In the late 70s God very graciously opened
an itinerant ministry to me.
As I began to travel I found I
had access to church growth records and found
to my horror that something like 80 to
90 percent of those making a decision for
Christ were falling away from the faith.
That is modern evangelism with its methods is
creating something like 80 to 90 of what
we commonly call backsliders for every 100 decisions
for Christ.
Let me make it more real for you
in 1991 in the first year of the
decade of harvest a major denomination in the
U.S. was able to obtain 294,000
decisions for Christ.
That is in one year this major denomination
of 11 and a half thousand churches was
able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ.
Unfortunately they can only find 14,000 in
which means they couldn't account for 280,000
of their decisions and this is normal modern
results and something I discovered way back in
the 70s greatly concerned me.
I began to study the book of Romans
intently and specifically the gospel proclamation of men
like Spurgeon, Wesley, Moody, Finney, Whitfield, Luther, others
that God used down through the ages and
I found they used a principle which is
almost entirely neglected by modern evangelical methods.
I began teaching that principle was eventually invited
to base our ministry in southern California the
city of Bellflower in California specifically to bring
this teaching to the church of the U
.S. Things were quiet for the first three
years until I received a call from Bill
Gothard who had seen the teaching on video
and he flew me to San Jose in
northern California.
I shared it with a thousand pastors and
in 1992 he screened that video to 30
,000 pastors the same year David Wilkerson called
from New York called from his car he'd
been listening to the teaching in his car
called me on his car phone and immediately
flew me 3,000 miles from LA to
New York.
This year the one-hour teaching with this
church he considered it to be that important
and recently I heard of a pastor who
had listened to the audio tape 250 times.
I'd be happy if you'd listen just once
to this teaching which is called Hell's Best
Kept Secret.
The Bible says in Psalm 19 verse 7
the law of the Lord is perfect converting
the soul.
What is it that the Bible says is
perfect and actually converts the soul?
Well scripture makes it very clear the law
of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
Now to illustrate the function of God's law
let's just look for a moment at civil
law.
Imagine if I said to you I've got
some good news for you.
Someone has just paid a $25,000 speeding
fine on your behalf.
You probably react by saying what are you
talking about that's not good news it doesn't
make sense I don't have a $25,000
speeding fine.
My good news wouldn't be good news to
you it would seem foolishness but more than
that it would be offensive to you because
I'm insinuating you've broken the law when you
don't think you have.
However if I put it this way it
may make more sense.
On the way to this meeting the law
clocked you at going 55 miles an hour
through an area set aside for a blind
children's convention.
There were 10 clear warning signs stating that
15 miles an hour was the maximum speed
but you went straight through at 55 miles
an hour.
What you did was extremely dangerous.
There's a $25,000 fine.
The law was about to take its course
when someone you don't even know stepped in
and paid the fine for you.
You are very fortunate.
Can you see that telling you precisely what
you've done wrong first actually makes the good
news make sense.
If I don't clearly bring instruction and understanding
you violated the law then the good news
will seem foolishness it will seem offensive but
once you understand you've broken the law then
that good news will become good news indeed.
Now in the same way if I approach
an impenitent sinner and say Jesus Christ died
on the cross for your sins it'll be
foolishness to him and offensive to him.
Foolishness because it won't make sense the bible
says that the preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness and offensive because
I'm insinuating he's a sinner but he doesn't
think he is as far as he's concerned
there are a lot of people far worse
than him but if I take the time
to follow in the footsteps of Jesus that
may make more sense.
If I take the time to open up
the divine law the 10 commandments and show
the sinner precisely what he's done wrong that
he has offended God by violating his law
then when he comes as James says convinced
of the law as a transgressor the good
news of the fine being paid for will
not be foolishness it will not be offensive
it will be the power of God under
salvation.
Now with those few thoughts in mind by
way of introduction let's now look at Romans
3 verse 19 we'll look at some of
the functions of God's law for humanity.
Romans 3 verse 19 now we know the
whatsoever things the law says it says to
them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God so one function
of God's law is to stop the mouth
to stop sinners justifying themselves and saying there's
plenty people worse than me I'm not a
bad person really no the law stops the
mouth of justification and leaves the whole world
not just the Jews but the whole world
guilty before God.
