Bob Josey - Thriving in Jesus  - Lesson 3C- Where  It All Begins- Oct, 3 2021

Thriving in Jesus

3D – Where it all begins -

Gospel Presentations

Introduction

Today we are going to conclude our study of gospel presentations.  We have discussed thus far that the gospel message is that Jesus died, was buried, and three days later was resurrected from the grave. We discussed that to receive forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life, one must trust or have faith in Christ and Christ alone. We also discussed several unclear and improper gospel presentations on how to receive for forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

Today we are going to conclude our study of gospel presentations by discussing two other unclear and improper presentations.  We will also find out what happened to Joan that we talked about last week.  

5. Make Jesus Lord of your life

Other forms of this are "Make Christ Lord and Savior" and "Surrender your life to Christ” JESUS IS LORD! Some say “If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.” When one obeys the command to "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" he or she is ascribing the divine nature and attributes to Jesus as Yahweh (Jehovah) of the Old Testament. Yahweh is God’s personal name in the Old Testament. It occurs 5321 times. So, Jesus is LORD which means He is God. This verse is not saying make Him Lord or master of your life but trust in Jesus who is God, Yahweh of the Old Testament. Let’s look at Colossians 2:6, Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord (Through Faith), so walk in Him… Let’s also look at Romans 10:9-10, 

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 

9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 

Notice that Paul said to confess He is LORD.  He did not say that you have to make Him Lord of your life to be saved. His being the LORD of our lives begins when we are saved. It called sanctification. In verse 11, Paul stresses the word believe. Now let’s look at Philippians 2:8-11. 

      8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Even unbelievers will be on their knees at the Great White Throne Judgement confessing that Jesus the Messiah is LORD. 

Sometimes people mix justification (salvation) and sanctification (maturity, discipleship) in a message of a Good News presentation. Salvation is free to us but costly to God in the death of His son, Jesus.  Sanctification or discipleship costs us everything. Appeals for dedication or for surrender like in Romans 12:1 is addressed in the New Testament believers not to unbelievers needing salvation.

Romans 12:1 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 

Since salvation is a free gift and we can only receive it by faith, then there is absolutely nothing we can do.   Ephesians 2:8-9 says.  

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Submission to the Lordship of Christ in our lives is not a condition of salvation but is crucial to growing in Christ.  We see this also on 1 Peter 3:15, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

The word submit or submission is used 9 times in the New Testament. There is no occurrence of the word in the context of salvation. 

In his devotional in My Utmost for His Highest on September 28, Oswald Chambers discussed the plight of the Rich Young Ruler. He wrote,

 “One thing you lack …” The only ‘good thing’ from Jesus Christ’s point of view is union with Himself and nothing in between us.

‘Sell whatever you have …’ I must humble myself until I am a mere conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not to save my soul, (only one thing saves a man—absolute reliance upon Jesus Christ) but in order to follow Jesus. ‘Come, and follow Me.’ And the road is the way He went.”

The bottom line is that making Jesus LORD of one’s life or submitting to Him is not a requirement for salvation, but is a requirement for someone who has trusted in Christ as their Savior. 

Questions and Comments

6.  Repent of your sins 

Have you ever heard the statement “Turn or burn?” If by this it is meant that we must turn from every individual sin in our lives, then salvation and assurance would be impossible. Is repentance a requirement for salvation? Absolutely, but not the way some of you may be thinking. We do not have to repent of our sins to be saved!  Repentance means "to change one's mind” It does not mean "to be sorry."  The change of mind is not superficial but with a genuine conviction.  Repentance is not a merely an intellectual assent to something but includes a resultant change in one's life.  In the context of salvation verses in the New Testament repentance means change your mind about what is keeping you from trusting Christ as your Savior and trust Him to save you as in Acts 2. If one believes one of the following saves you, baptism, good works, being a good person, born into a Christian home, etc. then one would have to repent of that. Let’s say someone believes that one has to be baptized to be saved. To be saved, they would have to change their mind about baptism saving them to the fact that only trusting in Jesus can save them.

In verses that relate to the Christian repentance, it means to change your mind about any wrong attitudes or actions that are contrary to what the Bible teaches about what a Christian should do or not do.  These two contexts should always be kept separate from one another. Repentance in the NT speaks of an inner change of attitude and heart, not an outer change in conduct. Changed conduct is the expected result of true repentance, but we should not confuse the root with the fruit.

