Thank you for being here, and perhaps you have the notes that... Thank you. Perhaps you have the notes that you were able to download so that you're able to continue with us. If you are not able to have access to the notes of this three-part series, please let one of the pastors know or one of the secretaries or somebody in the office, and they'll make sure and get you those sets of notes. Even if you have some way you have online access as you're sitting there, you could go to the church's website right now and you could go to and the first link under resources is the church notes. So you can go to our website, galkans.org, and right on the front page, the rotating banner, you'll see Heritage Bible Church Conference, and you'll see it right there and get those. And this is a bunch of resources. And I love to say that these resources, it's just a compilation of about 10 years worth of stuff. And I really don't take credit for any of these. In fact, if there's something specifically that you're finding is to be really helpful and you wanna know maybe where the fruit or the seeds of that thought was, just ask me. And it's kind of just a compilation. I remember listening to one guy. He said, listen to one person and you'll be a clone. Listen to two people and you'll be confused. Listen to 10 people and you'll start to get wisdom and listen to 100 people and you'll start to have your own voice, but you don't stray too far from the first two. And I find that that's a lot of truth and practical wisdom. And this has just been from a lot of folks. In fact, even tonight, some of the thoughts about trying to consolidate what is the gospel, I've seen it prior to this book, and then I've seen it post this book. I've seen a different couple of ways, but there's a book entitled, What is the Gospel? And it was done by Nine Marks Ministry and some folks there. And it's just a great help. In fact, that'd be a great resource. And maybe if I think about it, I'll try to just tomorrow night, some of you have emailed me already and asked about different sources. And so maybe I'll try to even share some of that tomorrow. What is the gospel? Literally, it means the good news, doesn't it? The good news, it's just the good news that God, that God has found a way for sinful man to have a right relationship with him through the finished work of Christ. And at the response in our heart of really faith and repentance, he does a work in restoring that relationship that was broken. the good news. When you hear the word gospel, people come up with all sorts of different things. Some people think of the gospel as just a means to escape something really bad at the end of life. I mean, that's what some people think. Some people say that the gospel is a way for empowerment. So those that have been beaten down, the gospel is the way for them to triumph. Or the gospel is something that's in vogue. I'm just hearing that I'm supposed to be gospel-centered, right? And what you have is you can have all sorts of different things about the gospel, but we don't really understand what the essence is. I think that we're living in a culture that it's no longer as easy for us to just go up to them and really call them for a response. We have to actually take the time to explain what the gospel is. We have to take the time to explain what are the components of the gospel. I was thrown into a circumstance There was a man came up to me after the service in the evening, and we were there most of the week, and he came up to me, and he just began to ask me some very difficult questions about the gospel. And as he began to ask me questions, I began to realize that I've been living with some presumed truths. There's areas of my understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ that are just, well, I'm just assuming that everyone knows what I know. that we're all coming to this encounter with the same background, with the same theological understanding. So as I began to talk to this man, he began to ask very hard questions about the Trinity. And I began to stumble around and I was trying to like, well, the Trinity, you know, and I was given like a triangle and water. And so he's like, so there's three gods. And I'm like, oh no, but well, you know what I mean. And I went home and the Lord and his kindness really gave me a couple of resources. And I just plowed through the Trinity and I came back the next day and I began to explain it to him. And then he asked me another question. Well, why did then God, why did he kill all those people in the Old Testament? And I was stumbling around trying to give an answer. And I thought, wow. And I went home and then I got really equipped and I went back and I started talking to him again. And then he's talking about, so you tell me, why is it that if I live a really good life And then I don't put my faith and trust in Christ. Like you say, I go to hell, but somebody who lives a horrific life and then they put their faith and trust in Christ right before they die, they go to heaven and I don't, you tell me that. And we're just walking through all these questions. And I began to realize that many Christians live with presuppositions of thinking that everyone else is thinking