and becoming better friends. And in fact, I would say that there's nothing I wouldn't do for Dennis, and there's nothing he wouldn't do for me. And that's about all we do for each other, nothing. But I think that'll change in the future as we get to know each other better. Now, I've been in Texas lately, and the seasons, we really don't have seasons there, so I really appreciate the trees here and a little change of scenery. I've been watching the monarch butterflies fly south, migrating. I've been hearing the geese overhead at night, flying south, migrating. I've been watching the ducks fly in formation south, migrating. And then I see a contingency of Minnesotans coming down, migrating to our conference. I'm saying, what's all this about? Then I went fishing for five hours this morning in 30 mile an hour wind and I found out. So anyway, it's good to be with you at your annual Bible conference. I've followed you through your Grace Family Journal over the years and seen the conference and appreciate what you're doing here this evening for this week and what you do as a church and churches that are represented here. It's just good to be with you and be a part of this. And I'm sorry I can't stay. I actually booked a conference a year ago in Indiana, and that's where I'll be going Friday morning to finish that commitment. In fact, we arranged this so late it didn't even get in my newsletter, which comes out. But good to be with you. Good to be with you. Tonight, I'm going to talk about the gospel from God. And I'm going to start in Galatians chapter 1. And I really think I'm preaching to the choir here. But this is what I was asked to speak on and happy to do it. Happy to always think about what God has done for us and how we can come to know him. I came to know him, and you know what? Everybody's been asking me my testimony. I'm just going to kill this bird right now. I came to know the Lord at the age of 19 in 1973. That makes me 54, so you can stop adding in your mind. And I had grown up in a Lutheran church. I'm only saying that because I know I'm in Lutheran territory. And I had memorized a lot of Bible verses and going to Sunday school and had a lot of that as a foundation, but really didn't know for certain that I was going to heaven or not. And I was confirmed. And in my teenage years, I kind of went wild. This was the early 70s, and people were experimenting with all kinds of things. But it was at the age of 18, I was out one night partying with one of my friends, who's also a good friend and neighbor. And he ended up dying that night of a drug overdose. And that kind of got me thinking about my eternal destiny and what I was doing here on earth, and the purpose in life, and so forth. So it kind of scared me back into reality, and I stopped doing a lot of the things I was doing. And I had gone to one year at the University of Maryland. That's where I'm talking about. I grew up in Maryland. And just kind of wasted that year. And I took the next year off, and I was working. And I met a young lady at work, and she began to explain the gospel to me, and give me tapes, and Bible verses to read, and tracts, and just smothered me with stuff. and answered a lot of questions that I had. And it was sometime during the summer of 1973, I came to know Jesus Christ as my savior and had the assurance of my eternal life for the first time in my life. And it really changed my life, not overnight in an instant way, but it sure gave me an appetite for the word of God. And as I learned the Bible, I began to change and had a voracious appetite for the Bible and eventually went to Bible college and then seminary. And here I am. And grace and the gospel of grace has been a wonderful discovery and reinforcement along the way, the more I learned the Bible, the more I learned to appreciate the gospel that God has given to us. And that's what we mean when we say the gospel from God. Of course, the gospel is at the core of everything that we do. It's the beginning and the end of the Christian life. And we've got to get it right. There's too much at stake. There's eternal destinies at stake. our Christian lives and how we live them are at stake if we don't understand the gospel right. We don't want to be guilty of saying too little. We don't want to smother people with too much information at first. I mean, we need to know what the gospel is that saves us if we're going to go out and be witnesses for Jesus Christ. One thing I don't miss about being a pastor, I was a pastor for 19 years before I went full time with my ministry, Grace Life Ministries. One thing I don't miss about being a pastor is getting those phone calls almost every week saying, tell me a little bit about your church. Is this a full gospel church? And how do you answer that question? No, we're a half gospel church. Our budget's not doing too good this year. So I would have to explain, well, we preach a full gospel, but not in the way you probably mean it. But we want to preach a full gospel. Any other gospel is not really the gospel, right? So we want to be sure we're preaching a full gospel. So let's see if we can appreciate the gospel from God. I want to start in Galatians chapter one. When I was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, I had Dr. Charles Ryrie for soteriology class, the doctrines of salvation. And he asked the question once at the beginning of class, he said, will there be more people in heaven than you thought or less people in heaven than you thought? The implications of that question for me, which was really a mind teaser for me, was, well, and there we go. That's the question. The implications is if you're surprised by more people in heaven than you thought, then maybe your gospel is too hard or difficult for people to understand or an improper gospel. I mean, your gospel, you're making, you're saying too much. making it too hard, and God has a different standard, an easier standard. On the other hand, if you're surprised by less people than you thought would be there, you're maybe saying too little, or your gospel is too easy. I still don't know how to answer that question. Other than that, I think I understand what the gospel