Thank you.
Psalm 90 verse 7, if you would turn
in your Bibles, thank you.
Psalm 90 verse 7.
It's good to be back.
It's been about four years if I remember
rightly.
Four years.
Psalm 90 verse 7.
For we're consumed by your anger and by
your wrath we're troubled.
You've set iniquities before you, our secret sins
in the light of your countenance.
For all our days are passed away in
your wrath.
We spend our years as a tale that
is told.
I've done many radio interviews and one that
remains firmly fixed in my mind was way
back in the 1980s.
I don't know if you realize it, but
most radio stations have what's commonly called a
cough button.
That is if the announcer wants to cough,
he can put his thumb on a little
switch or a button and press it down
and he can cough and you don't hear
him cough.
You can say, here is the news read
by such and such and you don't hear
the cough.
Well, I had a friend, a radio announcer,
his name was Dudley Scantlebury.
Dudley had a name that suited his voice.
His name sounded like he was a rich
English aristocrat and his voice sounded like that.
He had one of those velvet voices that
speaks clearly and has resonance to it.
But Dudley had problems with his sinuses.
He's continually blowing his nose and it was
so bad at one point in time he
couldn't even taste his food.
Well, I was doing an interview with him
on a Sunday afternoon, as in studio, it
was live, and he begins the program with,
good afternoon, welcome to the program.
Today is going to be an exciting program.
We have with us Ray Comfort.
Ray, welcome to the program.
I lost it.
I actually fell off the stool.
I was sitting onto the floor and my
wife was listening to the interview.
She said afterwards, what was that grunting in
the background I could hear?
That was me on the floor.
I lost it.
Well, around that time we had a gentleman
or a young man join our youth group.
I was the youth leader in our church
back in the 1980s and this man's name
was Peter.
This was way down in New Zealand.
I was the youth leader.
He was from Australia.
Peter had a serious facial disfigurement.
The right side of his face looked like
it had kind of melted as I was
down about an inch.
His mouth would pull right down.
He was part of a youth group for
about two weeks.
One day I thought, man, I have to
face this.
I'm going to go up and ask him
what happened.
I went up to him.
I said, Peter, what happened with your face?
Hoping you wouldn't say nothing, what happened with
yours?
But he was very gracious and he said,
actually, it was far worse.
He had a very bad speech impediment.
He said it was far worse than this.
His face was all melted down about two
inches further down.
Surgeons and two major operations had actually lifted
up.
He says, I look much better than I
used to look.
He had a great sense of humor and
very gracious about it.
One day he was the altar at the
church I was at.
I went down and I said, Peter, what
are you seeking from God?
And he said to me, I want to
be a radio announcer.
I said, excuse me?
He said, I want to be a radio
announcer.
I said, you want to be a radio
announcer?
And in my mind I was thinking, Lord,
give me a blind man.
What am I going to say to him?
And so I just said, Peter, delight yourself
in the Lord.
He'll give you the desires of your heart.
And unbeknown to me, Peter got a job
at a radio station, working through the night,
sorting out recordings for the next day for
the radio hosts.
And I had a radio program at that
time and he introduced it just for fun
and gave it to me.
And I listened and I thought, who is
that?
Someone said in a nice voice said, and
now we have Ray Comfort.
I thought, what?
That's Peter.
So I took it to the manager of
the radio station and they employed him as
a Christian radio announcer.
God was so faithful.
And about three or four months later, Peter
was in another altar and I went down
to him and I says, Peter, what are
you seeking from God?
And he said, I want a wife.
I thought, oh Lord, give me a blind
man.
And I thought, well, I just said, well,
Peter, delight yourself in the Lord.
He'll give you the desires of your heart.
Long story short, last I heard he was
married, living in Australia with three children.
And God certainly is faithful to his promises.
Now also around that time in the 1980s,
I had a burning heart's desire.
I desired that God would bring forth laborers.
I don't know if you're familiar with Jesus'
command to pray in Luke chapter 10 verses
one and two.
He said, pray to the Lord of the
harvest that he would raise up laborers.
Well, that's a command for you and I
to pray for laborers.
But I surmise that's probably the most ignored
command to pray in scripture.
Because I know how many people actually do
labor for the gospel.
Statistics show that about 2% of the
contemporary body of Christ in our country, in
America, regularly share their faith with others.
There are not very many laborers.
And I surmise that not too many people
are praying, oh God, raise up laborers.
Because if you're not laboring, you won't pray
that prayer because you'll feel a sense of
guilt if you do, because you're not a
laborer yourself.
So Satan gets a double victory.
Not only are you not a laborer for
the gospel, but you're not even praying for
laborers.
And I had an itinerant ministry.
And as I traveled, I found that truly
was this dearth of people who are actually
prepared to do what God commanded us to
do in the great commission.
I'd say in large churches, where's your evangelism
team?
And they'd say, oh, evangelism.
Oh, he's over there sitting on the end
of that pew.