like they're thinking. But what we tried to do last night is we tried to explain to us our culture, let me say it this way, ain't thinking like we're thinking. And the answer is not a clever presentation. The answer is not like, okay, so tell me like the two or three things. Okay, so how do I do this? Okay, well, great. Tonight's the night he's gonna tell me. So I say this, then I say this, then I say this. And so, but this is how the gospel presentation works though. So you walk up to somebody, you say, hey, how are you? Great. Did you know you're a sinner, huh? Well, sin is bad, you know, breaking God's law. And they're like, ah, breaking God's law. So like, God, who's God? Well, you know, God, God. And they're like, God, God, like force? Like, no, God, the creator. Oh, so, so God, the creator is like God in all of us, God? No, not God in all of us. Well, anyway, Jesus, his son. And they're like, oh yeah, I've heard of Jesus. He's a really good example of Christian truth, right? Well, no, he's actually the way, the truth and life, and no man come to the Father, but by him, exclusive. And well, we're all sinners, says who? Well, the Bible, what's that? And soon we just kind of break down because our little presentation was like, it's like, I say this, then of course they're gonna say this, and then I'll say this, and then of course they're gonna say this. But how many of you already, you know what I'm talking about. You already know, you've tried to walk down a classic gospel presentation, and you came out in the other end going, I don't think we got it. In fact, I was joking the other day saying we sound like Charlie Brown's teacher, don't we? Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And we walk away and some of us were going, well, this culture is just too hard. I better go home and just grow wheat or something and grind it for myself. And I better just like hunker down because like, you know what? This culture is just too wicked for a gospel today. And what suddenly begins to happen, you know what happens? Is now when somebody comes up here like myself, or somebody, or Pastor Danny's just preaching through the text, and he starts hitting something about evangelism, and all of us need to be evangelists, and we all need to go out. We're all ministers, right? That's what it says in our bulletin. So let's go! And you know what happens? Some of us just sit there and go, yeah, right. Yeah, right, you get to study your Bible for 40 hours. I'm sure that's all that Pastor Danny does is, you know, reads his Bible all day long, right? And then we're out here and we're working and yeah, you know what? I'm talking to that person over there and they, no way, no way, that's good. And you know what suddenly begins to happen is Christians begin to lose their trust in the authority of God's word. They begin to lose their confidence in the power of God on his salvation. And a couple of myths I wanna debunk. The first one is this, is that the gospel, that the myth is, is that the gospel is not good enough for today. And I wanna tell you the gospel is still the power of God on salvation. And the other myth is this, is that some of us, we get really intimidated with postmodernism, and we get really scared with secularism, and we get really scared with humanism, and we begin to think, man, I need a PhD in apologetics before I can give the gospel. That's not true. You have all you need in Christ Jesus and this book right here. and we have truth. And you know what? If we'll just obey, and we'll go give the gospel, and we'll just go love people, and we'll know the gospel, and we'll just cherish the gospel, guess what? God and his love will bring you into contact with somebody that's gonna stump you. And at that moment, don't you think that's what God wants you to know? Can I tell you, God didn't want me to plow into the Trinity. It was like, I was just doing God's will. I was living what God wanted me to do. And then guess what God's will was for me that night? When I got stumped, that was God's will for me to go to Trinity 101, okay? Aren't you glad God cares about you as an evangelist? Aren't you glad that God reigns? that you have his word and the gospel still works today. And so all we wanna do tonight is if you'll take away those two points, the gospel still works and I don't need a PhD in apologetics for me to obey. If you'll remember those two things and then all the rest of this, you know what you can do? You can go back to this and refer to this and let this be a springboard for you. But what we wanna do now is we just wanna tell us, really share with us, what is the gospel? What is the essential elements of the good news of Jesus Christ. And we can sum it up. We can just sum it up with really just four words. It's God, man, Christ response. Can I just share with you? I was getting my hair cut and the lady is cutting my hair. So what do you do? I have a little phrase. I'm a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She goes, oh, really? What's that about? Well, it's about God and God, man. And it's about God, man, Christ. And it's about a response. And I walked through like a two minute little gospel presentation. And she goes, oh, okay. It's just a