Romans 3 verse 20 therefore by the deeds
of the law there should no flesh be
justified in his sight for by the law
is the knowledge of sin so God's law
tells us what sin is 1st John 3
4 says sin is transgression of the law
Romans 7 verse 7 what should we say
then says Paul is the law sin God
forbid no I have not known sin but
by the law Paul says I didn't know
what sin was until the Lord told me
in Galatians 3 24 wherefore the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that
we might be justified by faith God's law
acts as a schoolmaster to bring us to
Jesus Christ that we might be justified through
faith in his blood the law doesn't help
us it just leaves us helpless it doesn't
justify us it just leaves us guilty before
the judgment bar of a holy God and
the tragedy of modern evangelism is because around
the turn of the century when it forsook
the law in its capacity to convert the
soul to drive sinners to Christ modern evangelism
had to therefore find another reason for sinners
respond to the gospel and the issue that
modern evangelism chose to attract sinners was the
issue of life enhancement the gospel degenerated into
Jesus Christ will give you peace joy love
fulfillment and lasting happiness now to illustrate the
unscriptural nature of this very popular teaching I
would like you to listen very carefully to
this following anecdote because the essence of what
I'm saying pivots on this particular illustration so
please listen carefully two men are seated in
a plane the first is given a parachute
and told to put it on as it
would improve his flight he's a little skeptical
at first as he can't see how wearing
a parachute a plane could possibly improve a
flight after time he decides to experiment and
see if the claim is true as he
puts it on he notices the weight of
it upon his shoulders and he finds the
difficulty in sitting upright however he consoles himself
with the fact he was told the parachute
would improve the flight so he decides to
give the thing a little time as he
waits he notices that some of the other
passengers are laughing at him because he's wearing
a parachute in a plane he begins to
feel somewhat humiliated as they begin to point
and laugh at him he can stand it
no longer he slinks in a seat unstraps
the parachute and throws it to the floor
disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart because as
far as he was concerned he was told
an outright lie the second man is given
a parachute but listen to what he's told
he's told to put it on because at
any moment he'd be jumping 25,000 feet
out of the plane he gratefully puts the
parachute on he doesn't notice the weight upon
his shoulders nor that he can't sit upright
his mind is consumed with the thought of
what would happen to him if he jumped
without that parachute let's analyze the motive and
the result of each passenger's experience the first
man's motive for putting the parachute on was
solely to improve his flight the result of
the experience was that he was humiliated by
the passengers he was disillusioned and somewhat embittered
against those who gave him the parachute as
far as he's concerned it'll be a long
time before anyone gets one of those things
on his back again the second man put
the parachute on solely to escape the jump
to come and because of his knowledge of
what would happen without it he has a
deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart
knowing that he's safe from sure death this
knowledge gives him the ability to withstand the
mockery of the other passengers this attitude or
those who gave him the parachute is one
of heartfelt gratitude now listen to what the
modern gospel says it says put on the
lord jesus christ he'll give you love joy
peace fulfillment and lasting happiness in other words
jesus will improve your flight so the sinner
responds and in an experimental fashion puts on
the savior to say the claims are true
and what does he get the promise temptation
tribulation and persecution the other passengers mock him
so what does he do he takes off
the lord jesus christ he's offended for the
word's sake he's disillusioned and somewhat embittered and
quite rightly so he was promised peace joy
love fulfillment and lasting happiness and all he
got were trials and humiliation his bitterness is
directed at those who gave him the so
-called good news his latter end becomes worse
than the first another inoculated and bitter backslider
saints instead of preaching that jesus improves the
flight we should be warning the passengers they're
going to have to jump out of the
plane that is the point of the man
wants to die and after this the judgment
and when a sinner understands the horrific consequences
of breaking god's law then he will flee
to the savior solely to escape the wrath
that's to come and if we're true and
faithful witnesses that's what we'll be preaching that
there is wrath to come that god commands
all men everywhere to repent why because he
has appointed a day in which he'll judge
the world in righteousness you see the issue
isn't one of happiness but one of righteousness
doesn't matter how happy a sinner is how
much he's enjoying the pleasures of sin for
a season without the righteousness of christ he'll
perish in the day of wrath riches profit
not on the day of wrath but righteousness
delivers from death peace and joy are legitimate
fruits of salvation but it's not legitimate to
use these fruits as a draw card for
salvation if we continue to do so sinners
respond with an impure motive lacking repentance now
can you remember why the second passenger had
joy and peace in his heart was because
he knew that parachute was going to save
him from sure death and as a believer
i have as paul says joy and peace
in believing because i know that the righteousness
of christ is going to deliver me from
the rapids to come now with that thought
in mind let's take a close look at
an incident on board the plane we have
a brand new stewardess she's carrying a tray
of boiling hot coffee it's her first day
she wants to leave an impression on the
passengers and she certainly does because as she's
walking down the aisle she trips over someone's
foot and stops that boiling hot coffee all
over the lap of our second passenger now
what's his reaction that boiling liquid hits his
tender flesh does he go and that hurt
he feels the pain but then does he
rip the parachute from his shoulders throw him
to the floor and say the stupid parachute
no why should he he didn't put the
parachute on for better flight he put it
on to save him from the jump to
come if anything the hot coffee incident causes
him to cling tighter to the parachute and
even look forward to the jump now if
you and i put on the lord jesus
christ for the right motive to flee from
