Alright, I'm going to do my best to keep this sermon under half an hour.
My best. So, the only way I can do this Brethren is if I've got my stopwatch on.
So, let's get that set. Alright, start.
Alright, Romans chapter 1. So, I'm not, we haven't turned this to this passage because, you know, of your favourite topic.
No, we're going to be looking at verse number 16 here. Romans chapter 1, verse number 16, okay.
In fact, this is a great verse here. It says,
So, the title for the sermon tonight is Power of God Unto Salvation, okay.
So, what is the main ministry of our church besides when we come together and, you know, worship God, praise God, fellowship together.
Now, the main work that we have, the main ministry outside of this church is to preach the gospel, right.
To see people saved. We want to take this message of salvation that we've been able to enjoy and let our neighbours know about it.
Let our community know about it so they can also go to heaven. You know, someone came to you giving the gospel.
Hey, now it's your turn to go to someone else and show the power of God unto salvation.
Now, let's look at that one more time. Verse number 16 there, Romans 1, 16.
For I am not ashamed. Of what? Of the gospel of Christ. Why is he not ashamed?
For it is. What is? The gospel, okay. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, okay.
So, when we want to see people saved, we need to make sure we have the power of God to be able to do that.
What is the power of God? The gospel, okay. Now, the gospel.
Now, listen, tonight I'm not going through the entire presentation that we do door to door, okay.
I'm focused on the gospel message, the gospel, okay. Why am I preaching on this today?
Because during my 40 days, as you guys know, I've been going out 40 days soul winning, sometimes by myself, sometimes with my children,
sometimes with other people here in this church. One thing that I noticed from several people is a lack of emphasis on the gospel, okay.
Now, you know, some people might say, you know, look, I'm not criticizing anybody.
All I want to do today is sharpen your sword a little bit more, okay. Just sharpen the way you explain the gospel to people.
I'm not angry at anybody. In fact, I'm delighted. As soon as anybody goes door to door, that's success in my eyes, okay.
But that doesn't mean we can't improve. That doesn't mean we can't do better, okay.
And a lot of people are going to be focused on different things, okay.
If you've seen different gospel presentations online, people are going to be focused on different things.
What you must be focused on though, what is the power of God unto salvation, is the gospel.
You know, you say, what is the gospel? Well, we'll get to that in a moment. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15. If it is the power of God unto salvation, then isn't this what we want to emphasize?
Isn't this what we want people to understand and comprehend?
And let me tell you, if the person at the door understands the gospel, it's going to be easy from there.
You're not going to have a lot of arguments if they've understood the gospel.
If you've not explained the gospel very well, then you're going to have a lot of people arguing back,
not appreciating what you've just tried to explain to them. So we must emphasize this point.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 1 says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you.
So Paul is saying, look, I'm declaring the gospel, this is what I preached to you,
which also ye have received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved.
Yeah, that's it. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It's what saves you.
If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, again, he's saying, look, this is what I preached to you,
unless ye have believed in vain, verse number 3, for I delivered unto you.
Again, he's saying, look, I delivered this to you, first of all, that which I also received.
He's saying, look, I also received this, now that I received it, I'm making sure I pass it on, right?
Preaching the gospel to others. Then he says this, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
So what is he saying there? Verse number 1 says, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you.
Verse number 3, for I delivered unto you, that's the preaching unto you,
first of all, that which I also received, how Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
What is the gospel? Oh, that you're a sinner. No, that's not the gospel.
What is the gospel? That there's a heaven and hell. No, that's not the gospel.
What is the gospel? That, you know, it's just believing. No, no, that's not the gospel.
The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is the power of God unto salvation.
Okay? Now, a lot of, you know, I think the reason sometimes we just skip or glance over this
is because many times we're dealing with people that know this message already.
They've seen the Easter movies or they've gone to some Christian church.
So everyone's, pretty much everyone's heard. Isn't it more of a rarity
if someone has not heard that Jesus died for them or something along those lines?
Most people in this world, at least in Australia, have heard, know that Jesus died,
was buried and rose again three days later. They have some understanding of that.
And so because we know that people have that understanding,
we tend to just glance over it sometimes. Okay?
But no, this is the power of God unto salvation. Why are they not yet saved then?
If they've heard this before, it's because it's not been explained to them properly.
