THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST - from (Monergism.com)

THE GOSPEL IS A MESSAGE ABOUT:

1. GOD

   • Is. 6:1-5, 5:16; Rev.4:8-11. God is Holy.
   • Dan. 4:35; Ps. 135:6. God is Sovereign.
   • 1 Jn. 4:8,16. God is Love.
   • Heb. 12:29. God is a Communing Fire.
   • Gen. 17:1; Jer. 32:17; Is. 43:13; Amos 9:2-3. God is Omnipotent.
   • Ps. 139:1-6; Rom. 11:33-36. God is Omniscient
   • Jer. 23:23-24; Ps. 139:7-12. God is Omnipresent
   • Ps. 145:17. God Is Righteous.
   • Ex. 34:6-7. God is Merciful.
   • Rev. 29:11-15. God is a Judge.
   • Jn. 4:23-24. God is a Spirit.
   • 1 Jn. 5:7; 2 Cor.13:14; I Pet. 1:2. God is one God revealed in three distinct persons; Father, Son, & Holy Spirit (trinity, not modalism).
   • Jn. 1:1-3, 14,18, 10:30-33, 17:5, 20:28; Acts 20:28; Rm. 9:5; Phi. 2:5-11; Col. 1:15-17, 2:9; I Tim. 3:16; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:1-12; II Pet. 1:1; Rev. 1:8. Jesus is God--YHWH.

2. SIN

   • Gen. 2:15-17. Adam and Eve's disobedience resulted in spiritual and physical death.
   • Rom. 6:23. The wages of sin is death.
   • Dt. 6:4-5. However, before sin entered the world man's purpose was to serve God and glorify Him.
   • Matt. 22:34-40. Therefore, man is now living in an abnormal condition.
   • Rom. 3:10, 5:6-9; Lk. 5:31,32 There is none righteous, no not one!
   • Rom. 3:23. Everyone, without exception, is a sinner.
   • Rom 5:12. Adam's sin nature is inherited by all mankind.
   • Is. 64:6-7. God views our good deeds as “filthy rags.”
   • Eph. 2:8-9. God rejects our good works.
   • Ps. 51:5, 58:3. We are sinners from birth.
   • Jn. 3:19. Sinners love their sin.

3. THE LAW

   • Ex. 20:1-20. The Ten Commandments must by obeyed perfectly.
   • Mt. 22:34-40. If we disobey the 1st & 2nd greatest commandments we have broken all of the Bible’s laws.
   • Ja. 2:10-11. If we break one commandment we’ve broken them all.
   • Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:24. The purpose of the Ten Commandments is to reveal sin in us and disclose our inability in keeping the law’s demands. This creates an attitude of desperation in sinners to be delivered from the guilt and penalty of the law. Christ alone is the sinners hope.

4. THE VANITY OF LIFE

   • Heb. 9:27. Three things are common to all: Life, Death, & Judgment.
   • 2 Pet. 3:8; Ja. 4:13-14. Life Is short: The earth will be covered by all new people 110 years from now. Our life span is compared to one grain of sand taken from one planet among a thousand planets covered with sand. After you die no one remembers you (Eccl. 1:11, 2:16).
   • Eccl. 12:8,13,14, Life is vain: Solomon, the wisest man who lived, had everything this world has to offer yet he judged this life as totally vain and futile. Nevertheless, man pursues the vain things of this world against all reason, logic and intelligence (2 Tim. 3:7).
   • Lk. 12:16-21. Life is fragile: You may die tonight! Many labor to extend their life through exercise and vitamins but will add only a few years.
   • Eccl. 5:15; 1 Tim. 6:7; Lk. 9:24. Money and riches are vain.

5. HELL & JUDGEMENT

   • Rev. 20:11-15. The great white throne judgment.
   • Matt. 25:41-46. Everlasting fire and punishment for the unsaved.
   • Heb. 9:27. After this life comes judgment.
   • Lk. 16:19-31. Hell is a place of unceasing pain and torment with no escape.

