7 Facts about the Gospel

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From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. First born in Yorkshire, England many, many years ago in the 19th century, he lived until 1947. His name was Smith Wigglesworth, rather unusual name. He was a plumber, and he became a preacher, and he had no real theological training.

Sometimes people would question the way he prayed and some of his messages and methods, but clearly the power of God was on his life. And Smith Wigglesworth said many profound things that I think we need to reflect on today. One of the things he said that I think is true for believers in every age, Smith Wigglesworth said that we are, listen, to consume the Word of God until it consumes you.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. Welcome to another edition of Truth for a New Generation. There's so much craziness going on in the world, really, and in the news. I want to talk about the gospel and how our nation so desperately needs to return to Christ and frankly humble ourselves before God and pray and seek the will and the favor of God. And we need to repent of sins, turn to Christ, every one of us individually, and pray for God to come into our lives afresh and anew in power. I'm going to read from Psalm 22 in a moment, but I want to talk a little bit about Smith Wigglesworth and give another one of his quotes.

And it relates to a call I had tonight, this very night. I'm recording this actually in Colorado. I'm at Karras Bible College and I've been out here this week with Andrew Womack and what an honor to work on curriculum and apologetics biblical worldview with Andrew Womack. So as I record this, I am pretty close to the summit of Pike's Peak, which is 14,110 feet above sea level. And it's just an amazing thing to think about how this beautiful mountaintop so majestically portrays the power and the glory of God.

And it was up here, of course, that from Pike's Peak, America the Beautiful was written by Katherine Lee Bates as she looked out and just envisioned, as far as the eye could see, the fruited plains and how this nation was blessed by God. So I'm up here and just overwhelmed by the scenery, the presence of the Lord, and working on things that we pray will touch many lives for the gospel. And I got a call from a student and this particular student had been to a debate between Sean McDowell and Matthew Vines. And of course Sean is the son of Josh McDowell, a great defender of the faith himself. Sean is a dear brother in the gospel. Matthew Vines claims to be a Christian, but is homosexual and pro-gay. And of course, almost daily at Truth For New Generation Ministries we get questions and calls about how to minister to people who are caught up in the gay lifestyle or claim to be Christian and yet morally, sexually are living lives wildly in opposition to the Word of God.

Now listen to this. Matthew Vines debating Sean McDowell, when Sean was faithfully presenting scriptures about what the Word of God says regarding male and female and human sexuality, Matthew Vines would say, well that's not how it reads for me. And for me it means something different.

And so the student called me and was asking, you know, how do we respond when people, you know, you take a plain verse of scripture and they'll say, well I feel differently. We've got to remember folks, and I'm going to read from Psalm 22 in just a moment, that our feelings are not capable of changing reality. Sometimes our emotions are in step with reality. Sometimes our emotions are very much out of step with reality. But Smith Wigglesworth said this about understanding that we are to take God's Word for the objective truth that it is.

You know, we don't let our emotions define reality. We let the Word of God instruct us and guide us to truth, reality, and salvation. Wigglesworth said, quote, I can't understand God by my feelings. I can't understand the Lord Jesus Christ by feelings. I can only understand God the Father and Jesus Christ by what the Word says about them. God is everything the Word says he is. We get acquainted with God through his Word, end of quote. That's a great quote for our lives today.

And by the way, regarding atheists or skeptics or libertines, that they take a plain verse of scripture and they'll say, well my truth is different. Let me say this, and I shared with the student on the phone tonight, words have meaning. Now words are not fluid. You can't go into a bank and make two different statements. You could say, I want to make a deposit in my account. Or you could say, stick them up, this is a holdup.

And if the police apprehend you for giving a false threat, you can't say, oh well, this is a holdup to me means I'm about to make a deposit. The words are objective. They have meaning. And right now we're living in a time when many academics and celebrities and just even, sadly, some people in pulpits, misleading people are trying to say, well the Bible can mean whatever you want it to mean. But that's not reality. We have to take words for what they objectively mean.