You know, they've heard of it, but it hasn't processed in their mind what does this mean.
And so the goal of my sermon today is to explain this.
Please go to chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse number 17.
1 Corinthians, you're already there, but I've got chapter 1.
Verse number 17.
Now when I said that being a sinner is not the gospel, or faith on Christ is not the gospel,
I'm not saying that you skip those things.
That's not what I'm focused on today. All of that is important. Okay?
But what I really want to focus on is what the gospel message is.
Look at verse number 17.
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Okay?
Now that's a great passage, right?
Those that say, well you've got to get baptized to be saved.
Well Paul just said he was not sent to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
So preaching the gospel is not getting baptized.
Okay? That's a great passage to turn to.
I don't really need to turn that off, but anyway, it says here,
Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
So what did he just mention there?
The gospel, preaching the gospel is the cross of Christ.
Verse number 18.
For the preaching of the cross, so what is the gospel, the preaching of the gospel?
The preaching of the cross. Okay?
Is to them that perish foolishness, but look at this,
but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
The power of God. There it is again, right?
What is the power of God unto salvation?
The cross. The death, burial, the resurrection of Christ. Let's get going.
Verse number 19.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?
Have not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world is by wisdom, knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Okay? So the preaching that saves people that believe.
Look at verse number 22.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach, remember he said he preaches the gospel?
What does he preach? We preach Christ crucified.
Unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, look at this,
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
So you notice that twice in this passage, the power of God is mentioned,
and several times it talks about his death, the cross, the crucifixion, right?
That's part of the gospel message, the death, the burial, and resurrection of Christ.
This is the power of God unto salvation.
Why do you keep saying that, Pastor Kevin? We already know that.
Yeah, I know that, okay? I know you know that, okay?
But what I want you to be able to do is be able to communicate that to your neighbor, okay?
And so this is the purpose of the sermon today, all right?
Now, if you can please go to, I'll get you to turn to, well let me think about it.
I'll get you to turn to John. Please go to the book of John.
I'll just quote some other passages to you.
Okay, what does gospel mean?
A lot of people have heard of the word gospel, and sometimes I'll mention it.
So normally when I give them the bad news, they're a sinner on their way to hell,
but does God want you to go to hell? No.
He did something, so you don't have to go to hell, right?
So I'll say to them, well, you know, I've given you the bad news.
Now I want to give you the good news.
In fact, have you heard of the word gospel before?
I say, yeah, yeah, gospel.
I say, do you know what gospel means? They go, no.
Well, gospel means good news, okay?
In Galatians, sorry, not in Galatians, in Romans chapter 10 verse 15,
Romans chapter 10 verse 15, it says,
And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace,
and then it reiterates it, and bring glad tidings of good things.
So what is the gospel of peace?
What gives us peace between us and God?
Well, glad tidings, good things, okay?
What does gospel mean? It means glad tidings.
It means good news. In fact, what's tidings? News, okay?
The gospel means good news.
And so we give people the bad news at the beginning,
say, but hey, now I'm going to give you the gospel.
Now I'm going to give you the good news, all right?
Of course, we get to the good news of Christ's sacrifice.
This is what I emphasize.
We don't want to spend, you know, five minutes, ten minutes
just telling somebody how bad of a sinner they are.
Most people, even those that think they're good enough for heaven,
by the time you have a little discussion with them,
and look, if someone says to me, you know, I'm a good person,
I don't really debate that with them too much, okay?
Because I know very quickly they're going to admit that they're not perfect.
Very quickly they're going to admit that they're not,
that they've made mistakes, that they've sinned, okay?
That's something I don't really dwell on, right?
And so if someone says to me, well, you know, I'm a good person,
I'm trying my best, I'll usually say to them,
because I don't want them to think that I think going to heaven
is based on how good you are.
I'll usually just say to them, hey, you're probably better than I am.
You know, maybe you're better than I am.
So immediately by saying that, you know,
I'm not trying to make them feel horrible for giving a bad answer, right?
I'm trying to like just make a bit of a light of a situation,
but at the same time for them to realize, actually, you know what,
I don't think I'm even as good as the next person, right?
I have a problem.
I don't believe going to heaven is based on how good I am, in fact, okay?
And then I'll usually turn around, because I've already said,
look, I'm actually not the good one, okay?
Maybe you're better than me, you know,
but I think you'd be ready to admit that you're not perfect,
you've done wrong things.
