Paul Washer emphasizes the importance of explaining the gospel to unconverted people and highlights the lack of sound doctrine in the spreading of the gospel. He explains the doctrine of God and why it is important, the problem of sin and the need for repentance and faith, and the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. He also warns about the evidence of true conversion and the importance of continued sanctification.

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. So let's talk a little bit about the message of the gospel. Let's talk about doctrine.

Let's talk about the effect of doctrine or the lack of sound doctrine in the spreading of the gospel. I think one of the things that we've all recognized, and it's terrifying, is how many people there are who are in the churches, who go to the Lord's table, who listen to the preaching, who are members of local churches, but they can't really explain the gospel to you. And you have to ask, did they embrace the true gospel or not? And I mean, in my experience, people most commonly leave out repentance and the resurrection. When I asked a professing Christian, can you please explain the gospel to me?

Tell me what you would say to someone. They almost always leave those two things out. So I just want to talk a bit about the message of the gospel. So how would you explain the message to the gospel to me if I was an unconverted person? I would start off with, in this age of skepticism and doubt, I would start off with the simple truth that, listen, I'm going to tell you something, that I believe with all my heart is true.

That doesn't make it true. I said, but Just to put you on ground with me, I want you to know that everything that you basically may accuse me of as a Christian, presupposition, you know, that I'm presupposing there's a God and I'm presupposing that you're doing the same thing. Now if we both, if we realize that that's what you're doing, the very thing you accuse me of, now let me just share with you the worldview I see in the Scriptures, and then if you want, share with me your worldview, and let's see which one really works. It gives me the open door, you know, presuppositional apology, gives me the open door to not sit there for two hours defending whether or not there's a God it gives me the Open door to preach just the truth of the scriptures to that person So I don't get in a lot of arguments about I'm just not going to go down that road I'm just going to say I believe that men are saved through the preaching, proclamation of the gospel, and I'm going to proclaim the gospel to you. So that puts us on an equal footing.

And I always begin with the doctrine of God, because the gospel makes no sense. It wouldn't even be necessary if God was not righteous. If God was something other than righteous, we wouldn't even need a gospel. So I began with this is who God is and this is why it's important, basically dealing with his claim upon the person as creator and sustainer and later on as redeemer. And then I go, this God is this way.

And I answer their objections usually, well why does God have to be holy and are righteous? And I say, would you really want a Hitler as an omnipotent God? And then go down through there and then explain the problem. The great problem is that God is good, but you're not. God is love, you are not.

God is righteous, you're not. So what does God do with you in His creation? Can He simply forgive you? Can He simply live? Because if He does, He's not righteous.

And I go through that whole problem that Paul sets forth in Romans 3. And it doesn't take long. And then I explained to you, I explained to them, this is what God has done to satisfy his justice. His son became a man, took upon himself your sin, died in your place, rose again from the dead and then explained to them not only the importance of the death but the importance of the resurrection. The resurrection didn't make him the son of God, but it was God's vindication of his sonship, Romans chapter 1.

And it was also vindication that his death actually satisfied the justice of God, Romans 4.25. You need to realize this Jesus who was crucified in weakness has been raised in power and he's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he reigns over this world. I oftentimes go to the book of Daniel and show them that in reality all the governments of this world are like little boys sitting on papier-mâché thrones. There is a king, he's coming back to claim his own. And then explain to them judgment and righteousness, death, the resurrection of the person himself, and then tell them God commands all men now to repent.

I explain to them what repentance is, but I'm very cautious here because a lot of people, if you go through the biblical doctrine of repentance, just the perfect doctrine of repentance, and say this is what it is, you don't even do this. Neither do I. You see, we repent and our repentance hopefully is sincere, but repentance itself is subject to sanctification. I'm repenting more now. It keeps going on.

Right, and going deeper. There's not this one time that you repent and that fixes everything. So I tell them what repentance is and I tell them what faith is and I tell them they're commanded to repent and they're commanded to believe and then I ask them, is that what you've done? A way I like to say it is, is this a reality in your life? Because people say, well, I don't know if I have repented.

Well, then let's go through what repentance is, and you tell me, is this a reality, a growing reality in your life? I don't know if I believe. Well, here's what faith is. Is this a reality? And many people I will have that have said, well, you know, I'm going to go back and think on this, and then maybe contact me later and have been soundly converted.

Other people who, They hear the Gospel at the very beginning. They go, yes, this is real. I see it. But it's working with every soul in a different way. And explaining.

See, we use so many phrases that no one understands. Now here's the problem. A lot of modern preachers say, well, then we shouldn't use the phrases. Well, we must if they're in the Bible, but we just need to explain them. And then I never leave someone without saying, especially someone who has professed faith in Christ with me.

Let's say that I'm preaching in a church across the continent. I'm never going to leave them except that I give them gospel warnings. Now what I mean by that is I say Listen, the evidence that you have been converted, that you have truly repented and believed unto salvation is that you will continue repenting and continue believing. You will continue growing in sanctification. You may grow cold, But you will see that God's discipline that you will see a progress in sanctification and you will see the hand of God's Providence Inescapable hand of God's Providence throughout the full course of your life, But if you