And one of the proofs that words do mean things, even the skeptic and even the person that's trying to get around the clear teaching of God's word, the person who's trying to dodge the uncomfortable truth that reality is black and white. And by the way, it is. It's true false. It's right wrong. It's saved.

It's lost. Either there is a God or there isn't. Either Christ was the risen Son of God or he isn't.

For the person that wants to live in the grey and say, well that's true for you but that's not true for me. Here's one thing that we need to point out. And the most important thing of all, of course, we need to pray for the Spirit of God to bring conviction.

But look, words must mean things because people have to use words even in any attempt to deny the efficacy of words. Well when we come back on today's edition of Truth for a New Generation, we're going to read from Psalm 22 and we're going to look at seven facts about the Gospel that our nation and world in the 21st century need to know. Stay tuned. Truth for a New Generation with Alex McFarland is back after this. America today is like a patient struggling to live, yet is being forcibly euthanized by her quote doctors. The life force within the patient fighting for survival is the honest citizens like yourself.

The team of quote caregivers are the local and national leaders actually contributing to the demise of the patient. The economy is crashing. Crime is exploding. The Constitution is being abolished. The assault on America, how to defend our nation before it's too late by Alex McFarland has one single purpose, to get you prepared. Learn the real source of America's current problems that no one else is talking about and what you can do now to face tomorrow, regardless of what tomorrow brings.

The assault on America, how to defend our nation before it's too late, available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and local Christian bookstores. Christians don't necessarily agree with one another when it comes to questions of religious pluralism, homosexuality, the role of government, abortion and war. Too often we manage these disagreements by ignoring them. Yet we're called to engage the world for the sake of Christ. How can we be effective if we avoid society's most pressing questions in 10 issues that divide Christians? Alex McFarland challenges us to drill down to the biblical core of 10 current issues such as social justice, evil and suffering, pornography and environmentalism. As he echoes the biblical invitation, come, let us reason together only by engaging the scriptures deeply, thinking clearly and speaking truthfully, can we in God's family address our differences and discover the peace that comes with unity of purpose. 10 issues that divide Christians.

Find this book and many others at alexmcfarland.com. Timeless Trues in a Soundbite Culture, Truth for a New Generation Radio. Welcome back to the program Truth for a New Generation.

Alex McFarland here. I want to talk about the gospel and how our nation at a time when people seem to have lost all sense of a moral compass and even professed Christians are in the news supporting pro-abortion candidates and leaders running for office that stand for all manner of ungodliness. Let me read a scripture from Psalm 22. In verses 27 and 28 of Psalm 22 it says, �All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you, for kingship belongs to the Lord.

He rules over the nations.� Now very famously Psalm 22 is one thing that Jesus quoted from the cross. Psalm 22, 1, �My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?� It says in verses 4 and 5, �Our fathers trusted in you.� They trusted and you rescued them. They cried to you and they were set free.

They trusted in you and they were not disgraced. �Do not be far from me because distress is near and there is no help.� Now this is some of the messianic component of Psalm 22 in 11 and 12 written around 1000 BC by David and yet it speaks so vividly of Jesus that, �Bulls surround me, strong ones of Bashan encircle me. They open their mouths, they mock lions, dogs, a gang of evil doers have closed in on me.� Now of course verse 16, �They pierced my hands and my feet.

I count all my bones, people look and stare. But you O Lord do not be far away.� This is verse 19. Now from the cross, now remember Jesus fully God, fully man, but not fallen man. Part of what Jesus did, of course he was living that perfect sinless life, he went to the cross, he atoned for our sins. But a lot of what Jesus did and what Jesus suffered was so that he could identify with us and we with him.

The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in all points like we, yet without sin. So let me say every person can legitimately know that Jesus understands whatever you're going through, whether it's emotional pain or stress or physical pain, the most excruciating pain Jesus understands. And I think some of these cries from the cross about being surrounded and then the comfort and reassurance. Verse 19, �But you O Lord don't be far away.

My strength come quickly to help me deliver my life from the sword, my only life from the power of these dogs. The Gospel, the death barrel of the resurrection of Jesus for the sins of the world. The Son of God that gave his life rose from the dead thus proving his deity and the empty tomb confirming that the Bible is God's word and the Gospel is true.

