What Exactly Is the Gospel?

Tom:  Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth, to look to God’s word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to him.

We are going through Dave Hunt’s book, Seeking and Finding God. It’s a new book. We’re pretty excited about it. It’s a book that Dave wrote with a special purpose.

Dave, we’ve mentioned it before. I don’t think we mentioned it last week, but I think it’s good for you to tell the listeners. Why did you write this book?  It’s only 120 pages. That’s a short book.

Dave:  Shortest book ever I think.

Tom:  Right.

Dave:  Well Tom, as we’ve often mentioned, the Lord leads me to so many people on airplanes. Just the other day, he sits me next to a young lady. She’s reading a book, not likely to be interested and yet in a few moments, she’s thrown the book down and we are deep in a conversation. She was a Catholic, but not taking it too seriously. Although traditional Catholic or cultural Catholic. And a business lady, coming to a seminar in Bend as I recall.

Tom:  Oh?

Dave:  Just from my last trip coming home. I can tell you Tom, as I said to her, I can prove the existence of God by who he sits me next to on airplanes. And I said now, how many people would I find on this airplane who are as eager as you are to talk about this? To learn more?

As I gave her the gospel I could just see the lights go on in her eyes and I believe right there, she opened her heart to Christ. No someone like that, you want to give them something to follow up and help them to understand.  I mean in a few minutes you’re not going to really ground someone in the word of God. Well she wanted the video, A Woman Rides the Beast. We are just in the process of revising and updating that.

Tom:  Right, mmhmm.

Dave:  So I couldn’t send that to her yet.  I sent her the book. And I also sent her this book, Seeking and Finding God, In Search of the True Faith. I wrote it especially for that purpose Tom. To give to people—now I don’t carry it with me to hand—I’m not pushing it on people, but when the Lord leads me to someone who is interested, they give me their name and address, they want some additional information, this is the book I send. Someone I’ve just led to the Lord or someone who is obviously interested like the lawyer from Ireland that the Lord sat me next to. Amazing circumstances. And a Catholic, so angry about Catholicism. And yet he said, these were his exact words, “I want to believe if I had evidence.”

Well I said, “The Lord sat the guy who has the evidence right next to you for a purpose.” Now that was some time ago. I didn’t have this book then, but I have since sent it to him. Actually I sent a whole pile of things. He was very, very interested.

So you have lead someone to the Lord, or you want to lead someone to the Lord. Tom, I wrote this for myself. It would be the ideal book that I would that I would have to give to someone like that to follow them up.

Tom:  And Dave, I think you make a good point. Sometimes, we Christians, I know I’m guilty of that, we’ve got answers and nobody’s got any questions. But every once (chuckling) in a while, I mean in your case, you know it happens to you a lot, but when the Lord brings somebody into your life, that is seeking, that is looking for something.

Dave:  There are a lot of them out there Tom.

Tom:  Yeah, yeah.

Dave:  If we just trust….

Tom:  And if we cry out to the Lord. I mean you pray all the time, “Lord, send me somebody.” Paul, he asked the people to pray that, you know, a door would open for him to present the gospel and so forth.

Dave:  Tom it happens in cabs! Recently, well we left Sydney, Australia, what? A couple weeks ago. It seems like a long time ago, having been in New Zealand and Australia for six weeks. The young man driving the shuttle that took us, my wife and me, from the hotel to the airport. It was short drive, probably ten minutes. Well, I’ve got two artificial hips, it really helps if I can sit up front. So I’m up front beside the driver and it doesn’t take just a couple of instances. Well he’s a Muslim, young Muslim and doesn’t understand much about Islam and in our conversation between the hotel and the airport I’m able to give him the gospel. And he’s listening actually, interested. And he gives me his name and address and wants some additional information. So of course I sent him some things and I also sent him this book.

Tom:  Yeah, Seeking and Finding God.

