The desire of my heart is to take
some of the principles that I've learned over
the last couple of years and help you
to put them into practice because I found
them to be so extremely effective.
Really quickly, for those of you who weren't
here earlier this morning, most of you know
me as Mike Seaver on Growing Pains.
A lot of people ask me what I
have in common with Mike and I usually
tell them that we tend to look a
lot alike.
We also married the same girl, the girl
who, Mike Seaver married a girl named Kate
on the show and the actress that played
that character is named Chelsea and we actually
got married in real life 12 years ago
and now we have 6 kids and they're
6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 on
the way.
My wife is anxious for me to get
back home, we have lots of diapers to
change and lots of work to do there
but this is so important that we both
are passionate about what you're here for tonight.
I didn't grow up in a church family,
I was an atheist for most of my
life.
When I was 14, working on a television
show, Growing Pains, all my dreams had come
true by the time I was 17 years
old.
I was rich, famous, doing whatever I wanted,
hanging out with, partying with whoever I wanted
to.
Never heard the gospel before in my life.
I finally went to church, a girl had
invited me there.
I heard the gospel for the first time.
It wasn't a bunch of stuffy religion, it
was about an all-powerful God who was
holy and pure and righteous and the pastor
opened up the Bible and talked about what
sin was, this stubborn selfish streak that runs
deep through our hearts, shows up when we
lie, when we steal, when we lust, when
we put other things in a more important
place than God in our lives and I
began to feel guilty.
Even though I didn't really believe in God,
I began to feel that something was wrong
and he began to explain about God's judgments
against sin.
He talked about hell and then he talked
about God's redemptive plan of compassion and mercy
through Jesus Christ.
It was about a month later that I
was in my car and I thought about
the fact that I was going to die
one day and realized that if there was
a God in the heaven, I wouldn't be
going because of the attitudes and lifestyle that
I was living and my arrogance against God.
And I decided that I would pray.
I didn't know how to do it, but
I just said, God, if you're there, I
need to know.
If you're real, would you please show me
and change me?
Please forgive me and make me the person
that you want me to be.
And I don't have any miraculous story of
Jesus appearing on my windshield, but I can
tell you that that day marked a huge
turn in my life.
I began to study the Bible.
I began to trust God and trust His
Word and obey what He said.
It's changed my life radically.
It changed my heart tremendously.
And I know today that not only there
is a God who lives, but He sees
the filthiness of my heart and of your
heart.
And instead of giving us what we deserve,
He's provided a way to give us mercy
and forgiveness and new life.
And that's the God that I love and
that I live for.
And that was about 14 years ago.
What I've wanted to do more than anything
is to share my faith with people.
I know there's only one way to heaven.
Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth and
the life.
No one comes to the Father but through
me.
And I've tried my darndest to witness to
people and share my testimony with people.
And the results have been pretty frustrating.
Sometimes people say, hey man, I'm just not
interested.
Other times people will come to church with
me and kind of go along with it
and act like they're interested for a while,
but if it doesn't really take care of
all their problems or give them the warm
fuzzies right away, they take off and they
sort of would become what you'd call a
backslider.
Someone who sort of steps forward and makes
a decision and sort of falls away.
And I realized that I wasn't the only
one experiencing these kinds of results.
In the modern church today, we're experiencing something
called the fallaway rate of around 80 to
90 percent.
That means that modern evangelism and its methods,
the way that we share the gospel, is
producing something like 80 to 90 backsliders for
every 100 decisions for Christ.
I'll make it even more real for you.
In 1991, a major U.S. denomination was
able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ.
That means in one year, this major U
.S. denomination was able to obtain 294,000
decisions for Christ and unfortunately, they could only
find 14,000 in fellowship.
That means that 280,000 of those decisions
could not be accounted for.
And that's normal, modern, evangelistic results.
I was shocked.
That's awful.
I began studying my Bible more and more.
And I listened to a message called Hell's
Best Kept Secret by a guy named Ray
Comfort.
And he pointed out some things that I
found very, very interesting.
Namely, that Jesus shared the gospel radically differently
than the way most of us were taught
to do that.
I'll give you an example.
In Mark 10, 17, and in Luke 18,
18, there's a story of a young man
who comes running up to Jesus, gets down
on his knees and says, Good teacher, what
must I do to inherit eternal life?
Now, I don't know about you, but if
someone ever did that to me, I would
be extremely excited.
I mean, this would be a chance of
a lifetime, right?
Someone running up saying, what must I do
to inherit eternal life?
Well, look at what Jesus said.
Notice he did not say, Oh, my friend,
what a good question.
I'm so glad you asked.
Listen, you have a God-shaped hole in
your heart that only God can fill.
And in a little while, I'm going to
die on a cross.