is, what the scriptures say the gospel is, and I preach it, and God's going to have to figure out who understands it and who's going to be there in the end. But certainly it's a mind-teasing question, and we don't want to be guilty of saying too little or too much or anything improperly when it comes to the gospel that determines where a person spends their eternal destiny. So we look at Galatians chapter 1, and one thing we see there about the gospel that is very clear after Paul is dealing with them very emotionally about the fact that they're turning away from the gospel that he originally preached to them, the gospel of grace and Jesus Christ, and they're turning to another gospel. which is not the same as the one he preached. If you're familiar with the Galatian error, they were beginning to add works to their gospel. And he's reminding them, that's not how you were saved. So why do you think that it's by works that you're going to stay saved and finish this salvation of yours? So he's defending his gospel there. We're not going to go into Galatians so much, but we do want to look at verse 11. And the fact that God has revealed one gospel, he says, but I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, the gospel, he says, is not of human origin. In those days, people were taught through instructors or rabbis, that was their system of teaching. He did not take a course in the gospel. It was not from human tradition or human teaching. It wasn't passed down to him. It could have been. It could have been done accurately because there were apostles, other apostles who understood the gospel, but not for him. Instead, Paul says that it was neither taught from men nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. It was of divine origin. He goes on to explain that after his departure from Damascus, he went into Arabia for three years, implying, I think, that he was either on the Damascus road when he was first saved, that God explained the gospel to him. He certainly understood it there, but certainly reinforced it and grew in it and understanding of it, perhaps in the Arabian desert. He says that his Arabian desert experience was not In verse 17, he didn't go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia. He could have got the gospel right from the apostles, but he didn't. He went into Arabia, evidently alone, and there it was that God, I think, reinforced and really revealed to him the significance of the gospel and an understanding that Paul was able to pass on to us through a book like the book of Romans, which articulates the gospel so well for us. So it is a gospel of divine origin. It's not a human creation. It's not a human invention. We can't improve what God has done for us. We shouldn't try to improve what God has done for us. A second passage we want to look at is in First Corinthians, chapter 15. God has revealed one gospel, and this is the gospel that he has revealed. He gives the content, I believe, in a passage of First Corinthians 15, one through eight, where he says, Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you stand, by which you are also saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believe in vain. For I deliver to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. And after that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen by me as one born out of due time." Paul is reminding them. Of course, the discussion in the context is about the resurrection. And there were Corinthians who had been evidently swayed away from the belief in the resurrection to think that there was no resurrection. He was declaring to them the importance of the resurrection in their salvation and therefore in their sanctification. And this is the gospel he preached past tense and they had received it past tense. And they are standing at it as a foundation for who they are now and by which you are also you are saved. And that word saved is in the present tense. Speaking, I think, of the ongoing implications of the gospel, they're standing in it and the implications of it impact their sanctification. He goes on later in the chapter 15, to talk about those implications of sanctification. If Christ isn't risen from the dead, if there was no resurrection, like you had believed in, well, then we just eat and drink and do what we want to. Verse 30 through 34, that area. If you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believe in vain, if you hold fast the word, in other words, if you stand on that gospel that you believe, your sanctification will work itself out the way God wants it to work out. The foundational belief about what Jesus has done for us on the cross is resurrection from the dead is the basis not only of our eternal salvation, but our sanctification. Romans explains how the resurrection life of Jesus Christ is what lives through us. Galatians chapter 2 talks about Christ living in us. It's not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So the resurrection is crucial to our sanctification, and this is what they were giving up. And Corinth, and he says, if you don't stand, if you hold fast to that, you're being saved by the implications of the gospel, sanctified, present tense salvation, not past tense salvation. And then he goes on to remind them, and the word for introduces an explanation of what the gospel is that he had preached to them, that they had believed, the gospel that he had declared to them. The way I see the passage breaking down is this way. There's the first proposition of the gospel, that Christ died for our sins. Christ is the word Messiah, speaking of the divine appointed one, the one who would be a descendant of Abraham and David, who would be the chosen one, who would be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Christ died. I think the idea of death implies that he was a human being. God made flesh. If he was not a man, he could not have died, right? So, we say that Jesus was 100% man and he was 100% God. Nobody's been that way before or since. But Jesus was a unique person. God in the flesh, fully God, fully man. Christ died. as a human being for our sins. He had to die to be a sacrifice, but that sacrifice could not