the wrath is to come when tribulation strikes
when the flight gets bumpy we won't get
angry at god we won't lose our joy
and peace why should we we didn't come
to jesus for a happy lifestyle we came
to flee from the wrath is to come
and if anything tribulation drives the true believer
closer to the savior and sadly we have
literally multitudes of professing christians who lose their
joy and peace when the flight gets bumpy
why they're the product of a man-centered
gospel they came lacking repentance without which you
can't be saved i was in australia recently
ministering australia is a small island off the
coast of new zealand i preach sin law
righteousness holiness judgment repentance and hell i wasn't
exactly crushed by the amount of people wanting
to give their hearts to jesus in fact
the air went very tense after the meeting
they said there's a young guy down the
back who wants to give his life to
christ i went down the back and found
a teenage lad who could not pray the
sinner's prayer because he was weeping so profusely
now for me it was so refreshing because
for many years i suffer from the disease
of evangelical frustration i so wanted sinners to
respond to the gospel i unwittingly preached a
man-centered message the essence of which was
this you'll never find true peace without jesus
christ you have a god-shaped vacuum in
your heart that only god can fill i'd
preach christ crucified i'd preach repentance a sinner
would respond to the altar i'd open an
eye and say oh no this guy wants
to give his heart to jesus and there's
an 80 chance he's going to backslide and
i am tired of creating backslides so i
better make sure this guy really means it
he better be sincere so i'd approach the
poor guy in a gestapo spirit i'll walk
up and say what do you want he
said i'm here to become a christian i
said do you mean it they say yeah
i said do you really mean it he'd
say yeah i reckon okay i'll pray with
you but you better mean it from your
heart he's okay okay well you repeat this
prayer sincerely after me and mean it from
your heart sincerely and really mean it from
your heart sincerely and make sure you mean
it oh god i'm a sinner he said
oh god i'm a sinner and i'd say
man why isn't there a visible sign of
contrition there's no outward evidence the guy is
inwardly sorry for his sins now if i
could have seen his motive i would have
seen he was 100 sincere he really did
mean his decision with all his heart he
sincerely want to give this jesus thing a
go see if you get a buzz out
of it he tried sex drugs materials and
alcohol why not give this christian bit of
goat see if it's as good as all
these christians say it is peace joy love
fulfillment lasting happiness he wasn't fleeing from the
wrath that was to come because i hadn't
told him there was wrath to come there
was this glaring omission from my message he
wasn't broken in contrition because the poor guy
didn't know what sin was remember romans 7
verse 7 paul said i had not known
sin but by the law how can a
man repent if he doesn't know what sin
is any so-called repentance would be merely
what i call horizontal repentance he's coming because
he's lied to men he's stolen from men
but when david sinned with bashiba and broke
all 10 of the 10 commandments when he
coveted his neighbor's wife lived a lie stole
his neighbor's wife committed adultery committed murder dishonored
his parents and thus dishonored god he didn't
say i've sinned against man did against you
and you only have i sinned and done
this evil in your sight when joseph was
tempted sexually he said how can i do
this thing and sin against god the prodigal
son said i've sinned against heaven paul preached
repentance towards god and the bible says godly
sorrow works repentance and when a man doesn't
understand that a sin is primarily vertical he'll
merely come and exercise superficial experimental and horizontal
repentance and fall away when tribulation temptation and
persecution come ab earl said i have found
my long experience that the severest threatenings of
the law of god have a prominent place
in leading men to christ and must see
themselves lost before they will cry for mercy
they'll not escape danger until they see it
i'd like to do something a little unusual
i'll not embarrass you i give you my
word but i would like to ask how
many of you were thinking of something else
when i was reading that quote from ab
earl now i want to admit something to
you i was thinking of something else when
i was reading that quote from ab earl
i was thinking nobody's listening to me they're
thinking of something else so to make a
very important point i'd like to be really
honest if you were thinking of something else
and you even got a clue what ab
earl said could you raise your hand up
nice and high up nice and high it's
usually half to two-thirds and we've got
that here tonight let's try again god bless
you pastor for your honesty ab earl was
a famous evangelist of the last century who
had 150 000 converts to substantiate his claims
satan doesn't want you to get a grip
of this so listen very closely ab earl
said i have found by long experience that's
the true test that the severest threatenings of
the law of god have a prominent place
in leading men to christ they must see
themselves lost before they will cry for mercy
they'll not escape danger until they see it
you see you try and save a man
from drowning when a man doesn't believe he's
drowning he'll not be too happy with you
you see him swimming out in the lake
you think i think he's drowning yes i
believe he is you dive in pull him
to the shore without telling him anything he's
not going to be very happy with you
you won't want to get saved until he
sees that he's in danger they'll not escape
danger until they see it you see if
you came to me and said hey ray
i said you you said this is a
cure to groanin's disease i sold my house
to raise the money to get this cure
i'm giving it to you as a free
gift i'd probably react something like this what
cure to what groanin's disease you sold your
house to raise the money to get this
cure you're giving me as a free gift
why thanks a lot bye guys are not
i mean that's probably how i'd react if
you sold your house to raise the money
to get a cure for disease i've never
heard of you're giving to me as a
free gift i think you're rather strange but
instead if you came to me and said
ray you've got groanin's disease i can see
10 clear symptoms on your flesh you're going
to be dead in two weeks and i
became convinced i had the disease the symptoms
are so evident and said what should i
do and then you said don't worry this
is a cure to groanin's disease sold my
house to raise the money to get this
cure given to you as a free gift
i'm not going to despise your sacrifice i'm
