Like a Time Bomb

Matthew 24:14 says, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

What is the Gospel? If I gave you a minute to explain it, could you do it accurately? Sometimes I wonder if we get so caught up in living the Christian life that we forget the essence of why we live the Christian life. I can’t remember the last time I visited a church when they talked about the Gospel in depth. You always here the saving message preached at the end, just incase someone doesn’t really know what it is, but that has become the extent of our knowledge, the Gospel presentation at the end of the sermon.

The Gospel has come to the point where it is only used outside of the church. It’s only for the missionaries who go overseas to talk to people. Our argument for this lack of preaching is, “Everyone has heard the Gospel, but they need something else, something more.” I commend to you that if we preached the Gospel, there would be nothing else that person needs.

Even when we preach the Gospel, do we really get it right? Here is a “Gospel Presentation” that is used by many churches. It sounds like this…

           

            If you were to die today, do you know for sure if you would go to Heaven?

            If you arrived in Heaven and God asked you, "Why should I let you in?" - what 

            would you say?

            Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?

Is this what Jesus preached? Is this the true message of the Bible? The Gospel says simply that man is completely and utterly unable to receive salvation. We have been put under a curse that says we are the scum of the earth. However, this is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is this: God is good.

Proverbs 17:15 says, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.” It all comes down to this: How can a Holy God justify the wicked without being an abomination to Himself? How can He become the Just and the Justifier? This is the absolute beauty of the Gospel.

I want to pause and say something very important. If one has no idea he has cancer, will he still go to the doctor? If there is no way for him to see that he is dying inside, will he go to the doctor to get something he doesn’t know is happening looked at? When the doctor says, “What seems to be the problem?” does he respond, “Not really sure… In fact I have no earthly idea why I am here.”

One must understand that he has a killing disease that if he doesn’t get help, he will be destroyed. It’s like a time bomb placed on your back. You can think for the longest time that it’s not there, but until you accept the fact that it is going to blow you up, you can’t have it taken off by a friend.

Now understand this, Jesus steps out of Heaven, not losing his divinity, but stepping away from His glory. He becomes born as a human, but it’s a supernatural birth that does not fall under the curse of man. He takes our place on a cross for our sin. The time bomb, the cancer that you and I both have, he took on the cross to pay for our sin. He paid the price for His elect, meaning that He saved those whom he had chosen.

Understand that you did nothing to be saved. Some may say, accept Christ, and this we must do, but understand that we have no choice. God has pulled us out of the pit, and some say, “Well, I accepted the rope, so chose salvation.” The fact that you accepted the rope is a given, since the pit was death and the only sensible choice would be to accept the rope.

It is common sense to want to get out of death, and it is by the grace of God that we are saved. He becomes the just and the justifier by taking on and defeating sin. If He rids sin completely, then He is not an abomination.

Some people will hear this for the first time. Others will say, “I never knew that …” If we don’t preach the Gospel with the points of depravity and grace, then what do we call it? We say, “Do you want to have a relationship with Jesus?” but we have no idea what that means. Once one truly understands that he has been saved and set free from sin, his life will change dramatically. He will have a sense of urgency about spreading the Gospel.

Preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and when they say they have heard it, preach it again – Forsake All