And there were so few actually sharing the
gospel with the unsaved.
And I'd look at these great evangelistic outreaches
where combined churches would combine for a combined
church crusade, or 200 churches would combine in
a large auditorium, and we'd see 50, 60,
70,000 people gathered together and would say,
oh, what a wonderful outreach this is.
But really, when you ask yourself, are those
combined churches combining for a combined church crusade,
who is it that's at the combined church
crusade?
Why?
It's combined churches.
It's actually preaching to the choir, basically.
It's Christians gathering together to preach the gospel
to Christians.
And my prayer was, oh God, give me
a group of 50, 60,000 Christians in
a stadium.
And I wouldn't just preach to the unsaved.
I would challenge them as to the validity
of their walk with God if they're not
obeying the great commission.
I would say to them, what would you
think of a man who waxed his car
and loved his car and was getting a
great shine on his car, when suddenly he
looked out to the side of his eye
and he saw a kid drowning in his
swimming pool?
One of the neighbors, three-year-old kids
drowning in his swimming pool.
And he thinks to himself, man, I can't
leave the shine, ruin the shine.
If I go to save that kid, I'll
just keep shining this vehicle.
Man, he's guilty of a terrible crime.
He's not only morally guilty, he's guilty of
violating a law that's called depraved indifference.
And that law is perfectly named.
Depraved means it's as low as you can
get.
And indifference means you couldn't care less.
And it seems that much of the contemporary
church is guilty of the crime or the
sin of depraved indifference.
If we don't care about the loss, that's
as low as you can get.
We're saying, world, go to hell, I couldn't
care less.
Love could never wax a car while a
child roams.
And love can never wax bold and worship
and sit super glued to a pew while
sinners sink into hell.
Must do something.
My Bible says, he that loves not, knows
not.
God for God is love.
So I'd say to my group of 50,
60,000 Christians, Charles Spurgeon said, have you
no wish for others to be saved?
Then you're not saved yourself.
Be sure of that.
And I'd repeat it.
Have you no wish for others to be
saved?
Then you're not saved yourself.
Be sure of that.
See, the Bible speaks of true and false
conversion.
Tears among the weak, foolish virgins among the
wise, bad fish among the good, goats among
the sheep that Jesus said, I'll sort out
on the day of judgment.
And only those who are saved are those
who do the will of God.
Because if you are saved, one sign you
are saved is that Jesus will be your
Lord.
And when he says, go into all the
world, preach the gospel to every creature, you'll
do what your Lord commands you to do.
And so that's what I would say to
a group of Christians in a stadium.
And then I'd go for the lost and
preach the gospel for any that were in
the midst.
Now around that time, I remember it was
a Thursday afternoon, I looked at a portion
of sermon by Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of
Preachers.
I was sitting in my office and this
is what I read.
Soul, you will find it a hard thing
to go at war with the law.
When the law came in peace, Sinai was
all together on a smoke and even Moses
said, I exceeding fear and quake.
What will you do when the law comes
in terror?
When the trumpet of the archangel shall tear
you from your grave?
When the eyes of God shall burn their
way into your guilty soul?
When the book shall be opened and all
your sin and shame shall be punished?
Can you stand against an angry law in
that day?
And I remember looking at it and thinking,
whoa, that's a little different from God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your
life.
And I thought, what is Spurgeon doing?
He seems to be using God's law to
cause sinners to tremble and to flee from
the wrath that's to come.
And I tucked it in my memory banks.
Two days later, I read Galatians 3.24.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ, that we might be justified
by faith.
But I didn't read it as that.
I read it as this.
Wherefore the law was Israel's schoolmaster to bring
them to Christ, that they might be justified
by faith.
But I said, it doesn't say that.
It says us.
Is it legitimate to pick up the law
from the Old Testament and bring us to
contemporary society and use it as an instrument
to drive sinners to the cross?
So I went out and found myself a
sinner and experimented on him.
I sat next to a guy and I
gave my kind of personal testimony, but instead
of saying, and Jesus filled that God-shaped
vacuum in her heart.
And I found true peace, joy, lasting fulfillment
when I gave my heart to Jesus.
I didn't say that.
I took him through the commandments.
I said, if you've lied, you're a liar.
If you're stolen, you're a thief.
If you look with lust, Jesus said, you've
committed adultery in your heart.
And there's a day of judgment.
And if we're guilty on the day of
judgment, the Bible promises we'll end up in
hell.
But it's not God's will he sent Jesus
to die on the cross, to take the
punishment, to redeem us from the curse of
the law, to raise from the dead on
the third day and defeat death.
And all who repent, trust in him, receive
forgiveness of sins.
God dismisses their case and he allows them
to live.
And this guy stood to his feet and
he said, I've never heard that put so
clearly in all my life.
And I thought, yes, the law is a
schoolmaster.
It teaches, it brings understanding, it brings knowledge.