Well, if you’ve been following our program for awhile, you know that we’ve been covering this book. We usually try to do a chapter a week each program per week. But sometimes we find some things in a particular chapter that’s really important and really—not that the other aspects of it are not important—but we find things that are deeper and take more time and are really worthwhile. And Dave, that’s what I really believe about Chapter 7 of your book. The title is “What is the Gospel?” Now as I travel, I don’t travel nearly as much as you do, but I’ve had opportunities to you know, either at conferences or I’ve gone to conferences to observe and see what’s going on in the church, what’s being presented and so on. And I have a chance to talk to a lot of people and the thing that really grieves me Dave, is that as I’ve been on university campuses and so on, Christian universities, I find that very few young people really understand the gospel. And they know some basics about it, but they don’t understand it well enough to discern,  let’s say other groups or other belief systems and so on that in effect are contrary to the gospel. So it’s a real problem and I think all of us as Christians, we need to review, we need to understand and then be able to explain the gospel. You know Dave, when you say that you have this book, one of the things that I want to sort of exhort our listeners—is that you can’t just give somebody something, right? (Laughing) I mean suppose every once in awhile it works out, but you explain the gospel as far as, for as long a time as you have with somebody and this is a follow up thing. But other people—well, here I’ll just buy this book and I’ll give it to them and….

Dave:  No, no, you can’t do that. So you trust God to lead you to people and there are many people out there who are seeking; they’re interested. They are thinking and they are concerned. And so that was why I wrote this book. Now, as to the gospel, the Bible says, Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. IT is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” So we know that if you believe the gospel you will be saved. Saved from what? You think well what is the gospel? Well there is a problem between God and man. There’s no doubt about it. We are separated from God by sin. And this is a serious matter. How is this going to be resolved? What is does the gospel save us from? Why do we need to believe this. Well it involves man’s eternal destiny because as we’ve explained many times, and it only takes me a minute or two on an airplane or where ever to explain it. You’re brain does not originate your thoughts. If it did, you are wondering what is my brain going to think of next? No, you originate your thoughts. You are the thinker, you make the choices, you live inside of a physical body and you’re brain is like a computer that you use to operate this body and so forth. And to communicate with others. But when your body is rotting, to put it bluntly, in the grave, the soul and spirit, the real person, the real you that made those choices that lived in that body does not cease to exist. Now where will you be? Forever actually. The laws of physics and chemistry do not apply to non physical beings and we are non physical beings living in a physical body. Well then there is not a person on this earth that should not be very, very concerned. One day we all die. You cannot escape that. Well what does that mean and where am I going? Is there a God? Does he have some ideas? Does God make the rules? And are we going to have to abide by them? Tom, I don’t think any rational person can just slough that off.

And this young lady that I was talking with the other day, in fact I said, now I don’t want to push on you. And she said, “No, this is…” she actually said, “This is fun! This is interesting!”

Well, it is!

Tom:  Yeah, who would talk to you about it? If somebody has these thoughts, who are they going to talk to? It is a unique situation. And we should take advantage of that without pushing it on people.

Dave:  Right. Death is a fearful thing. And that’s why most people put it off. We don’t want to think about it. Let’s put it off. But it’s like planning for your retirement. This is more than retirement. This is more important. Well you better think about it. So, it’s a legitimate topic of concern. And anyone ought to be concerned about it if you approach them in the right way. And trust God to guide you to them.

Tom:  Dave, you make a couple of statements in here that are so important. You say, “The gospel is simple and precise leaving no room for misunderstanding or negotiation.”

You also said just a minute ago, you were talking about God making the rules. This is not your gospel, it’s not my gospel. This is God’s gospel. This is the Gospel of Christ. So we have to understand it as he presents it and lays it out.

Dave:  Tom, the truth doesn’t change. Mathematics- 2+2=4, doesn’t change. It never will change. The fact of God’s existence, that he created us, that we like lost sheep have gone astray. In fact, most people Tom, anyone listening, I don’t care whether you’re a Christian or not, most people even call themselves Christians, rarely think about God. Rarely are concerned. They’re running their own life, their job, their entertainment, they watch the same TV shows, go to the same movies, have the same ambitions, the same hopes as everyone else….

Tom:  Sin the same sins.