Oh, yeah, I'm not perfect.
Straight away, people can automatically know that they've done something wrong, right?
That's not something you need to dwell on.
But when it comes to Ray Comfort, you know, and his way of the master,
I don't know, have you guys ever seen that stuff?
Yeah, man, you know, what does he dwell on?
Does he emphasize and dwell on the gospel message?
No, it's about how wicked of a sinner you are.
So you've lied, okay, you've admitted that you've lied,
have you stolen something?
Oh, man, that makes you a thief, that makes you a liar.
Have you looked at a woman with lust?
Hey, that makes you an adulterer at heart.
Ah, you're so wicked, you know?
And then it's like, but Jesus died for you,
and, you know, if you just live for Christ, you'll be alright.
You know, if you just live in holiness.
No, he confuses, he touches on Jesus, but that is not his emphasis.
I mean, he'll just glance over it.
It's not the power of God unto salvation, what he preaches.
You know, it's the power of damnation, is what it is.
You know, trying to make people think, well, I'm so bad, therefore, I must be good.
I mean, look, if you just keep telling someone how bad you are,
what's going to process in their mind?
They're going to be thinking, well, I'm so bad, yeah, I'm so bad, bad, bad.
I must try to be good then. I must try to do better.
That's what's going to be processed in their mind, if that's what you're focused on, right?
But here's the thing, the gospel is good news.
How is telling someone how wicked of a sinner they are,
how they're not living in holiness, so they don't meet,
and you just focus on that, and just hammer someone of a bad of a sinner,
how is that good news?
How is that leaving somebody the gospel?
That's what they're going to be left with, right?
And so, of course, we don't do that in our church.
Very quickly, people are willing to admit that they're a sinner,
and then you show them what the Bible says.
Whereas a sinner, you're ultimately going to end up in the lake of fire,
which is the second death, right?
And so that ought to be, if you explain the gospel to someone,
a very quick thing.
You want to get to the good news.
You want to get to the gospel.
You want to get to explaining what God did for them,
so they don't have to go to hell, right?
And so this is what we need to focus on.
So what is, what took place on the cross, though?
Because it's easy to say, well, Jesus died for you.
Okay, he died for you.
He rose again three days later.
Okay.
But what does that mean?
Just understanding that took place is not enough.
You know what the Catholics believe that?
The Pentecostals believe that?
The Mormons believe that?
The JWs believe some type of version of that?
The Methodists believe that?
Everyone that names themselves Christians
believes that Jesus died on the cross for them
and rose again three days later.
Anyone that wants to label themselves as a Christian,
but you know they're not saved.
There's many unsaved Christians out there.
Okay.
Many unsaved.
Why?
Because they haven't understood what it means
when Jesus died on the cross.
They know he did it,
but what does that have to do with me?
Don't I still have to go to church?
Don't I still have to get baptized?
Don't I still have to try to be a good person?
Well, let me just read some passages to you.
You're in John chapter one.
We'll get there soon.
But 1 John chapter two verse one.
I'm reading from 1 John chapter two verse one.
It says,
My little children,
these things write I unto you,
that you sin not.
And if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous,
for he,
this is important,
for he, that's Jesus,
is the propitiation,
that's a big word,
for our sins,
and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world.
So what is the meaning of the cross?
What took place?
What is this sacrifice?
What is this gospel?
That Jesus became the propitiation for us.
Now listen, you go to someone's door
and you say that to them,
that's still going to go over their head.
Maybe some people in this church
don't understand what that means, right?
That word to propitiate is to appease or satisfy.
To appease or satisfy.
What is that saying?
That's saying that the punishment for sin
was satisfied on Jesus Christ,
on his sacrifice, okay?
It's satisfied.
That means there's nothing more needed
to satisfy God's judgment,
God's justice,
God's anger.
It's been completely accomplished in Christ, okay?
So this is important
because when you explain to somebody,
hey, you know,
you're deserving of hellfire,
hey, but instead of God's wrath coming upon you,
God's anger upon you,
God's judgment upon you,
it was actually put on Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ took your place
so you don't have to pay that penalty.
He did everything needed
so you don't have to pay anything yourself, okay?
That's why that's important.
You're in John chapter one,
verse number 29.
John chapter one, verse 29.