And so I began to search the literature
of Wesleyan, Spurgeon, and Whitfield, and they said,
if you do not use the law to
bring the knowledge of sin, you'll fill the
church almost certainly with false converts.
And folks, it's as simple as this.
What farmer sows seed on hard ground?
He'd be a fool to do that.
If he's got good quality seed, he turns
the soil, breaks it up, good seed, good
soil, good harvest.
Modern evangelism doesn't do biblical evangelism, doesn't take
the time to do what Jesus did, to
break up the soil of the heart before
the seed of the gospel is planted.
It's as simple as this.
What doctor gives a cure to a patient
when he at first doesn't convince the patient
he has a disease?
He just says, hey, here's a really good
cure.
The patient's not going to appreciate or appropriate
that cure.
He must have a knowledge of his disease
before he'll appreciate the cure.
The gospel is the cure, the disease is
sin, and the convincing agent that tells us
the diagnosis is the law of God.
It brings the knowledge of sin.
It prepares the heart for grace.
And that's the principle of biblical evangelism.
So I formulated this into a teaching called
Evangelical Frustration, which was later entitled Hell's Best
Kept Secret.
And I began teaching it, and I thought,
man, I've got an established itinerant ministry.
It is dead in the water.
I've lost this.
If I preach this, people are going to
slam doors on me and call me a
legalist.
The exact opposite happened.
Doors began to fling open.
Someone heard it, a pastor in the United
States.
He said, America must hear this teaching.
Invited us to base our ministry in Southern
California to bring the teaching to the church
of the U.S. For three years, things
were quiet.
Then David Wilkerson put his commendation on the
teaching.
Bill Gothard put his commendation on the teaching.
Doors began to open further.
And one day Kirk Cameron called.
Kirk is from the Growing Pain sitcom.
Fine Christian.
He said, they're left behind movies.
And he said, I have just heard Hell's
Best Kept Secret.
He said, I am devastated.
I've never heard anything like this in my
life.
You see, for Kirk, a Christian was someone
who went down to his backyard, sat amongst
the green grass, looked at the blue sky,
opened his Bible, listened to the birds singing,
and thanked God for creation.
He had no concern to the lost until
he understood the principles of biblical evangelism, true
and false conversion.
He began to realize that he had never
found a place of genuine repentance.
He'd never been concerned for the salvation of
his loved ones or his neighbors or strangers.
And God transformed his life overnight.
And over the next 12 months, he joined
ministry with me and he kept saying, how
can we get this teaching to the church?
How can we get this teaching to the
church?
And I'd say, well, Kirk, welcome to Club
Frustration.
I've been a member for 20 years.
You just have to get used to it.
Well, one day he was on TBN talking
about left behind too.
And he mentioned our website address.
Well, the next day we got 73,000
hits.
The thing collapsed.
It crashed.
It couldn't take the traffic.
So we got our own server.
I called TBN and says, hey, it crashed.
They said, well, come on again.
You come on with Kirk and talk about
your ministry.
So the day we're due to go on,
TBN called and said, the host that was
going to interview you guys is sick.
Will Kirk host the whole two-hour program?
And knowing Kirk, I thought, no way.
He's not want to be identified with Christian
television in that respect.
There's no way he's going to say yes.
And I called Kirk and told him, and
he said, yes, if they'll let me preach
hell's best kept secret.
So I thought, no way.
They're not going to let him preach hell's
no way.
Called TBN and they said, yes, we'll give
an extra 20 minutes on top.
So he's got some elbow room.
So Kirk preached hell's best kept secret word
for word.
And the next day our website got over
a million hits.
And one day the ministry exploded.
TBN said, please come back each week and
host the program because their ratings went through
the roof.
So they had channel surfers that never stopped
on TBN, but suddenly see Mike Seaver preaching
from the Bible and they had beat themselves
on TBN of all places.
So the ratings went through the roof.
They pleaded with him to come back.
He says, no.
He said, no, I won't.
But I'll tell you what I'll do.
Ryan and I will produce a television show
called The Way of the Master that brings
out principles of biblical evangelism.
And so that's what we did.
We're coming up to our third season, won
People's Choice Award 2004, 2005, NRB 2005 Best
Program Award of the Year.
And this is a television program about evangelism.
So it has blown me away at what
God has done.
The principle behind what we teach is so
simple and yet so profound.
And it was kind of summed up in
a something someone, a member of our staff
told me, a guy's name is Jack Danny
who works for our ministry.
And he said, you know, before I was
a Christian, he said, I actually ended up
in jail for not paying parking tickets.
I said, you're kidding.
Why did you just pay them?
And he said, well, it was just parking
tickets.
It's no big deal.
Parking tickets.
And he said, what happened is the police
arrived at his home at 4am, put him
in a big, big black bus and took
him to LA Courts.
He found himself standing before a judge.
He said, fortunately, I had $700 in my
pocket.
He said, I'd fix things up.
So when his case came, he said, judge,
I've got the money here now.