blessing to be able to have just a little, some handles on what we need to communicate. And no matter where that person's out, we can camp out at each of these. It could be that we'd want to do a four week Bible study with somebody, or it could be that we're with somebody that doesn't really believe in the God of the Bible. So, so we take a long time and talk about God or, or maybe there's something that does believe in God and they do believe that we're sinners, but they don't really believe that Jesus is the son of God. That's okay. We kind of work our way and we get to Jesus Christ. Now we take time. We're going to talk more about Jesus or, Or maybe somebody believes all these things, but they don't understand what is to be their response. Then we'll take time with that. You know what I think is that for many years, because everyone else was caught up to the same worldview, everybody was really believing the same things. What we'd do is we'd skim over God, man, Christ. and we'd jump right into response. And because people were caught up, we just thought that's the way you give the gospel because look, there's good results. I mean, that's my mom, right? I've used her a couple of times because I want people to understand there are strangers can get saved. Did you know that? The first time my mom really heard the whole gospel, but she'd heard pieces. And so it could be the psalmist though, there's been a skimming over a God, man, Christ, and there's a big emphasis on response, but that was true because she was able to get it because She had a lot of background. And so what I'm saying in our culture today is that you've got to really be discerning who you're talking to. You need to really understand where they're at and take the time to walk through, really, God, we're accountable to the one who made us. Man, we've rebelled against and sinned against our creator, Christ. God's solution is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ. And then my responsibility is to repent and trust in Christ alone. So let us look at God. we are accountable to the one that made us. You know, when we begin to look at the attributes of God that we really need to understand, we need to understand that God is the eternal creator. Can I tell you that not everyone believes this? Did you know this? Whether it's because of rationalism or whether it's because of naturalism, whether it's because of really a focus on really a new ageism where there's a God force, can I tell you that that really the foundation of the word is that there's a God and He has spoken. The foundation of our Christian faith, the presupposition is that there's a God and He has spoken. He's the Alpha and He's the Omega. For by Him, all things that were created that are in heaven and on earth are visible and invisible. All things were created through Him and by Him, God is the eternal creator. But then we see that God is holy. He's set apart. There's no sin in who God is. God is absolutely proper and God. There is no sin in his presence. He's set apart. He's free from sin. The analogy of light is given, but then he's all knowing. He is not a deist God. He's not a God that started this thing and then walked away. He knows everything about us. He knows about every one of our sins. He knows about every one of our actions. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. But not only is he, is he all knowing he is just and righteous. Everything God does is absolutely proper. He just, he will always, he will always judge sinners. There is a fact that we as the creation will be held accountable by God, but then God is love. Can I tell you, God will never do something contrary to who he is. God will never command one of his believers to load up into a 747 and crash it into a building. Why? Because he will not do something that's contrary to who he is. And he's actually a God of love. He's not just one that's picking and choosing. There are many religions that talk about things like, well, they hope that they can have a right relationship with the creator, but they're not sure because they're not sure what his rules are. They're not sure of what he's gonna say or how he's gonna say it. But you know that God is very clear in his revelation. He's clear that he exists for himself, that he's holy and set apart, but he's a God of love. Do you know what Christians need to do? We need to be immersed in the word. Do you know who God is? You know, we ought to plow through the Psalms. We ought to plow through the New Testament. We ought to go through Isaiah. We ought to go through Genesis. We ought to have a book about who God is. We ought to write our own little systematic study of the theology of God, who God is. This is who God is from the Bible. Because you know what this generation of people, they're asking, they're asking, is it real? And when Christians are in touch with who the Bible says God is, they will be different. The gospel's not just a presentation that you memorize and rip out. The gospel's your life. We were created to know this God. We were created to enjoy this God. We were created to testify of this great God. And all God's people say, so we're looking, we're saying, okay, so I'm running into anybody. And