This should not be any secret here. It is through the preaching the message of the Gospel, the “Good news”. But good news isn’t good news unless you first are aware of the bad news.
[1]A
street
preacher trying to witness and asked a person “are you saved?” The person happened to be a pastor of a
liberal main line denomination. He
replied smugly: “saved from what?”
You see unless a person sees they are a
sinner, that is they
have sinned against a Holy God and are under the wrath of God’s
judgment for
all eternity, they do not know they need to be saved.
Conviction of sin first comes by preaching of the Law. God gave us the 10 commandments. With this alone we can bring conviction to the heart of a sinner.
We have evidence to show the bible we have is a trustworthy text from antiquity. In it the prophets spoke of 100’s of things that would happen before they did. The open minded person can believe that the bible is credible, but that is not enough for salvation.
Having convinced such a person of its
trustworthiness, you
bring them back to the Law.
Before Jesus, John the Baptist preached repentance to prepare the way for the good news.
(Matt 3:2) Then
Jesus
Himself did (Matt 4:17) and so did the disciples (Mark 6:12). They were to repent to prepare there hearts
to receive the good news that was to come. Repentance
was necessary as we see in Luke 13:1-5:
“And some were present at the same time
reporting to Him
of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
And
answering, Jesus said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were
sinners
above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you,
No. But
unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on
whom the
tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were
sinners above
all men who lived in Jerusalem? I tell you, No. But unless you
repent, you
will all likewise perish.”
This repentance is born of a godly sorrow
for having
offended a Holy God and that wants to be reconciled to Him, not the
worldly
sorrow as of one just feeling guilt or regretting being caught in the
act. As Paul writes:
“For the grief according to God works
repentance to
salvation, not to be regretted, but the grief of the world works out
death.” 2
Cor 7:10
Once the person recognizes he has violated the laws of a Holy God, will be judged by that standard and rightly is afraid leading to repentance, you can go on to share the good news.
How is this gift obtained?
“For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not
of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should
boast.” Eph
2:8, 9
So it is by grace, and this grace is a gift
of God. This gift is received by faith.
How does faith come?
“Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by
the Word of
God.” Rom 10:17
This is why we must preach the Word of God
and not the word
of man.
How does one exercise his faith and receive
the gift?
“…if you confess the Lord Jesus, and
believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved For with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Everyone
believing on Him shall not be put to shame." Rom 10:9-11
This is the confession of faith whereby we can be saved.
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May 22, 2006