Dave:  Unfortunately. Well, but wait a minute. God does exist. There is a problem between God and man. There is no question about that. We are like Adam and Eve hiding behind a tree in the Garden from the voice of God because we know there is a problem between us that hasn’t changed Tom. God doesn’t change; man doesn’t change. The fact of our existence doesn’t change. The fact that there’s an eternity out there through which we will exist here in our sin separated from God where ever that may be. The lake of fire the Bible calls it. Or in God’s presence in inexpressible joy forever. That doesn’t change.

So this idea that well, we’ve got to make the gospel relevant; well we’ve got to ah, you know, people think differently now than they did before.

Tom:  Post modern generation Dave. How many times have you heard, “Oh we’ve gotta, we’ve gotta present the gospel so it really can be received by those who are Generation X and so on and so forth.

Dave:  Right.

Tom:  What do you think?

Dave:  Far from God. And we’re going to present it in a way that will be appealing to them. Well then you’re going to change the gospel. The gospel obviously doesn’t change.  God doesn’t change. Man’s needs do not change. Okay, so this is the simple gospel. Not mine, God’s.  And it involves the eternal destiny of mankind and how the penalty was paid by God himself coming to this earth through the virgin birth to be our representative on the cross and take the penalty that God laid upon him for our sins.

Tom:  Well Dave, you lay out three basic elements of the gospel. Let’s go over those.

Who Christ is, who we are, and what Christ’s death accomplished.  Let’s take them one at a time.

What do you have to know about Jesus Christ?

Dave:  Jesus said in John 8, “Unless you believe that I AM and he is in italics, I AM is the I AM. That’s the name of God. God says, “You want to know my name? Yahweh, I AM that I AM, the self-existent one. Jesus is claiming that he is God. He is the I AM. Jesus said if you do not believe that you will die in your sins and where I go you cannot come.

Now this is not my word, and this is not something that you can change. Jesus declared that. He said I am THE way, THE truth, THE life, no man comes to the Father, but by Me. 

So if you don’t believe that Jesus is God, you’re looking to someone less than God to save you. It won’t work. You can’t change it.

Tom, I’ve said it a few times on this program probably, but I’ll probably say it again. You want to call yourself a Christian? You can’t do it unless you follow Jesus. Now if you want to invent your own religion, go ahead, but don’t you dare call it Christianity unless you follow what Christ said, unless you have believed in Him as he declares himself to be and unless you embrace the gospel, you embrace his word, okay?  You can’t call yourself a Christian and that’s the tragedy we have today. We’ve got people calling themselves Christians. Pastors who claim to be Christian pastors and they violate the Bible. They don’t follow Jesus, they do not believe in Jesus as who he claimed to be and you know some of the polls. I don’t know how many pastors even doubt the resurrection. Jesus said you must believe that he rose from the dead. This is the gospel. You don’t believe he rose from the dead? Okay.

So the Gospel is simply that Christ Jesus is God. He came to this earth through the virgin birth, he became a man, a real man. He didn’t cease to be God. So he is the unique person who is God and man in one person and there will never be another one like him. You and I will not be God and man in one person. But we can be saved, redeemed, forgiven of our sins, and become the children of God. Okay.

So he came here, he….

Tom:  Dave, can I just add to this? There are so many ideas of Jesus out there now. When we see a proliferation, we have of movies that have a biblical perspective, whether it be The Passion of the Christ, or Judas or you know, they’re on television and so on. So they give you a different perspective and some of them, the Jesus that you see is actually a sinner just like us, even though he’s saying the words from scripture and so on. But he’s got to be sinless doesn’t he?