apply to us unless he was 100 percent God. Then it would have eternal ramifications. It could be an eternal sacrifice. So you see how important his death is. I mean, his humanity is as well as his deity. In his humanity, he could die. In his deity, he could live forever and offer an eternal sacrifice. You may know that the title that Jesus used of himself more than any other title was son of man, showing his identification with the human race. You know that the scriptures call him the second Adam, the one who came to undo all that Adam had done and gotten us into. And so that by one act, Adam had caused and plunged us into sin and death. And by the one act of righteousness, Jesus Christ was able to give us life and justification. So Christ died as God and man for our sins. The word for there is a word that means on account of or to deal with our sins. This speaks of a substitutionary atonement. He did something that we couldn't do. Jesus lived a life that we could never live and He died a death that we could never die. He did it in our place because we could never do it for ourselves. A sinful life could not be an eternal sacrifice, could not be a satisfactory sacrifice for sins. And so Christ died for our sins or on account of our sins or to deal with our sins. Now, Paul here begins, I think, to think in a very logical and consistent way. As if it reminds me of the way a lawyer would argue in court. He makes a proposition and then he backs it up with his proof. And his first proof of this great proposition is a scriptural proof. Christ died for our sins. And the scriptural proof is that it was according to the scriptures. He doesn't define the scriptures here for the Corinthians, but perhaps he had in mind passages like Exodus 12, the Passover lamb. Perhaps he had in mind Isaiah 53, all we like of going astray, but God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And we've each gone our own way. God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Speaks of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, bearing our sins, our transgressions. And in other passages, Psalm 22 with Messianic import, speaking of the suffering of the Messiah, quoted so much about His experience on the cross. There are a lot of scriptures that point to the suffering, the death of the Messiah. But a second proof that he gives, which was irrefutable to those, especially the closer they were to the event, was that he was buried. Christ was buried. That's the empirical evidence, the physical evidence in this courtroom that Paul has created. You remember that They knew from the moment on the cross when they went to break his legs and the soldier saw that he was dead and plunged the spear in his side, there's physical evidence. He was taken down from the cross. He was prepared for the tomb by a number of people who all would have known he was dead, who would have wrapped him in a certain amount of spices and claws and would have known he was dead. So for Paul to say he was buried, he's pretty much writing a death certificate. It's like writing a death certificate for Jesus Christ. In other words, he's saying there's no doubt that Jesus died. You don't bury live men. You make sure they're dead first. And that was the observation of those who put him in the grave. His first great proposition is backed up with scriptural proof and then empirical evidence. The second great proposition of the gospel is that Christ arose. Christ arose is very important, obviously, because a dead Savior can save no one. Right? I remember reading a story of a boy who had gone out into the middle of a lake and he began to cry for help. He was drowning. And his father swam out to save him. But when he grabbed onto his son, his son grabbed onto him and his father died. He couldn't save him because he died. Christ could save us eternally because he lives and he rose from the dead. He conquered death and he rose from the dead and is able to give us life. Now, Paul, again, summons evidence, a scriptural proof. He says, according to the scriptures, there are scriptures in the Old Testament, which Paul would be referring to, that speak of Christ's resurrection. Psalm 16, Psalm 110. I think Isaiah 53 implies it and that he will live and he will justify many. You'll see the light of life and so forth. And so the resurrection is there as well. Not only is there scriptural proof, but there is the empirical proof. He was seen. You see, the great proposition is backed up by this evidence, not that we have to believe he was seen by Peter and the twelve and five hundred and James and the apostle and Paul, but he's saying that this is the proof of what you do have to believe, that Christ rose from the dead. It's irrefutable that he was seen even by me, Paul says, of his Damascus Road experience. 500 people didn't hallucinate a risen Christ. And so the eyewitness testimony, you know, the most powerful testimony in a courtroom, perhaps, I'm not a lawyer, but I think is the eyewitness testimony, can't be refuted. And there were people living in Paul's day, in the Corinthians day, who had seen the risen Christ. Now, we hear these reports about Elvis being risen or still alive, but we don't believe that. We haven't seen that. We know the people who are saying that are not credible people. And so, you know, most level-headed people dismiss that quickly out of hand. But it's a completely different situation when men of repute see the Christ and testify that they have seen him risen from the dead. The two great propositions of the gospel is Christ, fully God, fully man, died for our sins, which says that we're sinners and we have a need that has separated us from God. We have a need and somebody had to fill that need in our place. He died on account of our sins. And then he rose from the dead. So he is alive now to save us. And because he is alive, he could offer us his eternal life. And that's what they had believed him for. according to Paul. So we could say that the good news that saves includes the person of Christ, who he is. It's not just the name Jesus without any content, but it's the Jesus who died on the cross, who rose from the dead. It's the Jesus who was God in the flesh. Jesus who claimed to be the son of God, a unique divine person. but also the provision of Christ, because that addresses our need. Our need is sinners who need to be justified before God, who need God's righteousness. And so the person of Christ is largely also defined by what he did that was unique. He did something no other person or being could ever do, and that was to pay the price for our sin and then to rise from the dead on our behalf. And then the good news, of course, includes the promise of Christ. Because you could believe that Jesus is the Son of God. You could believe that He was fully God, fully man. You could believe that He died for sins and that He rose again from the dead. And I think still not be saved because you're just believing a creed. This is what made the difference for me because I had been raised up in those truths and I never doubted that Jesus died. I knew John 3.16. