
3:21 If our conscience is clean
3:24 If we keep His commandments
4:6 If we listen to the Apostles
4:7 If we love the brethren
4:13-19 If we confess Jesus Christ
5:12 If we have Jesus Christ
5:12 If ye have eternal life

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13

Quote (Phil Johnson, Pyromaniacs blog 6-6-08)

"Some readers may be thinking, But no evangelical really believes political activism is a proper replacement for the gospel. Would anyone actually advocate the suppression of the gospel in favor of political lobbying? Actually, people do it all the time. There are Christian radio broadcasters who rarely talk about anything other than political controversy. Often their topics as well as the arguments they use are hardly any different from what you'd hear Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity say. Some of the best-known broadcasters in Christian radio James Dobson, Chuck Colson fit that profile. You'll never hear them stress justification by faith, because Roman Catholic support is essential to the political coalition they hope to build, and they can't afford to alienate that segment of their audience. You're not likely to hear them stress the exclusivity of Christ or the absolute necessity of faith in Christ, either, because that would offend their Jewish allies. In practice, what they are saying when they do that is that they believe it's more vital to achieve a political and legislative solution to America's moral crisis than it is to proclaim the gospel clearly."(Phil Johnson)

WORDS

Have you ever been one to care much about the proper use of language. I quite regularly use slang, and I often use words that have a cultural meaning but if I am quite honest with myself, I don't know the real meaning of some of those words.

Take for instance, "vanity", my sister had a nice vanity in her room as a young girl. The vanity had a mirror so that she could double check her appearance.

Webster redirects me to the word "vain" in order to define vanity. "Vain" means, "unsatisfying; fruitless, unavailing, ineffectual;empty, worthless; conceited; showy".


With all those possibilities, how can I possibly understand what it means to take the Lord's name in vain? The Hebrew word for "vain" in Exodus 20:7 is "shav" which means ruin; guile; idolatry. It seems to me that none of the definitions of "shav" are to be well translated by our modern day understanding of "vain". We teach our children NOT to say "Oh my God!" why? What act of ruin, guile, or idolatry does that phrase commit? Wouldn't it be better to teach our children not to pretend to pray in Jesus name when they are petitioning our Lord for help with some self centered worldly concern? Isn't that a true example of, "taking the Lord's name in vain"?

Perhaps we Americans should take a lesson in language from our British neighbors, and not be so quick to allow words to become meaningless, or to use meaningless words. Maybe Satan has more subtle plans for hiding God's truth than we yet know.

Don't be willing to take, even the most obscure truth, at it's culturally accepted "face value".

Be willing to test everything and to diligently seek the original context and historical background of Scripture so that God's steadfast truth may not be hidden from you.

David

Quote (Dan Phillips, Pyromaniacs blog 6-5-08)

"There is a reason why we hold a Bible as the word of God, and not a sack-full of isolated inspired fortune-cookies. God means us to grasp, and be grasped by, "the whole counsel.""

"Otherwise, our counsel will be full of holes."

(Dan Phillips 6-5-08)

Quote(Tim Challies blog 6-2-08)

Even today, Jesus is present with us through the Word of God. He is quietly but powerfully present there, though just as when most people looked at Jesus and saw only man and not God, today most people look at the Bible and see words but not Word.(Tim Challies 6-2-08)

Quote (Dr John MacArthur)

“But now and then someone tells me frankly that my preaching needs to be less doctrinal and more practical.
Practical application is vital. I don’t want to minimize its importance. But the distinction between doctrinal and practical truth is artificial; doctrine is practical! In fact, nothing is more practical than sound doctrine.
Too many Christians view doctrine as heady and theoretical. They have dismissed doctrinal passages as unimportant, divisive, threatening, or simply impractical. A best-selling Christian book I just read warns readers to be on guard against preachers whose emphasis is on interpreting Scripture rather than applying it.
Wait a minute. Is that wise counsel? No it is not.” (Dr John MacArthur 6-2-08 Pulpit Magazine blog)

Quote (Dr Albert Mohler from the Albert Mohler Program May 15th 2008)

“Our belief in the self reveling God has to do with the fact that we have come by faith to believe that He is and that He has spoken to us in his word and that He has spoken to us most completely in His son. We really don't need, and we should not depend upon, borrowed credibility from external sources to try to bolster, either our private or our public understandings of the Christian faith.”(Dr Albert Mohler the Albert Mohler Program 5-15-08)