Jump to content
  • Welcome Guest

    For an ad free experience on Online Baptist, Please login or register for free

Presenting The Gospel


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Define "Gospel".

    A clear presentation of the Gospel is important, it ought to contain several important facts;

1.  The subject should know that “all people are lost” (Rom. 3:10; 3:23)
    This puts them into a group, and does not single them out accusingly.
    They must realize their need for salvation before they will be saved.

2.  All people need to be saved. (Rom. 6:23a and 5:12))
    I always have them agree that “no one is perfect”.  I have never had anyone disagree since I used that approach.  They have been offended, however, that I insinuated that they were sinners; generally, people do not think themselves to be too bad.
Just as wages are paid for a days work, sin has earned a wage--death. (spiritual as well as physical) Explain it to them.

3  All people are saved the same way. (Rom. 6:23b) (Rom 5;12 could be used here too, you decide.)
    Only Jesus can forgive their sin.  (Explain how He died for them, and took their punishment upon Himself.  Then rose again the third day…etc.) Interject Rom 5:8 in there showing them that Christ died specifically for mankind.  

4.  YOU can be saved today. (Rom. 10:9,10)
    “Whosoever” includes everyone.  Won’t you call upon Jesus to save you today?  

There are various salvation plans that are effective.  The main thing is telling them the Gospel.  Some people like to use John 3:16, and other verses, but the result is hopefully salvation.

A word about repentance: it has been long disputed, (and will no doubt continue to be), whether we should encourage them to repent of their sin before they call upon the Lord for salvation, but at the time they decide to trust Christ as their Savior, they have a change of heart, and that is repentance.  The Gospel is what saves men, and repentance may not be considered the Gospel per se.
 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

 

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

 

#1. Sin.....We are all sinners

#2. Righteousness......Jesus and His finished work on Calvary is the only way

#3 Judgement........The alternative is everlasting punishment in the Lake of Fire

 

There is no salvation without repentence. In salvation, repentence and faith are inseparable. Repentence is to fully beleive that you are headed to Hell and deserve it and at the same time trusting Jesus to save you,  You turn against your sin and self to Christ. I have heard it put another way: "to take God's side against your self".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

 

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

 

#1. Sin.....We are all sinners

#2. Righteousness......Jesus and His finished work on Calvary is the only way

#3 Judgement........The alternative is everlasting punishment in the Lake of Fire

 

There is no salvation without repentence. In salvation, repentence and faith are inseparable. Repentence is to fully beleive that you are headed to Hell and deserve it and at the same time trusting Jesus to save you,  You turn against your sin and self to Christ. I have heard it put another way: "to take God's side against your self".

If repentance strictly means "a change of heart" and realizing you are a lost sinner in need of Christ than, yes, it is needful for salvation. But as far as I see it repentance in the bible is more than a change of heart. It's forsaking your sins (II Cor. 2:8-11; Matt. 3:8). Repent and believe the gospel. That's two different acts going on there not one and the same. If we are saved by "repenting" then we are adding an element of works to our salvation or more precisely, we are striking a deal with God that we'll stop sinning if he saves us. That won't work. 

 

 

Again, nobody is saved by the gospel of Acts 2:38. Nobody preaches that verse the way it's written except Campbellites and Charismatics.

 

We are saved by believing on the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ not by repenting and believing the gospel of the kingdom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Repentance is the changing of our heart to be in agreement with God...agreement that we are sinners in need of a Saviour, that we are forsaking our sins as we accept Christ.

 

This doesn't mean one has to admit to every sin, specifically call out that they repent of each of them. It's a change of heart to the accepting of the fact they are sinners, they have sinned, they are now turning from sin to Christ.

 

We see from Scriputre that repentance is a part of this and we see in Scripture that those saved exhibited the fact they were saved by turning away from sin and following Christ.

 

One of the problems we have with some who witness today is they get people to "accept Christ" without getting them to realize the serious nature of their sins and understanding that truly accepting Christ means one forsakes sin and actually follows Christ. This is the reason that many pray "to accept Christ into their heart" and then go on home to their live in lover and take them to the bar without a second thought.

 

As Heartstrings points out, repentance is a part of salvation, not a work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

My sentiments exactly.   Getting saved is repentance, if they realize that they are sinners.  Some make it sound as if you have to repent BEFORE you are saved, it happens instantly at the time of salvation.

 

I did not mean to cause a debate as to what repentance is, but rather for those who are unsure of how to lead someone to the Lord, was the reason I posted it.  Some have a fear of one on one confrontation, and hopefully, with a "plan" they can know what to say, or how to say it.

Edited by irishman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Good points all and I appreciate the outline Irishman. Now let me inventory:

 

I've got the HEART

I've got the BRAINS

now:

If I only had DA NERVE

 

Our Lord is the LION of Judah but I am more like the cowardly lion, all too many times I have an opportunity and let it go by unspoken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Repentance and Faith are two sides of the same coin.  One turns towards Christ from sin.