going to appreciate it and i'm going to
appropriate it why because i've seen the disease
that i might appreciate the cure and sally
what's happened in the u.s and the
western world has followed is that we have
preached the cure without first convincing of the
disease we have preached the gospel of grace
without first convincing men of the law that
transgresses and consequently almost everyone i try and
witness to in southern california or around the
bible belt has been born again six or
seven times they say you need to give
your life to jesus christ i did that
when i was 7 11 17 23 25
28 32 you know the guy's not a
christian he's a fornicator he's a blasphemer but
he thinks he's saved because he's been born
again what's happening he's using the grace of
our god for an occasion of the flesh
he doesn't esteem the sacrifice for him it's
not a bad thing to trample the blood
of christ underfoot why because he's never been
convinced of the disease that he might appreciate
the cure biblical evangelism is always without exception
war to the proud and grace to the
humble never will you see jesus giving the
gospel the good news the cross the grace
of our god to a proud arrogant self
-righteous person no no with the law he
breaks the hard heart and with the gospel
he heals the broken heart why because he
always did those things that pleased the father
god resists the proud and gives grace the
humble everyone who is proud of heart scripture
says is an abomination to the lord jesus
told us in the gospel as for he
said the spirit of the lord is upon
me because he has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor the broken hearted
the captives and the blind now they are
spiritual statements the poor in spirit the broken
heart of the contrite one the captives are
those of whom satan has taken captive to
do his will and the blind are those
of whom the god of this world is
blinded at least the light of the gospel
should shine on them only the sick need
a physician and only those who are convinced
of the disease will appreciate an appropriate cure
so we're going to now very briefly look
at examples of lord of proud and grace
to the humble luke 10 24 luke 10
24 and when i give you a reference
from the pulpit i'll give it twice because
i know that men are present and men
need to be told things twice men need
to be told things twice this can be
backed up biblically when god speaks to men
in the bible he uses the name twice
abraham abraham saul saul moses moses samuel samuel
because men need to be told things twice
women once i don't know how many times
i've sat in a pew preacher said i'll
look 10 25 i turn to my wife
and say what do you say she says
luke 10 25 i think thank you dear
help mate that's why god created women because
men could not handle it on their own
the whole thing is men lose things women
find things where's the keys love hanging on
your nose dear i mean i don't know
how many times i open a cupboard there's
no honey here honey she says here is
here dear where would man be without women
still in the garden of eden eve found
the tree adam didn't really know what was
going on in fact if you look at
the creation of women to create women the
bible says god put man into a deep
sleep and scripture doesn't say ever came out
of it in luke 10 25 we see
a certain lawyer stood up and tempted jesus
this is not an attorney but a professing
expert in god's law stood up and he
said to jesus how can i get everlasting
life now what did jesus do he gave
him law why because he was proud arrogant
self-righteous here we have a professing expert
in god's law tempting the son of god
the spirit of his question was and what
do you think we've got to do to
get everlasting life so jesus gave him law
he says what is written in the law
what is your reading of it he says
uh you shall love the lord your god
with your heart mind soul and strength love
your neighbor as yourself and jesus said this
too and you shall live then the scripture
says but he willing to justify himself said
to jesus who's my neighbor the living bible
brings out more clearly the effect of the
law on the man and said the man
wanted to justify his lack of love for
some kinds of people so he asked which
neighbor so he didn't mind jews but he
didn't like samaritan so jesus then told him
the story of what we call the good
samaritan it was not good at all and
loving his neighbor as much as he loved
himself he merely obeyed the basic requirements of
god's law and the effect of the essence
of the law the spirituality of the law
what the law demands and truth was that
that man's mouth was stopped see he didn't
love his neighbor to that degree the law
was given to stop every mouth and leave
the whole world guilty before god similarly in
luke 18 verse 18 the rich young ruler
came to jesus said how can i get
everlasting life i mean how would most of
us react if someone came up and said
how can i get everlasting life we'd say
oh quickly say this prayer before you change
your mind but what did jesus do with
this potential convert he pointed him to the
law he gave him five horizontal commandments commandments
to do with his fellow men and when
he said i've kept those from my youth
jesus said one thing you lack and he
used the essence of the first of the
ten i'm the lord your god you shall
have no other gods before me to show
this man that his god was his money
and you cannot serve god and namen lord
of the proud then we see grace being
given to the humble in the case of
nicodemus nicodemus was the leader of the jews
he was a teacher in israel therefore he
was thoroughly versed in god's law he was
humble of heart because he came to jesus
and acknowledged the deity of the son of
god a leader in israel we know that
you've come from god for no man can
do these miracles that you do unless god
is with him so jesus gave the sincere
seeker of truth who had a humble heart
and a knowledge then via the law the
good news of the fine being paid for
him for god so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son and it
was not foolishness to nicodemus but the power
of god the salvation similarly in the case
of nathaniel nathaniel was an israelite brought up
under the law indeed not just in word
in whom there was no guile there was
no deceit in his heart obviously the law
was a schoolmaster to bring this godly jew
to christ similarly were the jews on the
day of pentecost they were devout jews godly
jews therefore ate drank and slept god's law
matthew henry the bible commentator said the reason
they were gathered together on the day of
pentecost was to celebrate the giving of god's
law in mount sinai so when peter stood
up to preach to these godly jews he
didn't preach wrath no the law works wrath