And if you'll just believe in me and
invite me into your heart, say this prayer
and mean it with everything you've got, you'll
go to heaven when you die.
No, Jesus didn't say that.
Jesus said, why do you call me good?
There's only one who's good, and that is
God.
He was correcting this man's understanding of what
good was.
And then he pointed him to six of
the Ten Commandments.
That's odd.
He said, you know the commandments.
You shall not lie.
You shall not steal.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not murder.
Honor your father and your mother.
And the man self-righteously said, well, I've
kept all those since I was a boy.
And Jesus said, well, there's one more that
you have not kept.
And he pointed to the essence of the
first and second commandment and said, sell all
that you have and give it to the
poor.
Then you'll have treasure in heaven.
And then come follow me.
He was pointing out that this man's God
was his money.
And sure enough, the man went away sad.
And I'm scratching my head as I read
this, kind of going, what was Jesus doing?
Why was he talking to this guy this
way?
I mean, he didn't mention grace.
He didn't talk to him about the cross.
He didn't mention God's love or his mercy.
He didn't even pray with him.
On the outside, it looked to me like
Jesus really could have benefited from a friendship
evangelism course.
But I realized later that Jesus was using
a principle that's extremely effective and necessary to
prepare a self-righteous, stubborn-hearted person's heart
for the grace of the gospel.
And this is a principle used by guys
like Spurgeon and Moody, Finney, Whitfield, Luther.
And it's been almost entirely neglected by the
church today.
I've begun putting these principles into practice and
found them to be extremely effective.
And I want to share them with you
today.
If you have Bibles, please pull them out.
Get a pen and paper.
You're going to want to take some notes.
Anybody have any water?
Is there a glass of water?
Just eventually, that would be great.
Thank you.
This is a message called Hell's Best Kept
Secret.
It radically changed my life the first time
that I heard it.
And I'm going to share it with you
exactly the way that I was told it
myself.
The Bible says in Psalm 19, verse 7,
the law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul.
Now, what is it that the Bible says
is actually perfect and converts the soul?
The Scripture makes it very clear.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul.
Now, before you get your shorts all tied
up in a knot over that verse, I
want to demonstrate for you the function of
God's law.
Imagine if I said to you, I've got
some good news for you.
Someone has just paid a $25,000 speeding
fine on your behalf.
You'd probably look at me and say something
like, What?
That's not good news.
It doesn't make sense.
I don't have a $25,000 speeding fine.
My good news would seem like foolishness to
you.
But more than that, it would actually be
offensive.
Because I'm insinuating that you've broken the law
when you don't think that you have.
However, if I said it to you this
way, it might make more sense.
On the way to this meeting tonight, you
went through an area set aside for a
blind children's convention.
And you were going 55 miles an hour
through that part of town.
There were 10 clear warning signs stating that
15 miles an hour was the maximum speed,
and you went straight through at 55 miles
an hour.
What you did was extremely dangerous.
There's a $25,000 fine.
The law was about to take its course
when someone you don't even know stepped in
and paid the fine for you.
You are very fortunate.
Can you see that by telling you precisely
what you've done wrong first actually makes the
good news make sense?
If I don't help you clearly understand that
you've broken the law, then my good news
will sound like foolishness.
It'll be offensive.
But once you understand that you've violated the
law, then the good news becomes truly good
news.
Now, with that thought in mind, if I
were to walk up to a normal, unrepentant
sinner and say to him, I've got some
good news.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for your
sins.
It's going to sound like foolishness to him.
But more than that, it's going to be
offensive.
Foolishness because it's not going to make sense.
The Bible says that.
The preaching of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing.
And offensive because I'm insinuating that the guy's
a sinner when he doesn't think he is.
As far as he's concerned, there's plenty of
people far worse than he is.
But if I take the time to follow
in the footsteps of Jesus, if I take
the time to open up the divine law,
the Ten Commandments, and show the person precisely
what he's done wrong first, that he's violated
God's law, then when he becomes convinced that
he's broken God's law, then the good news
of the fine being paid for him will
not sound like foolishness.
It will not be offensive.
It'll be the power of God to salvation.
Now, with those thoughts in mind, let's take
a look at Romans 3, verse 19.
It says, thank you.
It says, We know that whatsoever things the
law says, it says to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God.
So, one of the functions of God's law
is to stop the mouth of sinners justifying
themselves and leave all the world guilty before
God.
To stop the mouth of a person saying,
I'm a good person, and show them that
they're actually guilty before God.
Next verse.
Verse 20.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no
flesh shall be justified in the sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin.
So, God's law tells us what sin is.
1 John 3, verse 4 says, Sin is
transgression of the law.
Romans 7, verse 7.
I had not known sin except through the
law.