so, well, what you're saying is that there's not like a one gospel for the atheist. There's not one gospel for the real religious. There's not one gospel for the Jehovah witness. There's not one gospel for somebody overseas. No, there's one gospel. And that way we can just, when we come into contact with a relationship or a conversation that God wants for us, we can just start talking. We can just talk about God. And then man, we have rebelled and sinned against our creator. You see, mankind was made for the glory of God. Mankind was created on the sixth day and God created man in his own image. You see, this goes so contrary to humanism because we were made for the glory of God. Humanism is saying that I was made for my own glory. Humanism says, I exist for my own glory. Here I am, look at me. Life is all about me. But he said, he said this in Revelation, thou art worthy, O Lord, receive glory, honor, and power for thou has created all things. And by your will, they existed and were created. Do you know our purpose is to bring God glory by knowing, obeying, and enjoying Him forever. That doesn't, that's not just a nice catechism. Your soul resonates with that. You were made to enjoy God, therefore glorifying God. You know, it's so hard sometimes to communicate how we can give somebody glory by enjoying them. But as a parent of five children, I just so find myself just, I love my kids. And you know what's sweet is when they love me. I got one right now that's getting a little bit older and they're just, they've got a lot of questions and they just, I mean, just rant. I mean, they're not the old school questions. They're like the new questions, right? And my child, he came up to me just today and he said, dad, I just, on the way, I was leaving the trailer today. And as I was leaving, he came up to me and he said, dad, pray for me. I'm really struggling with, and I shut the door and I was touched that my son would actually honor me by asking me to be a part of his life. One of my other kids today asked me a joke. They told me a joke and I laughed because the way they told it, not because it was funny. They actually honored me. They actually honored me by wanting me to enjoy their joke. Little Ellie, she came up to me in a service just a little bit ago and she was four at the time. And she came up to me, she goes, she goes, daddy. And I go, yes. She goes, daddy, come here. And I'm, it's right before the service. I'm scatterbrained. I lean over and she goes, daddy, you are awesome. I'm like reaching in my pocket to give her something, you know, I just got to, I find a mint, I give her a mint, you know, and, and then my eight year old gets word, you know, the Gulkin civilians, they have this communication. I don't know how things spread. And then my eight year old comes up to me and she goes, dad, you're awesome. Pay up. They honored me. So when we come to our Father, God, and we just praise Him, and we love Him, and we enjoy Him, and we sing songs to Him, and we talk to Him, and we tell Him that we don't like it. We don't like that, and we don't like this, but we like you. Lord, I submit to you, we enjoy, we glorify him by enjoying him. Oh, do you know that's what creation longs for? To be restored to that right relationship between creator and creation. Mankind was made for the glory of God and mankind was made for the glory of God and to glorify God by enjoying a relationship with God. but then mankind chose to sin. You see, here we are, we're trying to get a grip on the gospel. It starts with God, and then we begin to study all the attributes of God. But then we start to understand, man, though they were made for a relationship with God, that mankind chose to sin against God. And so sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. You see, Adam and Eve, they are the ones that sinned first. but through them, all of us have received a sinful nature and all of us have made choices to sin against God for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And God in his love, this Holy God, he knew that we, his sinful creation would try to rationalize and would try religion and try good works. And he knew all these false hopes that we tried to obtain to. And so God in his love gave us his law. Because this guy I was talking to one night, he was testifying of his own goodness. And I said, okay, so let's go to Exodus 20. And we just read, this is like a half an hour after the service worth. And we just read through all of the 10 commandments in Exodus 20. And we just explained every single one of them. And then we went to Matthew chapter five and took the really Jesus's application of them in the Sermon on the Mount. And I said, so what I want you to do is I want you to go home and I want you to keep these perfectly. And since we're in this dialogue, you come back tomorrow and you tell me how you did. It's great, he comes back and goes, you set me up. He said, not only could I not do all these things, but the ones that I thought I did, I couldn't wait to tell you of how good I am. Do you know all of us have sinned against God? You know, here I am, I'm sharing with all of us that predominantly from the angle, I'm saying, well, this is how we can share this good