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to whoever believes in Him. that whoever just didn't seem to include me, never thought I was good enough for it to include me. So the third element is very, very important, and that's the promise of Christ. And that promise is a guarantee of eternal life for all who believe. And that's what makes the difference between creedalism and salvation. That's what makes the difference between what is academic and experiential. When we say John 3, 16, includes me. And God so loved Charlie Bing that he gave his only begotten son that if Charlie just believes in him, then Charlie will have everlasting life. And when I read John 3, 16 that way, I understood what his promise was for me the first time. So the good news has to include something about the person of Christ as a divine figure. and the provision of Christ and what He's done for our sins and for our life also in His resurrection. But also, His promise must be believed by you personally. Not in some nebulous way that He died for the whole world, but for you. And if you were the only one in this world, that Jesus would have died for you. And that's how much He loves you. There's nothing that you have ever done that could keep Him from loving you. You can't do anything to make Him love you less. You can't do anything to make Him love you more. He loves you no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, no matter what your past is, no matter what you do tomorrow. He loves you and He died for you. And that's a life-changing truth. In my understanding, those are the essential elements of the gospel, the gospel's content. And we can mess up the content. We can fail to share enough of it. And we can't guarantee that we'll explain it perfectly or that a person will understand it perfectly, perhaps. But we need to try to communicate these truths to a person as simply as possible. I'll give you an example of how important it is to try to communicate these truths to somebody. I've encountered a belief that says just believe in Jesus Christ for everlasting life. And that's all that this view says. And it says it's not really necessary to believe in Jesus' cross and his resurrection. It just doesn't make sense to me. And I thought I'd do a little experiment when I was in India with Daniel. We were in an optician's shop waiting around, and I decided to talk to one of the clerks. And I asked him if he was a Hindu, and he was. And so I said to him, I said, you're a Hindu, but let me ask you a question. Do you believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life? He said, oh, yes, yes, we believe in many gods. He said, and he said, yes, I said, but I mean, but for eternal life, he said, oh, yes, we believe in eternal life. There's a man on the West Coast and in Mumbai and he's dead, but his fingernails keep growing and. Which only goes to show That there are barriers in our understanding, cultural barriers. What does eternal life mean? Who is Jesus? You know, he could be my mechanic who works on my car, Jesus. There has to be some content to this, something that defines him, that makes him unique. And that definition is who he is and what he's done for us. And then the offer that he's made for us. Of course, I went on to explain the gospel to this Hindu as best I could and left him with some literature. But my experiment showed me that it's not enough to say Jesus guarantees eternal life to whoever believes before him. You have to have more content than that. Now, the content of the gospel then is pretty clear from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And he says this is what they believed. where we who understand the content very well sometimes can go wrong in understanding the condition for salvation. So it's very important to understand the condition for salvation. And I'm going to talk more about this tomorrow when I talk about faith and salvation. But you know that we say the condition for salvation is to believe, believe God and His promise of eternal life. And the Gospel of John talks about believing whoever believes in Him as everlasting life. So I'll talk more about that tomorrow. We won't go too far into that right now. But it's easy for us to get misled or to mislead or to deal with people who are misled about the condition for salvation, even though they've got the content and the understanding of it down pretty much. And perhaps you are familiar with some of these views. For example, there are those who say you must do all the work for your salvation. Now, when I got a ticket to come to Duluth, I Trusted that that ticket was paid in full and all I needed to do was get on an airplane and it would get me there. The ticket didn't say that I had to get out and pull the plane to Duluth, but that's what this religion teaches. Jesus died on the cross for your sins, but you know, you guys still got to do all the work. He was just a good example for us. He was just a good model of God's love for us. But you still have to earn your way to heaven. It's just about as impossible as pulling a plane. from Texas to Duluth anyway. This is a kind of legalism that says works are necessary for salvation and many, many religions fall into this. Of course, many religions of the world and perhaps many of