So, Paul's saying, I wouldn't have known what
sin was unless the law had told me.
And Galatians 3, verse 24.
Therefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ that we might be justified
by faith.
So, he's saying, the law was a schoolmaster
that brings you to Christ so that you'll
be justified through faith in His blood.
See, the law doesn't help us.
It just leaves us helpless.
The law doesn't justify us.
It just leaves us guilty before a holy
God.
We say that again.
We are not saved by the law.
We are saved by grace alone through faith.
The law is just like a mirror that
shows us that we're filthy dirty so that
we'll go to Christ for cleansing.
And the tragedy of modern evangelism is that
around the turn of the last century, when
it got rid of the law and its
ability to convert the soul, to drive sinners
to Christ, modern evangelism, therefore, had to find
another reason for sinners to respond to the
gospel.
And the issue that modern evangelism chose to
attract people to Jesus was the issue of
life enhancement.
The gospel degenerated into Jesus Christ will give
you love, joy, peace, happiness, and lasting fulfillment.
Now, to demonstrate the unscriptural nature of this
very popular teaching, I'd like you to listen
to the following story because the essence of
what I'm saying pivots on this particular point.
Two men are seated on a plane.
The first man is given a parachute and
he's told to put it on because it
would improve his flight.
Now, he's a little skeptical at first because
the guy can't see how putting a parachute
on in a plane could possibly improve his
flight.
But after a while, he decides to experiment
and see if the claim is true.
And as he puts it on, he notices
the weight of it on his shoulders and
the fact that he can't sit straight up.
However, he comforts himself with the thought that
he was told the parachute would improve his
flight, so he decides to give the thing
a little time.
And as he waits, he starts to notice
some of the other passengers are laughing at
him because he's wearing a parachute in the
plane.
He starts to feel somewhat humiliated and as
they begin to point and laugh at him,
he finally can't stand it any longer.
He slinks in his seat, unstraps the parachute,
and throws it on the floor.
Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart because as
far as he's concerned, he was told an
outright lie.
Now, the second man is given a parachute,
but listen to what he's told.
He's told to put it on because at
any moment, he'd be jumping 25,000 feet
out of the plane.
He gratefully puts on the parachute.
He doesn't notice the weight of it on
his shoulders or the fact that he can't
sit straight up.
His mind is consoled with the thought of
what would happen to him if he jumped
without that parachute.
Now, let's analyze the motive and the result
of each passenger's experience.
The first man's motive for putting on the
parachute was solely to improve his flight.
The result of his experience was that he
was humiliated by the passengers.
He was disillusioned and somewhat embittered against those
who gave him the parachute.
As far as he's concerned, it'll be a
long time before anyone gets one of those
things on his back again.
The second man put on the parachute solely
to escape the jump to come.
And because of his knowledge of what would
happen to him without the parachute, he has
a deep-rooted joy and peace in his
heart because he knows that he's going to
be saved from sure death.
This knowledge gives him the ability to withstand
the mockery from the other passengers.
His attitude toward those who gave him the
parachute is one of heartfelt gratitude.
Now listen to what the modern Gospel says.
It says, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He'll give you love, joy, peace, happiness and
lasting fulfillment.
In other words, Jesus will improve your flight.
And so the sinner responds and in an
experimental fashion puts on the Savior to see
if the claims are true.
And what does he get?
Just what Jesus promised.
Temptation, tribulation, persecution.
The other passengers mock him.
So what does he do?
He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's offended for the word's sake.
He's disillusioned and embittered.
And rightly so.
He was promised peace, love, joy, fulfillment, happiness.
And all he got were trials and humiliation.
His bitterness is directed toward those who gave
him the so-called good news.
And now he's worse off than he was
before because he thinks he's given Jesus a
try and all he's gotten was a big
letdown.
Another inoculated and bitter backslider.
Instead of telling people that Jesus improves their
flight, we should be warning the passengers that
they're going to have to jump out of
the plane.
That it's appointed for a man once to
die and then comes judgment.
And when a sinner understands the horrific consequences
of breaking God's law, then he will run
to the Savior to escape the wrath to
come.
And if we're true and faithful witnesses, that's
what we'll be telling them.
That there is wrath to come.
Just like Jesus did.
Like Paul did.
Like Peter did.
Like all of Scripture does.
Acts 17.30 God commands all men everywhere
to repent.
Why?
Because He has appointed a day in which
He will judge the world in righteousness.
You see, it isn't an issue of happiness,
but of righteousness.
It doesn't matter how happy a person is,
how much he's enjoying his sin, without the
righteousness of Christ, he'll perish on the day
of judgment.
The Bible says, riches profit not on the
day of judgment, but righteousness delivers from death.
You see, that's how I knew that I
needed a Savior.
I had riches.