news of Jesus Christ with others around us. But it could be that you're here tonight and you've never really accepted the good news of Jesus Christ. You haven't taken of the gospel, the death and the burial and the resurrection as a means for you to deal with your own sinner's heart. It may be that right now that you are considering that you too have offended God. It could be right now, you're just considering the fact that, wow, just like every other person in this room, we're all sinners. For all have sin and come short of the glory of God. And the law proves it to us. It just walks us through that my good works are laced with all sorts of sin. And because of our sin, mankind deserves the just judgment of God. You see, as we know the attributes of God, His holiness reveals our sin, but then His justice reveals that we deserve His judgment because God hates sin. He will punish all sinful actions, thoughts, and words. You see, not only does sin separate us from God, but because of our sin, we deserve to be judged or punished forever in hell. Contrast that to people who would like to say that somehow, that there's not going to be a punishment. Somehow, there was a book written, it was called Love Wins. And the whole point was that really, you don't have to deal with your sin, it's taken care of, that everyone's okay. That's not true. Our sin is a big problem. God, man. within Christ. You see, Christ, God's solution is the sacrificial death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, when we come to Jesus Christ, we begin to answer the question with a number of questions. We say, so who is Jesus the Christ? Jesus is the son of God. Jesus the Christ is the son of God. Do all religions believe that, yes or no? No, there are folks, whether it comes from really a Jehovah's Witness, they would actually say that, no, Jesus is not God. Or you'd come, I'm actually from Salt Lake City. And so 50% of that community is LDS, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And they would not, though they would say on their website that Jesus is God, what you'd begin to break down as you read the documents is that, well, all of us are God, and all of us eventually obtained to a certain level, and all of us, well, as there's really offspring and procreation, and there's a rising up, and so just like Jesus is the son of God, but God himself was created himself, and it just is this endless, this endless cycle, and it's really not what the Bible says, how that God has existed for all of eternity, and then how Jesus has existed for all of eternity, because Jesus is God. This one I was talking to from the Middle East, I was telling you, he had an Islamic background, and so he had a lot of respect for the prophet Jesus, but to call Jesus, God the Son, Hinduism, they'll kind of add in Jesus. I've given the gospel before in India and we had to be real clear because there were folks that would come and listen to a presentation of the gospel and they'd say, well, we'll just take Jesus and we'll kind of add this Jesus to all these other deities. three boys sitting in the front row, and I was talking to them, and I said, so you seem very respectful. This is in Twin Falls, Idaho. You seem very respectful. They said, oh, yes, we're very spiritual. Are you Christians? Oh, no, we've never been in a Christian church before. Well, what is your belief structure? And they said, well, our parents are followers of Wicca. And so we would be really a new pagan. That's really what we are. We're just a new paganism. And we just, you know, it's the elements. And so who's Jesus? Well, he was just somebody that just embodied the spirit of really a peace with others around him. And he was just a great example. You see, Christian, just for you just to walk up to somebody and just talk about Jesus, you need to make sure that they understand that he's Jesus of the Bible. Just three months ago, and I say this not to be sensational, I just want to prove the point. I'm preaching the gospel, and there was a man raised his hand and said, I don't know if I know Christ as my Savior. And so after the service, he was lingering around. I said, well, let's talk about this. And so we sat down, we started talking, and we got to Christ. And he said, well, I just don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And I said, well, And let me just go ahead and I'll share some of the things that I shared with him a little bit later, I'll share with you. And we got through this and I said, so what's keeping you from just putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ? And he said, now you're not gonna get me to pray. I thought, that's unique. Well, I haven't even really said anything like that. I said, what do you mean I'm not gonna get you to pray? He goes, well, just two weeks ago, I was in a church like this and they had some guy speaking and they made me pray this prayer And then they made me stand up and tell everyone how I'm a Christian. And he goes, but I don't even believe that Jesus is a son of God. And he takes his Bible and he shows me where somebody probably with good intentions made this guy write his name and say, I was saved and the date. And he didn't even believe that Jesus was the