And 1700 years after the life of Christ our founding fathers would build this nation on Christian principles and I'm going to address that in a moment, but follow me here. It is a global Gospel. It is a timeless Gospel. It is a dutiful or obligatory Gospel.

It comes with responsibilities. It is a personal Gospel. It's for you personally, Jesus personally in your life. It is an exclusive Gospel and it is an authoritative Gospel. Now let me explain this from Psalm 22, a global Gospel. It says, �All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.� I pray for that day and how we need our own corner of the world to turn to Christ.

We need America to turn to Christ. It is a timeless Gospel. It says that the people will listen, remember. Now the wording there for remember means something brought to mind, but the implication is God has brought it to mind and the way the wording is is like something that suddenly burns in your mind.

Imagine you're driving down the road and you think, �Oh my goodness, I left the water running.� Something that is just so your mind is fixated on it because it's important because God brought it to mind. So this Gospel, �All the ends of the earth will remember.� Friend, it is time that America remembers God. May the Spirit of the Lord help us remember the God from whom we have deviated.

Listen, it is a dutiful Gospel, an obligatory Gospel. It says, �They will turn to the Lord.� If you're hearing this broadcast and you're thinking about your relationship with Christ, then part of the obligation that comes with knowledge of God, it's accountability to turn to the Lord. You know, I'm so glad that many people have said, �If you're headed in the wrong direction, God allows you turns.� That's repentance.

You can turn the car around. Clearly our nation needs to turn back to God. And how professed Christians that claim to know the Bible and believe the Bible, how they can either not vote and let the country continue to drift or they can vote for very ungodly people, makes me question their sanity, rationality, or even relationship with the Lord.

Because part of being a Christian is to relinquish your rights and be a follower of Christ. Paul asks that famous rhetorical question in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, �Don't you know that you're not your own?� See we're obligated to live by the Word of God. We're to turn to the Lord. It's a personal Gospel.

The families of the nations, every person, every ethnos, every individual can have a relationship with God personally. It's an exclusive Gospel. It says there, in verse 27, that, �Lord, they will worship you.� Y-O-U. Verse 29 of Psalm 22 says that all those who go down to the dust will kneel before him.

The question is, will it be in a state of salvation or a state of condemnation? And it is an authoritative Gospel. It says, �For kingship belongs to the Lord. He rules over the nations.� The Gospel is true, applicable for all people. Christ is the risen Lord. He is the deity of the universe. And yes, kingship belongs to the Lord.

All the nations should, must, and one day will acknowledge the kingship of Jesus. We've got more to talk about. And one final point about the Gospel our nation so desperately needs to rediscover, at this time more urgently than ever. Don't go away. Truth for a New Generation with Alex McFarland is back after this. Welcome to the podcast.

I hear you. We are so excited that you joined us. And this is just going to be a great new podcast dealing with issues around race, issues around friendship, and how do we deal with the tough issues. And I'm so excited to be here with my good friend, Alex.

It's great to be with you, Odell. And on the I Hear You podcast, we talk about race. We talk about culture. We talk about politics. And sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, but we find resolution and common ground. And you know what's really cool? Not only do we learn new things, we make friends, we grow. And that's good for all of us. We're just two friends, one white, one black. And we just invite everyone to come and join and share with us.

It's a big difference between hearing and listening. And we're going to show people. We love it. We look forward to it. And audience, thank you so much for giving us this chance.

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Welcome back to the program. We're going to continue talking about the gospel, and I do want to say a big, big thank you to everybody who's been buying my brand new book, The Assault on America and How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late. And the book is doing very well. I would encourage you to read it. There's a lot of the book that really is evergreen about our history and morally how imperative it is that we return to belief in morals and how talking about morality does not violate the First Amendment. But I thank you for reading the book.

I encourage you, the audio book is out there on Amazon.com, or Barnes & Noble can get the book, or at AFASTORE.net. June 25-27, I'm going to be at The Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove. It's in western North Carolina. It's just beautiful, right near Asheville. We're going to go through the book of Acts, the New Testament book of Acts, verse by verse.