I was famous.
I was a celebrity.
I had everything I wanted.
But I knew that when I faced God
on judgment day, none of that stuff would
fly with Him.
That wouldn't impress Him.
It was the righteousness of Christ that I
needed.
To be saved.
Now, this is very important.
Listen to this point.
Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation.
They are the results of salvation.
But it's not legitimate to use these fruits
as draw cards for salvation.
Come to Jesus.
He'll give you peace.
He'll give you joy.
Why?
Because if a person comes to God to
find peace and joy and happiness, but doesn't
have a truly repentant heart, grieved that he
has sinned against God, stripped of his self
-righteousness and humbled to Jesus as his Lord
and Savior, he will not find peace with
God.
He won't know the joy of the Lord.
He will remain separate from God because of
his sin.
He will remain, by nature, an enemy of
God.
A child of wrath.
Because of their sin.
Without hope.
Without God.
Think of the second passenger.
He had joy and peace in his heart.
Why?
It was because he knew that the parachute
was going to save him from sure death.
And as a believer, I have, like Paul
says, joy and peace in believing.
Because I know that the righteousness of Christ
is going to save me on the day
of judgment.
Now, with that thought in mind, let's look
at another incident on board the plane.
We have a brand new stewardess and it's
her first day on the job.
She wants to leave an impression on the
passengers.
And that's exactly what she does.
Because as she's carrying this boiling hot tray
of coffee down the aisle, she trips over
somebody's foot and slops this boiling hot liquid
into the lap of our second passenger.
Now, what's his reaction as this boiling hot
liquid hits his tender flesh?
Does he go, oh, man, that hurt.
Yeah, of course he feels the pain.
But then does he rip off the parachute,
throw it on the floor and say, this
stupid parachute.
No.
Why should he?
He didn't put the parachute on to improve
his flight.
He put it on to save his life.
And if anything, the hot coffee causes him
to cling tighter to the parachute and even
look forward to the jump.
Now, if you and I had put on
the Lord Jesus Christ for the right motive,
to escape from the wrath to come, when
tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we're
not going to get angry at God.
We're not going to lose our joy and
our peace.
Why should we?
We didn't come to Jesus for a happy
lifestyle.
We came because we know we violated His
law.
And we have run to the love of
Jesus Christ on the Savior to save us
from the wrath to come.
And if anything, tribulation drives the true believer
closer to the Savior.
And sadly, we have literally millions of professing
Christians who lose their joy and peace when
the flight gets bumpy.
Why?
They're a product of a man-centered gospel.
They came without repentance.
And without repentance, you cannot be saved.
For years, I suffered from something that I
didn't know had a name.
Then I learned it was called evangelical frustration.
It's a disease among Bible-believing Christians.
I so wanted to share the gospel with
people in a way that would be effective
and bring people to Christ that I had
zeal without knowledge.
And I unknowingly gave them this man-centered
gospel.
It went something like this.
Man, I've been a movie star.
I've been rich.
I've been famous.
You're never going to be happy and find
peace until you ask Jesus into your heart.
And if a person would respond and say,
alright man, I'll give it a try.
I was excited but half nervous because I
didn't want to produce another backslider.
And I knew that there was a good
chance that if the statistics show, he was
going to be a backslider.
And so we'd pray a prayer together or
he'd pray with a pastor.
And I'm thinking, man, I hope that this
guy is sincere in what he's saying.
But so many of the times, if I
could see right into that guy's heart, I
would see that he absolutely was 100%
sincere.
He sincerely wanted to give this Jesus thing
a try to see if he could get
a buzz out of it.
To see if it would solve all of
his problems.
To see if it was as great as
all these Christian sayatives.
He wanted to know if Jesus really was
better than beer.
He wasn't coming with a repentant heart, broken
over his sin.
No.
He had a very shallow understanding of what
sin was.
How can a guy repent if he doesn't
know what sin is?
Romans 7 verse 7.
Remember Paul said, I would not have known
sin except by the law.
Or maybe he's been to church so many
times and heard these words so much that
it didn't mean much to him anymore.
He had never seen the true wickedness of
his sin.
That he would be broken in his heart
over how he has treated his creator.
You see, in our culture today, people want
to experience something for themselves before they believe
it's true.
They don't want to take my word for
it.
They don't want to take your word for
it.
They don't want to take God's word for
it.
They want to experience it for themselves, then
it becomes true.
You see, it's kind of like this.
You see a man who's out in a
lake, who's drowning, when he doesn't believe he's
drowning.
And you think to yourself, oh my gosh,
that guy's drowning.
Yes, he's drowning.
I'm going to go save him.
So you run out, you dive into the
water, grab the guy by the neck, throw
him up on shore without telling him anything.