I can pay those fines and I can
pay court costs.
And the judge says, Mr. Goodall, I'm going
to say, if you're paying out all that
money, you're going to jail.
And Danny said he was terrified.
Now his problem was that he trivialized his
crimes, just parking tickets.
And thus he deceived himself.
Had he known the judge's ruling, that he
was going to end up in jail, he
would have immediately got things right between him
and the law.
Now you and I have a case pending.
We've violated God's law and the case is
with the Supreme Court of Heaven.
Every single one of us will give an
account of himself to God.
One day death will seize upon us.
It will arrest us and drag us before
the judge of the universe.
We will fall into the hands of the
living God.
And we'll not be concerned if we don't
understand the judge's ruling.
Now if you've seen our television program, you'll
know this is a typical encounter.
Recently I was in a taxi with a
taxi driver and I says, hey, how you
doing?
He said, hey, can I ask you a
question?
What do you think happens when someone dies?
This gentleman's name was Muhammad and he was
a Muslim.
And I've learned how to handle Muslims.
I said, what happens when, using biblical principles,
what happens when you die?
What do you think?
He said, you either go to heaven or
you'll go to hell.
I said, where do you think you go?
He says, I hope, I hope, I don't
know.
I hope I go to heaven.
So I said to him, Muhammad, let me
tell you a little story.
As a criminal standing for a judge, he's
committed a very, very serious crime.
But he thinks he's going to get off
because all he's going to say is, judge,
I'm really sorry and I won't do it
again.
He says, is he going to get away?
Is the judge going to let him go?
It's a very serious crime.
Oh, you're sorry?
Oh, I didn't realize that.
You won't do it again?
Okay, case dismissed.
No way.
The judge is bound by law.
He must do what is right and just.
There's no way he's going to let him
go because he's sorry and he won't do
it again.
Of course he should be sorry.
He's done wrong.
And of course he shouldn't do it again.
And Muslims trust in that very principle.
They really think they're going to tell God,
I'm sorry and I won't do it again.
They're very sincere and it's not going to
hold water.
So I said, do you think you're a
good person, Muhammad?
He says, yeah, I think I'm a good
person.
I go to heaven.
He says, have you ever told a lie?
He says, yes, yes.
I said, what does that make you?
I want to personalize this crime.
I want to show him how serious it
is.
And he says, oh, I have told just
fibs, just white lies.
That's how people react.
We trivialize the crime and thus we deceive
ourselves.
We're like Danny, who trivialized just parking tickets
and thus he deceived himself.
And the Bible says, he that he says
he has no sin, which is what you're
doing when you say, oh, it's just white
lies.
It's not really bearing false witness, deceives himself.
Ever stolen something?
Yeah, but just little things when I was
a baby.
But people are like that again and again.
Yeah, when I was three or four, I
took a tiny piece of candy and I
took it back.
We trivialize our crimes and we deceive ourselves.
Here is the judge's ruling on liars.
All liars will have their part in the
lake of fire.
You say, what?
Yeah, all liars have their part in the
lake of fire.
All liars.
That is the judge's ruling.
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
That means extremely detestable to God.
Lying lips.
He takes deceit very, very seriously.
You say, I don't believe in hell.
Well, that's like my friend Danny saying to
the judge, I don't believe in jail.
What's the judge going to say?
He's going to say, excuse me, take him
away.
Our unbelief doesn't negate reality.
Of course there is a place called hell.
Of course God is going to punish murderers
and rapists and thieves, but God is so
good he's going to punish liars and fornicators
and blasphemers and adulterers.
He's going to punish right down to the
thought and intent of the human heart.
He that hates his brother is a murderer.
Every idle word a man speaks, he'll give
an account thereof on the day of judgment.
We cannot let sinners continue to trivialize their
crimes.
We must learn to make it personal.
It must be like Nathan the prophet, who
was so faithful.
When he stood before David and David had
violated the commandments, he had murdered, he had
committed adultery, he had lived a life of
deceit, he had stolen, he had coveted, he
had broken the commandments.
But when Nathan stood before him, he didn't
say, David, God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life.
He didn't say there's a God-shaped vacuum
in your heart only God can fill.
He said, no, no.
He said, you are the man.
Why have you despised the commandment of the
Lord?
He personalized the crime.
He brought out the serious nature of the
crime.
Because David must be made to tremble.
He must be made to see the judge's
ruling that he had seriously violated the commandment
of the holy God.
But today's popular preachers don't personalize sin.
They gloss over it.
They don't want to make people feel uncomfortable.
They don't want to make people feel guilty.
They actually hide the judge's ruling from the
sinner.
They'd never mention hell from a pulpit, or
judgment, or righteousness, or holiness, or law.
And thus they allow the sinner continue to
deceive himself and trivialize his crimes against the
holy God.
They say, oh that method is too confrontational.
It is confrontational, but it's confrontational for good
reason.
Let me give an example.