 

From the Way of Life Encyclopedia:

 

 

REPENTANCE. Bible repentance means a turning to God and a change of mind toward God that results in a change of life (Mt.
3:1-2; Lk. 5:32; 13:1-3; 18:13; Ac. 2:38; 5:31; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; 2 Pe. 3:9). There are two types of repentance: (1) Once for all
repentance by unbelievers unto salvation (Lk. 13:3; Acts 2:38). (2) Continual repentance by believers (Rev. 2:5, 16, 21-22).
 
SOME DEFINITIONS OF REPENTANCE
 
“Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of life” (Bruce Lackey).
 
“Repentance is ‘a change of mind Godward that leads to a judgment of self and one’s acts’ (1 Ki. 8:47; Eze. 14:6; Mt. 3:2; 9:13;
Lk. 15:7; Ac. 20:21; 2 Co. 7:9,10). This would not be possible but for the thought of mercy in God. It is the goodness of God that
leads to repentance (Ro. 2:4)” (Concise Bible Dictionary).
 
“Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of his holy law, and the basest
ingratitude towards a Being of infinite benevolence. This is accompanied and followed by amendment of life” (Noah Webster,
American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828).
 
“The preacher who leaves out repentance commits as grave a sin as the one who leaves out faith. I mean he must preach
repentance just as often, and with as much emphasis, and to as many people as he preaches faith. To omit repentance, to
ignore it, to depreciate it, is rebellion and treason. Mark its relative importance: You may make a mistake about baptism and be
saved, for baptism is not essential to salvation. You may be a Christian and not comprehend fully the high- priesthood of Jesus
Christ (Heb. 5 :11), but ‘Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.’ So said the Master Himself. Repentance is a preparatory
work. For thus saith the Lord: ‘Break up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns.’ I submit before God, who will judge the
quick and the dead, that to preach faith without repentance is to sow among thorns. No harvest can be gathered from an
unplowed field. The fallow ground needs to be broken up. The most striking instance on record of repentance as a preparatory
work was the ministry of John the Baptist. He was sent ‘to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ He did it by preaching
repentance, and Mark says his preaching was ‘the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ Here is the true
starting point. Whoever starts this side of repentance makes a false beginning which vitiates his whole Christian profession.
When true repentance was preached and emphasized, there were not so many nominal professors of religion. To leave out or
minimize repentance, no matter what sort of a faith you preach, is to prepare a generation of professors who are such in name
only. I give it as my deliberate conviction, founded on twenty-five years of ministerial observation, that the Christian profession of
today owes its lack of vital godliness, its want of practical piety, its absence from the prayer meeting, its miserable semblance of
missionary life, very largely to the fact that old-fashioned repentance is so little preached. You can’t put a big house on a little
foundation. And no small part of such preaching comes from a class of modern evangelists who desiring more for their own
glory to count a great number of converts than to lay deep foundations, reduce the conditions of salvation by one-half and make
the other half but some intellectual trick of the mind rather than a radical spiritual change of the heart. Like Simon Magus, they
believe indeed, but ‘their heart not being right in the sight of God, they have no part nor lot in this matter. They are yet in the gall
of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.’ Such converts know but little and care less about a system of doctrine. They are
prayerless, lifeless, and to all steady church work reprobate” (B.H. Carroll, 1889).
 
“Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin. Repentance is a forsaking of sin. Real repentance is putting your trust in Jesus Christ so
you will not live like that anymore. Repentance is permanent. It is a lifelong and an eternity-long experience. You will never love
the devil again once you repent. You will never flirt with the devil as the habit of your life again once you get saved. You will
never be happy living in sin; it will never satisfy; and the husks of the world will never fill your longing and hungering in your soul.
Repentance is something a lot bigger than a lot of people think. It is absolutely essential if you go to heaven” (Lester Roloff,
Repent or Perish)
 
“To repent literally means to have a change of mind or spirit toward God and toward sin. It means to turn from your sins,
earnestly, with all your heart, and trust in Jesus Christ to save you. You can see, then, how the man who believes in Christ
repents and the man who repents believes in Christ. The jailer repented when he turned from sin to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ” (John R. Rice, What Must I Do to Be Saved?).
 
