The Gospel Entrusted To The Saints
by Sandy Simpson, March 31, 2008

Jude 1:3  Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
Eph 4:15  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
We have a precious Gospel message to share with others.  It is the Good News that saved us and brought us peace.  We now have the hope of eternal life with Christ when before we were hopeless (Eph. 2:12).  This new life should and will motivate us to share that Good News with everyone.  But sometimes true saints lapse into a lukewarmness of complacency (Rev. 3:16).  I have done that myself at times.  It is time for the remnant, those who have not joined the Apostasy, to reach out to the world with the truth and love of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.  But we must adhere to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles to be effective.

Our Faith is based on Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:9).  Those of us who are born again learned of Jesus Christ when the true Gospel was preached to us (Rom. 10:14-15).  We then repented of our sins (Acts 17:30) and believed on Jesus Christ to save us (Acts 16:31).  The Gospel is a precious message entrusted to the saints (Rom. 6:17).  It must not change or deviate from the Gospel preached by the foundational apostles (Tit. 1:9, 2 Pet. 3:2, Eph. 2:20). But our Faith, based on the true Gospel, has been under attack since the first century (Jude 1:3).

I am writing this article because I want to encourage Christians to get back to preaching the Gospel in every way and in every place.  I was reminded of this recently when I talked to a friend of mine.  He has taken it upon himself to work part time at a job and full time at preaching the Gospel.  He goes to bus stops and other public places with a sign hanging on his shoulders with this message: Jesus Saves!  I ran into him at a beach park and we had a conversation about what he is doing. He told me about his burden from the Lord and I encouraged him but also admonished him. I really admire his courage in that he has been verbally abused and threated with physical attacks.  I also told him to be careful not to go to one extreme or another but to keep the message straightforward.  He agreed that it was his goal not to just tell people that Jesus loves them to the exclusion of the fact that they are sinners in need of a Savior. I also urged him to be careful not to talk exclusively about hell and damnation to the obscurance of the love of God.  He is a young man and I am very pleased that he has this kind of attitude and am praying for him. He apparently has a heart to follow the Biblical precept of "speaking the truth in love".

I have observed many who do street preaching through the years and I have done it myself and participated in efforts to do so on various occasions.  Though street preaching is not for everyone, as the Lord has given us all different gifts (Eph. 4:11, Rom. 12:6), we should each be ready to share the Gospel message with others when the opportunity presents itself.  All of us have family members, business associates or friends who are unsaved.  We need to not only be praying for their salvation, but be ready for the opportune time to share the Gospel with them.

But I have observed that street preachers often fall off either side of the truth/love formula.

Hyper-Pentecostals, Hyper-Fundamentalists and other legalists often present the Gospel in such a way as to end up alienating people.  I saw one group with a sign about how the wicked will go to hell, but nothing about God's love.  These types of groups often stress the wickedness of man and God's judgment of hell and, in so doing, often obscure the love of God.  Thus they present the "truth" without love.  I have often seen these types of street preachers start arguments with people in public, not in a kind way, but in a defensive way.  They confront people about their sins by shouting "Repent" in their faces and this turns people away from the whole Gospel, and possibly from ever coming to a saving knowledged of Jesus Christ.

On the other side are liberal churches of various kinds, such as "church-growth", New Apostolic and Emerging Church groups (if they even bother to get out and witness) who have obviously forgotten what the Gospel saves us from.  They present a flowery picture of God, sing sycophantic loves songs to the Lord in front of non-believers, and present Him as a God who has already indwelled them or gifted them.  Leaders and adherents of these groups, such as Rick Warren, tell people God loves them and has a "purpose" for their lives without helping them to see that they are sinners.  Dave Hunt remarked about Warren's "Purpose Driven Life" book:

“Missing is anything to convict the sinner of his rebellion against God and the coming judgment… Missing is any explanation of Christ’s payment on the cross for sin.”  (http://www.bibleguidance.co.za/Engarticles/Rick.htm)
This kind of "gospel" is and example of "love" without the truth.

We are entrusted with a message that has parameters.  That message must remain intact in order for the Spirit to convict people of their sins (John 16:8), for their blind eyes to be opened to their spiritual condition (Acts 26:18), and for them to have an opportunity to repent and believe (Mark 1:15).  Those who present anything other than the clear Gospel message and land on either extreme of the truth/love balance, are deceivers.  Jude goes on to talk about them:

Jude 1:4  For certain men whose condemnation was written about {Or men who were marked out for condemnation} long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Jude is addressing those who teach a form of "easy believism".  This is what those who teach on the love of God, to the exclusion of the holiness and coming judgment of God on those who do not repent and believe, are doing.  When the Gospel is presented without the sin and hell aspect, without the reason that made it necessary for Jesus Christ to become the God-man and die to pay the penalty of our desperate wickedness, then that "gospel" is useless and cannot save.  It is very possible to believe in vain (1 Cor. 15:2). This false presentation of the Gospel actually ends up denying Jesus Christ.  This is the "love" without the truth "gospel".

But we also know that in the end times many people will not practice love toward others because they are so in love with themselves.

2 Tim. 3:2-5  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
This is a major problem today.  This is the spirit behind the unforgiveness in the presentation of this "gospel" without love.  It is a brutal message that only brings the Gospel into disrepute (2 Pet. 2:2).  This is the "truth" without love "gospel".

I urge every believer to go back to their first love of Jesus Christ, which would cause them to share the Gospel more often and to more people.

Rev. 2:4-5  Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
The time is short and if we truly love the Lord we will be anxious to witness for Him.  We all need to obey the Lord and do what He has chosen us and gifted us spritually to do.  We must fight the good fight of Faith against principalities and powers that seek to destroy (Eph. 6:12).  We do that by putting on the armor of God but, lest we forget, one of those pieces of armor are feet that take the Gospel to every part of the earth (Eph. 6:15).