I, Lincoln Prattney, is entitled, The Marks of
a True Jesus Person.
The last session we're going to talk about
causes the seeds that fell on good ground
and the essential conditions of salvation.
Christian life is a religion where young people
have the opportunity of sitting in a church
once or twice a week, listening to a
good sermon, so they can make it to
heaven and stay out of hell.
Now if after three sessions you still believe
that, you've got rocks in your head.
I had an illustration I've used for a
number of times about witnessing.
If you were ever along one day and
you see a guy fishing in a waste
paper basket, and you come up and you
kindly ask, what are you doing?
What do you think I'm doing?
What does it look like?
I'm fishing.
You ask him kindly, have you caught anything?
He looks at you and he says, no.
But, I have found out what the problem
is.
I know what the problem is.
You say to yourself, I know what the
problem is.
He says, I've been using the wrong reel
and the wrong bait.
But I just got some new bait and
a different reel.
I'm still catching him now.
Fishing in an empty waste paper basket.
As you walk away from that dude, you
do know three things, two things at least
about him.
Number one, that there's something very wrong with
that dude.
And number two, that he's still fishing in
the wrong place.
And any discussion of genuine witnessing must also
involve those two questions.
If you have been fishing and you haven't
caught anything, then first have a look at
yourself.
And secondly, have a look where you're fishing.
We want to talk first of all then
about the Christian, because as we said, genuine
Christianity is not something you do, it's something
you live.
Christianity is not simply a number of things
that you have to get out of the
way in order to be accepted by the
Lord.
The Bible has never taught salvation by works.
It never has and never will.
But, the Bible does teach that a Christian
is a certain kind of person who is
radically different from other kinds of people in
the world.
Would you please turn in your Bible to
the book of Luke, Luke chapter 8.
Jesus is very kind to us in this
parable, because he doesn't just leave us by
telling us that some people didn't make it
and some did.
He tells us why.
And that's the lovely thing about the Bible.
God is always very practical.
He never gives us things to tickle our
ears, but to change our hearts and make
us different.
And in the Bible we are told, what
are the conditions of a ground bringing forth
good fruit?
Good seed.
Now understand, in this parable the sower is
the same in each case.
It's the same sower.
There's not a word said about the person
who sows the seed.
Also, there's nothing wrong with the seed.
The seed in each case is good seed.
The thing that differs in each case is
that the ground is different.
The ground is not prepared.
And so as we talk about true evangelism
and true Christianity today, we do need to
say a few things on how to prepare
the ground so that the seed will grow
properly.
In your witnessing you will probably find every
now and then, you may find at least,
somebody who is open and receptive to the
gospel.
The man whose heart is broken over his
sins, who really feels wrong about what he's
done and hates what he's done, who comes
to you and says, this is exactly what
I really need to do.
I know my heart has been broken.
I have hurt God.
I've hurt others.
I'm a failure.
I'm a washout.
I really need to change my life.
Then you will not need to do a
great deal of what I'm going to tell
you.
You can simply take that young person, that
man or that woman, and kindly point them
to the Savior.
From that point on it will be a
simple thing.
If you really hate what you've done, just
simply tell that to God.
Hopefully honest with Him, and then surrender your
love up to Him.
Let Him come into your life and change
you.
But most people that I have met on
the streets are not like that.
You may be totally different.
You may rush out.
You may come into houses.
And every place you ever knock on the
door, and every place you've ever done any
witnessing in, why for goodness sake, you probably
have a whole bunch of people.
You come to them and you say, Hello,
here I am and I'm a Christian, and
I've come to tell you all about Jesus,
and I understand you're really hungry and you're
searching for God, and I've got this tract
here that will tell you all about how
to give your life to Christ.
You may find people all over the place
that say, Oh wow, this is what I've
been always looking for all my life.
If only somebody had come earlier and fall
on their knees and give their lives to
Christ.
You may find a large number of people
like that.
But I confess to you that I have
not found a great deal of people who
do things like that from door to door.
Matter of fact, not only from door to
door, but almost anywhere.
You can go to the average kid today,
you can say that kind of thing to
him.
He'll say, Oh really?
Well thank you very much, I do appreciate
that.
Now you see, what we need to do
then is how to break up the soil.
We need to learn how to furrow up
the ground.
So that the ground which is rocky or
hard or weedy will be prepared for the
gospel and that when the seed is sown,
it will take root and bring forth fruit.
We need to do, if you like, pre
-evangelism.
And I say this to you this afternoon.
That God would rather have you do a
good job of breaking up the ground and
leave a man convicted but still unwilling to
surrender to Jesus, but leave him convicted than
to push him through to a phony repentance
and a phony faith so that he says,
I believe in Jesus and signs on the
dotted line and when you come back he's
the same man as he was before.
So I say to you, it is better
to leave a man in conviction but unconversion
if he will not surrender than to push
him through just to collect scalps on your
belt.
And it's so easy to go out and
witness things and these are going wrong motives.
To come back and say, How many of
you win?