It says the next day,
John seeeth Jesus,
that's John the Baptist,
seeeth Jesus coming unto him
and saith behold the lamb of God
which taketh away
the sin of the world.
So what does the cross mean?
It means that Jesus,
through that sacrifice,
took sin away from the world, okay?
It says that taketh away
the sin of the world, okay?
It was completely removed from the world.
It was put on Jesus, right?
That's what he means.
Now I'll just read some other passages.
Can you please go to Ephesians chapter one?
Go to Ephesians chapter one.
I'll read to you from 1 Peter chapter one, verse 18.
You go to Ephesians one.
I'll go to 1 Peter one, 18.
And you know,
we went through this not long ago
for our Peter series,
but it says for as much as you know
that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things
as silver and gold
and from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot.
So this passage is telling us
we were redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ, okay?
What does it mean to redeem, okay?
Have you ever redeemed a voucher?
All right, redeem this voucher
and get your free whatever,
small chips or whatever it is, right?
To redeem is to buy
or to clear of payments, okay?
So no further payment is required.
When you redeem something,
you buy and you clear it of payments, okay?
No further payment required.
So we know this, Pastor Kevin.
Again, I know you know this,
but you need to teach this to your neighbor, okay?
They need to understand
because listen,
a lot of the arguments you get back
after explaining the gospel
is because they haven't understood
that it's all been paid for.
They know Jesus died.
I really knew, in their mind,
yeah, I really knew that.
You're not telling me anything
I don't already know, okay?
They need to understand
it's been accomplished.
It's done, all right?
It's finished, Jesus Christ said.
You're in Ephesians chapter one, verse seven.
Ephesians chapter one, verse seven.
It says, in whom we have redemption
through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace.
So what else?
His sacrifice gives us forgiveness of sins.
We're forgiven by that process.
There's no further process
to take in order to have your sins forgiven.
You don't need to go
to some Roman Catholic priest, right,
inside his little booth
and confess your sins for forgiveness.
It's all been forgiven in Jesus Christ, all right?
Now, I'll just read another passage.
Can you please go to Galatians three?
Go to Galatians three.
I'll read to you from
1 Timothy chapter two, verse five.
1 Timothy chapter two, verse five,
which reads,
For there is one God
and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all.
To be testified in due time.
So it's saying here that
Jesus gave himself a ransom for all.
What's a ransom?
Have you ever heard of
someone having to pay a ransom
to, you know, release a prisoner,
release someone that's been kidnapped?
That's what he means.
A ransom is the price paid
to free a prisoner,
a slave or a kidnapped person, okay?
So Jesus paid the ransom.
Hey, we were slaves, right?
Slaves of sin, okay?
We were kind of, you know,
away from the Lord,
lost without, you know,
any hope of salvation,
or Jesus steps in and pays the ransom
so we can be free, all right?
What an amazing thought, right?
That Jesus paid that ransom.
That ransom was himself.
It was his life that he gave for us.
You're in Galatians chapter three, verse 13.
What am I emphasizing then, brethren?
Not the fact that Jesus died
and was buried, rose again.
We know that.
That's important.
Of course, that's important.
But what does that mean, okay?
That's what you got to drive home
to the person you're preaching to
when you tell them that
Jesus died for their sins.
Don't just tell them
he died for your sins.
They know that.
Don't just tell them
he rose again three days later.
They know that, okay?
Explain what this means.
The price has been paid.
God is appeased.
He's satisfied.
It's a ransom.
You can go free now, okay?
That's what's important.
That's the message of the gospel.
Now, Galatians 3, 13.
We're still on the same point.
What took place on the cross?
And this is really important,
really important
for you to drive home, okay?
Because, yeah, okay,
in their mind,
they understand some idea.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's been paid for.
You know, in what sense, right?
It's been paid for.
Galatians 3, 13 says,
Christ have redeemed us.
There's that word again.
And by the way,
avoid these words.
Avoid the ransom.
Avoid redeemed.
Because they don't get it.
These are kind of churchy words.
These are biblical words, right?
That you probably didn't even understand
until you started reading your Bible
and started to go to church.
Sometimes for us,
we use these words,
we're so comfortable using these words
because we know what we mean,
but we forget that the person
at the door has pretty much no idea
what some of these words are.
Even the word righteousness.
You know, you've got to be made righteous.
I know.
