God's Plan for Evangelism Part 3

This is God describing Himself: Exodus 34:6-7 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

Yes, He’s compassionate and loving and forgiving. But He does not leave the guilty unpunished.

Psalm 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

God’s rule over the universe is founded upon His remaining forever perfect and just. In order to understand how glorious and life-giving the gospel of Jesus Christ is, we need to understand that the loving and compassionate God is also holy and righteous and determined never to overlook or tolerate sin.

Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

You know, really, everyone wants God to deal with evil…just not our own!

So. In order to share the Gospel we have to have a clear answer to what the Gospel is. The Gospel is not about our personal improvement, our prosperity, worldly peace, politics or even our purpose in life. It’s about peace with God. Mending the broken relationship.

Romans 8:28-30 ²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

God causes all things to work together for good (Kingdom good!) “of those who love God” (believers). He justifies us, meaning He declares us righteous. So legally, in God’s thinking we are righteous as believers. If you can’t forgive yourself for something KNOW that if you repented and believe, God declares you righteous! And we are also imputed with righteousness by Jesus, meaning we are able to live it out by Christ’s power.

He also sanctifies us – meaning we are becoming more and more like His first born Son. We should be living like Christ; read the Bible, share the Gospel, serve others, go to church and show the fruits of the spirit. And this is all done for His Glorification now and later we will be glorified in Heaven.

The good news is: we were given the death penalty for our sins and Christ stepped in and took the punishment! 

There are some marks of true salvation:

1. A person will believe in Jesus.
2. They will not have a lifestyle of sin. We will sin. We will have pockets of sin, but we will not live a lifestyle of sin.
3. They will crave the Word.
4. They will do right before God.