Well I won 15, how many of you
won?
I remember once they were asking how many
decisions were made during the day and people
were putting their hands up and said, How
many decisions did you have?
I had five decisions, praise the Lord, you
know, do the same.
And there was David sitting there beside me
and David said to me, I had 15
decisions today, 14 were against Christ and one
was for him.
Francis Schaeffer calls pre-evangelism taking the roof
off.
He says, Here's a man and he's safe
and sheltered inside this house.
He's safe inside that house.
Now the house he's talking about of course
is not the physical house he's living in
but the house he has built to shield
himself from the gospel.
You come up to this man and say,
Do you want to be saved?
He'll probably laugh in your face because he
doesn't think he's lost.
So you need to spend enough time with
that man until he really sees he's lost
before the word saved means anything to him.
Now what does the word lost mean to
a person who's sitting down in a chair
watching television and enjoying himself.
You say, Hey, I want to tell you
how to be saved.
And he says, Oh really?
So there is a song that was given
in the World Congress of Evangelism called How
Lost Can a Man Be and they gave
this Christian song to a group of kids
and they asked them to shoot slides on
the theme How Lost Can a Man Be.
And first of all the kids went out
and they shot an old wino down in
the slums How Lost Can a Man Be
and then they shot a kid with a
needle in his arm overdosing How Lost Can
a Man Be and then they got clever
the next round when they shot him they
shot a guy smiling with a big old
sports car How Lost Can a Man Be
They saw two kids happy with each other
and they put them, How Lost Can a
Man Be Maybe that's a little closer to
the truth You see, there's possibly to be
lost and still be fun Jesus said there's
two roads a broad road and a narrow
road and he said the pleasures of sin
in effect are for a season, so there
is some fun in sin Listen, when I
was living selfishly I used to have an
awful lot of fun But it's kind of
a cotton candy Have you had that cotton
candy?
We call it candy floss in New Zealand
And I used Lauren Cunningham was telling me
about this one time That's exactly how I
felt You feel this, you know and it's
only 35 cents It's a huge thing, oh
boy I really zipped him out of this
And you take a bite on that thing
constantly, and the first time I bit it
I thought I missed it It disappears The
devil's like that and his fun is like
that There's a pleasure in sin but it
only lasts a little while and at the
end of that way, there's a way of
death God's way sometimes costly, but the end
of the way is life, life everlasting Now,
we must then take the roof off, people
If they're hard, we must learn to use
the gospel First of all, we must learn
to use the law as a way of
taking the roof off It comes to a
man who is safe in his little house,
and I pull the roof off and the
wind whistles in, see and then I pull
one wall down and then I pull another
wall down and then I tear all his
clothes off and he's standing there dark and
naked and unclothed and scared skinny and then
I talk to him about the gospel Do
you see, that's what we need to do
People today have forgotten They don't believe in
sin anymore They don't believe in wrong anymore
They just simply live like that And it's
high time we learned how to take the
roof off Now, in the Bible it tells
us what happens It tells us that those
by the wayside are those that hear then
comes the devil and takes the word out
of their hearts lest they should believe and
be saved I want you to look in
the book of Corinthians keeping your finger in
this place and see why it is important
for us to pray before we speak to
people 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2 We
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not
walking in craftiness nor handling the word of
God deceitfully but by demonstrating the truth we
commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the
sight of God Now, you have one friend
who is with you when you talk to
the lost man and it's his conscience Conscience
is part of the facet of the human
spirit Comes from the word sciento to know
and con with so it's to know alongside
of with And conscience is God's link with
the law that men ought not to be
selfish which is written on every heart Now
understand this, when you go out speaking to
people people understand in the depths of their
hearts that they ought not to be selfish
The word sin has lost its meaning today
but the word selfishness has not So I
use the word selfishness more than I use
the word sin It is one and the
same word In essence, sin is selfishness It
is living to please and serve yourself first
instead of God It is refusing to treat
God as if he really was God And
then remember we said, all we like have
gone astray, we have turned everyone to his
own way That's selfishness, that's the essence of
sin Now there's a funny thing about selfishness
and that is this, no matter what country
or what language people speak, what colour what
creed, what religion, all of them know that
you ought not to be selfish Even the
people who are selfish know that they oughtn't
to be selfish And P.S. Lewis brings
out one of his little books called Mere
Christianity, he says, you've all heard kids arguing
and they go their arguments go something like
this Give me a piece of your orange,
I gave you a piece of mine You
know, little kids see Or another one's like
this, that's not fair I had this chair
first, that's mine And he said the interesting
thing about this is, these are little kids
Nobody's ever told them what fair is, but
they just know that it's not good to
be selfish And when they say I had
that first, they are both appealing to a
law that both of them intuitively understand but
neither of them have really been taught I
gave you a piece of mine, give me
a piece of yours, that's only fair And
that rule of fairness or if you like
moral law, is written on every heart, and
every man you speak to knows that he
ought not to be selfish, but the Bible
tells us that when we go out and
we speak the truth to people and say
this, you ought not to be selfish God
can speak right to their consciences and say
that's right So when I speak to a
man who is lost, I can say to
him listen, the trouble with you is that
you're selfish, and the Holy Spirit says yes
Do you remember when you lied?