You're having a business meeting in a restaurant.
A very serious talk about very important business
propositions.
When suddenly a stranger comes up to you,
a waiter.
And he walks up and he just says,
may I take your order?
You don't turn to him and say, excuse
me, I was just talking business with a
friend.
Very important business.
And you just walk up and butt in.
You are very rude.
Now that doesn't happen.
It never happens.
And the waiter knows that it never happens.
Why?
Because he knows he's got what you want.
Food.
That's why you're there, for food.
And that is his confidence.
That's what gives him that boldness to come
up and butt into the conversation.
And you and I have got what the
world wants.
Everlasting life.
Within the heart of every single human being
there is a cry of, I don't want
to die.
Remember that Korean guy that terrorists took a
hold of some time ago?
They put him in front of a video
camera.
They were going to kill him and they
did the next day.
But they let him plead with the camera
and he said, please, I don't want to
die.
And you and I empathized with that.
Because we're human beings.
We're not like the animals.
We're separate from the animals.
We're made in the image of God.
We're human.
Human means lowly.
Being means that we're aware of our existence.
We're aware that we exist and we have
an appointment with death.
And when the heart of every single one
of us is this cry of, oh, I
don't want to die.
That's our God-given will to live.
And every single sane human being has that.
And we've got what they want.
We've found everlasting life.
They just don't understand that.
They think we are religious.
But we've found the greatest treasure any human
being could ever hope to find.
And what we've got to do is make
them understand the issues.
So we have a new waiter.
He comes to the restaurant.
His manager says, there's a couple of businessmen
over there that are just going butter and
you'll be fine.
He says, I don't want to look at
them.
They're wearing suits and ties.
They're busy talking.
So what does the manager do?
He puts him with an experienced waiter.
And the experienced waiter walks up.
The shy waiter stands beside him.
The experienced waiter just walks up to these
businessmen and says, may I take your order?
And they say, oh, yes, certainly.
Yeah, you would like this, this, and this.
And the shy waiter looks.
He says, it works.
He was confrontational.
He butted in.
And they didn't mind one bit.
And that's what gives him his confidence.
That's what makes him bold.
Now let me put you for a moment
with an experienced waiter.
Let's turn to Romans chapter 2.
And look at how Paul is confrontational.
There is nothing sensitive about this.
Oh, I don't want my hearers to feel
guilty.
He's not afraid to mention certain words.
He doesn't get the scalpel out and cut
out words that may offend.
He's faithful.
He's true.
He doesn't water down the medicine.
Romans chapter 2, verse 3, he's speaking about
judgment, the judgment of God.
It's according to truth.
And he says, do you think this, oh
man, that judge them who do such things,
that you shall escape the judgment of God?
You do the same?
Oh, do you despise the riches of his
goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing
the goodness of God will lead you to
repentance?
But after your hardness and impenitent heart, you're
treasuring up to yourself wrath against the day
of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment
of God, who rendered every man according to
his deeds.
To them who by patient continuance and well
-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,
eternal life.
But to them that are contentious and obey
not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and
wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of
man that does evil, of the Jew first
and also of the Greek.
And then Paul in Romans 2, verse 12,
speaks about God's law and us being judged
by that law.
And in verse 15, he says the work
of the law is written on the heart,
on the conscience.
Every one of us knows it's wrong to
lie and steal and commit adultery and kill.
And then over in verse 21, Paul gives
what we commonly call the good test.
He takes someone through the test to see
if they are good.
And look how he personalizes the commandments.
Firstly, he says in verse 20, an instructor
of the fool is a teacher of babes,
who have the form of knowledge and of
the truth in the law.
You, therefore, who teach another, you shall do
not teach yourself.
You that preach, a man should not steal.
Do you steal?
You say a man should not commit adultery.
Do you commit adultery?
See, he's personalizing the 10 commandments.
You that abhor idols, which is the first
and second 10 commandments.
Do you commit sacrilege?
You that make your boast of the law
through the breaking of the law, you dishonor
God.
When we violate the law, we sin against
God.
We don't sin against man, we violate his
law.
We become indebted to the law.
For the name of God is blasphemed among
the Gentiles for you, as it is written.
Paul was confrontational, because he knew what sinners
should hear.
He knew what they needed to hear, the
ruling of the judge, that they might see
the crimes in their true light, see the
seriousness of the transgression, and realize they need
to repent and trust in the Savior.
Think of Lazarus, the story of Lazarus and
the rich man that Jesus told.
Jesus said there was a certain rich man
who feared sumptuously, and he was dressed in
fine linen and purple.
And I see this as a picture of
the contemporary church, the rich, fat, lairousy in
church that says that it's rich, in need
of nothing, but in truth it's poor, blind,
wretched, miserable, and naked.
It's dressed in fine linen, the righteousness of
the saints, and purple royalty, the royal priesthood
of believers, who couldn't care less about the
lost, Lazarus starving at the gate.
