Founders Baptist Church

This episode explores the true definition of evangelism and how believers can faithfully fulfill the Great Commission. Instead of treating the lost as projects, Christians are called to proclaim the message of the cross with clarity and genuine compassion. While many fear sharing their faith, you do not need to be a trained apologist; knowing the Word of God and sharing your testimony is enough because the gospel has power all by itself. Furthermore, the church must correct the modern model by gathering for corporate worship and dispersing to share the gospel, equipping believers through prayer, scripture saturation, and a willing heart.

I sometimes wonder if we recognize all that comes to nothing if we get the gospel wrong. TAKE AWAY ONE ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE GOSPEL AND YOU FORFEIT EVERYTHING. This is a point that Paul emphasizes elsewhere in the New Testament. He takes the truth of the gospel and points out what happens if we deny even one essential element of it. You remember that he did this with the doctrine of resurrection. Will the dead be raised? There were professing believers denying the future resurrection of the dead. Paul points out the obvious relationship that doctrine has with the gospel. NAU 1 Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. NAS 1 Corinthians 15:29 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? 30 Why are we also in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brethren, by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32

Introduction: Death to the law meant life to God (vs.19). The day that Paul died to the law as his means of righteousness — his imagined means of salvation — and looked to Christ by faith, he knew the liberating power of a relationship to the law of God that exists under the law of Christ. The law is good, but it must be used lawfully. NAU 1 Timothy 1:8 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. It's a new man who has a new relationship to the law. NAU Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present

In this episode, Dr. Richard Caldwell and host Josh Philpot discuss the subtle dangers of spiritual drift. They explain how believers can maintain outward religious habits while their hearts grow indifferent toward God. The discussion highlights warning signs such as a lack of affection for Christ, cynicism, and isolation from the church body. Dr. Caldwell emphasizes that the root of this apathy is often a loss of eternal perspective and forgetting the gospel. He calls believers to examine their hearts, remember their first love, and live in light of their future glorification to combat spiritual stagnation.

Paul's personal testimony now takes a new direction. It is still an account of his own life and ministry, but now it involves information that demonstrates three very important things. One, the legitimacy of his own apostleship. Two, his relationship to the other apostles. And three, that they all preach the same gospel. There are places in Galatians where the errors and the activities of the Judaizers are clear. We know what they were saying and we know what they were doing. In other places, we are trying to piece together elements of their false influence by what Paul is contending and emphasizing. In other words, we hear Paul and we get a sense of what he's battling. We know in general terms what he is having to fight against, even though some of the details aren't clear.

Paul's testimony is all about the gospel. He has declared what is true about the content of the gospel, and now he is in the midst of declaring the truth about his own experience with the gospel. His experience demonstrates and illustrates everything that he has declared about its content. His story has illustrated the heavenly origin of the gospel. It is not according to man or owes its origin to man. His story has illustrated the exclusivity of the gospel — there is only one and he and the other apostles therefore agree in their message. But now he wants to remind them of an encounter that he had with one of the most prominent leaders in the Lord's church. The encounter is shared for two reasons. ONE — IT DEMONSTRATES THE AUTHORITY OF THE GOSPEL. TWO — IT DEMONSTRATES PAUL'S LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY AS AN APOSTLE. Both points are being impressed on the Galatian believers because they are being unsettled by a false gospel, by the influence of a works righteous group of Jewish religionists.