When you stole?
When you cheated?
Were you immoral?
In the back of this guy's head And
I'm saying selfish and the Holy Spirit is
saying immorality And he says, oh and I
have never met a sinner who has done
anything except these three things when I've accused
him of selfishness.
Number one they've said, well no ah not
always, meaning I give candy to babies sometimes
help little old ladies across the room and
the road and various other things.
I'm not selfish all the time sometimes I
do things for other people too and the
next question you ask is why and I
say well because I like doing it and
then you say why well that's what I
like to do Oh really?
Well that's selfishness.
And you see if if there's no other
standard of right and wrong other than what
you like to do, you could take that
same little baby that you fed candy to
and cut it in half if that's what
you like to do and that would be
equally true and you could take that little
old lady that you're helping across the road
and take a handbag off her and beat
her to death with her own handbag and
it would be no different you see you
must have some better guidelines than just that
what you feel like doing if everybody does
their own thing here's a philosophy that sounds
beautiful do your own thing as long as
you don't hurt anybody and I say amen,
that's what the bible teaches providing you put
God in do your own thing as long
as you don't hurt God and others, and
that's just what Jesus said, you should love
the Lord your God with all your heart,
soul, mind and strength and love your brother
as you love yourself and then when you
find a kid who says that's my philosophy,
say why don't you live it then that's
hypocritical if you really loved God, then you
wouldn't hurt him if you really didn't want
to hurt people, then you'd acknowledge the God
who holds your being together you're not thankful,
you've never thanked him he holds your whole
life together he gives you your next heartbeat
and you'll hurt him the next thing a
kid will say is well well well, nobody's
perfect by which they
mean as long as you're a human being
you're going to be selfish, that's not what
the bible says we have a new theology
today and I want to talk about it
in a little while it has been propagated
by various preachers and teachers here is the
new theology in the parables of peanuts, I
think probably sums it up in popular form
and it goes something like this man is
sinful because he is man because he is
man and being a man is being equivalent
to being a sinner but that's not what
the bible says the bible says man is
sinful because he has chosen to be because
the Lord Jesus Christ became a man and
this is what the new theology says man
is finite and sin is anything that comes
short of being infinite and only God is
infinite therefore man is sinful because he's not
infinite so everybody in heaven will still be
sinful because they'll always be finite there's only
one infinite being and that's God, so everybody
will always be sinful because they are finite
but that's not what the bible says sin
is, the bible says that man has been
given a real choice and he's made a
real space time choice to hurt God he's
chosen to be selfish and that's why he
is guilty not because of what he is
but what he has chosen to be and
I have heard preached so long and so
often, man is guilty because he is man,
I really believe a lot of people believe
it, but the bible doesn't now let me
show you the logical consequences of this thinking
some of you may have seen the tablets
of peanuts and the almost Charlie Brown here's
Samuel Taylor quoted, I believe and hold it
as a fundamental article of Christianity that I
am a fallen creature that I myself am
capable of moral evil but not by myself
capable of moral good that an evil ground
existed in my will previously to any given
act or assignable moment of time in my
consciousness I am born a child of wrath
Samuel Taylor colored, some of you know how
he wrote some of his lovely poems under
addiction to opium and of course if you
believe that man is sinful because he is
man then you'll never change your life because
he can't whose life can ever be changed
who will ever seek to be finite, the
answer is nobody, but read the Lord Jesus
who was tempted in all points like as
we are, yet without sin, great is the
mystery of godliness the bible says, God was
manifest in the flesh and he did not
give in to sin, don't you dare tell
me that sin equals being a man, the
Lord Jesus Christ became fully human and he
did not give in to sin and this
thinking carries over and I want you to
show to see, just see this on the
side if man is sinful because he is
man then the new theologians do this Adam
made all men sinful and they had no
choice in that matter of fact the new
theologians would go earlier and say, God made
Adam sinful God is the one who is
responsible for evil, he made Adam sin he
invented evil Adam was finite so Adam was
created sinful and no man will ever be
infinite, so no man will ever really be
clean, but since all of us, God is
angry with man because he is finite God
is angry with you because of who you
are and not what you have chosen to
be he is angry with you whether you
have done anything or not he is just
angry with you but Christ has done a
beautiful thing see, he didn't want his father
to be angry with him so what he
did is he came and he died for
all men and this is their thinking man
will never be clean so Christ has died
to save all men and now I want
to read the results of the new theologians
under the paragraph or the passage which is
called the good news of the great joy
they say this Christianity is not, nor has
ever been the bad news of a cosmic
penal system bent on selling fire insurance for
eternity I say right on, alright, that's fine
it is instead the good news that any
and all penalties against man have been dropped
and I say no way that there will
certainly be no fire for anyone but only
great joy for all and that man may
begin even now to live in this joy
by living towards the future the only fire
that will ever exist for any of us
is the fire we talked about in the
last chapter the hell recognized or unrecognized that