He's not going to be very happy with
you.
He's not going to want to get saved
until he sees that he's in danger.
Or it's like this.
If you came up to me and said,
hey Kirk, I said, yeah?
You say, Kirk, you've got Ronenson's disease.
This is a cure for Ronenson's disease.
I sold my house to raise the money
to buy this cure for you and I'm
giving it to you as a free gift.
I'd probably look at you and say, what?
Ronenson's disease?
You sold your house to raise the money
to buy this cure for me and you're
giving it to me as a free gift?
Uh, thanks.
Bye.
Man, that person's kind of a nut.
I mean, that's probably what I'd think if
you told me you sold your house to
raise the money to buy a cure for
a disease I hadn't even heard of.
But if you said it to me like
this, it might make more sense.
Hey, Kirk.
Say, yeah?
Kirk, you've got Ronenson's disease.
You're going to be dead in two weeks.
I can see ten clear symptoms on your
flesh.
And then I became convinced that I had
the disease because the symptoms were so evident.
And then I looked at you and I
said, oh my gosh, I see what you're
talking about.
Oh man, what do I do?
And then you said, don't worry, this is
a cure for Ronenson's disease.
I sold my house to raise the money
to buy this cure for you and I'm
giving it to you as a free gift.
Oh man, I'm not going to despise your
sacrifice.
I'm not going to think you're strange.
I'm going to say thank you.
I'm going to appreciate it.
Why?
Because I've seen the disease so that I
appreciate the cure.
And sadly what's happened is that we have
preached the cure without first convincing people of
the disease.
We've preached a gospel of grace without first
convincing people of the law that they're transgressors.
And as a result, we have literally millions
of people in our country, particularly throughout the
Bible Belt, who think that they have a
relationship with Jesus because they've invited Jesus into
their heart or accepted Jesus, but they did
not come through the narrow gate of repentance,
stripped of their self-righteousness and surrendered to
the Lord of the universe.
Why?
Because they've never been thoroughly convinced of the
disease so that they might appreciate the cure.
1 Timothy 1, verse 8 says, but we
know that the law is good if it's
used lawfully for the purpose for which it
was designed.
Okay, what was the law designed for?
The next verse tells us.
The law was not made for a righteous
man but for sinners.
It even lists the sinners.
The ungodly, the unholy, adulterers, perverts, murderers, liars.
You guys, if you want to bring an
atheist to Christ, we don't need to get
stuck in intellectual arguments with them.
Give him the Ten Commandments and let his
own conscience begin to work on him.
The law was made for the ungodly.
If you want to bring a Jew to
Christ, lay the weight of the law upon
him.
Prepare his heart for grace.
If you want to bring a Muslim to
Christ, give him the law of Moses.
They respect Moses as a prophet.
Give them the law of Moses and strip
them of their self-righteousness and bring them
to the foot of a bloodstained cross.
If we want to bring our children to
Christ, we don't need to get them to
join the God Club and convince them that
it's cooler than MTV.
No.
Just show them the Ten Commandments.
Let them see their personal sins and understand
why Jesus died for them.
Then they can see why they should cling
to Him for dear life and never let
go.
Think of the woman caught in the act
of adultery.
Violation of the Seventh Commandment.
The law called for her blood.
She found herself between a rock and a
hard place.
She had nowhere to turn but to fling
herself at the feet of the Son of
God for mercy.
You see, that's the function of God's law.
It condemns.
Now, you might be saying, Wait a minute.
You know, you can't go around condemning sinners.
But the truth is, they're condemned already.
John 3, verse 18 says, He that does
not believe is condemned already.
You see, all the law does is show
him himself in his true state.
Okay, ladies.
You're going to recognize this.
You wake up in the morning.
You go out into the kitchen.
You realize that your dining room table needs
dusting.
And so you dust off the table.
All the dust is gone.
Then you open up the curtains and let
in the early morning sunlight.
What do you see on the table?
Dust.
What do you see in the air?
Dust.
Did the light create the dust?
No.
It merely exposed the dust.
And so when you and I take the
time to draw back the curtains of the
Holy Scriptures and we let the light of
God's law shine upon a sinner's heart, all
that happens is that he sees himself for
what he is.
The Bible says the commandment is a lamp
and the law is light.
That's why Paul said, By the law is
the knowledge of sin.
That's why he said, By the commandment, sin
became exceedingly sinful.
In other words, the law showed him his
sin in its true light.
Okay?
I want to share with you how I
witness to people personally.
I'm a strong believer in biblical evangelism and
following in the footsteps of Jesus.
And a wonderful example in Scripture of how
to witness to somebody personally is found in
John chapter 4 with the woman at the
well.
I call it the way of the Master.
It's Jesus in action.
He started in the natural realm.