6. THE NEW BIRTH

   • Jn. 3:1-7. Jesus teaches that the “new birth” is necessary for salvation.
   • Jn. 1:13. Salvation is not inherited from our parents, secured by our effort, nor decided by our will, but is a process by which we are “born of God.”
   • 2 Cor. 5:17. To be born again means that our old life is replaced by a new one.
   • Eph. 4:21-24; Col. 3:9-10. When a person becomes “born again” the Bible describes him as a “new person,” who brings forth new fruit.
   • Gal. 6:15. All that matters is that we become a “new creation.”

7. GRACE

   • Eph. 2:8,9. Grace is a free gift, it is unmerited favor.
   • Acts 15:11. We are saved by the grace of Christ.
   • Rom. 4:3-5. Salvation is by grace through faith and not by the deeds of the law.
   • Tit. 3:5-7; Rom.3:24. We are “Justified” freely by His grace.

8. REPENTANCE

   • Lk. 13:3. Unless we repent, we will all perish.
   • Acts 3:19. We must repent and be converted.
   • Matt. 4:17. Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” however; the world ridicules the need of repentance.
   • Acts 26:20. We must repent and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.
   • I Jn. 1:9. If we confess our sins He will forgive us our sins.
   • Prov. 28:13. He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confess and forsakes them will have mercy.
   • Ps. 66:18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

9. FAITH

   • Heb. 11:6. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
   • Jn. 20:24-29. Blessed are they who do not see yet believe.
   • Jn. 3:16-19. Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal fife.
   • Eph. 2:8. We are saved by grace “through faith.”
   • Gal. 3:23-26. We are saved through faith in Christ and not by keeping the law.
   • Rom. 3:28, 5:1. We ore justified through faith in Christ.
   • Gal. 3:11; Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:38; Hab. 2:4. “The just shall live by faith.”

10. SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST ALONE

    • Jn. 14:6. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
    • 1 Jn. 5:11-13. He that has the “Son” has life, and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life­.
    • Acts 4:10-12. Salvation is in none other than Jesus Christ.
    • Rev. 3:20. Jesus knocks on the door of our heart.
    • Rom. 10:13. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
    • Jn. 3:36. He who does not believe on the Son of God has the wrath of God on him.

---

This concise overview of the Gospel is an excellent tool for Bible study, discipleship, evangelism and group studies. For a laminated copy of this card to keep in your
Bible for ready use write to: CHRIST BIBLE Pulpit, P.O. Box 5772, Oakland, CA.
94605 U.S.A.; or E-mail us @ wildernesstable@yahoo.com; or call (510) 727-1877.

Studying the Bible

I like to use books when I study the Bible rather than the internet. I find that in using the internet, I get distracted too easily and get nothing done. I invariably begin browsing for books on Amazon.com or look at some programming web page or update my online photo gallery or something equally useless. There are however many good tools online for Bible study. A few of them are as follows: Blue Letter Bible, and e-sword. E-sword is a program for download with modules. Blue-Letter-Bible is an online Bible study tool that my friend Mike recommended to me.

I find myself being increasingly more old-fashioned. Writing a letter instead of an email, wearing plain clothing, and books. I am creating quite a good collection of Bible study materials and enjoy using them. I do however realize the power of PC and mac programs like Logos Bible software or e-sword. I do like to use programs like that because they have great articles by dead preachers that I like to read.

In studying the Bible, I have a good literal translation, a Vine's and Strong's Dictionary, a greek/english new testament and maybe one or two other translations that are less literal in case I am meditating on a scripture and don't have a good Bible dictionary handy. If I am studying a verse such as Matthew 5:3, I have learned to look up certain words in the origional greek because they often have a wider meaning than the translators used. I know there are certain ones who believe that THEIR translation has the all-supreme-exact-infallible translation of that word from greek to english. In reality, those people linguistically ignorant. Any person who has learned to speak a language other than english had to come to the realization that every language has words that translate differently and there are in many cases no exact translations for similar words.