most certainly exists within us now, and as
much as we attempt to live our lives
on any other basis then the assurance of
Christianity is good news let me explain that
for you because that sounds kind of cunning
doesn't it what it means is this God
has forgiven all men and all men are
saved, whatever they've done whoever they are, they
are already now saved, however if they don't
believe that, they'll go through hell on earth
because they won't know about it of course
when they die they'll suddenly realize how foolish
they were and they'll all, they'll have a
miserable time down here on earth not knowing
that they're assured of salvation so the Christians
task then is to go out and tell
men that they have been saved that's exactly
what it says, now let's move on the
Christian message is true of all of us
that no less than God himself loves us
and will always love us without qualification and
that finally nothing will be able to separate
us from the love of God and Christ
Jesus our Lord then he quotes a number
of new theologians and then he says the
joyful good news of Christianity then is that
God's salvation falls freely upon all men that
nothing can finally separate any of us from
this great joy that God is not only
the source from whom everyone comes but he
is also the ultimate goal of everyone then
he quotes another scripture and then he goes
on and he says both the Christian and
the non-Christian all are destined to eternal
life with God, but there is a difference,
the Christian knows it and then here is
the new witness then good friends the job
of the Christian then the wise guy who
knows this is to simply acquaint the others
with the same knowledge that God has already
secured their salvation that men begin now to,
can enjoy their salvation by abandoning their shaky
little foundations that are driving them crazy and
basing firm footholds on Christ alone, meaning Christ
did it all, I'm already saved, see I'll
never be any cleaner than I am anyway
because I'm not a human from the point
of the view, then he quotes Brunner, a
new existential theologian from the point of view
of the Christian, non-Christians are people who
think they are perishing on the stormy sea,
but in reality they are not in the
sea where one can drown but in shallow
water where it is impossible to drown, only
they do not know it, and then he
goes on trying, and then he says this
the existence of an actual hell is incomprehensible
inadmissible and revolting, it is impossible to be
reconciled to the thought that God could have
created the world and men if he foresaw
hell, that he could have predetermined it for
the sake of justice or that he tolerates
it as a special diabolical realm of being
side by side with his own kingdom, a
God who deliberately allows the existence of eternal
torment is not God at all but more
like the devil, hell is a fairy tale,
there is not a shadow of reality about
it, it is borrowed from their everyday existence
with its rewards and punishments, the idea of
an eternal hell is one of the most
hideous and contemptible products of the triumphant herd
mind, from the point of view of God,
there cannot be any hell to admit hell
would be to deny God, the Bible tells
us something then about the truth there is
somebody who is against the Christian, you'll read
it right here in Corinthians, if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost and whom the God of this
world has blinded the minds of them which
believe not lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them Satan has no
fear of light he can block a man's
sight you stand before a man lay out
the truth and unless you pray and bind
the forces of hell Satan can snatch that
seed away, so you must win a war
before you go out, it is one of
the few wars that must be won on
your knees before you actually go out, when
you stand in front of a door, you
ask that God will bind the powers of
the enemy, so when you say something it
will penetrate right through the spiritual darkness in
the mind and light up on the inside
of his mind and you see, Christianity first
and foremost, gets hold of the mind in
order that the heart may surrender Paul talked
about throwing out nets to capture people, capturing
every thought and bring it into captivity to
Christ, so that's the other thing the guy
can do, can say nobody's perfect, or he
can say to you well, you're selfish too,
and that's the only three things I've ever
heard anybody say the interesting thing is not
very many of them say, well I love
being selfish, if you find somebody like that
you say, do you believe that happiness can
come to the world by everybody being selfish
and if he says, of course it can,
say alright fine, you sit down here, and
I'll sit down here, now we both believe
that by being as selfish as possible and
pleasing ourselves wherever we can then we'll bring
happiness to the world if he says that,
that's true, if he says that I doubt
there's much he would, alright now if you
have a girlfriend, and I don't have one
I take your girlfriend, now you're unhappy, well
we have to have a law that says
you can't take I mean you can be
selfish, but you can't take the other one's
girlfriend, alright, fine, put it down God has
one too, he says don't commit adultery and
then you have a car, and I don't
have a car so I take your car,
now you're unhappy we have to have a
law that says don't take people's cars, God
has one too, don't covet and don't steal
and eventually you come up with a ten
commandments which just happen to be given my
friend Tony Salona done you a beautiful illustration
last night I'm going to steal it off
him and use it he talked about he
said how many of you if, say you
were given say somebody really loved you and
cared about you, wanted to enjoy yourself and
they gave you a big car that could
go 500 miles an hour big, he created
this beautiful car he taught you how to
drive it, and then he put this gigantic
freeway there big, broad, seven lane freeway, you
know, wide, stretching in all directions, how fast
would you drive the car?
top speed, 500 and it's really exciting, you
really enjoy this, 500 miles an hour who
could you hurt?