REPENTANCE WAS PREACHED BY BIBLE PREACHERS
 
Those who do not preach repentance or who make light of it or who claim it is the same as faith or who redefine it so that it has
nothing to do with sin are not following the Bible pattern for evangelism. They are following a manmade program. The bottom line is
that Bible preachers proclaimed repentance. If faith is the same as repentance, this would make no sense. Those who follow the Bible
will preach repentance and will require evidence thereof. Repentance was preached by John the Baptist (Mat. 3:1-10), by Jesus Christ
(Mat. 4:17; 9:13; 11:20-21; Lk. 13:2-5; 15:7, 10; 24:46-48), by the Christ’s disciples (Mk. 6:12), by Peter (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31;
8:22-23), and by Paul (Acts 17:30; 20:20-21; 26:20). The Bible says that God is “longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). There is no Bible example of people being saved who did not
evidence a change in their lives. The Apostle Paul, reviewing his ministry before King Agrippa, noted that he went about preaching to
Jews and Gentiles “that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance” (Acts 26:20). This is exactly the
message we are to preach today.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Repentance and Faith are two sides of the same coin.  One turns towards Christ from sin.

 

From the Way of Life Encyclopedia:

 

 

REPENTANCE. Bible repentance means a turning to God and a change of mind toward God that results in a change of life (Mt.
3:1-2; Lk. 5:32; 13:1-3; 18:13; Ac. 2:38; 5:31; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; 2 Pe. 3:9). There are two types of repentance: (1) Once for all
repentance by unbelievers unto salvation (Lk. 13:3; Acts 2:38). (2) Continual repentance by believers (Rev. 2:5, 16, 21-22).
 
SOME DEFINITIONS OF REPENTANCE
 
“Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of life” (Bruce Lackey).
 
“Repentance is ‘a change of mind Godward that leads to a judgment of self and one’s acts’ (1 Ki. 8:47; Eze. 14:6; Mt. 3:2; 9:13;
Lk. 15:7; Ac. 20:21; 2 Co. 7:9,10). This would not be possible but for the thought of mercy in God. It is the goodness of God that
leads to repentance (Ro. 2:4)” (Concise Bible Dictionary).
 
“Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of his holy law, and the basest
ingratitude towards a Being of infinite benevolence. This is accompanied and followed by amendment of life” (Noah Webster,
American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828).
 
“The preacher who leaves out repentance commits as grave a sin as the one who leaves out faith. I mean he must preach
repentance just as often, and with as much emphasis, and to as many people as he preaches faith. To omit repentance, to
ignore it, to depreciate it, is rebellion and treason. Mark its relative importance: You may make a mistake about baptism and be
saved, for baptism is not essential to salvation. You may be a Christian and not comprehend fully the high- priesthood of Jesus
Christ (Heb. 5 :11), but ‘Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.’ So said the Master Himself. Repentance is a preparatory
work. For thus saith the Lord: ‘Break up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns.’ I submit before God, who will judge the
quick and the dead, that to preach faith without repentance is to sow among thorns. No harvest can be gathered from an
unplowed field. The fallow ground needs to be broken up. The most striking instance on record of repentance as a preparatory
work was the ministry of John the Baptist. He was sent ‘to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ He did it by preaching
repentance, and Mark says his preaching was ‘the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ Here is the true
starting point. Whoever starts this side of repentance makes a false beginning which vitiates his whole Christian profession.
When true repentance was preached and emphasized, there were not so many nominal professors of religion. To leave out or
minimize repentance, no matter what sort of a faith you preach, is to prepare a generation of professors who are such in name
only. I give it as my deliberate conviction, founded on twenty-five years of ministerial observation, that the Christian profession of
today owes its lack of vital godliness, its want of practical piety, its absence from the prayer meeting, its miserable semblance of
missionary life, very largely to the fact that old-fashioned repentance is so little preached. You can’t put a big house on a little
foundation. And no small part of such preaching comes from a class of modern evangelists who desiring more for their own
glory to count a great number of converts than to lay deep foundations, reduce the conditions of salvation by one-half and make
the other half but some intellectual trick of the mind rather than a radical spiritual change of the heart. Like Simon Magus, they
believe indeed, but ‘their heart not being right in the sight of God, they have no part nor lot in this matter. They are yet in the gall
of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.’ Such converts know but little and care less about a system of doctrine. They are
prayerless, lifeless, and to all steady church work reprobate” (B.H. Carroll, 1889).
 
“Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin. Repentance is a forsaking of sin. Real repentance is putting your trust in Jesus Christ so
you will not live like that anymore. Repentance is permanent. It is a lifelong and an eternity-long experience. You will never love
the devil again once you repent. You will never flirt with the devil as the habit of your life again once you get saved. You will
never be happy living in sin; it will never satisfy; and the husks of the world will never fill your longing and hungering in your soul.
Repentance is something a lot bigger than a lot of people think. It is absolutely essential if you go to heaven” (Lester Roloff,
Repent or Perish)
 
“To repent literally means to have a change of mind or spirit toward God and toward sin. It means to turn from your sins,
earnestly, with all your heart, and trust in Jesus Christ to save you. You can see, then, how the man who believes in Christ
repents and the man who repents believes in Christ. The jailer repented when he turned from sin to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ” (John R. Rice, What Must I Do to Be Saved?).
 