your friends and neighbors who even call themselves Christians believe that they've got to do something to get to heaven. They've got to be good enough, to be holy enough, to obey the commandments, to live a good life, try harder, All these kind of things. A second view that distorts the condition for the gospel is that Christ did some of the work, you must believe and do some of the work. In other words, Jesus kind of gave us a kickstart, you know, you have to believe in what he did, but it's not just believing. They call it easy believism sometimes. It's not just believing. I think we'll talk about that tomorrow, too. In other words, if I had gotten this ticket to go to Duluth, and then in mid-flight, someone says, at this time, I'd like to ask you to remain calm, fasten your seatbelt, and flap your arms as fast as you can. That's the only way we're gonna get to Duluth. We would never get here. But that's what a lot of people believe about the gospel. Jesus is a good example for us. He did something to forgive our sins, but to really realize eternal salvation, you've got to do something on your half. It just can't be a one-way deal. It's hard to understand grace sometimes, isn't it? Dr. Ryrie made a remark to me just last week at the conference that we were at. He said, grace is hard. Grace is hard. And then he went to explain how we're just not used to the concept that God would do everything for us, would do everything for us, for nothing from us. That is a hard concept in a world that is so ungraceful, in a world where we have to earn everything from the time we're potty trained for M&Ms to the time we go on to school and work hard for grades and scholarships. And then we go to work and we earn a paycheck. There's never enough and we work harder and we work harder and we work harder. We work hard for our parents' approval. We work hard for our children's approval. Everything we have to work for. And then somebody comes along and says, no, it's absolutely free. You don't have to do anything. And that's hard. It's too good to be true. Another way that the gospel condition is distorted. Oh, there's some of the things that we have to add. What people say. Boy, you could add to this list yourself, couldn't you? You have to believe in Jesus, but you have to repent of all your sins or give your life to God. And you have to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him and be baptized and keep the commandments and obey and submit to God and receive communion, whatever. The list can go on and on and on and on. In fact, once you go there, once you go there, so to speak, the list becomes endless. Well, a third distortion is that Christ did most of the work You must believe, but validate your faith through works. They might even say that Christ did all of the work, but still you have to believe. But the only way we really know that you really believed is by looking at your works. And when we examine your works, we'll find out if you really believed. Now, where the other view does what we call front loading the gospel, you have to believe and do something. Here we're back-loading the gospel. You have to believe but prove it by what you do. So front-loading the gospel means you have to believe and commit or surrender and believe and repent. You have to believe and do something up front. Now this view says you have to believe and do something later to prove that you really believed. And so it's like they give with one hand and take away with another hand. The other hand. In fact, some who hold this view and teach it talk about, well, there's initial justification, justification being when we're saved. There's initial justification and there's final justification. So, initial justification means that, yeah, you're saved now, but you have to prove that you're finally saved by your worst, which just doesn't make sense to me. It's contradictory. It's contradictory. It doesn't make sense. In fact, there are people who, this is a quote from somebody who actually graduated from the same seminary I graduated from. He said, yes, Jesus did teach salvation by works. What he's talking about is post-conversion works. And the way he explains that is, well, these are works that God gives us after we're saved. But I don't find that distinction in the Scriptures, that God gives us certain works. We're always cooperating with Him in anything good that we do. So, we have to prove our salvation or else our flight will just be canceled. We never deserved it in the first place. You've heard the saying, we're saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. Well, that's a contradictory statement. Also, we're saved by faith alone, but then it's not alone. So we give with one hand, we take away with the other hand. It's a very popular saying and a way of teaching this, but it's just not right. It doesn't make sense. And to back that up, people often go to James chapter 2, talk about faith without works is dead. And we don't have time to explain James chapter 2. It's a great passage to go into, but that's writing to Christians. And dead is talking about being useless, not non-existent. And the salvation there is not salvation from hell, it's salvation from a useless life. Or a bad judgment at the judgment seat of Christ, because the judgment seat of Christ bookends that passage in chapter 2, verse 13. It talks about a judgment without mercy. And in chapter three, verse one, it talks about those who want to be teachers who will face a severe judgment. And so that's not a judgment of unbelievers, it's a judgment of Christians and how they live their lives. Do they show mercy? Do they teach accurately? And so in between, James is talking about how to have a useful judgment, a good judgment at the judgment seat of Christ to show our faith by our works will help others and will help us out. It's a good passage. We don't have time to go into that, but he's not teaching there that we can determine salvation by our works. Once we get into the territory of works, we can never be sure that we're safe because the question is always the rise of what is a good work anyway? Many people who do good things have bad motives and we never know the