there's nobody on the freeway, kid yourself now
there's a lot of people that are made
based down on the sidelines too, and they're
watching you driving up and down 500 miles
an hour and they think, wow that looks
cool so he gives him cars too they're
all on the freeway now what are you
going to do?
make sure that everybody can still be happy
and still get fun how fast can you
drive now?
well you may not always be able to
drive 500 miles an hour, because there's more
people now now which is more fun, to
drive 500 miles an hour for 5 seconds,
or 60 miles an hour for 70 years
well probably, 500 miles an hour for 7
seconds, but it doesn't last very long one
side of the road well isn't it frightening
to drive so much down the road gotta
say one side of the road what else
would you have to do?
you'd have to make sure that you just
didn't stop right in the middle of the
thing some guy's driving along 60 miles, bang
right on the back of your seat, you
have to have some guidelines right, so does
God, what do you think he did?
maybe some guidelines now what say you met
some nut who insisted on driving down the
wrong side of the road at 500 miles
an hour or just went and parked his
car right in the middle of the freeway,
standing sideways what would you have to do
with that guy?
you gotta get him off that freeway what
do you think God does?
people insist on breaking his heart and breaking
his guidelines now it's very simple if you
were God, what would you do?
you want people to enjoy themselves but you've
got that guideline within you which they would
now, the man who says that I hope
that when they bump into some people from
this crusade, they don't bump into some people
they can say number 3 and be right
they better not because in the bible a
Christian has given up his selfishness the guy
says, you're selfish too I say, oh really,
who am I you're just doing this because
you like it I said, I'd do it
even if I didn't like it why are
you just doing it because you need this
crutch to get you to heaven I said,
I'd be happy in hell God sent me
there well, why are you doing it then?
because I love God and I love you
and that's why I'm here do you see
that?
the kid comes to you and says, yes
I'm selfish but you're just doing the things
that you enjoy too I say, well I
sure enjoy it but if I didn't enjoy
it, I'd still do it I must do
that which is this I know who God
is I know the great cost of being
cut off from him and that's why I'm
here, I care about you I really do
the kid says, I don't care about God
I say, yeah, but he cares about you
that's why I'm here do you see this?
of course the sinner doesn't care about God
but God cares about him because the whole
story of the Bible is not man looking
for God but God looking for man in
the very opening chapter when man breaks God's
law God comes broken hearted and says, Adam,
Adam, where are you?
and Adam says, I heard your voice in
the garden and was afraid and I hid
myself and that's the whole point of the
Bible God is out looking for man and
you see, you have elected to join him
in a search and redeem mission here come
together, we're standing with God and God is
out seeking sinners and we're going out as
his ambassadors you say, hello, I'm the representative
from the big three and Ernie, this is
probably not what Bob will tell you but
I represent them and we're out looking for
you now of course the sinner will be
scared because he's always scared of people that
remind him of what he's supposed to be
like think about yourself think how many excuses
you made to stay away from God I
don't know how many I made I laugh
at some of the excuses of skeptics I've
met because I thought up a hundred more
cunning ones as a Christian and really yes,
I'm looking up haven't got time for God
really I say, how much more time will
it take you to I can't serve God
I've got to do my homework how much
more time will it take you to do
your homework for yourself than it will take
you to do your homework for God oh,
I can't serve God I have this big
family how much more time will it take
you to raise a family for Jesus Christ
than it will take you to raise a
family for yourself he's not interested in having
parts of your time, he wants you and
the reason why you live and it won't
cost you a cent more time it will
simply cost you everything you've got that's all
a young man who had been working in
a in an office life was totally transformed
by Jesus boss came to him and said
son, I'm deeply impressed by the change in
your life should I give everything I had
to have what you have kid looked at
him and said, sure, that's what it cost
me everything I had ah, but the price
the price is nothing compared to the pearl
find that pearl tell everything you've got the
joy joy of loving God, the God the
great God who put us together now, you
ought to be able to deal with those
very simply, but if a person says, right,
I'm selfish, you've got to see and tell
him how much selfishness has hurt God, and
hurt himself now sometimes people most sinners I
know never even think about God, they never
even think it could be hurt the Bible
is filled with the fact that God is
hurt, but a lot of sinners do think
about themselves being hurt and that's why sometimes
God awakens them about their own lives first,
He shows them what about yourself, you've hurt
yourself you've hurt others, and then if you
feel you've been hurt, do you think how
much you've hurt God and I want you
to notice it's about hurt, grief is proportional
to how much we know a person and
how much we have trusted them and looked
up to them and invested faith in them
in other words, if somebody comes up to
you and says, hi Bob, you know, you
don't know them, you just go, oh well
he's got a chip on his shoulder or
something but what if somebody you looked up
to you love, you trusted, and that person
says, hi pink, and means it, see that
hurts it, now you girls you always hurt
more than guys I know that, I can
ask a guy you know, I can by
the way, this guy he was odd come
up to you and said something about it
he's forgotten, but a girl something rotten to
a girl, see five years later, that's the
girl you girls know how easy it is
to be hurt and I want you to
think of how much God can be hurt