An good example is the difference between the renderings in the Bible of, "be merciful" and "be propitiate". The english versions of the Bible render Luke 18:13, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" or something similar. The real translation should be, "God, be propitiate toward me the sinner!" In webster's dictionary, propitiate has almost the exact meaning that the Greek word, hilaskomai has: To conciliate (an offended power); appease: propitiate the gods with a sacrifice. Basically, the tax collector(publican) is asking God to apply the atoning sacrifice to him not to just be merciful to him because God is the kind that just forgives those who ask him. God is not that way.

So we must come to him realizing that our God forgives us through the passion of Christ, that is the suffering from the wrath of God poured on him because of our sins. Because Jesus took our sins upon him on the cross and we must come to him broken and humble, knowing that we deserve the wrath of God and offering no defense on our behalf. We must know that God is just in condemning us and that he cannot simply overlook what we have done because he demands absolute perfection and are not perfect so God requires either that we pay for our sins or that we humbly submit to God's verdict and ask for the forgiveness based on the suffering of Jesus for what we have done.

What should that inspire in you? Namely a life sparked and energized by that reality to live for God rather than yourself. You are a pathetic wretch apart from living your life in light of that reality and submitting to God's ownership of you.

At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry

Can a Christian man really maintain a pure heart in America’s sexually charged culture? Can he truly honor God with his thought life? The answer is resoundingly YES! And the At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry 20th Anniversary Edition goes right to the heart and proves it.

Put an end to the mystery of lust and step into a life of freedom with the proven biblical answers that have helped thousands.

Something new for men at every level of the struggle:

• Fresh insights from 20 years of counseling in every chapter.
• Goes deeper than its predecessor in unearthing the roots of sexual sin.
• Two new chapters address Internet porn, the eroding morality of America and deeply examine a man’s inner life.

Endorsements

“The reason I am writing this foreword for Steve is that he has based everything in this book on God’s Word. It is foundational, inspirational, confrontational—just what you need. This is your book. Put the Bible and this book side by side—reading them—and let the Word do the work. Thank God for a man like Steve Gallagher, who will tell the truth and let the truth make us free. Live Free!”
The Late Dr. Edwin Louis Cole, Founder of Christian Men’s Network

“At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry is one of the best books out there on this topic. I recommend that you get this book.”
Beverly LaHaye, Concerned Women for America

“I do a lot of counseling of men struggling with sexual addiction. Far more than any book I have encountered, Sexual Idolatry cuts right to the heart of the problem. Steve Gallagher has finally given the evangelical world a book that uses the Word of God to deal with this terrible epidemic.”
Dr. Robert K. Wetmore, Professor of Theology at Toccoa Falls College

“Steve Gallagher has nailed the roots of sexual addiction by naming it an idolatry. This kind of spiritual aggression against God has but one cure at its foundation—brokenness, repentance, and walking daily in the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s transforming way is revealed in this book.”
Dr. Tim Clinton, President of American Association of Christian Counselors

“Evangelical Christianity is indebted to Steve Gallagher for turning the pain of his past into a path toward purity for those in bondage to sexual idolatry.”
Richard Dobbins, Executive Director of Emerge Ministries

Love Comes From Purity

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;" - 1Pe 1:22-23

What I believe this means is that purity doesn't come from being born again, it comes from obedience to the truth that we have already believed. There is a progression here:

1. obedience to the truth (the gospel of repentance and belief in Jesus, Mark 1:14-15)
2. resulting purity
3. sincere brotherly love
4. encouragement to pursue a deeper love for the brothers

To purify one's soul comes from having been obedient to the gospel of Jesus which is, "repent and believe in Jesus for the salvation of your souls." This is confirmed from the very beginning of the book where it says in verse 3: "he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,".

Of course, being born again, is a new heart and new life. A new feeling toward God and a realization of ones own dependence on God to live the Christian life. The living hope is Jesus. He is alive and we all hope to attain to the ressurection of the dead. Of course, our hope is a confident one. We are not hoping as if we were hoping that it doesn't rain tomorrow. We "have" hope because of something that we believe. That is more of the idea conveyed when God says, a "living hope".