They're too busy feeding themselves, heaping to themselves,
teachers having itching ears, no concern for the
salvation of the lost whatsoever.
But it was in hell the rich man
suddenly become evangelistically concerned.
It took hell to awaken him about the
plight of others.
And in hell he lifted up his eyes,
being in torments, and he cried out, Father
Abraham, go to my brethren and testify to
them, testify to them.
What would he have them testify?
I mean, if he appeared in front of
you at the moment, the rich man suddenly
appears in front of you.
His clothing is smoldering, his skin is blotched,
his eyes are a flame of fire, there's
terror in his voice.
He says, testify to my loved ones.
What should you testify?
What does he want you to say?
God loves you and has a wonderful plan
for your life.
He'll fill the God-shaped vacuum in your
heart.
Jesus will help your marriage.
No!
He wants you to speak about the reality
of hell.
He would have you say, hell is a
real place of a fire and of torment,
of God's indignation, his wrath, tribulation, and anguish,
where the worm never dies and the fire
is never quenched.
Please tell them.
Tell them to look to the law and
see the knowledge of sin and realize that
sin is exceedingly sinful.
Let them understand the ruling of the judge
and let them see that God and his
mercy provided a way of escape.
He's provided a day of grace in Jesus
Christ for the suffering death that Christ redeems
from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us.
And tell them to repent of all sin
and trust in the Savior.
And folks, that's our message.
That's what we should be preaching.
Now how far we've removed from that.
Listen to the message of popular preachers.
Week after week after week, not a mention
of sin, of righteousness, judgment, of hell, of
the law.
It's just life improvement.
What you can get from God.
How you can be your best and do
this and do that.
Health, wealth, prosperity.
And it's not just in the prosperous move
right throughout the body of Christ, the same
inward self.
No concern about the lost or being faithful
to the message.
Preaching the unadulterated Word of God.
Listen to what Nobel Prize-winning American physicist
Steven Weinberg said in a recent PBS interview
regarding religion.
He said, I have very good friends who
belong to religious denominations whose teaching is that
since I don't accept their teaching, I am
damned for all eternity.
And you'd think that these friends would try
to convert me, but they never do.
Now you could explain this in various ways.
It may be that they really don't like
me very much and are just as glad
to see me damned for all eternity.
That's a possible explanation.
But another explanation, which I tend to think
is more likely, is that although they know
what their church teaches, they give lip service
to it.
They draw near to God with their lips,
but their hearts are far from him.
And the Bible says we worship God in
vain when we do that.
I think that man nailed it.
That's the problem.
We don't believe God's what he says.
If we don't believe, how can we call
ourselves believers?
How can we say we belong to Jesus
Christ if we don't do what he says?
For we are consumed by your anger, and
by your wrath we're troubled.
You have set our iniquities before you, as
secret sins in the light of your countenance,
for all our days are passed away in
your wrath.
So says the psalmist.
By your wrath we're troubled.
Contemporary America is not troubled by the wrath
of God.
They've got a wrong image of what God
is like.
They're not troubled by wrath.
God isn't mad at us.
He's our friend.
We call upon him in times of crisis.
Oh no, the Bible says we're enemies of
God in their mind through wicked works.
Whoever's a friend of the world is an
enemy of God.
And any talk of wrath, they're offended by
it.
And I believe they're offended by any thought
of God's wrath, because the church has forsaken
the preaching of God's law.
When do you hear that law thundered from
pulpits?
When do you see flashes of lightning at
Mount Sinai fall upon congregations and put the
fear of God in them?
Because Bible says the fear of the Lord
causes man to depart from sin.
What the law does is it makes hell
reasonable.
If God is that holy, if he considers
hatred to be murder, lust to be adultery,
we are in big trouble.
The law shows sin to be exceedingly sinful.
It reveals why we are consumed by his
anger.
It is because he has set our iniquities,
that is our lawlessness, in front of him.
He's like a judge who looks at a
criminal who's raped and murdered six young teenage
girls.
He's raped them and then slit their throats.
So what does the judge do?
He sets the man's lawlessness in front of
him.
He takes the evidence of the man's guilt,
the photo of the girls with their throats
cut, the knife the murderer used, the fingerprints
on the knife, his note boasting of what
he did, and then he passes sentence in
the light of that evidence.
And God has set our iniquities before him.
But more than that, our secret sins are
in the light of his countenance.
God's not in the dark as to what
we've done.
He sees the thoughts and intents of the
heart, and they're in the light of his
countenance.
They're not at his feet or his hand,
they're right in front of his face.
And he's holy and just and must bring
every work to judgment, including every secret thing,
whether it's good or evil.
The goodness of God would kill us if
we stood in the presence of God.
When Moses asked to see God, God says,
you cannot see my goodness and live.
God is like a good judge who is
filled with fury at a heinous criminal.
He's just waiting to bring down that cow
and bring justice.
And God is so good, his wrath abides
upon us.
