Part one (from C.S.

Lewis’ book Mere Christianity)

Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was
God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to
judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the
Indians, there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew,
could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the
world, who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you
have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most
shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.

One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often
that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins.
Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all
understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toes and I
forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man,
himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on
other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest
description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people
that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom
their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party
chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if
He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin.
In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only
regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.

Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the
Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do
unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is ‘humble and meek’ and we believe Him;
not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last
characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say
about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His
claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man
and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would
either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he
would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is,
the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool,
you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him
Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a
great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Part 2
(from the youtube video “The True Gospel”)

What is the gospel. exactly? a lot of people claim to preach it, share it and study it, some
think it is a rather simple thing. and while in one sense I agree that it is, I suggest that
the true gospel is also a profound spiritual truth that a person could spend an entire
lifetime exploring its perfect beauty.
literally speaking the gospel means
“good message”.Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion (eu- “good”, -angelion “message”)
The Gospel is the heart of the Christian message which is basically that Christ died for
us, and that through him we can be reconciled to God .

In 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 also give a basic Idea of what the Gospel message is, which is
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,

Jesus’ words in Mark 1:15 come in the form of an urgent command, He says: “The time
is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
After His resurrection from the dead, He tells His disciples:

Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the
dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His
name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-47)

Notice that following repentance is the remission of sins (Romans 6:1-12). This is why
on Pentecost, AD 31, Peter instructs the assembled crowd, “Repent, and let every one of
you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Likewise, Paul teaches the men of Athens:

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men
everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world
in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to
all by raising Him from the dead. (Acts 17:30-31;

(Acts 3:19) says: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out …”

The problem is “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). Man,
in his lost, sinful, condemned state, has failed to glorify God. Until a person becomes
personally exceedingly sinful in his own eyes, he will never see his need for repentance.
Eph.2:1 says: Man is spiritually dead; Rom.3:10 and Isa.64:6 tells us no one is righteous
before a holy God; Rom.3:19 says all stand guilty and condemned before God; Eph.4:18
declares all sinners are separated from God whose hearts and minds are blinded so that
they cannot understand God or the things of God.

Repentance basically involves two facts: the fact of sin and the fact of God’s grace. If a
person is not a sinner, he would not need to repent, and if God was not going to do
anything if you repented it would do no good to repent but he said he would…that’s the
fact of grace.

. Repentance is not merely feeling sorry or remorseful, its being stricken in one’s heart
with remorse, but Remorse without a corresponding change in conduct is not biblical
repentance!
That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. If you repent, and believe, you will receive His
Holy Spirit which will make you a new creature who will be free from the power of sin
and that’s Gods promise, and that’s the good news and it will cause you to begin to love
the things of God and hate the former bonds of sin. This is the essence of being a
Christian, having Jesus Christ live in you will change you. It’s true peace. and
unfortunately its rarer that you might think. Many who attend church every week have
not done this, and they simply try to act good rather than want to be good because they
have Jesus, the reason that has happened is because nowadays many people teach if you
simply ask Jesus to come in to your heart he will..but it requires a genuine repentance
and also belief…if you become a Christian you wont have to ask anyone if you became
a Christian you will know it with all your heart.

And the evidence that you have become a Christian will be a changed life, and a desire,
not to be like the world but to be like Jesus Christ.

It should also be stressed that repentance itself is not a human act, but comes only from
God (Rom.2:4) — it is a divine gift of God (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25).
But if you feel the conviction of sins and the desire to repent then you have been given
that gift.

(John 3:17-18) Says: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”

Contrary to popular belief Jesus Did not come to condemn sinners, He came to save
them, He gave invitations he said:
” Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew
11

God became a man to teach us, and to set the bar for how to live our lives, but most
importantly for us he came because he is holy, and because He is a holy God he must
punish sin, all the evil people in the world will be judged, but it says in 2 Peter 3, “God
is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.” so God came
to earth to figuratively push us out from the path of a bus and take the hit for us.. his
wrath against our sin had to be taken by someone because he is holy and he is a good
judge…and so way before we men allowed sin the legal right into this world God had
made provisions to buy us back and to sign over our title deed to him

But its all about our human free will. All of heaven is watching what we will do..the
bible says there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
repenteth…they are all watching hoping we freely chose life, choose truth, and freedom,
who is Jesus Christ The Way the truth and the life

The following 3 scriptures are good summaries of the gospel message in my opinion:

Rom 5:8 says: But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, because we have now been declared
righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. 10 For if while
we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much
more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 11 Not only this, but
we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now
received this reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5: 14For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if
one died for all, then were all dead:
15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
16Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we
pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.

Titus 2:11-15 11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ;
14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto
himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
15These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise
thee.

