What The Gospel Is and Is Not

1
What The Gospel Is and Is Not

• Clarifying Essential
• Gospel Issues

Presented by Bob DeWaay October 30, 2005
2
Pauls Gospel

• 1Corinthians 151, 2
• Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel
  which I preached to you, which also you received,
  in which also you stand, by which also you are
  saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached
  to you, unless you believed in vain.

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Pauls Gospel

• 1Corinthians 153, 4
• For I delivered to you as of first importance
  what I also received, that Christ died for our
  sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was
  buried, and that He was raised on the third day
  according to the Scriptures,

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The Roots of the False Man-Centered Gospel

• Charles Finney (Lectures on Revival)
• A revival is not a miracle according to another
  definition of the term miracle something
  above the powers of nature. There is nothing in
  religion beyond the ordinary powers of nature. It
  consists entirely in the right exercise of the
  powers of nature.

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The Roots of the False Man-Centered Gospel

• Charles Finney (Lectures on Revival)
• It is just that, and nothing else. . . A
  revival is not a miracle, nor dependent on a
  miracle, in any sense. It is a purely
  philosophical result of the right use of the
  constituted means as much so as any other
  effect produced by the application of means.

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The Roots of the False Man-Centered Gospel

• Charles Finney (Lectures on Revival)
• There must be excitement sufficient to wake up
  the dormant moral powers, and roll back the tide
  of degradation and sin. . . Men being so
  reluctant to obey God, will not act until they
  are excited.

7
Finneys Legal Axiom

• Finneys Systematic Theology
• That which demands a natural impossibility is
  not, and cannot be, moral law. The true
  definition of law excludes the supposition that
  it can, under any circumstances, demand an
  absolute impossibility. Such a demand could not
  be in accordance with the nature and relations of
  moral agents, and therefore practicability must
  always be an attribute of moral law. To talk of
  inability to obey moral law is to talk nonsense.

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Consequences of Finneys Teachings

• New Measures Evangelism
• The Benevolent Empire
• Postmillennialism
• Perfectionism
• Success Is More Important than Doctrine

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If However Finney is Wrong Then What Would We
Do?

• Preach the gospel in its native offense, knowing
  that all sinners will reject it any way unless
  God does a work of grace.
• Provide the means of grace to those who are
  converted.
• Pray for the Lord to send laborers into the
  harvest
• Pray for the return of Christ to rescue His own
  and judge the wicked world.

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Permanent Changes in Evangelicalism

• After Finney came Moody, Sunday, Healing Revivals
  and Billy Graham
• Only the Latter Rain/Healing movement was as
  heretical as Finney
• Nevertheless nearly every one kept some version
  of the altar call and rejected or neglected the
  doctrine of human inability.

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The Bible Teaches Inability

• But a natural man does not accept the things of
  the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
  him and he cannot understand them, because they
  are spiritually appraised. (1Corinthians 214)
• because the mind set on the flesh is hostile
  toward God for it does not subject itself to the
  law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and
  those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
  (Romans 87, 8)

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God Can Use Unusual Means If He Sees Fit

• Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
• Angels and Cornelius

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God Can Use That which is Less than Perfect

• Philippians 115, 18
• Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even
  from envy and strife, but some also from good
  will . . . What then? Only that in every way,
  whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is
  proclaimed and in this I rejoice, yes, and I
  will rejoice.

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We Need to Obey God and Use the Means Revealed in
Scripture

• 2Timothy 41, 2
• solemnly charge you in the presence of God and
  of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and
  the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom
  preach the word be ready in season and out of
  season reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great
  patience and instruction.

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We Need to Obey God and Use the Means Revealed in
Scripture

• 2Timothy 43, 4
• For the time will come when they will not endure
  sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears
  tickled, they will accumulate for themselves
  teachers in accordance to their own desires and
  will turn away their ears from the truth, and
  will turn aside to myths.