motives. Paul said in First Corinthians four, I don't even know my own motive. I'm going to let God judge that, he said in that great day. So how can I judge somebody if Paul can't judge himself, I can't judge myself, how can I judge you? And how can you judge me? And then there are those of other religions who are sometimes more moral than we who call ourselves born-again Christians. And they have works. So what is a good work? And how do we quantify it? And how many is enough? And who's got the list, the master list that we have to satisfy? And on and on and on. Works are important in the Christian life. God has created us for good works according to Ephesians 2.10. But works can never determine with certainty someone's salvation. And when we look to our works, we just meet confusion and doubt about our salvation. Well, of course, we know that the only true condition for salvation is that Christ did all the work and we must only believe. Christ did all the work. And we can only believe. And that's what Paul means when he says in Romans, for example, in chapter 3. And I don't have the Scripture on the thing. You might want to turn to Romans chapter 3. Where he talks about the fact that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In verse 23. And in verse 24 he says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, we've kind of coined a term in the last couple of decades called free grace. Why do you have to talk about free grace when grace, by definition, is free, isn't it? Grace is from the word gift. It means a free gift from God, an undeserved gift from God. Why do we have to talk about free grace? Well, because Paul did. It's right there in front of you. He said, freely by his grace. In the original language, he uses that. What he's doing, you know, because you're Bible students, is he's emphasizing the freeness of grace. He's just explained three chapters of how we're totally lost in sin, and now he says we're saved absolutely freely by his grace. There's nothing we can do, nothing we can offer. Nothing we can pay for our salvation. And why is that? Because in the second half of the verse, he says it's through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And that word redemption speaks of a price that was paid. But who paid the price? Not me. Not you. It was Jesus. It was God. He gave His only Son. He gave the most precious thing that He could find in all of creation. Well, Jesus wasn't part of creation, but as God's Son, It was the most precious thing He could give for us, to show us how much He loved us and how much we meant to Him. And the only thing that would satisfy His divine justice was His own Son. And so Jesus paid the price by the life that He lived and the death that He died. There's nothing we can add to that. And the moment we try to add something to that, we insult God. God, Your divine, holy Son isn't enough. I think I can do something to add and improve. to meet your requirements even better. That's an insult to God. That's like a slap in the face. When we think we can do anything to add to the grace of God that comes to us through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So it's free to us because it costs God His Son. If I bring my wife a gift, it's absolutely free to her, but she knows I paid for it. And that's why it's meaningful to her. And that's why Paul says in chapter 4, verse 4, Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted as righteousness. What he's saying is if salvation is truly freely by grace, then the only way we can receive it is through faith. Faith is an empty hand that reaches out. And simply receives what God gives us, it doesn't bring anything, it doesn't offer anything, it is just empty. And the moment we work for it, we cancel the principle of grace, because they cannot coexist. It's either grace or by works, he says in 11.6. So salvation has to be by faith alone, because there's nothing we can bring to our salvation. Now, my friends, this is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religion in the world. I hope you understand that. Because when we surrender salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, We just slip into the big morass and confusion of other religions that are out there, because every religion in the world says you have to do something. You have to keep the sevenfold path or the five pillars or the four yogas or yogis or whatever they are. I'm not being funny. This is reality. I think I said it correctly. The seven sacraments, you have to do something. And then even Protestant Christians believe, well, you have to be good enough. You have to go to church. We have to walk an aisle. We have to pray a prayer a certain way. There's subtle things that we have to do. But the moment we attach anything to the freeness of grace, we just slip into that whole big other side that says you have to do something. Christianity is the only religion in the world. And I hope you appreciate this. Christianity is the only religion in the world that says it's all been done for you. It's just all been done. What a humbling thought that is. There's nothing we can add to it. It's all been done for us. And that's why it has to be through faith. That's the only condition for salvation. We receive by faith the gift He's given us through His divine Son who died on the cross and rose again from the dead and offers us eternal life. That's the gospel that Paul preached. That's the gospel that is from God. So, how do we apply this? Well, there you go. Christ did all the work you only believe. I bought my ticket, it's paid for, I just sat back and relaxed and they got me to Duluth like they promised. I didn't flap, I didn't pull, I didn't have to prove anything mid-flight, get kicked out. I just enjoyed the trip. So, how do we apply this? Don't say too little. That's a good start. Christians are sometimes guilty of saying too little. Turn on the television and watch the Christian stations. The message is God loves you. Come to God. Other religions say that, don't they? They might even say believe in Jesus. But half the world is believing in Jesus for more money. Or for a cure for their illness. So what are we believing