son of God. You see, what can happen is for some of us, we can have good intentions and just kind of run people through a little system. But you know what? The reaction to that is not healthy either. And the reaction for some is like, yeah, you know what? That's easy believism. I'm not even gonna really tell people the gospel anymore. Well, that doesn't work. What needs to happen is there to be thoughtful Christians who know the gospel so well that they can talk to anyone. And then you can just walk them through God, man, Christ, Jesus Christ, the son of God. You see there when the angel came to Mary, she was found to be with a child from the Holy Spirit. John 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. You know, Old Testament passages, they claim it to be true. That would be a great little study for you. Do you understand what I'm trying to do? I'm actually trying to get you to love the gospel. And do you know who will love the gospel most? The ones that study it the most. Peace. The ones that study it and the ones that share it, you hear about this, this isn't something you memorize, this is just something to get you excited about it. This is just something for you to go home and say, okay, so where are the Old Testament passages and where are the New Testament passages? But then the father proclaimed that Jesus is the son of God. But then Jesus Christ said, I and my father are one, John chapter 10. And then the enemies of Jesus picked up stones to kill Jesus. And he said, why are you gonna kill me? And they said, we're gonna kill you because you claim to be God, but then the disciples believed that Jesus Christ was the son of God. Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. What a great study for you to be able to have verses from the Bible that allowed you to explain how Jesus Christ or explain the deity of Jesus Christ. But then what did Jesus Christ do? He died, he suffered, he was buried, he rose again. You cannot assume that everyone knows that. I think a great way to explain Christ is just to go with who is Jesus? What did Jesus Christ do? But then why did he do it? Do you know if this doctrine is one of the doctrines of Christology that's most under attack? Why do you think that is? Why do you think people want to attack the substitutionary atonement of Jesus? Because that's why Jesus came. He came to die for sinners. He came to be our substitute. I mean, Oprah Winfrey, she said on her website, I verify this because I didn't believe it. It's so hard in today's day and age. Somebody sends you an email and you're like, yeah, right. So I go to her website and I just read it. And she said, the message of the cross is not that Jesus died for our sins, but the message of the cross is that you can overcome your cross. Think about that. Why is she so offended by the substitutionary atonement of Christ? Because she doesn't wanna hear that she's a sinner, does she? She doesn't wanna hear that she's fallen short. You see, Jesus came to die for sinners. He'll save their people from their sins. John the Baptist says, look, the lamb of God was coming to take away the sins of the world. Jesus Christ came to die for sinners. Christie and I were sitting at a little kiddie pool and we're just sitting there, we're on vacation. And we live such people-centric lives that when we take a week off, we're usually like, we're like incognito. We're just like, we don't really wanna talk. We're just kind of sitting there and the kids are playing and you know, that's great. They're playing Everything's fine. I'm just like sitting there. I'm just staring kids are playing. They're all safe, right? Great I'm not reading. I'm not doing anything. I'm just sitting and The lady a lady comes up next to me. She's starting to talk to me and I'm not really it's not connecting you ever been there Yeah, all right safe kids Sitting. Get safe. And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, she goes, so what do you do for a living? Well, ma'am, I'm a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Really? I get asked this a lot. Are you Catholic or Protestant? I said, well, from your perspective, I'm Protestant. She goes, do you know the difference between Catholics and Protestants? Okay, she has all my attention now. She goes, I'm a Roman Catholic, and we just had a Roman Catholic apologist, and he told us the difference between Catholics and Protestants. I said, so what is it? She said, you believe in grace through faith alone. And we believe in grace through faith and our works. I said, I was just so dumbfounded. I said, ma'am, you are the first Roman Catholic that has detailed out the written doctrine of both of those systems. I've never heard a Roman Catholic say it as clear as you just did. I just said, but I have a question for you. Why did Jesus die? Why did God put Jesus through such a brutal death if he knew that you were gonna make up the rest? And we just sat there. And she just stared at me. You know why Jesus died? Because we're sinners. That's why Jesus died. It's not just a nice story. It's not just an example. It's this, we deserve the wrath of God. We deserve the holy wrath of God to tumble from heaven, to judge us for all of eternity. And Jesus