I was going to church
a lot of my life,
and I didn't know what the word
righteous meant.
And that sounds stupid, right?
Righteous means to do right things.
I didn't know.
What does it mean to be righteous?
What's that big word, right?
So be careful about the words you use.
We want to be able to explain you
simple language for people, right?
Now, Galatians 3, 13.
Christ has redeemed us
from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us,
for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
This is so important, okay?
That Christ was made a curse for us.
Okay, so how,
in what sense did Jesus pay it all?
Well, instead of the curse,
instead of the curse,
fallen upon me, on you,
the punishment of God upon you and me,
no, Jesus became the curse for us.
He took it all.
He took the punishment.
He took, it's not that, you know,
the punishment of our sin disappeared.
It didn't disappear.
He was put on Christ.
He bore the brunt.
He became a curse for us.
That's the sacrifice.
That's what the gospel means.
He became the curse.
So we don't have to be cursed by God.
We can be released from the curse
because the curse fell on somebody else,
on Jesus.
He's our substitutes, right?
And also in,
now this is what you need to drive home.
This is so important.
They need to understand
the wrong things you've done,
I've done, my son and partner,
the wrong things the entire world has done
was put on Jesus, okay?
He took the punishment for us
instead of us being punished.
2 Corinthians 5.21 says,
For he hath made him to be sin for us.
Hey, Galatians said curse for us.
This one says he was made sin for us
who knew not sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.
He became sin for us.
All of your sins were put on Jesus, okay?
That means the sins are not on you anymore,
are they?
They're on Jesus.
That's his sacrifice.
That's the penalty.
That's the payment.
That's the ransom.
It's all been done for.
It's all been taken care of.
So important for you to drive home.
Not just that he died and rose again.
What does it mean?
He paid the price.
He satisfied the anger and the justice of God.
He took on all our sin.
He took on our curse.
It was put on Jesus so we can go free, okay?
That's the message.
Now listen,
if you drive this home,
I'm not telling you how to word things
word for word.
I'm not trying to turn anyone into a robot.
But if you're clear about this
and they get it, all right?
I've seen Brother Michael.
He gives this illustration.
He says, he's got a Bible, pretend.
He says, let's say this is Jesus
and this is you.
Oh no, that's not the example you give.
But I've seen one of my pastors give this example.
You know, these are your burdens.
These are your sins on Jesus
where when he died on the cross,
they were put on Jesus
and they're all gone from your hand.
Use whatever analogy, use whatever you can
to help that person understand.
Listen, if in their mind they get it,
if it makes sense,
you're not gonna get many arguments after it.
When you explain,
because at this point everybody knows.
Like everything I just went through,
they know this.
They just haven't understood it, okay?
Once they understand it,
then you're not gonna have to argue much afterwards, okay?
Because everything flows naturally from that, all right?
Like I said, every Christian organization
agrees with what I just said.
Okay?
But where does the disagreement come?
Well, how do you receive salvation?
Okay?
We know what Jesus did.
We know what God did.
What do we have to do?
Well, be a good person.
Go to church, get baptized, right?
That's what they'll think, right?
So let me just give you a few tips so far
and we're running out of time.
But number one,
when you explain the gospel,
don't talk about faith
because we know receiving the salvation is by faith.
It's by believing what Jesus Christ does.
Don't go there just yet, okay?
You don't want to get into an unnecessary,
well, it's faith and works.
When you haven't explained the power of God yet,
the power of God unto salvation, okay?
Don't get into that just yet.
You don't want to get into something
that you may dispute
or the free gift at this point in time, okay?
You don't want to get into something that you dispute.
Find common ground.
Like I said, everybody agrees with this, okay?
You're just trying to get it home,
get them to understand what it means.
Now, as I said,
if you do a good job emphasizing the gospel,
which is the sacrifice of Christ,
you've really defeated most of their arguments
that might come if you just glanced over
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now, this is what I do generally.
When I explain to them that Jesus died for,
especially if I'm speaking to somebody
who's got a Christian background.
Now, this is something I started to adopt
in the 40 days of soul winning
that I've just been doing.
So it's not something, it's something brand new.
But I've realized it's been very effective, okay?
And I'd say to them this.
I'd say, well, you've heard that before, haven't you?
Yeah.
And then I'd say,
because I'm trying to find the common ground.