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What God Said He Would Do

• John 168
• And He The Holy Spirit, when He comes, will
  convict the world concerning sin, and
  righteousness, and judgment
• 1Corithians 121b
• God was well-pleased through the foolishness of
  the message preached to save those who believe.

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Common, Unbiblical Evangelical Terminology

• Accept Christ as Personal Savior
• Make a Decision for Jesus
• Ask Jesus into Your Heart
• Come to Jesus and Find Happiness and Purpose

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Biblical Terminology

• Repent and Believe the Gospel (Jesus Mark
  115b)
• I have not come to call the righteous but
  sinners to repentance. (Luke 532)
• that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be
  proclaimed in His name to all the nations,
  beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 2447)
• solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of
  repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus
  Christ. (Paul Acts 2021)

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Why Command People to Repent Unless they Have
the Natural Ability to do so?

• 2Timothy 225, 26
• with gentleness correcting those who are in
  opposition, if perhaps God may grant them
  repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
  and they may come to their senses and escape from
  the snare of the devil, having been held captive
  by him to do his will.

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Repentance is Part of the Universal Call

• Acts 1730, 31
• Therefore having overlooked the times of
  ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all
  people everywhere should repent, because He has
  fixed a day in which He will judge the world in
  righteousness through a Man whom He has
  appointed, having furnished proof to all men by
  raising Him from the dead.

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Some Hear the Effectual, Internal Call

• Romans 923, 24
• And He did so to make known the riches of His
  glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared
  beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also
  called, not from among Jews only, but also from
  among Gentiles.

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Some Hear the Effectual, Internal Call

• 2Timothy 19
• who has saved us and called us with a holy
  calling, not according to our works, but
  according to His own purpose and grace which was
  granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

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Essential Gospel Truths

• The Unique Person of Christ
• The Reason for His Death on the Cross
• The Blood Atonement
• His Resurrection
• Coming Judgment

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A Great Chasm Between Two Approaches

• Either there is some innate human ability
  (dormant moral powers) which can be excited
  by the right methods.
• Or all sinners are spiritually dead and unable
  and disinclined to obey God.

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A Great Chasm Between Two Approaches

• If human ability is true, then Finney and his
  many Evangelical followers are right. We should
  find out what will excite sinners into action and
  by whatever means do that.
• If Finney and his followers are wrong, we should
  preach the Gospel in its native offense and trust
  God to use it to save whoever will be saved.

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The Heir Apparent to Finneys Legacy

• It is my deep conviction that anybody can be won
  to Christ if you discover the key to his or her
  heart. . . . It may take some time to identify
  it. But the most likely place to start is with
  the persons felt needs. (Rick Warren The
  Purpose Driven Church, 219)

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The Heir Apparent to Finneys Legacy

• Finney wanted to create the millennium and a
  golden age of Christianity in the world through
  motivating Christians to take action
• Warren wants to institute his P.E.A.C.E. plan to
  solve the worlds biggest problems by motivating
  Christians to take action.

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There are Some Who Think Differently

• If our gospel is veiled to someone, it is veiled
  because that person, like all sinners, is unable
  to understand. Changing the message, manipulating
  the emotions or the will, is useless, since no
  one can believe unless God grants him
  understanding. (John MacArthur Hard to Believe,
  49)

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Applications

• Preach the Gospel according to the terms God has
  revealed and trust Him for the results.
• Resist the pernicious seeker movement on
  grounds that it is based on the fallacious idea
  of human ability.

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Preach the Gospel according to the terms God has
revealed and trust Him for the results.

• Romans 116
• For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is
  the power of God for salvation to everyone who
  believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

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Resist the Seeker Movement Preach the Gospel

• Romans 311
• There is none who understands, There is none who
  seeks for God
• Romans 1014
• How then will they call on Him in whom they have
  not believed? How will they believe in Him whom
  they have not heard? And how will they hear
  without a preacher?

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