Do Christians Need the Gospel Too? mp3

Is the Gospel only for unbelievers, or do Christians need the Gospel too? If you cannot answer this question correctly, please download this sermon!

Also, should Christians be told to 'live the Gospel'?

Did St. Francis of Assisi really say, “Preach the gospel — use words if necessary." Is this a Biblical statement?

This sermon was motivated to encourage Christians. I hope that you will be encouraged too!

The picture on the left features at the very beginning of the message and also part way through.

Finally, I have reproduced the quotesI used in my sermon below:

RC Sproul: “The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well-being but FOR His people. He has done FOR me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.”

Michael Horton: “We often hear calls to “live the Gospel,” and yet, nowhere in Scripture are we called to “live the Gospel.” Instead, we are told to believe the Gospel and obey the Law, receiving God’s favor from the one and God’s guidance from the other. The Gospel—or Good News—is not that God will help us achieve his favor with his help, but that someone else lived the Law in our place and fulfilled all righteousness.”

Don Carson: “So when one hears the frequently repeated slogan, “Preach the gospel — use words if necessary,” (the expression is often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi which, by the way has been debunked) one has to say, as gently but as firmly as one can, that this is smug nonsense. One recalls the recent blog post by Justin Taylor: “‘Gospel’ means ‘good news.’ If so, the saying ‘Preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary’ makes about as much sense as telling a reporter he should broadcast the news but that words are optional”.

Don Carson: “Wherever contemporary pursuit of spirituality becomes … distanced form the Gospel, it is taking a dangerous turn. One of the most urgently needed things today is a careful treatment of how the Gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought to shape everything we do in the local church, all our ethics, all our priorities.”