I'm trying not to make them feel like they're stupid
or something, right?
So I say to them,
well, can you finish this sentence for me?
Jesus paid for all of my,
and like nine out of 10 times,
they've finished their sins.
It's like, yeah, you're right.
So Jesus, and this is what I say.
So if Jesus paid for all of your sins,
how much do you have to pay?
Oh, nothing.
Exactly.
In fact, those are the very words
that came out of my mouth with a young teenager.
Well, maybe it was about 16 or 17.
And as soon as he said, well, nothing,
and I said exactly,
all of a sudden, you just see it from his face.
The light bulb turned on.
It just turned on.
He already knew it.
He already knew that Jesus died.
He already knew that Jesus rose again from the dead.
But he just finally realized,
oh, it's been completely paid for.
Therefore, I don't have to pay anything.
And he had a big smile on his face.
Probably before this, he's thinking,
well, what do I have to do?
I'm trying to be good.
I'm trying to do the best I can.
Is it good enough?
As soon as he realized,
oh, I don't have to do anything.
Now, hey, he's ripe.
Now I just have to tell him,
all you have to do now is believe it, okay?
All you have to do is trust
what Jesus Christ has done for you
because that flows perfectly
with what we just covered about the power of God
unto salvation, the gospel message.
All right?
So some other examples that I sometimes use,
and some of you guys have heard this as well,
is just say the billion dollar example.
I used to say million dollars,
but I'm changing to,
because a million dollars these days isn't much.
Every Australian is like a millionaire these days, right?
So now we use the billion dollar example.
It's like, if you owed a billion dollars
and you can't afford it,
you can't afford it,
and if you can't pay it,
you may go to jail.
Hey, but this is what,
let's say I'm using my silent partner.
What if, let's say Jason,
what if Jason stepped in
and paid the billion dollars for you?
Guess what?
The person that you owed money to will be happy
because it's been appeased,
it's been satisfied,
it's been paid for, right?
The propitiation for our sins,
well, you don't talk about that,
but you know, they explain that.
Hey, and you're happy
because you no longer have the debt.
You can go free.
I'll use that example.
It's like, oh yeah, that makes sense, right?
And so the emphasis is to explain to them
that God's wrath, God's judgment, God's anger,
the punishment that you deserved
was put completely on Christ,
completely paid for, okay?
And if you can just emphasize that,
honestly, it makes it easy afterwards.
It makes it really easy, okay?
Let's talk about faith very quickly.
Acts 16 verse 30, if you can,
I'll just read it to you
because I'm running out of time.
I'll try to keep it within half an hour.
Acts 16, this is where I go.
So once I explain to them
what Jesus Christ has done,
we'll use our regular verses
that we use in our gospel presentation, right?
I go to Acts 16 verse 30
and brought them out and said,
Sirs, I love this question.
Please add this to your gospel presentation
if you don't have it already, okay?
The reason I bring this up,
what must I do to be saved?
Because this is the same question
I'm going to ask them
when we go over the gospel again.
I'm going to literally, word for word,
ask them the same question.
What must I do to be saved?
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved in thy house.
So then, what do you do here?
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Does it say, hey, you know,
when I asked you at the beginning
you thought going to church wasn't important,
was part of going to heaven.
Hey, you said, you know, being a good person,
you think you're good enough for heaven.
What does it say?
Does it say you have to be a good person?
No.
Does it say you have to go to church?
No.
Does it say you have to give money to the poor?
No.
Does it say you have to help
the old lady cross the street?
No.
Does it say you have to get baptized?
No.
What does the people say?
I don't know, you know, the golden rule.
Does it say you do the golden rule?
No.
What does it say?
It says believe.
Yeah, just believe, right?
Believe what Jesus Christ has done for us.
You know, and then you take them to John 3.16,
for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
And look, this is where you need to explain
what believing means.
Because again, all these religions there,
they say the words believe.
They say the words faith.
I was listening to, just to prepare for this,
I was listening to a Pentecostal presentation
of the gospel, all right?
And by believing, by faith,
they mean be a good person.
Honestly, that's what they mean.
If you're not being a good person,
you're not believing.
That's what they teach, right?
You've got to just live for Christ,
you know, that's what it meant.
You know, the woman is explaining
that she heard the gospel,
whatever it was, and for nine months,
it was a woman preacher, right?