Part 3
(from the youtube video “The Lost Doctrine” Paul Washer)

Bear with me for just a second longer–I’ll close my Bible in good faith that I am
leaving. Bear with me a second longer. If there is a lost doctrine in the church today that
has destroyed evangelism [sic], it is the doctrine of regeneration. Regeneration is not
merely a human decision. You do not get saved simply because you decided to jump out
of the line going to Hell in order to jump into the line going to Heaven. Salvation is a
supernatural work of God whereby the power of God is manifest to such a degree that it
parallels or exceeds the very power of God manifested in the creation of the universe.
The universe was created ex nihilo, out of nothing, but when God saves a man, He
recreates him out of a corrupt mass.

When people have truly repentend, when people have truly believed, there is a work of
regeneration going on in which that person becomes a new creature, and as a new
creature with a new nature, they will live a different life. The evidence of regeneration
is not that you made a decision one time at an evangelistic campaign. The evidence of
regeneration is that your life is being transformed. Do you think that God just
transforms some of His children? The doctrine of a Christian living in a continuous state
of carnality is absolute heresy. Do Christians sin? Yes. Can Christians fall into
carnality? Yes. Can Christians walk in immaturity for a while? Yes. But can Christians
live a godless, worldly life all the days of their life? Absolutely not. Why? Because
salvation is a supernatural work of God whereby if any man be in Christ, he’s a new
creature, and new creatures live a different way.

That’s why when people tell me today that there’s just as much sin in the church as
outside of the church, there’s just as much divorce, and pornography, and lying, and
hating, and bickering in the church as outside of the church, that is a lie! The church of
Jesus Christ in America today is beautiful; she is broken, she is confessional, she is
walking with her God, and when she sins, it breaks her heart, and she returns to Him.
Your problem is, what you’re calling ‘the church’ is not the church! If the church is as
most people say, then every New Covenant promise in the Bible has failed. But God
says in the New Covenant, He will make a people, and He will be their God, and they
will be His people, and the Law of God will be written on their heart, and they will walk
in it.

The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out. It’s a life being lived out.

A dear friend of mine called a very important Christian scholar in history, Dr.
Dallimore, and said, ‘Dr. Dallimore, I have a question. The Puritans really didn’t give
invitations and things like we do today. How did they know when someone got saved?’
And Dallimore said this, ‘Well, that was easy. Their life changed, and they kept coming
to church.’ How do we know they got saved? They don’t come to church, their life
doesn’t change, but they got saved, because they raised their hand. Look at what we’ve
done! Just look! Look.

If you’re here tonight, and you’re troubled about your soul, I will not ask you to raise
your hand, and I will not ask you to fill out a card. But I will stay here until six o’clock
in the morning when my plane leaves to counsel you. You see, that’s the problem, isn’t
it: the great assumption. People come forward, they sign a card, we talk to them five
minutes about salvation, we declare them saved, and then we wonder why we have to
pour so much discipleship in them, and they still won’t grow.

We’ve made the great assumption. We’ve passed them through an evangelical rite, and
because they said all the right answers, we declare them saved, and we never worry
about it again. That’s wrong. I’ll tell you this: if you repent and believe in Christ
tonight–if you have done that, He’s saved you. But I’ll tell you this: if you’ve made a
decision for Christ, you see Christ as Lord tonight, and you profess Him as faith [sic],
He’s saved you. But if you walk out of here, and your life doesn’t change, and you do
not begin to grow, and He who began a good work in you doesn’t complete it, what
happened here tonight wasn’t genuine conversion, because the evidence of genuine
conversion is an on-going work of God in the soul of a man. That’s the old way. That’s
historical Christianity.

How many of you, and how many people do you know– is it not true? Maybe you have
a child, and they made a profession of faith when they were six, because someone asked
them if they wanted to go to Heaven or if they loved Jesus. Of course they raised their
hand. Then when they got fourteen, fifteen, they started living in the world, hating the
things of God, and you go to them, and you go, ‘But you’re a Christian, and you need to
act differently,’ you are wrong in the way you are approaching them. You need to
approach them this way: ‘You made a profession of faith in Christ, but every bit of
evidence in your life at this moment dictates that maybe your profession of faith in
Jesus Christ was false, and you are still in your sin, and if you died, you would go to
Hell. Now make your calling and election sure. Repent, return to Christ.’

You see how superficial our Chrisianity has become? Oh, my dear friend, these things
should not be so, but they are. Awaken to the gospel, the real gospel, not the reduced
kind. It is a gospel of grace, and a gospel of power that He who began a good work in
you will finish it.

The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out. It’s a life being lived out.
PART 4 (music video to the song “the reason”) “The Reason”

I’m not a perfect person

There’s many things I wish I didn’t do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I’ve found out a reason for me

To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I’m sorry that I hurt you

It’s something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
Thats why i need you to hear

I’ve found out a reason for me

To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You

and the reason is You [x3]

I’m not a perfect person

I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I’ve found out a reason for me

To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I’ve found a reason to show

A side of me you didn’t know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you