He swung to the spiritual.
He brought conviction using the seventh commandment.
And then he revealed himself as the Messiah.
You may not have ever thought of him
doing that, but that's what he did.
So when I meet somebody, I'll talk about
the weather, sports, my job, my kids, family,
whatever.
Let them know that I'm not some religious
fruitcake.
And then I'll deliberately swing from everyday things
to spiritual things.
And a real easy way to do this
sometimes is with a good gospel tract.
I'm not into offensive, obnoxious tracts with angry
-looking people on the front.
But things that are really going to catch
people's attention.
And through our ministry, we create some tracts
that we think are kind of unique.
Here's one here.
It's a greeting card.
It has Charles Darwin on the front looking
at a caterpillar on a leaf.
And it says, Did the butterfly evolve?
And you hand this to someone and they
open it up.
And there's a butterfly inside.
And there's a gospel message on the wings.
And there's gospel messages in here with quotes
from Charles Darwin and Sir Arthur Keith and
Albert Einstein to show the absurdity of evolution.
And open up a door of conversation about
the gospel.
If I don't have a tract with me,
you can just say something like this.
Hey, do you go to church?
Are there any good churches around here?
Do you have a Christian background?
Not an offensive question.
People say, Yes, no, whatever.
I'm an atheist, no, I'm a Muslim.
Yeah, I go to church.
I used to go to church.
Whatever.
I'll say, Well, listen, let me ask you
a personal question.
Do you consider yourself to be a good
person?
Most people will say, Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, definitely.
I'm a very good person.
And then I'll say, Do you think you've
kept the Ten Commandments?
Because, I mean, that's God's standard of what's
good.
Do you think you've kept the Ten Commandments?
And most people will say, Yeah, pretty much.
I mean, I've never really murdered anybody.
So, yeah, I'm doing all right.
And I did this with a guy not
too long ago on the golf course.
His name was Ray.
It's not Ray Comfort.
It's a different Ray.
And just for clarity here, and I said,
Hey, Ray, do you consider yourself a good
person?
Do you think you've kept the Ten Commandments?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Yeah, definitely.
A really good person.
I said, Okay, let's go through a few
of them and see.
He said, The Ninth Commandment, Have you ever
told a lie?
Have you ever broken that commandment?
He says, Yeah, of course.
I said, What does that make you?
He says, Human.
Yes.
Very good.
I can tell that you're a human.
I said, Come on.
Be honest.
You know, if someone murders somebody, it makes
them a murderer.
If you rape somebody, it makes you a
rapist.
If you lie, what does that make you?"
He says, a liar.
I said, okay, have you ever stolen anything?
He says, no.
Sometimes I'll say, I don't believe you.
You just admitted to me you're a liar.
I said, come on, be honest.
And he says, all right, yeah, when I
was young, yes, okay, yes, I have.
I said, all right, what does that make
you?
He says, a thief.
I said, okay, now here's the one that
really got me.
Jesus said, whoever looks upon a woman to
lust after her has committed adultery with her
already in his heart.
Have you ever done that?
Have you ever looked at a woman with
lust?
He says, oh yeah, of course.
I said, well then, Ray, by your own
admission, you're a lying, thieving adulterer at heart,
and you have to face God on Judgment
Day.
And that's only three of the Ten Commandments.
You should have seen the look on his
face.
He just looked guilty, because he knew he
was guilty.
Now, when you think about it, the commandments
do leave us feeling very guilty, because we
are guilty.
I'd like to quickly go through the rest
of the commandments right now to demonstrate this.
I'm asking you to listen to your conscience
right now, and be honest.
In your own mind, ask yourself these questions.
Engage your mind right now, if you're zoning
out on me.
Listen.
Have you kept the commandments?
Look at the first commandment.
You shall have no other gods before me.
Have you always put God first in your
life?
Always?
Jesus said to love the Lord your God
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength
so much that your love for your mother,
father, brother, sister, your family, even your own
life, is like hatred compared to your love
and devotion for God.
Have you always loved God that much?
No.
The Bible says that none of us have
kept that commandment.
The second commandment.
You shall not make for yourself a graven
image or an idol.
Now, you can do that with your hands,
or you can do it with your mind.
Have you ever thought something like this?
My God is not a God of judgment.
He is a God of love and mercy,
and he would never create a place quite
like hell.
Well, if that's what you think, you're right.
Your God would never create a place like
hell, because he couldn't.
He doesn't exist.
He's a figment of your imagination.
You've created a God in your own mind
that you're more comfortable with.
You've created a God to suit yourself.
It's called idolatry.
It's the oldest sin in the book, and
the Bible says that idolaters will not inherit
the kingdom of heaven.
The third commandment.
Have you ever taken God's name in vain?