So, as a result of the new birth that comes from God causing us to understand our hopelessness and need for Jesus and causing us to believe only in Him, we are purifying ourselves because we are new creations and we do this by obeying the gospel that we have heard. That is, the word of God.

In purifying ourselves, we are preparing ourselves for loving our bretheren. The wording of the text implies that without purifying oneself by obeying God's word, one can not love someone even in the most basic sense which is brotherly love. If we are unable to love each other, apart from being born again and thus purified and able to finally love each other, there is no wonder that our human efforts at love are always going to fail. Why? because we are fallen from the perfect state that God created us and live in seperation from his divine attributes. We can only be more like God when we obey him. Why? because obedience to God's word means to put sins to death: "sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry"(Col 3:5). If we don't put sins to death, we are being disobedient to God's word and therefore are not pure, and most likely not born again. The flip-side of this is that without being born again you can not put sins to death or be obedient to God's word!

So how is one born again? Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:14-15). Jesus said it himself, repent and believe. What do we need to repent of and what is the gospel? Repentance means in the Strong's to think differently or afterwards. This means to have a change of mind about what you are doing. For example, you were going to the store and you changed your mind. In other words, you repented. Why? You repented because you decided you could make due with what you had. That idea that you needed the butter or whatever you were going to get was thrown out because you realized that you had something else that would do.

The beginning of our purification process comes from our new birth. Our new birth is the result of Jesus Christ using his Word to educate us about what we need to change our minds about. What we need to be corrected in is our view of self. Everyone is born thinking that they are sinless and that everyone else sins against them. God wants us to get the idea that we are sinful and we sin against everyone else but the most important one that we are sinning against and really the one that we are sinning against is God himself. So what God tells us in the Bible is, "You are a bad person. All your addictions and problems are a result of your choosing to live your life your own way by your own rules and your desire to live for everything under the sun except me. You have worshipped all the created things but have forgotten about your creator who formed you and gave you life."

So God wants us to deliver and account to ourselves about all these things and wake up and realize that we are acutally following everyone else on the road to hell and that we should fall down on our knees realizing that we can't make ourselves "good" or we are not good anyway and that we need God and that our hearts are bad and we need a new one. We confess our sins and our being sinners to Jesus and ask him to forgive us for living our lives according to our own wisdom and submit to God's solution. Namely, give control of our lives to Him! That is what repentance is and what God wants from us. This is the first thing that takes place. We are born again when we repent and subsequently believe in Jesus. This can take place quickly in the life of someone who already belives that Jesus died and rose from the dead.

It was a strange thing in my own life. I believed (really believed) that Jesus is God, that he came to earth born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was punished on the cross for the sins of all the world and that he died, was buried and rose from the dead and was seen by over 500 people after his resurrection. My problem was that I identified with the world as being full of sinners and that somehow by praying a prayer and believing some facts, I was somehow taken out of the card deck of the "sinners" and had been placed in the card deck of the "believers". So, in reality, I didn't see myself as a sinner but rather as a believer. The problem is that even after a person believes, he never stops sinning and as a result is a sinner for his or her entire life!

The funny part is that God commands us to actually stop sinning and to serve him and follow him and live for him. We therefore are given the impossible task of stopping sinning when it is physically and morally impossible and told that if we don't succeed in this impossible task, we are, going to hell! "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." 1 John 3:6.

That is crazy talk! No one can stop sinning for the rest of his life! Everyone has sin! Only those crazy cooks who yell at people on the street believe that! Yep, you are right. I agree with you! Hahaha! fooled you! You thought I was going to tell you that my s**t don't stink. Well it doesn't I take pills so that it doesn't. But for all of you who still have this problem, there is a solution. Stop sinning and therefore you will stop sucking so bad! Why do you suck? Because you believe as you do. You think that it's ok to put up with a little sin. You try to do things so that you can feel like a good person. You go to church and read your Bible using your handy dandy devotional that you picked up off of the church pew. You neglect however obedience to the truth. The truth is to repent and believe.