they knew that he didn't preach righteousness or
judgment no no he just told them the
good news of the fine being paid for
them and they were pricked in their heart
and cried men and brethren what should we
do the law was a schoolmaster to bring
them to christ they might be justified through
faith in his blood as the hymn writer
said by god's word at last my sin
i learned then i trembled at the law
i'd spurned till my guilty soul imploring turned
to calvary first timothy chapter one verse eight
says but we know that the law is
good if it is used lawfully for the
purpose for which it was designed god law
is good if it's used lawfully for the
purpose for which it was designed well what
was the law designed for following verse tells
us the law was not made for a
righteous man but for sinners it even lists
the sinners homosexuals fornicators if you want to
bring a homosexual to christ don't get into
an argument with him over his perversion he's
ready for you with his boxing gloves on
no no give him the ten commandments the
law was made for homosexuals show him that
he is damned despite his perversion if you
want to bring a jew to christ lay
the weight of the law upon him let
it prepare his heart for grace as happened
on the day of you want to bring
a muslim to christ give them the law
of moses they accept moses as a prophet
well give them the law of moses and
strip them of their self-righteousness and bring
them to the foot of a blood-stained
cross i heard of a muslim reading a
book held best kept secret and god soundly
saved him purely through reading the book why
because the law of the lord is perfect
converting the soul think of the woman caught
in the act of adultery violation of the
seventh commandment the law called for her blood
she found herself between a rock and a
hard place she had no avenue but to
fling herself at the feet of the son
of god for mercy and that is the
function of god's law paul spoke of being
shut up under the law it condemns you
say oh you can't condemn sinners since they're
already condemned john 3 verse 17 he that
believes not is condemned already all the law
does is show him himself in his true
state ladies you might recognize this book your
table needs dusting in your living room so
you dust it clean all the dust is
gone then you draw back the early morning
sunlight what do you see on the table
dust what do you see in the air
dust did the light create the dust the
light merely exposed the dust and when you
and i take the time to draw back
the curtains of the holy of holies and
let the light of god's law shine upon
the sinner's heart all that happens is that
he sees himself in truth the commandment is
a lamp and the law is light that's
why paul said by the law is the
knowledge of sin that's why he said by
the commandment sin became exceedingly sinful in other
words the law showed him sin in its
true light now normally at this stage of
this teaching i go through the ten commandments
one by one but what i'll do is
share with you how i witness personally because
i think it would be more beneficial now
i'm a strong believer in following the footsteps
of jesus never ever would i approach someone
and say jesus loves you totally unbiblical there's
no precedent for that in scripture neither would
i go up to someone and say i'd
like to talk to you about jesus christ
why because if i want to awaken you
from a deep sleep i wouldn't use a
flashlight in your eyes that will offend you
i'd turn on a light dimmer very gently
first the natural then the spiritual why because
the natural man receives not the things of
the spirit of god neither can he know
them they're foolishness to him because they're spiritually
understood now the precedent in scripture is given
in john 4 for personal witness you can
see jesus example with the woman at the
well he started in the natural realm swung
to the spiritual bought conviction using the seventh
commandment and then revealed himself as the messiah
so when i meet someone i'll talk about
the weather i talk about sport let them
feel a little bit of sanity get to
know them maybe joke here and there and
then deliberately swing from the natural to the
spiritual now the way i do this is
that i use gospel tracks i've printed millions
and millions of tracks and our tracks are
unusual if you get a hold of them
what you'll have to do is have a
stack on you because people chase you and
ask for more let me give an example
this is our optical illusion track which looks
bigger if you can see does the pink
look bigger you see that for those listening
by tape they're the same size it's an
optical illusion i say it's actually a gospel
track instructions are on the back how to
get saved if they say you can keep
that he said hey thanks a lot this
is me whoa got another gift for you
out of my pocket i get a pressed
penny with the 10 commandments on we have
a machine that does this we buy the
pennies new from the bank nice golden looking
pennies and we feed them into this machine
and it presses them we'll do your thumbnail
if you want to hold still but it
presses them with the 10 commandments it's legal
to do this this is considered art it's
not the facing of penny so i say
here's a gift he says what what is
it i said it's a penny with the
10 commandments on it did it with my
teeth to the eyes of my teeth but
the ease are really difficult now what i'm
doing is i am putting out a feeler
to see if he's open to spiritual things
if he says 10 commandments thanks a lot
he's not open but the usual reaction is
10 come on say thanks appreciate this i
say yeah do you think you've kept the
10 commandments he's oh yeah pretty much he
said let's go through them never told a
lie he says oh yeah yeah wanted to
so what does that make you he says
a sinner i said no no specifically what
does it make you he said well man
i'm not a liar so i said how
many lies then do you have to tell
to be a liar 10 and the bell
rings and boom across your forehead there's not
sure you tell one lie and makes you
a liar he says yeah i guess you're
right so have you ever stolen something he
says no say come on you've just admitted
to me you're a liar have you ever
stolen something even if it's small he says
yeah i said what does that make you
he says a thief so jesus said if
you look at a woman and lust after
he committed adultery with her in your heart
ever done that he says yeah plenty of
times so from your own admission you're a
lying thieving adulterer at heart and you have
to face god on judgment day and we've
only looked at three of the 10 commandments
there's another seven where they can be pointed
at you have you used god's name in
vain yeah i've been trying to stop you
know what you're doing instead of using a
folly of filth word beginning with s to