in Jesus for? What Jesus is it? Some people just preach your sinner over and over again. And then there's emotional appeals. And I see people, you know, making all kinds of responses and on these television broadcasts and in these big rallies, and I say, you know, I don't think they heard enough to know what they're responding to. They just been touched at an emotional level and they're responding. But the preacher really cheated them out by saying too little. And then you can say too much. You don't have to start genesis, you know, when you're sharing the gospel. Now, in some cultures, it may help to do that. To understand that there is a creator God, and I have backed up that far before in other cultures, in other lands where they're from pagan animistic backgrounds. I've backed up all the way to Genesis because I thought it would be good for them to understand the concept that there's a God and creator, one God and creator. But you don't have to start with Genesis and go through the whole Bible. By the time you get to Leviticus, you'll probably lose them anyway. Leviticus is the Bermuda Triangle of the Bible. How many started reading the Bible and just dropped out of Leviticus, you know? You don't have to give them a theology lesson. They don't have to understand the definition of justification to be justified. They don't have to understand what regeneration is to be born again. They don't have to understand and explain the Abrahamic covenant to be a son of Abraham, right? So they don't need a theology lesson. But there are certain theological truths they have to understand. You can tell them about Melchizedek, but why don't you wait a little while? You don't understand Melchizedek anyway. And be careful not to separate Christ's person from his work. It's not just believe in Jesus. It's believe in Jesus because he died for our sins. He rose again from the dead and offers us eternal life. We have to define the person and what he's done. so that we are believing in the right Christ for the right reasons. And don't improve the gospel. You know, sometimes we think we're doing God a favor when we redefine the terms, when we, you know, learn to say things a different way, you know. People don't really understand what it means to believe, so let's say, let's invite Him into our heart. That's not improving anything. That's making it a bigger mess. Thank God that He made the gospel simple enough so that people like me could be saved and children like yours can be saved. God kept it simple and we ought to keep it as simple as He did. And God tried to improve it. And then don't muddy the gospel. And we muddy the gospel by using terms that just aren't biblical and confusing to people. Ask Jesus into your heart. Give your life to God. Make Christ Savior and Lord. confess all your sins, repent of all your sins, pray this prayer, come forward in the church to be saved. The Bible doesn't teach those things. It doesn't say those things. It might use some of those words, but in the context, it doesn't mean that that's how we receive eternal life. We muddy the gospel when we use language that can be easily misunderstood, especially by our children, who tend to think so literally, you know, asking Jesus into your heart, you know, and James Dobson tells an amusing story about a woman driving down the road with her child next to her. And he keeps leaning over and putting his head on his mother's chest. And she says, what are you doing? She says, I'm listening for Jesus in your heart. And she said, well, what do you hear? She says, I don't know, but it sounds like he's making coffee. That's how children think, isn't it? That's not helping them understand what it means to believe. We can explain believe easy enough. We'll talk about that tomorrow. We don't have to resort to some of this other language that just muddies the gospel. We have to be consistent in our explanation of the gospel. You know, they sometimes explain the cross and the resurrection very well. Then they get to the end. I always just go to a track, the end of the track first, to see what it's saying. What must I do to be saved? Admit that you're a sinner and cannot save yourself. Believe Jesus died on the cross to forgive you of your sin, was buried and raised on the third day. Be willing to turn from your sin and turn to God. This is called repentance. We'll talk about repentance in my third message. Call upon the name of the Lord. Confess openly and verbally that Jesus is Savior and Lord of your life. And then pray this prayer. Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I need your forgiveness. I believe you died on the cross for me and was raised from the dead. I'm sorry for my sin. I turn from my sin to you. Come into my heart. Forgive me. I confess you as Lord and Savior of my life. Thank you for saving me. Now, the truth is in there somewhere. I'm saying not saying a person can't be saved by this if they grasp onto the kernel of truth. But there sure is a lot of dressing on that, isn't there? To try to improve the gospel. Well, I came across another one here. I got actually a big collection of them at home. I just brought a few. Faith is not a head knowledge about Jesus, not a casual commitment. Saving faith is committing your life to Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior, surrendering your rights to live apart from his direction. He becomes the most important thing in life to you. It also means that you turn from sin completely by repenting. You can't turn to Jesus without turning away from sin. As Savior, you're transferring your trust from your religion, yourself, your good works, or any other thing that has entrusted you to be saved and completely commit to Jesus and his death on the cross. That's not too bad, except what does it mean to commit? So the question at the end is, are you willing to turn from your sin and totally commit your life to Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior? You can make that commitment to God in prayer. See, they're taking faith there as a commitment. The Bible doesn't speak of faith as a commitment. Call upon the Lord in repentance, faith, and surrender your life using these words or