Christ took our place. That's love, right? Now we're intersecting all the attributes of God. I deserve wrath and yet Jesus takes the place and here in his love, not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So God, the creator, made man. And though man is now the sinner, God sent his son, Jesus, to take our place. But there now needs to be a response. My response is to repent of sin and trust in Christ alone. The call of the gospel is to be converted. The gospel goes out. What a great study. You would really enjoy this. Start in Matthew. and read all the way through the epistles, and just get a Bible, like an old hardback Bible, or order one, a cheap one, and just write down everything there is about the gospel and evangelism. It will embolden you. You'll be so encouraged to see how that people stood up in difficult places, and they just called men to believe in Jesus Christ. They called men to turn from sin. Whether they're in jail, they're standing on Mars Hill, they're at the Mount of... really, they're in the Sermon on the Mount, or really, even Jesus Christ telling the Pharisees how they're whited sepulchers, or they're in the temple, you will be emboldened, because the call, the call of the gospel is to be converted. And this man from Iran, he, so this is our fourth night, and it's Wednesday, and I'm getting ready to teach, it's seven o'clock, and the lights go out. And the church, about three, 400 people, and all the safety lights now are dimming. It's been long enough. And the assistant pastor, the senior pastor was sick. And so the assistant pastor said, well, folks, we'll go home. And I'm just thinking, oh, right when we leave, the lights are gonna go on. Sure enough, that's what happened. Everyone walks out the door. I'm the last chicken in the house. And now then the lights go back on. And then this guy from Iran who was working late, he comes in. And I just start, I started chuckling in my heart because I thought, this is great. We get now an hour and a half. And we sat down and we picked up with those questions. And about an hour into Wednesday night, he's like, he's like, it just changes. He goes, he just looked at me. It was like a sober look on his face. He goes, I don't have any more questions. I'm just afraid. So now what? I looked at him, I said, well, sir, be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Turn from your sin, trust in Christ. Is God at work in your heart? Call out to God. You see, what it used to be is that's where we'd start, right? We'd just kind of start with, hey, respond. We'd just be like, respond, but we didn't know really what was going on. But God in his providence has brought us into a season where people are at different places and different levels of content. And so we used to have to skim over, well, I mean, used to, we just would. We'd skim over God, man, Christ, and we'd get right to the response. But now, We just took, he and I, I mean, we just took like, this was four days. This is like five hours worth of conversations just specifically about the gospel. And he's going home and reading the Bible, coming back, and we're going back and forth. And then now all of a sudden he looks at me and he says, I get it. I understand. It was like, it was like he caught up mentally and he just, the sobriety. And now the dots were connecting and there's conviction going on. The Lord is at work and the call of the gospel is to be converted. It's really our response. Truly, I say unto you, unless you turn and become like children, you'll never enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's to turn from sin and to turn to Christ. It's our will and response to the gospel call. God's at work. He's revealing his truth in our mind. He's done a work in our heart. And what are we to do? We're to respond to what he's doing. There are verses that call just for faith because conversion is faith and repentance. This is not a two work thing. It's just for me to trust is to turn from, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. There's the verses that emphasize the faith aspect, but then there's verses that emphasize the repentance aspect, except you repent, you shall likewise perish. There's verses that really call for faith and repentance. It's like, hey, repent. and turn again that your sins may be blotted out." He said in Acts 20 verse 21, testifying both to the Jews and the Greeks of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I was just, I was doing a study of this and I was reading Wayne Grudem and he just said, the gospel call is important also because through it, God addresses us in the fullness of our humanity. God, in working on us, He seeks for a response from us as a whole person. He addresses the call to our intellect, our emotions, our wills. He speaks to our intellects by explaining the facts of salvation in His Word. He speaks to our emotions by issuing a heartfelt personal invitation to respond. He speaks to our wills by asking us to hear His invitation and respond in repentance and faith. You see, God, as He is at work in your life, then just submit. I was at, we're in Myrtle Beach and speaking at church and this guy came up to me and he's like, he's classic kind of a Southern