Grasp the Gospel
Before you share your faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The gospel from two perspectives
“in the air”: creation, fall, redemption, and new creation
“on the ground” God, humanity, Christ, response
The Ruler
The Ruler
Misconceptions of God
God is not
Santa (Blesses those who deserve it)
A vending machine (Blesses those who have the ‘cash’)
drill sergeant (Punishes those who step out of line)
deadbeat dad (Absent and doesn’t care)
Which do you feel most prominent in our day?
How would you respond with Scripture? How would you convey the ruler of the gospel from Scripture?
The Genesis story in response to
God as Santa:
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
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18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
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21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
...
God as vending machine (Blesses those who have the ‘cash’)
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
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God as drill sergeant (Punishes those who step out of line)
5 “Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 “For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. 8 “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Deadbeat dad (absent and doesn’t care)
6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.
So what?
Who or what are we accountable to? We were made by God therefore he owns us.
Who are what really satisfies us? We were made for therefore he alone satisfies us.
“Human beings were custom-designed to find meaning and fulfillment and life in our Creator above all else - above success, above popularity, above recreation, above romance, above self.”
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
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God has always intended to give us Himself, purpose, fellowship, and all we need to be satisfied. In the garden we had enough.
Application:
Gospel literacy goes beyond the Roman road as fruitful as the Roman road is. We need to be ready to present God in the way God has revealed Himself to us. In the narrative of Scripture.
One helpful goal: strive to present the gospel within the story of Scripture. That’s how God has revealed Himself to us. We do well to do the same.
When we’re reading our Bibles ask those two questions:
How does Scripture present God as ruler requiring our accountability
How does Scripture present God as satisfying?
The turn in the conversation.
Do you see God as satisfying?
Have you served God faithfully?
No....
The Revolt
The Revolt
“The tentacles of sin have deformed our hearts and disordered our loves.”
By nature and decision we are in rebellion against God.
Sin is relational more than behavioral.
Responding to misconceptions.
How does the gospel get changed if we merely address sin as a behavior?
“This is going to make you a better person”
“If you stop acting a particular way, then there’s nothing wrong with you.”
“If your sin can be subdued then we’ve accomplished deliverance.”
The behavioral aspect of sin is merely a symptom of a deeper problem.
From the narrative of Scripture where would you point to the relational aspect of sin?
24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
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2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”
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14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
2. Sin is more vertical than horizontal
3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
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2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
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27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
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1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Two considerations for gospel literacy.
How does Scripture convey sin as relational?
How does Scripture convey sin as against God (who will judge)?
The Rescue
The Rescue
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
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God became a man in Jesus
Jesus fulfilled the law’s requirements
Jesus died for us as a substitute
Jesus grants believers His perfect record
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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“the sweet exchange”
“on the cross God treated Christ as if he had lived a believer’s sinful life, so that he could treat us as if we had lived Christ’s spotless life.”
...
“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in you.” - Richard Sibbes
...but Jesus didn’t stay dead.
He rose on the third day granting us the assurance that we will be raised with Him on that last day.
Summary.
Through the narrative of Scripture let’s work to convey the truths of
substitution
resurrection
in our own words.
The Response
The Response
Turn (Repentance)
Israel like Adam and Eve were put out of the garden and called to repentance that they might be restored to the garden of Israel.
12 “Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord; ‘I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the Lord; ‘I will not be angry forever. 13 ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord. 14 ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the Lord; ‘For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.’
Trust (Faith)
15 “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.
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6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
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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.
Treasure.
We receive again the presence and glory of God to enjoy!
The call to faith is more than a call to be spared from judgement is a call to gain what we were always made for.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” 5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
The big question:
Are you, right now, relying on Jesus alone for your standing before God?
In our own Bible reading, how does Scripture call us to treasure Christ such that Christ is more than the “get out of hell free” card? How we view Christ will be how we call people to Him.