those of your own. It goes on and on and on. And then a track called Steps to God. There's a lot of little pictures of footsteps on here. I'll just read the steps. Seek, confess, believe, hear, obey, come, wash, receive, follow, sow, choose, and pray. Can you say that again? Oh, I got this one from two ladies. I was working outside. of a house and two ladies walking down the street, and they were telling about their church and some meetings that they were having and trying to witness to people. And I was all dirty and grubby, but I didn't look like a preacher, so I kind of played it dumb. And I said, well, OK, tell me what you have to do to get to heaven. They said, well, John 3, 16. God still loved the world. Whoever believes in him has everlasting life. I said, oh, OK. So I only have to believe in Jesus. You're saying that's all I have to do is believe in Jesus. Well, you also have to confess him publicly. I said, oh, I thought you just said I had to believe in Jesus. Well, no, you have to confess him publicly. And I said, well, what does that mean? Well, you have to go forward in church. You've got to tell somebody about it. You've got to be baptized. I said, oh, so it's not really believing in Jesus. I had them all confused and then and started showing them some verses. They said, you're not a preacher, are you? I mean, you're not a preacher, aren't you? But this is what their track said, never apply as Now apply his holy blood to your life so that you may live now and eternally with him. You must completely turn your life over to him. Repent. Pray with all that is within you. Give up the right to your life to him. Pray aloud this prayer. I guess you can't pray it silently, but that's. But that's confusing, isn't it? Really, I'm seriously, can I not pray it silently? Point is, is to keep the gospel clear, don't muddy the gospel. When I was in the country of Ghana in West Africa, my first visit, I heard a ruckus outside and I went out there and I saw a crowd. They had a man parading in front of them, a mob of about 50 people, and this man had a tire around his neck. He had been beaten, so his face looked like a pulp. He had a giant dash in his head. People were carrying clubs, machetes, rubber hoses and rocks and sticks. The man was just stumbling along, barely able to walk. And I asked what was going on. And it happened to be the 4th of July, which we weren't celebrating there in another country for cultural reasons. I remember that. So I asked them what was going on. They said, well, he's a thief. And they're going to bend him. I said, bend him? I don't understand what they're saying. So I went back in the house. I said, well, this is another culture. He's a thief. They're punishing him. They're going to beat him up. That's what they do, because you don't call the police. Get the money and let them go in that culture. Then somebody else came running in. They said, they got a thief out there. Did you see him? I said, yeah. They're going to burn him. I said, oh, burn him. Because with the accident, it would bend him. And I didn't understand. They're going to burn him? Yeah, because that tire around his neck, he had kerosene in it. They call it a Nigerian necklace. And then they set it on fire. And that's how they kill thieves over there sometimes. So I caught up with the crowd this time. And by now, the man had collapsed on the ground. And he had the tire around his neck, and there was a teenage boy dancing around with a pack of matches, getting ready to light one and throw it on him. And my friend and I tried to talk to the crowd and calm them down. We said, we're preachers. Let's talk to you for a minute. Does anybody see this crime? No. And who's accusing them? Nobody stepped forward. We couldn't get a real clear conviction there. And it just didn't seem fair for us, who are a man, to die, even if he was a thief. So we tried to reason with the crowd. Well, my friend was reasoning with the crowd, I bent down next to the man, and I said, what is your name? He was so tired he could hardly talk. I said, what is your name? He said, Benjamin. I said, Benjamin, I may not be able to save you from the crowd, but I can tell you how you can go to heaven eternally. I said that God loves you so much that he became a man named Jesus Christ, and he died on the cross to pay the price for all of your sins. And he rose again from the dead, and he promised that if you just believe in him, you could have everlasting life. Benjamin, do you understand what I'm saying? He said, yes. I don't know if he did. And that's about all I said to him. I said that in about 20 seconds. That's all it took to explain the gospel to him. I don't know if he understood. We finally did get him to a hospital, which hospitals are almost as bad as jails over there. And he eventually ran away. I did follow up a little bit with him. He says he believed. But that's God's part. Now that I've done my part, it's God's part. to help him understand what was said. Did he understand through my accent? Did he understand what eternal life was? Did he understand who Jesus was? I did the best I could in the short time that I had. And that's all we can do is try to keep the gospel as clear as we can, the gospel that God has delivered to us. And then there's a point where we just have to leave it up to God to use that and do His work because the gospel is the power of God to salvation. But let's make sure we do our part in keeping it clear. Let me pray with you. Father, we thank You so much for the Gospel that is given to us. What a gift that You have given to us, Lord, to pay the price for all of our sins, knowing what we've done, even knowing what we will do. You yet have paid that price for us to save us eternally without condition. We thank You for the grace of God that saves us and for the work that Jesus has done for us. We thank You for the gift of Your Son. And if there's anyone here tonight, Father, who doubts their salvation, may they have the assurance that Jesus has paid that price for them and they can rest in His promises forever and know that they are forever yours through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's in His name we pray. Amen.