express disgust you're using god's name in its
place that's called blasphemy the bible says every
idle word a man speaks he'll give an
account thereof in the day of judgment the
law will not hold him guiltless who takes
his name in vain i was as if
you hate someone you are a murderer and
folks when you look at those commandments they
certainly leave us guilty they don't paint a
pretty picture in the mirror number one i
am the lord your god you shall have
no other gods before me that means god
our creator commands that he be the focal
point of our affections we are commanded to
love the lord our god with all our
heart mind soul and strength and to love
our neighbor as much as ourselves to a
point where our love for mom and dad
brother and sister and our own life seems
like hatred compared to the love that we
have for the god who gave those loved
ones and that life to us and there's
none of us that can say i've kept
the first of the ten commandments the bible
says there's none that seek after god second
is you should not make yourself a graven
image you should not make a god either
with your hands or with your mind well
one say oh my god isn't a god
of wrath and judgment my god is a
god of love and mercy he would never
create hell someone says that to you agree
with them say you're right your god would
never create hell because he couldn't he doesn't
exist he's a figment of your imagination the
place of imagery you've shaped a god to
suit your sins you said i'm the potter
you're the clay made a god to suit
yourself it's called idolatry it's the oldest sin
in the book and the bible says idolatrous
will not inherit the kingdom of god and
the wonderful thing about god's law is that
god has taken the time to write it
upon our heart romans 2 verse 15 which
show the work of the law written in
their hearts the conscience bearing witness now conscience
means with knowledge con is with science is
knowledge conscience so when he lies lusts fornicates
blasphemes commits adultery he does it with knowledge
that it's wrong god has given light to
every man the holy spirit convicts him of
sin righteousness and judgment sin which is transgression
of the law righteousness which is of the
law judgment which is by the law his
conscience accuses him the work of the law
written on his heart and the law condemns
him so i say so god judges you
by this standard on the day of judgment
you're going to be innocent or guilty he
says guilty i say well do you think
you'll go to heaven or hell and the
usual answer is heaven product of the modern
gospel i say why do you feel like
that it's because you think god is good
and you'll overlook your sins he says that's
it you'll overlook my sense so we'll try
that in a court of law you've committed
rape murder drug pushing very serious crime the
judge says you're guilty all the evidence is
here have you anything to say before i
pass sentence and you say yes judge i'd
like to say i believe you're a good
man and you'll overlook my crimes the judge
would probably say you're right about one thing
i am a good man and because of
my goodness i'm going to see that justice
is done because of my goodness i'm going
to see that you're punished and the very
thing that sinners are hoping will save them
on the day of judgment the goodness of
god will be the very thing that will
condemn them because if god is good he
must by nature punish murderers rapists thieves liars
fornicators blasphemous god is going to punish sin
wherever it's found so with this knowledge he's
now able to understand he now has light
that his sin is primarily vertical that he
has sinned against heaven that he has violated
god's law and he has angered god and
the wrath of god abides upon him he
can now see these weighed in the balance
of eternal justice and found wanting can now
understand the need for a sacrifice christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law being
made a curse for us god commended his
love toward us and that while we get
sinners christ died for us we broke the
law he paid the fine it's as simple
as that and if a man will repent
if a woman repent put their faith in
jesus god will remit their sins so that
on the day of judgment when their court
case comes up god can say your case
is dismissed through lack of evidence christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law being
made a curse for us and therefore exercise
repentance towards god faith toward the lord jesus
christ put his hand on the flower and
not look back because he's fit for the
kingdom that word fit means ready for use
the soil of his heart has been turned
that he might receive engrafted word which is
able to save the soul now i haven't
got time to share these quotes with you
but they're in a literature these men i'm
sure you recognize their names john wycliffe he
said this is the bible translator said the
highest service to which a man may attain
on earth is to preach the law of
god why because it'll drive sinners to faith
in the safety to everlasting life martin luther
said the first duty of the gospel preacher
is to declare god's law and show the
nature of sin in fact as we read
these quotes these men are so they have
so much conviction you can feel their teeth
grip they say things like if you do
not use the law in gospel proclamation you
will fill the church with false converts stony
ground hearers who receive the word with joy
and gladness listen what martin luther said is
that satan the god of all dissension stirs
up daily new sects the last of all
which of all others i should never have
foreseen or once suspected he has raised up
a sect such as teach that men should
not be terrified by the law but generally
exhorted by the preaching of the grace of
christ so what's luther saying he's saying listen
guys there's a demonic satanic sect that's just
risen up man i never ever would have
believed this could happen he's raised up a
sect such as teach that men should not
be terrified by the law but gently exhorted
by the preaching of the grace of christ
which perfectly sums up most of evangelism matthew
henry john wesley said to a friend of
writing to a young evangelist he said preach
90 law and 10 grace you say 90
law 10 grace pretty heavy couldn't be 50
50 think of it like this i'm a
doctor you're a patient you have a terminal
disease i have a cure but it's absolutely
essential that you are totally committed to this
cure if you're not 100 committed it will
not work how am i going to handle
it probably like this come in here sit
down some very serious news for you you
have a terminal disease i see you begin
to shake i think to myself good he's
beginning to see the seriousness of the situation
i bring out charts i bring out x
-rays i show you the poison seeping through