What gospel book is usually recommended for evangelism? Yes, John. Now, if someone only had the book of John to read, is there enough clear information in that Message of the Good News for one to learn how to be saved from their sins and to receive eternal life?  Yes, there is. It’s interesting that in the message of the Good News of John the word repentance is not used in any form. The emphasis in John is believe. The word believe is found 276 times in the New Testament and 98 times in John. 

says, But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in his name. Could a lost person read only the book of John and be saved.  John 20:31 says yes.  

In Acts 16:3 the Philippian jailor asked Paul and Silas what he had to do to be saved. Their response was. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” During our last lesson, someone suggested that the word believe has the idea of submissiveness tied to it. So, I did word study of the Greek word that we translate believe and have faith. Here’s what I found: The word believe means “to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust, believe. To entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence, believe (in), state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted, trust, confidence, faith. 

As you can see, the word believe does not have the word submission associated with it. 

Therefore, from our study of how one is saved, we found that we cannot to the following concerning receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life, salvation cannot be:

• Bought

• Traded for or bartered for

• Exchanged for something

• Worked for or earned

• There nothing one can give God to receive it.

Salvation is a free gift from God because His Son, Jesus. The only way to receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life is to believe, trust, or have faith in Jesus who died, was buried, and was resurrected for our sins. 

Questions and Comments

Remember the story of Joan from last week? She is an unmarried professional in her late forties who has been living a life since college that is wearing on her mind, body, and soul. One Sunday morning she was really under conviction about the lifestyle she had been living.  She does not claim to be a Christian and does not attend church. The guilt and heaviness of her sins of living this lifestyle are really taking a toll on her life. 

She wanted to go to church that morning but was sick from a terrible hangover. Instead, she watched two tv preachers. At the end of each service, each preacher gave his formula to have their sins forgiven, receive eternal life, and go to heaven when they died. The first tv preacher said all had to do was to be saved was to ask Jesus into their heart. The other one said all one has to do was to give their heart to Jesus. She was confused because they were contrary to one another. 

One day that week we went to lunch with a group of co-workers. On the way to the restaurant, they passed a church. On the way back to the office, she told the group to go to the office without her because she had some to do. She went into the church hoping to talk to the pastor, but he was out to lunch as well. She left because she did not have time to wait. She would call back that afternoon to make an appointment. On the way out she noticed a track rack. She picked up a few and went back to the office. After supper, she got the tracts out of her purse and began to read them. The first one was entitled, Do You Know for Sure You Are going to Heaven When You die? The tract presented the gospel clearly about the death, burial, and resurrection Jesus. However, at the end of the tract, the following formula was given to receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life:

1. Repent.

2. Turn from you sins.

3. Recognize that Jesus died for you.

4. Invite Jesus into your life

5. Accept Him as your personal Lord and Savor

This confused her even more. Then, the next tract she got out her purse was entitled, How Do you Get Rid of a Guilty Conscience. The tract explained that people have guilty consciences because they are sinners and quoted Romans 3:23. The tract went on to say that the penalty of sin is not only a guilty conscience but that sinners are eternally separated from God. The tract then quoted Romans 6:23. The solution to having a guilty conscience removed and the penalty of being eternally separated from God pardoned is found in Jesus Christ who died, was buried, and three day later was resurrected. Referring to Christ, the Apostle Peter said, “through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” How is God’s pardon from sin received? Peter tells us that forgiveness of sins is received by believing. Believe means to trust, depend upon, or rely on. Receiving forgiveness of sins is not obtained through any effort of you own but by trusting in and Christ alone. Take this opportunity to trust in Jesus today for forgiveness of sin.  If you did trust in Christ today, you may want to tell God what you have done and thank Him for receiving eternal life. 

Dear God:

I know that I am a sinner and nothing I do makes me deserving of heaven. Today I have trusted in Christ as the only way to heaven because of His death, burial, and resurrection. Thank you for the free gift of eternal life that I received today. In Jesus name, amen. 

That night, after reading the tract about a guilty conscience several times Joan finally understood about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for her sins. She finally understood how to receive the free gift of eternal life. That night Joan trusted in Jesus as her Savior. Her guilt is gone and she feels like she has been freed from the bondage of her sinful life. Through prayer, she told God that she had trusted in Jesus as her savior and thanked Him for Jesus’ sacrifice. 

Once someone has trusted in Christ as Savior, the tract recommended they do two things. One, obtain a Bible and memorize John 5:24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Two, contact Evantell Ministries and we will be happy to send you information about how you can grow as a Christian. 

SELAH! Make It Clear!

Questions and Comments