We are consumed by his wrath.
The law convinces us that it's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.
It drives us to the cross.
You say, how can I bring that sort
of message to an unbeliever?
How do I bring that subject up?
Well, folks, I've learned how to do it.
It's very simple.
It's very easy once you learn how to
do it.
I always carry with me gospel tracts, and
let me show you this one.
This one is a million-dollar bill.
It's not a real million-dollar bill.
I wouldn't hold it up in front of
other human beings, okay, if it was real.
It's not real because there's no such thing
as a million-dollar bill, okay?
If it was, if there was, it would
probably look just like this.
On the back, it has a very clear
gospel message.
And I use this to bring up the
subject with sinners.
I just say, excuse me, you're doing a
great job.
Here's a million dollars.
People go, what?
A million bucks.
Whoa, thanks.
I say, it's great when you get the
change.
I say, good.
So it's got a gospel message on the
back.
Have you had a Christian background?
They say, yeah.
I say, what do you think happens after
someone dies?
Do you believe in heaven and in hell?
You just get them talking about what they
believe and say, what do you think happens?
And they say, well, most people, they react
like this.
Yeah, oh, boy, I believe in heaven.
I don't know if I believe in hell.
And they say, well, do you think you're
good enough to go to heaven?
They say, yeah, yeah, I'm good.
The Bible says almost every man will proclaim
his own goodness.
So, well, there's a way to find out.
Just go through the ten commandments.
Let's do a little test.
Don't take a minute.
It's four questions.
Nothing to lose.
Most important thing you'll ever look at.
Have you ever told a lie?
Ever stolen something?
Look with lust.
Blaspheme God's name.
Open up the commandments.
Bring the knowledge of sin.
Let them tremble before a judge they're vital
to.
Let them hear the judge's ruling.
All lies have their part in the lake
of fire.
Now, I travel a lot by plane, and
I carry these tracks with me.
And I've noticed there's a bit of tension
in planes for some reason nowadays.
So when I go in, I like to
lighten things up a bit.
I just show my ID.
And you can't see this, but this is
my ID.
This is what I show them.
Okay.
It's a picture of me with a stretched
head.
And I do that.
It really hurt when they did it.
And it just lightens things up straight away.
The flight attendant goes, well, that's funny.
Give me that.
Give me your wallet.
Look at this.
Showing other people.
And then I say, hey, you folks are
doing a great job.
Here's a million bucks.
They go, oh, that's funny.
Oh, that's great.
So I give one to the other flight
attendant.
I say, how many drivers is there?
Two.
Okay.
One for the pilot, one for the assistant.
There you are.
And they're saying, thanks a lot.
And I speak very loudly.
And there's a reason I speak loudly.
It's because I know that just to my
right there is the business section.
And in the business section are businessmen who
are sitting there minding their own business.
But they look up, and they live for
this stuff.
That's what they live for.
You see?
And I'm giving it out.
And they go, what is a guy giving
out money?
What's going on up there?
And their eyes went.
So I turn around, and I realized that
God created me this size so that my
money will be in the eye level of
businessmen.
So I turn around, and they say, money.
And when I see their eyes go, whoa,
I go, did you get your million?
They say, hey, thanks.
I say it loud enough for the guy
behind him to let you know what's going
on.
So I gave out down the plane about
30 of these as I'm going down the
plane.
And I sit in my seat halfway down
the plane when a flight attendant comes walking
up to me and says, a man down
the front wants one of those million dollars.
So I give her one.
But instead of just giving her one, I
gave her a bundle.
She turns around to the rest of the
passengers and says, anyone like a million dollar
bill?
She's giving out tracks.
So folks, you can do this.
You can get these on livingwaters.com.
You can listen to tapes free of charge.
You can download the tapes.
They're non-copyright.
You can duplicate them.
And you can learn biblical principles.
Just go there and click on the audio
section of livingwaters.com.
But to encourage you as we begin to
close today, I want to share with you
a witnessing experience that I see as my
worst ever witnessing experience.
And the reason I want to do this
is so that will bring great comfort to
you if you have a bad time.
I was in Santa Monica in Southern California
on a Friday night.
It was a very dark Friday night.
It was worse than the time that I,
as a new Christian, went out door knocking,
knocking on doors.
I just didn't want to do it.
I felt self-conscious.
Jehovah's Witnesses had stolen our thunder, knocking on
doors everywhere.
And people didn't want knocking on doors.
And there I was knocking on someone's door.
So when the door opened, with a very
sincere tone, I said to the lady that
opened the door, oh, hello, I'm not a
Jehovah's Witness.
And she said, well, I am.
Santa Monica was worse than that.
It was worse than the time that I
was talking to two young ladies and wanting
to relate to them and be friendly.
So I said, that's because I wanted to
witness to them.
I said to the one that was pregnant,
when are you a Jew?
And she says, I'm not.
I said, my, what a full dress.
Well, must go.