She was like, for nine months,
it took me nine months,
and I finally gave my life to Jesus.
What?
That's what believing means?
I never heard that before.
You know?
I believe my kids are going to do well
in math this year in school.
Does that mean I gave my life to them?
Is that what it means to believe?
No, to believe is to try,
and again, you've got to explain this.
Understand, you can't just,
it says believe, and expect them
to understand what it means to believe.
They don't understand it.
They've been brainwashed
by their religious institutions
to think that belief is works to some extent,
some measure of works, okay?
And so you need to explain,
well, believe is just trust in,
and you know, again, I don't emphasize,
if I focus on the gospel notation,
I don't really need to work too much on this, right?
But it just says, you know,
I'll just read a passage to you
in 1 Timothy 4.10.
For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach,
because, now notice the next words,
we trust in the living God,
who is the savior of all men,
especially of those that believe.
So we see how trust and belief
can be used interchangeably, right?
To believe something is to trust in that thing.
And so at that point, that's what I say to them.
Look, if I said to you,
because I've explained the gospel message,
Jesus did it all.
If I said to you that, hey,
I'm going to heaven because,
well, first of all,
I'm going to heaven because,
first of all, I'm a sinner.
I can't make it to heaven on my own,
but Jesus died for me, remember?
The gospel message.
He died for me.
He paid everything that was needed
for me to go to heaven,
and then I'll say to them this,
am I trusting Kevin to go to heaven,
or am I trusting Jesus?
And quite often, they'll just say,
nine out of 10 times,
yeah, you're trusting Jesus.
I say to them, well,
what if I said it like this?
And I'll pretty much use the same words
they used before,
when I asked them,
what do you think you have to do to go to heaven?
What if I said to you
that going to heaven is based on me,
how good I am?
I've been going to church every week.
In fact, I pastor a church.
I've been baptized.
I've helped out poor people.
I've helped my brother
when he needed something.
Is my trust now on Jesus,
or is it on Kevin?
And at that point,
yeah, it's on Kevin.
Yeah, so I'm not believing on Jesus, am I?
I'm believing on Kevin,
and what must we do?
We must believe on Jesus Christ,
that he has paid for it all,
because if you trust some element of yourself,
your faith is, yeah,
maybe partly on Jesus,
partly on yourself.
No, your belief has to be fully
on what Jesus Christ has done for you.
It's already being paid for.
Now, please go to Acts chapter 8 for me.
We're almost done.
Acts chapter 8.
I'm at 32 minutes.
All right, let's just get this done.
Acts chapter 8, verse 29.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him
and heard him read the prophet,
and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
So, Philip says to this unsaved man,
Do you understand what you read?
I want you to think about that for a minute, okay?
You need to explain to them
what it means to believe.
You need to explain to them
what it means that Jesus died for them, okay?
The natural man cannot understand these things, okay?
I know Jesus died for me.
I get faith,
but then they mix up faith with something else, right?
Look what he says in verse number 31.
And he said,
How can I,
how can I understand, right?
Except some man should guide me,
and he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit with him.
Brethren,
if you do this in your gospel presentation,
you need to stop it, okay?
Well, you show somebody to believe,
and you say, so what do you have to do?
Well, you know, be a good person.
Let me show you again.
What does it say?
And you can show me another passage.
It says believe.
What do you have to do?
Well, I don't know.
You go to church,
and you show them again.
You're not explaining.
You just show them.
Well, see, it says believe here.
Again,
their understanding of belief
is faith on Jesus and whatever else.
They'll say to you,
yeah, I believe, right?
But listen,
they cannot understand
unless a man should guide them, okay?
You with the Holy Spirit of God,
you have to explain
that faith is your complete trust on Jesus,
on his death,
and resurrection,
that that's all you're trusting in.
It's been done.
It's been completely paid for
in order for you to go to heaven, okay?
Just showing them verses
and getting them to read it
is not going to convince them
they need a man to guide them.
That's your job as the preacher.
That's your job preaching the gospel
to guide people.
Show them a passage,
and then guide them what it means.
Don't just rattle off
a hundred verses about faith and belief.
It's not going to do it.
You've got to explain to them, okay?
You've got to help them understand.
All right.
Now, Reverend,
I do have a little bit more,
but just very quickly,
so once they get it
that Jesus paid it all,
don't you think that the, you know,
understanding the gift is easy?