type of a cultural type Christian. You know, my uncle is so-and-so deacon at so-and-so and dad was a founding member of and we're charter of this or that. And he said, boy, I've heard this before but this one really touched my heart. I'm sir, sir, it's not just that it, It's not that you get educated, it's not that it just touches your heart, but have you ever just yielded your life to Christ? Has God saved you? Has God done a work in your life? It's man's responsibility to turn from sin and trust in Christ, yet it's God who is at work, isn't it? You know, I really believe when many people are converted, the emphasis is on what they did. But let me tell you something, the more you ride the train of this Christian faith, the more you realize God did it. Can I tell you how much I love myself and how much sin I would go to if God did not intervene in my life? Faith, it's not of human origin. You can't work this up. I had a friend of mine and he just was wrestling through these things and he's driving the airport. And I said, well, let me read to you Ephesians one and two. And I just began to read to him Ephesians one and two. And just talking about what God's work is in our life. I said, do you really believe that man has the moral capacity to save himself? You see, for by grace you say through faith, it's not your own doing, it's a gift of God. In referring to the gospel, he said it's granted, it's graced to you that you should believe, that you should believe that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but suffer for his sake. The whole idea is it's granted, it's graced to you. But the repentance, it's not of a human origin. God has granted repentance that leads to life. that God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of sin. It's the prodigal son. Why doesn't the prodigal son fear the wrath of the father? Why does the prodigal son not just stay in his sin? Why does the prodigal son want to come back? Because why? Why? Because the work of God in his heart. And when God's at work and he illumines your heart, and he shows you your sin, and he's gifting you with faith, and he's calling you to repentance, then simply stated, do you believe? Repent. If God's at work, be saved. Really my call is to anyone here that, If you do not know Christ as your personal savior, would you just right now in your seat just say, I'm a sinner? And just in your own heart, you just talk with the Lord and cry out, be merciful to me, a sinner. I believe that Jesus died on the cross. I believe that he's buried and rose again. Please save me. If God is at work in your heart, would you call out on his name? And Christian, when we started this whole conversation this evening, we said what we wanted to do is we wanted to communicate that the gospel still is the power of God and salvation. And we wanted to communicate that we don't need to have a degree. in apologetics, but we can actually know the gospel and may this just be a springboard God, man, Christ response and help us to dig in to the gospel ourselves. And all God's people say, let's bow our heads. Father, thank you for an opportunity for us just to consider what is the good news of Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that even now that we just talk with you about our love for you, our love for the gospel, and our desire to share the gospel. Just real briefly, before we close, we'd say, well, the Lord was just stirring up my heart to know the gospel, to love the gospel, and to share the gospel. Who just generally say, well, the Lord's stirring up my heart to know the gospel. Would you just lift your hand? Say, that's what the Lord's doing, okay. One would say, well, I am not sure if I know Christ as my own savior. I don't know if I've ever accepted what Christ has done on the cross. And I don't know if I've ever called on the name of the Lord to be saved. I don't know if I've ever really understood my sin and I've never really understood these things. And I'd appreciate if you'd pray for me. I don't know for sure that I'd spend eternity with the Lord when I would die. I just don't know for sure. and I'd like you to pray for me. Would you lift your hand so I can see it? I'm not gonna embarrass you, but I do wanna pray for you. My prayer won't save you, but I wanna pray that God would just help you to understand really the gospel of Jesus Christ. If that's you, would you lift your hand? And then closing, he'd say, well, I am thinking of somebody specifically, and really their need for the gospel. And I just wanna pray in my heart. I just want you to know that there's someone in my heart that I'm really burdened that they would hear the gospel from me somehow. If that's you, would you lift your hand and say, well, I'm thinking of somebody specific. Let's do this. Let's just close in prayer for them. Let's just pray that God would convict us and God would embolden us to know the gospel and to study the gospel and share the gospel. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your work in our lives. Equip us to know the gospel, to share the gospel, to speak the gospel. Lord, I pray that we would not simply hear these words, but we'd become serious students of your word. In Jesus' name, amen.