Santa Monica was worse than that.
It was worse than the time that I
was at KABC radio, which is a secular
station.
I did a radio program regularly on a
Sunday night where I was in a studio
with a Catholic priest and a rabbi for
two hours talking about religion.
And I was in the lobby and it's
a security guard standing there.
So I thought, fell at liberty to talk
to him, seeing it was a Christian program,
kind of, religious program.
I said, so you had a Christian background?
He says, no.
I said, well, do you think you're a
good person?
He says, yeah, I'm a really good person.
So I said, well, have you ever told
a lie?
He says, yeah.
So what does that make you?
He says, a liar.
I said, have you ever stolen something?
He says, yeah.
I said, what does that make you?
He says, a thief.
I said, now Jesus said, if you look
upon a woman to lust after her, you
commit adultery already with her in your heart.
Have you ever done that?
And suddenly he looked down and I lost
eye contact with him.
So I grabbed his hand.
I said, have you ever looked upon a
woman to lust after her?
And he looked at me in the eyes
and he said, no, I'm gay.
And I was holding his hand.
Santa Monica was worse than that.
Let me tell you what happened in Santa
Monica, Southern California on a dark, very dark
Friday night.
I've been open-air preaching.
I went there every Friday night for about
three and a half years and preached open
-air.
And during the open-air preaching times, during
the break, I would get down and I
would give out gospel literature.
I'd give out tracts to people as they
went by.
And as I was giving out tracts and
people taking them, suddenly I saw a lady
in an electric wheelchair come from my left
and she was hooting it.
She was doing about eight, ten miles an
hour.
She's going really fast.
She had a foot to the pedal and
she was like that.
And I noticed she had some terrible disease
where her face was just contorted and her
hands were thrashing back and forth with this
horrible disease.
And my heart went out to her and
I thought, oh, I'd love to give her
a tract but just, what was that?
She was gone.
And I thought, oh man, I felt so
disappointed.
About ten minutes later, I looked to my
right and back she's coming.
This time, no foot to the pedal.
She's moving about two miles an hour because
the lady is pushing her along.
And I thought, oh, this is my opportunity.
So I grabbed a tract and I went
up to give it to her and as
she went to grab the tract, this horrible
disease made her hand thrash like that and
she couldn't get a hold of it and
her face looked so disappointed.
So I tried to give it to her
again and again, she missed the thing trying
to take hold of it.
And I just felt sick and I felt
so disappointed.
She was trying to get this and she
looked disappointed and frustrated.
And so I started walking alongside the wheelchair
and probably two or three times I tried
to put it in her hand and this
terrible disease made her hand thrash back and
forth and her face looked disappointed and frustrated
once again.
And I was trying to put it between
her fingers when suddenly the lady pushing the
wheelchair said, can't you see she doesn't want
it?
Her frustration on her face was not because
she couldn't get a hold of it, it
was because the silly little man with a
mustache was trying to put a piece of
paper between her fingers, which she didn't want.
Get this thing out of my face.
And I just bowed my head and said,
Lord, if you're thinking of taking me home
anytime in the future, now would be really
appropriate.
So the next time you say something wrong
when you're trying to witness to somebody or
that somebody rejects you or you chicken out,
please don't be discouraged.
Speak comfort to your soul.
Just say, remember Ray Comfort in Santa Monica.
Let's close in prayer and ask God to
seal this word to our heart, shall we?
Father, we come before you and say, Lord,
we have neglected that which we should do.
We've sinned against you with complacency.
We've been guilty of the crime of depraved
indifference, and often I have when I've walked
past someone knowing that more than likely the
person is a non-Christian.
If he dies in his sins, he could
be snatched into eternity.
In a heartbeat, he will go to hell
forever, and I've been unconcerned.
I ask you for forgiveness.
I pray that you would raise up laborers
even this day.
Raise up laborers and thrust us into the
harvest fields to do what we know we
should.
We pray for anyone here who's never been
born again, that has never cried out, God,
forgive me, I'm a sinner.
May they understand the judge's ruling today, that
all liars will have their part in the
lake of fire, that you're holy and perfect
and righteous and good.
You'll by no means clear the guilty, but
you've provided a way of escape through the
blood of Jesus Christ, through the cross of
Calvary, through his death and resurrection.
Let them find a place of repentance and
faith in Jesus this day, that they might
pass from death unto life.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Folks, if you think what I've been saying
is important, there's a book table out the
back under that little tent thing.
There's a pack called Exhilarate, and inside that
pack, there is a book called The Way
of the Master by Kirk Cameron and myself.
There's also two tapes, Hell's Best Kept Secret,
True and False Conversion.
That is the most important and most equipping
information in that one pack.
When you get the pack, you get a
free hundred million dollars, completely free, and you
win a free trip to Hawaii for two
at your own expense.
So thank you for listening to me.
There's also a book out there called How
to Bring Your Children to Christ and Keep
Them There.
Thank you.