I mean, if something's been
completely paid for,
then what's been offered is a gift,
naturally, right?
And of course,
we get to our passages on the gift.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And so there, as I see,
the Bible calls eternal life a gift, okay?
And if it's a gift,
how much do you have to pay for it?
Well, nothing.
Well, if you've explained
that it's all been paid for already,
they'll get that.
How was it paid for, though?
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus Christ, death, burial, resurrection
is how the gift was paid for.
And of course,
if they're still stuck on that,
you can go to Ephesians 2, 28.
For by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God,
not of works,
lest any man should boast.
All right.
Now, just a few last points here.
If they say to you,
but we have to try to do good things,
don't just be like,
don't like shut them down, okay?
Because naturally people think,
well, I still got to be a good person.
Isn't that what we come to church for?
To learn how we can be good people?
Like once you're saved,
don't you want to now learn
how to be righteous,
how to be like Jesus?
So that's important, you know?
You don't want to just turn around
and say, well, actually,
you know, you can just be as evil
and wicked as you want to be.
Because in their mind,
they're still thinking that's salvation, okay?
So how I will turn that around is,
well, you know,
you still should try to live good.
Yeah, you should try to be a good person,
but that doesn't get you to heaven, right?
Because, you know,
you're not good enough.
You're a sinner.
You're not good enough for heaven.
So the only thing that gets you to heaven
is not your goodness,
not your righteousness,
but the righteousness of Jesus Christ, okay?
But yeah, once we are saved,
we should try to be good people.
I'm not trying to make them feel stupid.
I want them to understand,
yeah, we also believe
you should try to be good people,
but it has nothing to do with your salvation, all right?
It's separate from the gospel message.
I had someone say to me,
but, you know, yes, okay,
you explained to me that Jesus paid it all,
but you know what?
We should try to pay him back.
It's like, what?
Do you know what Jesus went through to pay for it?
You think you can pay it back?
Like, if I bought you something
and it cost me $10 and you paid it back,
wouldn't you have to pay $10 back?
Wouldn't you have to pay the whole thing back?
Well, you know, how's a man going to pay back
something that only Jesus Christ could do?
I mean, first of all, to pay it back,
you'd have to be a sinless person, okay?
Secondly, you'd have to be God, okay?
You'd have to have the blood of God.
You know, thirdly, you'd have to have
all the sins of mankind put upon you.
You'd have to become the curse of God,
and you'd have to be crucified of the Christ.
That's the only way you could possibly pay it back,
and it's impossible to do, of course.
So you know the idea,
well, we've got to pay it back.
Well, turn that around.
Don't make them feel stupid.
Just say to them,
you cannot pay it back.
You cannot pay it back.
There's only one that could pay it in the first place.
That's why if you could pay it,
then you wouldn't need Jesus, right?
Jesus paid it because he was the only one that could pay it.
Yeah, but as appreciation of what Jesus has done,
as appreciation that salvation is a free gift,
yeah, you know, you should try to do things that please God.
So you don't want to make people feel stupid, all right?
Because, you know, they're coming from good intentions,
but they just need to understand the separation
between what is salvation
and what is trying to live godly,
you know, for the Lord God.
And the last one is this.
Sometimes when you get to the belief part,
they'll say, but, you know,
they'll say, but what?
Anyone can say they believe, all right?
They'll say that.
Anyone can say they believe.
Listen, agree with them.
Yes, anyone can say they believe.
You're right.
Just because you say you believe doesn't mean you believe.
You know, anyone can say I'm an elephant, right?
That doesn't make you an elephant.
Anyone can say that.
And so, yeah, you agree with them.
Yeah, anyone can say they believe.
I'm not talking about you saying you believe to be saved.
I'm saying you have to believe to be saved.
You need to trust Jesus.
I'm not saying you just say the words that you believe.
Yeah, you got to actually believe it from your heart.
You actually have to put your faith and trust on Jesus.
And so I agree with them when they say,
yeah, but anybody can say they believe.
I agree because anybody can say anything.
It doesn't mean it's true, right?
So I hope that's helpful for you, brethren.
I just want to emphasize the fact that the power of God unto salvation is the gospel,
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
Hey, the whole world knows this message already,
so it's your job to guide the unbeliever to understand these things.
Okay, let's pray.