because there's nobody in the universe who knows
you better than He knows you He knows
you, and He trusts you more than anybody
else in the universe He's put all His
trust in you there's a beautiful story in
the Bible, God says, I made a little
vineyard, I cleaned all the rocks out of
it I fenced it off so no animals
would get in, and then I took the
best vine I could find, and I planted
that beautiful vine, and then I watered it
and I watched it, and I kept it,
and I dressed it and I looked at
it and it brought forth grapes, and it
brought forth wild grapes and God says, what
more could I have done to the vineyard
to the vine, you judge I pray, between
me and my vineyard what have I done
that my people would turn their backs on
me God looks with a broken heart and
He says testify against me He says bring
a case against me if I have hurt
you if I've done something wrong and then
put me on trial, get all the facts
in, no, God hasn't done anything, but man
has done an awful lot to hurt him
can you imagine how God can be hurt
I get hurt if somebody I look up
to and trust says one thing rotten to
me and maybe it only lasts, maybe I
only said it for a few seconds, but
what if a person does that for a
day or a week, or a month or
a year, or a century people have been
hurting God for thousands of years, and not
just one person, not just a hundred or
a thousand, or even a million, but four
nearly four billion people hurting in centuries after
a century can you imagine how God feels
in His heart do you know how He
feels Genesis 6 tells you how He feels
the Bible says God looked down at the
world that He'd made, the earth and when
He saw the earth and the world, what
man had done He said it repented Him
that He'd made man, and it grieved Him
unto His heart and He said I will
wipe man off whom I've created, and do
you know what the Bible word is for
repentance God looked at the world that He
saw and He went oh that's the word
God has been deeply hurt by man now
what what do you do to bring a
person to show him how much he's been
hurt, often I may use this I'll say
imagine a big screen, a movie screen some
people say listen I don't know anything about
God I don't, why should He judge me
I've never read the Bible, I don't know
anything about Jesus Christ, I'm a heathen see,
I'm one of these heathens in Africa you
keep talking about and I've never heard about
Jesus, how can He judge me, I don't
know what's right and what's wrong really, imagine
this little thing around here was connected to
each one of your lives, every time you
speak and you say that is a dirty
rotten hypocritical thing to do that tape recorder
switches on and records way up in the
back of your mind and videotapes and when
you say that's an unjust and dirty war,
click and it switches on he is a
hypocrite, click he is a filthy so and
so, click every time you make a moral
decision it records right there and one day
you stand before this God, this great God
whom you say you know nothing about, this
great God whom you're going to tell Him
why you didn't really know anything about right
and wrong and God says oh really and
do you see up there on the movie
screen God says light, camera, action from a
little helmet on your head channeled into a
big video projector, God says February the 14th
1970, Saturday night 1230, Roland and you see
projected on the screen something you did that
you thought nobody in the world saw but
God saw and you listen to the soundtrack
and it says that man is a hypocrite
and it's your voice and you find yourself
doing the very same thing you accuse somebody
else of and that's why the Bible says
by your words you'll be justified or by
your words you'll be condemned no man can
stand before God and say I didn't know
I didn't know what was right, I didn't
know what was wrong and I say to
the kids if God pulled that screen down
how many of you would like to stay
around for the screening with the whole universe
watching all they'd like to watch is everybody
else's would you like to stand there and
see your life put on display, I don't
think it would take very many things before
God would say now what about this job
now if God was was powerful as the
Bible says he is, if he knew all
things knowable as the Bible says he does
and he had all this power and all
this infinite credible strength and he hated you,
you could stand there before God and you
could say at least I fought you until
I died you are stronger than me, you're
smarter than me and bigger than me but
I was a man, I stood up against
you God, if he hated you you could
do that and you'd at least feel a
little glow of pride before you're annihilated but
when you stand before this great God who
holds the galaxies in his hands, you stand
before the innocent lamb who has never hurt
anybody and my friend the universe will call
you a selfish fool you had nothing to
say to that guy on that day, nothing
to say at all and so that is
the basis first of all man must, must,
must be brought to a knowledge of their
guilt, you have 60 minutes with a man
and he's a really lost, careless, unconvicted man
then for goodness sake spend 45 minutes telling
him what it means to be lost and
spend the last 15 telling him what it
means to be saved and it'll mean something
don't you dare push somebody through to being
saved with some psychological little trap, you talk
to that man, show him from, from God's
book how he's broken his heart, broken his
laws, hurt God and God still loves him
and you still care about him God loves
all men, reach down down again despite the
hurt he's felt in his heart, God so
unselfishly chose the highest good of his world
that he gave his only begotten son now
we're going to sum up simply the condition,
on the sheet you have in front of
you we've talked about that selfishness, talked about
God's care and love for mankind God's love
is not feeling good, he doesn't feel good
about what's happened and I'm going to take
you to a jury trial now so you
can understand what salvation is a very simple
thing imagine that all of you in this
room were convicted of first degree murder all
of you have been convicted of the crime
of the century 15 mass murders deliberately planned
and executed the jury comes back with a