Have you ever used his name as a
cuss word?
If you've done that, instead of using a
four-letter filth word to represent disgust, you
have used God's holy name in place of
a four-letter cuss word.
The God who's given you your life and
your family, everything precious to you.
It's called blasphemy, and the Bible says that
every idle word a man speaks, he will
give an account of it on the day
of judgment, and he will not hold him
guiltless who takes the name of the Lord
in vain.
The fourth commandment.
Keep the Sabbath day holy.
My whole life, I didn't care one bit
what God required of me.
I never even thought about it.
I just took, took, took from God, and
I couldn't have cared less what he wanted
from me.
He's given me every day of my life.
He asks for one out of seven?
I didn't even care about that.
How selfish of me.
The fifth commandment.
Honor your father and your mother.
I broke that every day as a teenager.
Have you always honored your father and mother
in word, thought, and deed?
The sixth commandment.
You shall not murder.
Well, most of us think we're innocent with
that one.
Whew.
But Jesus said, he who is angry with
his brother without cause is in danger of
judgment.
And the Bible says, he who hates his
brother is a murderer.
Because God considers the attitudes of our heart
and considers hatred as wicked as murder.
Think of it this way.
If I could put a high-tech computer
chip behind your ear that monitored your thoughts
24 hours a day, seven days a week,
everything you think, everything you desire, stuff you
think and do and say when no one
else is watching, and recorded it for a
month.
And then we held a special service here
at Central Baptist.
And I put all those thoughts up on
that big screen and that big screen.
And we viewed it in front of the
whole congregation.
And your family, your parents, your kids, your
spouse.
How would that make you feel?
Ashamed?
Embarrassed?
Humiliated?
And God says that's exactly what will happen
when we stand before him.
And he brings out every secret sin done
in darkness.
God will judge every work, including every secret
thing, whether it is good or evil.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from the
eyes of God, but they're bare and naked
before him, to whom we must give account.
God sees everything, right down to the thoughts
and intentions of our heart.
And the tenth commandment, who of us can
say that we're not guilty of coveting or
wanting things that belong to other people?
We are guilty.
Seriously guilty.
Now you might be saying, man, I can't
lay that stuff on people.
That's so heavy.
It'll offend them.
But so the wonderful thing about God's law
is that he has already taken the time
to write it on the heart of every
man and woman.
Romans 2 verse 15 says, they show the
work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness.
Now conscience means with knowledge.
Con means with.
Science means knowledge.
So every time a person lies, lusts, fornicates,
has sex outside of marriage, blasphemes, commits adultery,
he does it with knowledge that it's wrong.
His conscience accuses him and the law condemns
him.
And so I said to Ray, if God
judges you by the ten commandments on the
day of judgment, do you think you'll be
innocent or guilty?
He said, no, I'd be guilty.
I said, so do you think you'd go
to heaven or hell?
He says, heaven.
I said, why?
Is it because you believe that God is
good and therefore he'll overlook your sin?
He says, yes, that's it, forgiveness.
God is all forgiving.
He's good.
I said, try that in a court of
law.
You're standing before a judge guilty of serious
crimes and the judge says, before I pass
sentence, do you have anything to say for
yourself?
And you stand up and say, yes, judge,
I know I'm guilty but I believe that
you're a good man and therefore you'll let
me go.
The judge would probably say something like, well,
you're right about one thing.
I am a good man and because of
my goodness I'm going to see to it
that you're punished for what you've done.
And the very thing that many are hoping
will save them on the day of judgment
is the very thing that will condemn them.
Because if God is good, then by nature
he must punish murderers and rapists and liars
and thieves and adulterers and fornicators and blasphemers
and all who violate the inner conscience that
God has given to every man and woman.
God will punish sin wherever it is found.
And I said, Ray, the truth is if
God gives you justice, you're not headed for
heaven.
You're headed for hell.
At this point Ray could understand that he
had violated God's law and that he had
angered God, that the wrath of God abided
on him.
He could now see that when he's weighed
in the balance of eternal justice, he is
in huge trouble.
And now he could see the need for
a payment.
At this point, Ray was back in our
golf cart looking down at the floor with
his mouth stopped.
He knew he was guilty.
That's the function of God's law.
Perfectly prepared for the grace of the gospel.
And I said, Ray, do you see your
need of God's forgiveness?
He just looked at me and I said,
Ray, put yourself back in the courtroom.
You're guilty of multiple serious crimes.
You're in a civil court and this judge
says to you, your fine has been set
at $500,000 your life in prison and
you don't have any money to pay your
fine.
And so you're being let off to prison
when all of a sudden someone bursts in
the courtroom doors, walks up to the judge
and hands him a check for $500,000.
The judge says, wait, your fine has been
paid in full.