your system i speak to you for 10
whole minutes about this terrible disease how long
then do you think i'm going to talk
about the cure not long at all but
he's sitting there trembling after 10 minutes i
say by the way here's the cure you
go your knowledge of the disease and a
terrific consequence has made you desire the cure
you see before i was a christian i
had as much desire for righteousness as a
four-year-old boy has for the word
bath what's the point see jesus said a
blessed of those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness how many non-christians do you know
who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness the
bible says there's none that seek after god
since they love the darkness they hate the
light neither will they come to the likeliest
their deeds be exposed the only thing they
drink in is iniquity like water but the
night i was confronted with the spiritual nature
of god's law and understood that god requires
truth paths that he saw my thought life
and considered lust to be the same as
adultery hatred the same as murder i began
to say i can see i'm condemned what
must i do to be made right i
began to thirst for righteousness the law put
salt on my tongue it was a schoolmaster
bring me to christ charles spurgeon said they
will never accept grace until they tremble before
a just and holy law d l moody
john bunyan john newton who wrote amazing grace
and if anyone had a grip on grace
it was newton he said that the correct
understanding of the harmony between law and grace
is to preserve oneself from being entangled by
errors on the right hand and on the
left and charles finney said evermore the law
must prepare the way for the gospel he
said to overlook this and instructing souls there's
almost certain to result in false hope the
introduction of a false standard of christian experience
and to fill the church with false converts
since the first thing david wilkerson said to
me when he called me on his car
phone was i thought i was the only
one who didn't believe in follow-up now
i believe in feeding a new convert i
believe in nurturing him i believe in discipling
him biblical and most necessary but i don't
believe in following him i can't find it
in scripture the ethiopian eunuch was left without
follow-up how could he survive all he
had was god and the scriptures you see
it's my understanding you know what follow up
now let me explain follow up for those
of you who don't know follow up is
when we get decisions either through crusades or
local church and we take laborers from the
harvest fields who are few as it is
and give them this disheartening task of running
after these decisions to make sure they're going
on with god what it is is a
sad admission to the amount of confidence we
have in the power of our message and
in the keeping power of god if god
has saved them god will keep them if
they're born of god they'll never die if
he's begun a good work in them he'll
complete it to that day if he's the
author of their faith he'll be the finisher
of faith he's able to save the uttermost
them that come to god by him he's
able to keep them from falling present and
faultless before the presence of his glory of
exceeding joy jesus said no one will pluck
you from my father's hand see the problem
lazarus is four days dead we can run
in the tomb we can pull him out
we can prop him up we can open
his eyes but he's stinkers he needs to
hear the voice of the son of god
and the sinner is four days dead in
his sins we can run up and say
satan's prayer still he needs to hear the
voice of the son of god or there
is no life in him and the things
that primes the sinner's ear to hear the
voice of the son of god is the
law it's a schoolmaster to bring him to
christ that he might be justified through faith
saints the law works it converts the soul
that makes a person a new creature in
christ that all things pass away behold all
things have become new so find yourself a
sinner and experiment on them but as you
do so remember this one anecdote you're sitting
on a plane you're suffering your coffee you're
biting your cookie you're watching a movie it's
a good flight very pleasurable when suddenly you
hear this is your captain speaking you have
an announcement to make because the tail section
has just formed this plane we're about to
crash there's a 25,000 foot drop there's
a parachute under your seat we'd appreciate if
you put it on thank you for your
attention and thank you for flying with us
airline 25,000 feet man am i glad
to be wearing this parachute you look next
to you the guy next to you is
biting his cookie suffering his coffee watching the
movie you say excuse me did you hear
the captain put the parachute on turns to
you and i really don't think the captain
means it besides i'm quite happy and thanks
don't turn to him in sincere zeal and
say oh please put the parachute on it'll
be better than the movie and that doesn't
make sense if you tell him that somehow
the parachute is going to improve his flight
he's going to put it on for a
wrong motive if you wanted to put it
on and keep it on tell him about
the jump say excuse me ignore the captain
if you wish jump without a parachute splat
he says i'm sorry i beg your pardon
i said if you jump without a parachute
law of gravity on the ground he says
goodness me i see what you're saying thank
you very much and as long as that
man knows as long as he has knowledge
he has to pass through the door and
face the consequences of breaking the law of
gravity there's no way you're going to get
that parachute off his back because this very
life depends on it now if you look
around you find there are plenty of passengers
enjoying the flight they're enjoying the pleasures of
sin for a season godman's excuse me did
you hear the command from the captain of
our salvation put on the lord jesus christ
he turns and says i really don't think
god means that god is love besides i'm
quite happy i am thanks don't turn to
him in sincere zeal without knowledge and say
please put on the lord jesus christ he'll
give you love joy peace fulfillment lust and
happiness got you back to my heart only
god can fill you here a marriage problem
drug problem alcohol problem just give you heart
of jesus no you'll give him a wrong
motive for his commitment instead say oh god
give me courage and tell him about the
junk just say hey it's appointed a man
wants to die if you die in your
sins god will be forced to give you
justice and his judgment is going to be
so thorough every idle word a man speaks
you've given a counter of in the day
of judgment if you've lusted you've committed adultery
if you've hated someone you've committed murder jesus
warned that justice will be so thorough the
festive eternal wrath will come upon you and