verdict guilty, called it Charlie Manson or somebody
now, you could be let off if you
could prove two things if you could prove
these two things to the jury then the
law could justify you this is the way
the law justifies a man or lets a
man off the law can justify a man
one if he's not guilty of course it
will justify him you ask for justice justice
is what you deserve and what you have
a right to demand that's justice now if
you haven't done anything wrong you can say
I demand justice and they'll let you off
if you're not guilty see that and you
not only deserve it, you can demand it
but if you are guilty you are really
guilty and you ask for justice they'll give
you what you deserve which is the death
sentence you've broken the law you've broken the
basic guidelines in which the country must run
happily and you must get what you deserve
now there's only one other way you can
get out and be justified by the law
if they do prove you've really done it
then you must prove you had a good
reason for doing it and that reason has
to be true and it has to be
sufficient in other words if you killed 15
people maybe you could say well it was
because they were all going to kill me
I just had to shoot and they were
all attacking me and I grabbed the gun
I shot as fast as I could and
they all died see and then they would
they may be able to pardon you they'll
say well it was a case of kill
or be killed it was self defense, you'll
have to acquit them see but it has
to be true, it's no good telling that
story if that isn't what actually happened and
it has to be sufficient it has to
be not any good, a good enough reason,
it's got to be big enough to cover
the crime you've done now listen, any one
of us in this building could be justified
by the works of the law standing before
God if you could prove those two things
to God if you could prove to him,
number one, you've never been selfish number two,
that you had a good, true and sufficient
reason for being selfish, he would acquit you
by the works of the law the process
of the law let me ask you a
question which one of you in this room
thinks that you could be justified by the
works of the law by proving to God
you have not really been selfish ever in
your life and then if you have, you
had a good, true and sufficient reason for
doing it because if you could prove that
to God he would acquit you and the
law would justify it but I don't know
anybody in this building that could give God
a good reason or could say, no I'm
not guilty, never been a sinner I never
sinned so if you're not going to be
pardoned by the works of the law then
how else can you get out, and the
answer is you can't you can't there's no
way the law can acquit you you have
had it, you are going to be served
a sentence of death because you see, you
have taken life you have been selfish you
have hurt God and the death sentence must
be passed there is no way you can
earn a pardon now when Christians say that
salvation cannot be earned we mean this there's
nothing you can do to make the judge
to make the judge want to or have
to pardon you say I say to the
judge judge, this is all true, I did
kill those 15 people I really did, but
I tell you what what I'm going to
do with all the money that I got
from them is I'm going to build a
children's hospital and all these kids who have
leukemia could come in and be fixed up
and see what a cool thing I'm going
to do now I know you'll let me
off when you see how good my motives
have been will that undo the damage of
those 15 people's lives no, the sentence must
be passed do you see this alright, now
then the only way you can possibly escape
sentence is if the judge or the court
decides to show mercy and there is no
way you can earn it now watch the
reason why so many kids have messed up
witnessing today is they've made a difference between
the ground and the condition of pardon there's
only one reason why God wants to show
mercy and that's because he really has a
great deal of love in his heart he
wants to show mercy and it comes right
out of his free grace it has nothing
whatsoever to do with what you intend to
do or what you want to do for
God to have to pardon you he has
decided to if you are willing to meet
some conditions so the grounds of salvation are
the free grace of Christ see that God
loves you he is a merciful God who
longs to pardon but that does not mean
that that pardon is unconditional now I want
you to get this if you've got it,
you've got the whole basis of the gospel
of Christ if I stand before God then
and this great God wants to pardon me
then two things must happen one, he's got
to show me just how bad my crime
was that's what the penalty was to do
now most people don't believe that they are
really going to be punished, especially in this
society nobody has died in electric chair for
what the last three years so it's easy
to convince yourself well I can kill somebody,
I'll get away if I get enough money
see, there's no money in the universe that
will buy you away out of this and
understand once the sentence is passed, it is
really set that execution day will really arrive
all there is, is a little time in
between to seek the mercy and every man
and woman in the world that has sinned
against God are under that sentence awaiting execution
and it will be served unless pardon can
be sought now God has to find something
that he can show you just how rotten
selfishness is and just how important it is
that we live holy lives God has to
find something then that he could put in
the place of the penalty and if he
could find something that would shock you into
showing you how much you've hurt him how
much you've hurt others and how much he
hates sin then he'd be willing to pardon
you if you meet three conditions and here
they are write these down and these are
the only three basic conditions of salvation condition
one honesty, the bible calls this confessing Jesus
Christ you don't even have to be an
honest person in order to meet Jesus, you
just have to be honest towards him you
can be a liar, a cheat, all kinds
of garbage and you can come to Jesus
and say God I really am a cheat,
I'm a liar I'm all kinds of garbage
and then that's the beginning of the gospel
you don't need a whole bunch of plans