REPENTANCE WAS PREACHED BY BIBLE PREACHERS
 
Those who do not preach repentance or who make light of it or who claim it is the same as faith or who redefine it so that it has
nothing to do with sin are not following the Bible pattern for evangelism. They are following a manmade program. The bottom line is
that Bible preachers proclaimed repentance. If faith is the same as repentance, this would make no sense. Those who follow the Bible
will preach repentance and will require evidence thereof. Repentance was preached by John the Baptist (Mat. 3:1-10), by Jesus Christ
(Mat. 4:17; 9:13; 11:20-21; Lk. 13:2-5; 15:7, 10; 24:46-48), by the Christ’s disciples (Mk. 6:12), by Peter (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31;
8:22-23), and by Paul (Acts 17:30; 20:20-21; 26:20). The Bible says that God is “longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). There is no Bible example of people being saved who did not
evidence a change in their lives. The Apostle Paul, reviewing his ministry before King Agrippa, noted that he went about preaching to
Jews and Gentiles “that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance” (Acts 26:20). This is exactly the
message we are to preach today.

 

Amen! The Word is clear that without repentance there is no salvation.

 

One of the problems is that many have a wrong understanding of what repentance is or means. Biblical repentance is a necessary part of being born again in Christ.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • Members

Amen! The Word is clear that without repentance there is no salvation.

 

One of the problems is that many have a wrong understanding of what repentance is or means. Biblical repentance is a necessary part of being born again in Christ.

 

Are you saying that we should preach repentance?  That is not considered "the Gospel" per se.  Repentance is a given, and it is why many will not come to Christ when they hear the Gospel: (Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.)  They know that there is a commitment, otherwise, many more would accept Christ.  To "preach repentance" is to emphasize works (Someone said that repentance is not works, but if we tell them they need to repent, it causes them to TRY to repent, and rest on that as their salvation.)

 

Anyway, as I said, I did not intend to make this an issue, it has been argued for many, many years among fundamentalists and others, and no definite solution seems to have been reached.  The point is to be a soul winner, and have a plan in case you "go blank", as sometimes happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Jesus began His public ministry by calling the lost to repentance.

 

"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17

 

We see in Mark that Jesus continued to preach in such manner.

 

"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." Mark 1:14-15

 

Jesus finished His time on earth in like manner, calling for sinners to repent.

 

"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Luke 24:47

 

Scripture also records the Apostles continued to preach repentance.

 

 

"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Acts 2:37-38

 

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:19

 

"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:" Acts 17:30

 

 

"Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:

But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." Acts 26:19-20

 

 

It's clear that repentance is necessary for salvation, and not a work otherwise Christ and the Apostles wouldn't have preached repentance as they clearly and consistently did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Whatever.

 

You preach it your way, and I'll preach it the right way!

 

If yu study repentance, you will soon discover that most of the time Jesus was talking to Jews, they were backslidden.

The Gospels and Acts were the formation of the church, they still kept the law for the most part.  John preached repentance to the Pharisees.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

"Repent" basically means to "turn from" or "turn against".

 

Holy Ghost conviction deals with your Sin, God's righteousness, and God's Judgement. In order to get "saved" means there must be something to be "saved" "from". That something is to be burned in Hell forever because of your sin nature. To "believe" on the Lord Jesus Christ is not some flippant mental assent of acknowledging that Jesus is real because the Bible says that the DEVILS believe in God!. No, you have to believe that your own wicked, vile sin condemns you to Hell and that Jesus is your ONLY hope. You, in effect, must "turn against" sin and self TO Jesus. It's not a step one,  step two...process. It's a single exercise of faith.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Whatever.

 

You preach it your way, and I'll preach it the right way!

 

If yu study repentance, you will soon discover that most of the time Jesus was talking to Jews, they were backslidden.

The Gospels and Acts were the formation of the church, they still kept the law for the most part.  John preached repentance to the Pharisees.

The right way is the Bible way. The verses I cited were not "mine", they are Scripture telling us exactly what Jesus, Peter and Paul said, to Jews and Gentiles alike. The way of salvation was the same for them as it is for us.

 

Heartstrings made a good post on this which agrees with Scripture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Right, heartstrings did have a good post.  I want all to know that I am not saying that we do not need to repent, I am saying we don't need to focus on that, but on faith.  Years ago they called repenting before you're saved "Lordship salvation" and that is what it sounds like many people are saying when they emphasize repentance "to be saved".  If we could repent before we were saved, we would not need Calvary, and it's great sacrifice.  I still maintain that repentance is at the time of conversion, or as soon as the prospect decides he wants to be saved.  He changed direction by seeking heaven instead of hell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...