Dave:  Absolutely. If he were not sinless, he could not die for the sins of others. He would be under the penalty of God’s judgment for his own sins. So Christ lived a perfect sinless life, he allowed men to reject him and that shows what sin is. He didn’t have to be crucified except that the prophets foretold that he would before crucifixion was ever known. One of the many signs, one of the many prophecies that would prove that he was the Messiah. But being nailed to a cross didn’t save us and being scourged and beaten by Roman soldiers, that did not pay for the sins of the world. Although Mel Gibson’s film would give you to believe that. But as he hung upon the cross, rejected by men, hated and mocked and persecuted and crucified. Well he said from the cross, “Father, forgive them.” It shows the love of God. So in the cross we see both the horror of the sin of man’s heart that would tear God from his throne, would reject the very God who created him, and we at the same, we see the greatest manifestation of God’s love that you could ever ask. When man is doing his worst, God forgives man and he puts on Christ the penalty for the sins even of those who have nailed him there and have crucified him and who mock him and so forth. Jesus says, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” The Father could not forgive them unless Christ paid the penalty for their sins.

Tom:  Right.

Dave:  So he pays the penalty for the sins of the very ones who cry, “Away with him, crucify him!” and mock and crucify him. Okay? So, that we must believe. We must believe he rose from the dead. Did he not rise from the dead? Then, if Christ is not risen Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15, you are still in your sins. If his sacrifice for sin was accepted by the Father, then he would be raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. If Christ is still in the grave, then God did not accept Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. So we must also believe that he resurrected. Not a spiritual idea, not that he lives on in the memory of people, no! He said to his disciples, “Handle me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones like you see me have.” Okay?

So we must also believe that he rose from the dead. He’s ascended to the Father’s right hand. One day he’s coming back. In the meantime, those who believe in Him, who accept his payment for their sins (it’s that simple), they are forgiven. They are given the gift of eternal life.

I don’t remember the latest poll Tom, I think it was 35 or 40 percent of those who call themselves born-again Christians don’t believe in the resurrection. Well, you are lost. You believe in a dead Christ. A dead Christ can’t save you from anything. So these are the simple elements of the gospel.

Tom:  Well Dave, we really covered who Christ is and what his death accomplished. One of the things we seem to be missing today is who we are. You look anywhere. Whether it’s in Christianity or look in the world and man is being elevated. Man is being perceived or taught to believe that he’s something when he’s not. We’re sinners. We’re under condemnation.

Dave:  See Tom, they forget God. And they talk about the human potential. Oh you have such a great potential in you. You are a wonderful person.

The office sent me a birthday card. It was my birthday a couple of days ago and I was in Winnipeg. And we had a good laugh about it. It was “Purpose Driven” card telling me what a wonderful person I am.

Tom:  That was the logo. That was the uhhh—

Dave:  And that I am—

Tom:  Series.

Dave:  …Unique and how special I am and how wonderful and so forth. And you get this teaching from Robert Schuller, you get it from so many people out there. You need to build up your self esteem. Don’t feel so lowly about yourself. Lift your head up cause you’ve got a tremendous potential. So the salvation for them is getting in touch with your inner self. Finding out who you really are. Well, who I really am is a sinner separated from God by my sin. And unless I repent, unless I recognize my sin and my need of a Savior, salvation is of no value to someone who doesn’t know that he needs to be saved.

And from what are going to be saved? From God’s judgment.

Tom:  Wrath.

Dave:  God’s wrath upon sin. I think God is angry. I know that he’s angry. It says he’s angry with the wicked every day. But he defers his anger; he is not willing that any should perish. He is long suffering. He offers salvation. But he will not offer it forever. And I would just urge anyone out there if you have not repented of your sin, if you have not turned to Christ, you’ve not said, “Oh, God I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sins. I’m sorry for my rebellion. Forgive me.” And turn to Christ and received Him as the One who paid the penalty for your sins. You’re under God’s judgment; under his wrath. And don’t just put it off to some other time. The Bible says, “Behold now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Tom:  You know people say well, God, for him to be angry and then to condemn and so on…. This is God’s justice. He’s a just God. And if somebody complains about his just…I mean we all want justice, but if we received justice we would be separated from him forever. But in addition to being a just God; he is a God of love. So he paid the penalty for our sins. Dave, and it’s a gift isn’t it? Free gift.

Dave:  Free gift. You can’t earn it; you can’t merit it. There’s nothing you can do for it. All you have to do to receive a gift is receive the gift. And the Bible says, “The wages of sins is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The only way he can give it to you is because Christ paid the full penalty and you must believe that to be saved.