grind you to powder god bless i say
i'm not talking about hellfire preaching hellfire preaching
will produce fear-filled converts using god's law
will produce tear-filled converts this one comes
because why he wants to escape the fires
of hell but in his heart he thinks
god is harsh and unjust because the law
hasn't been used to show him the exceeding
sinful nature of sin he doesn't see hell
as being as just as it but he
deserves hell therefore he doesn't understand mercy or
grace and therefore he lacks gratitude to god
for his mercy and gratitude is the prime
motivation for evangelism there'll be no zeal in
the heart of a false convert to evangelize
but this one comes knowing he has sinned
against heaven the god's eye is in every
place beholding the evil and the good and
god has seen darkness as though a pure
light he's seen his thought life of god
and his holiness on the day of wrath
made manifest all the secret sins of his
heart all the deeds done in darkness he
made manifest all his evidence of his guilt
god could pick him up as an unclean
thing and cast him into hell and do
that which is just but instead of giving
him justice he's given him mercy he's commanded
his love toward him that what he's here
to send a christ died from he falls
on his knees before that blood-stained cross
and says oh god if you do that
for me i'll do anything for you i'd
like to do your will oh my god
your law is written upon my heart and
like the man who knew he had to
pass through the door and face the consequences
of breaking the law of gravity would never
take his parachute off because his very life
depended on it so he who comes to
the savior knowing he has to face the
holy god on a day of wrath would
never forsake the righteousness of god in christ
because his very life depends on it let
me see if i can coagulate this teaching
as we draw it to a close i
was in a store some time ago and
the owner of the store was serving a
customer and using god's name and blasphemy now
somebody used my wife's name and blasphemy i'll
be extremely offended if they if they used
her name as a curse word in that
sense but someone was this guy was using
god's name as a curse word when god
had given him life his eyes the ability
to think his children his food every pleasure
he's ever had was given him by the
goodness of god and using god's name as
a curse word indignantly to him this customer
i leaned and said excuse me is this
a religious meeting the guy says what h
-e-l-l no i said yes it
is because now you're talking about hell let
me get you one of my books so
i went out to my car sorry i
went out to my car and got a
book that i've written called god doesn't believe
in atheists proof the atheist doesn't exist and
it's a book which uses logic humor reason
and rationalism to prove the existence of god
which you can do in two minutes without
the use of faith it's a very simple
thing to conclusively absolutely prove god's existence and
it proves also that the atheist doesn't exist
in fact let me show you our bumper
sticker national atheist day april the first so
i gave him this book and two months
later i went and gave him another book
i've written a book called my friends are
dying a book which is a true and
gripping story about the ministry of the gospel
in the most murderous portion of los angeles
a book which also uses humor in its
presentation gave him those books and he called
me and told me that what had happened
he told me his wife gave him filthy
looks because there he was reading a book
called my friends are dying and laughing every
two minutes but he's cleaning out his room
and he he picked up god doesn't believe
in atheists he said ah and he opened
it up and read the first page and
then he read the whole book 260 pages
he said it was weird because i hate
reading then he read my friends are dying
gave his life to christ bought himself a
bible came around to say hi and told
me after two days of being a christian
in his bible he was already up to
what he called the book of levititis and
i guess he was going to read palms
and then job but up until his commitment
the man was a practicing witch the law
of the lord is perfect converting the soul
and says oh god looked down upon me
as for many years i open air preached
as i fought off the enemy of the
feather duster of modern evangelism this is oh
god said what are you doing weapons of
war for not carnal but mighty through god
of the pulling down a stronghold here are
10 great canons and as i lined up
the 10 canons of god's law no longer
did sinners scoff and mock no their faces
went pale they lifted their hands and said
i surrender all all to jesus i fully
give came across to the winning side never
to become deserters such converts become soul winners
not pure warmers laborers not layabouts assets not
liabilities for the local church and now saints
with every head raised and every eye open
and no music playing let me challenge you
as to the validity of your salvation modern
evangelism says never question your salvation the bible
says the exact opposite it says examine yourself
and see if you're in the faith better
now than on the day of judgment the
bible says make your sure and some of
you know that something is radically wrong in
your christian walk you lose your peace and
joy when the flight gets bumpy there is
a lack of zeal to evangelize you never
fell on your face before a mighty god
and said i've sinned against you oh god
have mercy upon me you've never fled to
jesus christ and his blood for cleansing and
desperation crying out god be merciful to me
a sinner and there's a lack of gratitude
there's not a burning zeal for the lost
you can't say you're on fire for god
in fact you're in danger of being one
of the ones that are called luke warm
will be spewed out of the mouth of
christ on the day of judgment when multitudes
will cry out to jesus lord lord you'll
say depart from you worker of iniquity lawlessness
i never knew no regard to the divine
law the bible says let everyone that names
the name of christ depart from iniquity lawlessness
so today you need to readjust the motive
for your commitment friend don't let your pride
stop you i would like to pray for
you i'll remain up here you remain in
your seat if you'd like to be included
in this prayer i'd like you to slip
up your hand but remember this if you
say well i should put my hand up
but what will people think that's pride you
prefer the praises of men to the praises
of god everyone who is proud of heart
is an abomination to the lord god resists
the proud gives grace to the humble so
humble yourself before the mighty hand of god
he'll exalt you in due time call it
a recommittal call it a committal but whatever
you call it make your calling and election
sure