True repentance has as its fruit, purity. Purity comes from obedience to the truth. The obedience to the truth is a result of a new nature to go along with your old nature. Now, you are in fact born again. This just means that you are able, in addition to choose sin, to choose instead to obey God and walk in the Spirit. Completely stopping certain sins can be achived but not apart from a continued obedience to God. This is how we maintain obedience, through a relationship with God. We do sin from time to time but God gives us the ability to stop say for example, sexual immorality all together. This is achieved through repentance regarding that frame of mind toward it and becoming obedient to God's word instead.

That's all for now. If anyone ever reads this I guess I will finish it. I sometimes get way to tired of writing and lack the skills to organize it well. I also just realize one or two things and since I haven't studied the passage as thoroughly as is needed, tend to ramble a lot.

Could the Apostasy Be Upon Us?

By: Steve Gallagher | Download

Although he is better known for his role on The Love Boat, Gavin MacLeod cited his supporting performance in the 2003 film Time Changer as “the most important thing” he had ever done. It’s hard to disagree with him.

The storyline occurs in 1890 and revolves around Bible professor Russell Carlisle, who is unwittingly transported by a time machine into modern-day America. For five days, he finds himself trapped in a wicked world to which you and I have become shamefully accustomed.

In his day, the term, “Gay Nineties,” referred to the nation’s innocence, not to the filthy and lewd behavior reflected in our past decade. Men married their wives for life, with divorce rates hovering around a microscopic 5%. Teenage promiscuity, marital infidelity and abortion were almost nonexistent. Pornography—even if you could find it—was typically an artist’s rendering of a topless woman.

Christian filmmaker Rich Christiano’s character, Russell Carlisle, is an awkward and unlikely hero who is thrust into the America of our day. This results in the inevitable scenes of him marveling over modern technology and dodging speeding cars. More important, though, are his reactions to the stark contrast in morality between the two eras.

At one point, he is seen watching television. His horrified expression betrays the fact that he is witnessing the kind of blatant immorality which has become standard fare for many of us. But perhaps the most poignant scene occurs when he is invited by some Christians to attend a movie with them. Suddenly, he is shown running out of the theater screaming at the employees, “You have to stop this movie! That actor took the Lord’s name in vain! He blasphemed God!”

If you or I witnessed a fellow believer acting this way, we would quickly distance ourselves from him. And yet this scenario provokes a few pointed questions Christians should ask themselves. Why aren’t we more outraged when we hear actors take the Lord’s name in vain? How can we look upon scantily-clad girls on television without blushing? Why do we permit TV to indoctrinate our children with the world’s values? The Church is obviously backslidden. The greater question it provokes is: Could we be in the Great Apostasy and not be aware of it?

After having spent the last two years studying this subject in Scripture, I was forced to acknowledge that two of my long-held assumptions regarding it have been wrong.

First, I came to realize that this falling away would not primarily be an obvious, outward renunciation of Christianity; it would be much more an issue of what is occurring in people’s hearts (e.g., Matt. 24:12).

My second erroneous notion was that the greatest problem in the Church today is that pastors are too busy to effectively disciple their flocks. I thought the sin and carnality running rampant in our midst was the result of harried pastors not holding churchgoers accountable to actually live what they are learning. I now believe that the larger issue is that pastors are burning themselves out trying to lead unconverted people into living the Christian life.

In the end, I arrived at the devastating conclusion that a large segment of the Post-Modern Church—that which has been the subject of our love and efforts—fits all the criteria predicted by Scripture of the Apostate Church. This issue of Unchained! Magazine will highlight a handful of those characteristics.

Yes, I believe that if “Russell Carlisle” stepped into our Christian world today, he would immediately come to the conclusion that we are indeed in the midst of the Great Apostasy. May God help us to discern the times in which we live!

Steve Gallagher is the founder and president of Pure Life Ministries. He has dedicated his life to helping men find freedom from sexual sin and the abundant life in God that comes through deep repentance.