to witness once you understand this man has
hurt God, there are conditions for coming back
and the first one is honesty and I'm
telling you this, if you forget everything I've
ever said remember this, if a man or
woman will but from the bone heart of
their lives be honest with God he will
change them and transform them and make them
different you have to admit your crime then,
see you've got to admit your guilt, you
have to say I really have done it
I do not deserve, we're back to the
cookies now I really did steal the cookies,
I'm really sorry I really done that, see
you admit your guilt secondly you have to
quit what you're doing and the bible calls
that repentance repentance is not penitence, penitence is
just feeling sorry and doing it again repentance
is feeling sorry enough to quit, never doing
it again there's a guy and he says
oh judge I'm so sorry I murdered all
those people it really breaks my heart to
murder them, I'm really sorry about the one
that I killed yesterday, the one I'm about
to kill and the one I'm going to
kill tomorrow what kind of repentance what do
you think a judge would do if a
guy said that what would you do if
I'd actually go well I'd just go and
kill off the others that I missed the
first time you'd say put them up, bring
the gas chamber right here in the court,
if you let this guy out he will
kill us all you've got to quit your
sin, now notice quitting your sin is not
the grounds of your pardon you can't say
alright I'm going to quit my sin now
you must give me a pardon ah ha
ha see that you can't earn it, it's
got to be freely by the grace and
mercy of the court see but without those
conditions you're not going to get the pardon
no matter how much the court wants to
do it because the court is wise as
well as good, last condition you must promise
to be a loyal you like obedient citizen
of the land in future you must promise
to do that which the other citizens have
done for happiness you must promise to do
what the king or the president has said
in order to bring the max amount of
happiness and the most the least thing a
president can do to a man who refuses
to obey those things is to simply ship
him out of the country forever and what
do you think God will do a man
who wants to ruin heaven with his selfishness
he'll simply cut him off put him in
a little place where he can be all
on his own because he said to God
stay out of my life I don't want
anything to do with you I want to
live for me and serve me and please
me and I want to be blessed and
God says with great tears in his eyes
then I'll put you in a little place
where you can be blessed and nobody else
except yourself where you won't have to ever
worry about ever hurting anybody else or have
anybody hurting you I'll just put you all
on your own and he does just that
honesty repentance and the Bible calls this last
one faith a surrender a loyalty of love
to Jesus Christ where you come and you'll
say Jesus I have hurt you I am
sorry I give you my life as king
and boss I will do what you ask
me to do in future I am really
sorry that friend the conditions of salvation I've
laid them out on your little tract these
are the facts here I have a 25
cent piece sum it up head tail tail
turn your tail on your part your attendant
head give you life turn you boss salvation
very simple full honesty turn your back on
the past see hate and forsake your selfishness
head give you life holy right talent future
home career job sport give them all to
Jesus Christ to take away or to keep
whatever he wants make him boss of your
life and turn you back on your selfishness
and that is Christianity and what is the
thing that will show him the love of
God remember God had to find something he
put in the place of the penalty he
had to put something there and you know
what the judge does now remember you are
on the death sentence here and the judge
is your father a father who loves you
not just an ordinary father but a father
who really loves you and this is what
happens the father comes to the court he
stands before you and the people are waiting
for the decision what will he say if
he just pardons you they'll say he plays
favorites because he loves his own kids and
so he wants to let them off but
on the other hand if he says I'm
going to sentence my son to death in
the courts mind they'll think well he doesn't
really love his kids what is God going
to do I'll tell you what he does
now he says to you who are under
the sentence of death he stands up and
he says I sentence you to death by
execution right here in this court in the
next five minutes and suddenly you get a
shock he's my father he loves me you
wouldn't do this but you know that he
must be just and as the full thing
of it since then you realize just how
rotten you have been and that your sentence
will really be carried out but in the
courts heart they think maybe the dad doesn't
really love him at all maybe this thing
has hardened the dads heart so he says
I'm going to get rid of this kid
that's causing me so much trouble and then
the judge says to the court excuse me
he takes off his robe and he comes
down to the dock as they wheel in
the electric chair and he says son would
you step out of the dock I'm going
to the chair in your place and he
offers his own life as a substitute for
the penalty of sin something that shocks you
to see that the judge of the universe
will not excuse this something that shows you
at the same time how much he loves
you he cares you enough to die to
die for you and when you preach about
Jesus nailed in blood and agony between two
thieves on a hill you see his hands
are nailed open nailed in agony so you
see just how much God hates sin but
nailed with open arms so you see how
much he loves you and if that doesn't
break the sinners heart not a bean in
hell will ever do that we have a
gospel of a great God great love but
make sure you lay out the conditions with
honesty with compassion with tears but do what
God says and you'll see real conversions people
that stick and go on for Jesus Christ
you say I won't get as many conversions
this way that's true but neither did Jesus
have many conversions the ones he had stuck
and if it's good enough for Jesus it's
good enough for me look to God and
pray