We'll go through Acts and we're going to look at the principles of revival and spiritual awakening from the book of Acts. Their website is thecove.org. It's wonderful. My friend Will Graham is the executive director. I would encourage you to check it out.

I'd love to see you at our seminar there, or any of the other great seminars they have at The Cove. But listen to this. Nowadays, people are saying, well, America was not founded as a Christian nation and during the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, everybody was, well not everybody, but many of the liberals were just so afraid that her Christianity might influence how she thinks. Listen, Noah Webster, of course in 1828, published the Dictionary of the English Language. Noah Webster said this, and he was a great leader in early America, quote, our liberty, growth, and prosperity was the result of a biblical philosophy of life. Our continued freedom and success is dependent on educating the youth of America in the principles of Christianity.

Isn't that something? He went on to say, he wrote a history of the United States in 1832. Noah Webster said, quote, the moral principles and precepts found in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. Now listen, all the evils, said Webster, which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, all the evils in society proceed from our neglect of the precepts contained in the Bible, end of quote. Now, Benjamin Rush, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

He founded the Philadelphia Bible Society. He said this, quote, the Bible is the only correct map of the human heart that has ever been published. He said that in 1798. Now he's right, and part of the reason that socialism fails and government entitlement programs waste money, they don't take into account human nature, that people are lazy, selfish, and sinful given the chance. And Benjamin Rush went on, now listen to this, if Amy Coney Barrett is unfit to serve, so are all of the founders of America and most of our great iconic leaders. Look, there's a reason that the Marxist Black Lives Matter people are tearing down statues, and there's a reason people like Kamala Harris are paying their bail and not upholding the rule of law.

The liberal progressive, Black Lives Matter socialists, and the Democrats, and in my book, look, I give the 21 points of the Biden-Harris platform, and we got it on good authority, and it's incrementally come out that it's true. They want America's founders to be erased and forgotten because the new socialist worldview that they're trying to implement can't have God or moral truth. That's why I'm begging of you to pray for America. But Benjamin Rush said, quote, the Bible is the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government. It is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible that will preserve our nation, he said. Now Fisher Ames, think about this, can you imagine the aneurysm and the heart attack that liberals would have today?

Fisher Ames, who wrote the First Amendment, he was a judge, he was author of the First Amendment September 20th, 1789, he said, quote, the Bible should be the principal text in all public schools, end of quote. Now I ask people, was he right or was he wrong? And they'll say, well, words don't mean things. No, words mean things.

It's undeniable. Words have meaning. And the founders believed that not only was the Bible, the book on which America was founded, that it must be the roadmap back if we were to deviate.

So let me give you the final point. Not only the global gospel and the authoritative gospel, we have, thank you God, the restorative gospel. See, Psalm 22 goes on and it says this, that our fathers called on you and you heard, listen to this, it says in verse 25 of Psalm 22, God if you'll only intervene, now listen, I will give praise in the great congregation because of you. I will fulfill my vows before those who fear you. The humble will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the Lord will praise him. And then it goes on and it says all the families of the earth will remember God. Now all who prosper on earth will eat and bow down. All those who go down to the dust will kneel before God. Even the one who cannot preserve his life. So look, we're all gonna live, we're all gonna pass one day.

Turn to Christ while you have opportunity. Their descendants will serve him. The next generation will be told about the Lord that will come and tell a people yet to be born about his righteousness and what he has done. Now think about this, personhood, the people yet to be born.

God sees the unborn as a person that needs to know about truth. Now friend, we're in a time when you must speak out. You must pray. You must stand for God and country. My dear friends, this is no time to be neutral. This is no time to opt out. This is no time to be complacent. We must pray for America, love our neighbor, proclaim truth, get out of our comfort zone.

If founders were willing to die to give us a free, safe, prosperous America, now we've got to take a stand to help preserve it. God bless you, thanks for listening, and may God in his mercy and power bless America. TNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Call us at 877-Yes-God-1.

That's 877-Yes-God and the number 1. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to Program Archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment, AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.