You're free to go.
The law has no more hold on you.
I'm setting you free on the grounds that
your fine has been paid.
And this man's sacrifice is a demonstration of
his love for you.
I said, Ray, that's what the Bible says
God has done for us.
2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ stepped into
the courtroom and paid our fine.
Think of this, the God of the universe
who made the stars, the moon, the planets,
who spans the universe with the palm of
his hand, reduced himself to become one mere
man.
God in the flesh, the sinless man, Jesus
Christ, and he willingly suffered and died on
the cross.
The Bible says he was marred more than
any man and suffered at the hands of
wicked men who murdered him so that you
and I could be set free.
The Bible puts it this way, God demonstrated
his love toward us and that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law being made a curse for us.
We broke the law and Jesus paid our
fine.
It's as simple as that.
And when I said that a light bulb
went off in Ray's head, I could see
it in his eyes.
We talked about the prodigal son, how when
he had finally come to his senses and
realized that he had sinned against not only
his father, but he'd sinned against heaven.
He turned back to his father in humility
and in repentance, coming back to him, willing
to just be a hired servant.
And the Bible says that the father ran
to him and met him and swept him
up into his arms.
He said, my son is lost and now
he's found.
He was dead and now he's come to
life.
And we got to the end of the
golf course and the other guys were putting
away their clubs and my friend Ray just
stood up and he said, you know I've
been running from God my whole life and
I can't do it anymore.
And he sat on the front of the
hood of the cart and began to cry.
A grown man in the parking lot crying.
I didn't know what to do so I
put my arm around him and I just
said, Ray do you need to be forgiven
of your sin?
Do you need God to forgive you?
He said, yes I do.
I said, then cry out to him.
Tell him.
Do what the Bible says.
Confess and forsake your sin.
Turn from sin and trust Jesus with all
your heart.
Tell God that you're sorry right now.
And he began to pray.
I didn't lead him through a sinner's prayer.
I didn't even know how to do that.
But he began to pray and confess his
sin before God and he was crying while
he did that.
This wasn't a man who came to Jesus
for just a happy lifestyle.
He came to Jesus because he was broken
over his sin.
Why?
Because he had seen it so clearly when
we went through the commandments like Jesus did.
And he wanted the mercy and forgiveness of
God.
And he was overwhelmed with the love of
the cross.
And after he prayed, I prayed for him.
And we opened our eyes and he had
a smile on his face that was so
beautiful.
And we talked about his new life in
Christ.
That he was now a new creature in
Christ if he had truly called upon the
Lord.
We went home that day and he said
that he was going to begin to talk
to his family about Christ.
And about true salvation.
Not just about going to church and saying
prayers and singing and raising your hands.
But about surrendering your life to Jesus as
Lord and Savior.
The one who demonstrated his love on the
cross to forgive us of our sin and
save us from the wrath we deserve.
He was going to lead them out of
the darkness and into the light.
This man was on fire.
My wife asked him that next day, Hey
Ray, how was your golf game yesterday?
He said, Oh Chelsea, yesterday was the best
day of my entire life.
And golf had nothing to do with it.
I didn't say any magic words, you guys.
I simply followed in the footsteps of Jesus
and used the law as a schoolmaster to
lead him to Christ.
The law is like a sharp spade that
plows up the hard soil of a proud
person's heart to make it soft so the
seed of the gospel can take root.
It's like a needle that pierces a person's
flesh and opens the way for the silken
thread of the gospel to follow in after
it.
Charles Spurgeon said they will never accept grace
until they first tremble before a just and
holy law.
And Charles Finney said every more the law
must prepare the way for the gospel.
He said to overlook this in instructing souls
is almost certain to result in false hope,
false expectations of the Christian life, and to
fill the church with false converts.
And now I'd like to do something a
little different from what we normally do in
church.
I'd like to ask you, with every head
raised and every eye open and no music
playing, if you will join me and examine
the validity of our own salvation, of your
own salvation.
You've probably heard it said, never question your
salvation.
The Bible says the exact opposite.
It says check yourself and see if you
are in the faith.
It's better now than on the day of
judgment.
The Bible says make your calling and election
sure.
And some of you know that something's radically
wrong in your Christian walk.
You lose your peace and your joy when
the flight gets bumpy.
You never fell on your face before Almighty
God and said, I have sinned against you,
O God.
Have mercy on me.
Because you've never seen yourself as that bad.
You've never fled to Jesus Christ in His
blood for cleansing in desperation, crying out, God
be merciful to me, a sinner.
And there's a lack of gratitude.
There's not a burning passion for the lost.
You can't say that you're on fire for
God.
In fact, you're in danger of being one
of the ones called lukewarm, who will be
spit out of the mouth of Christ on
the day of judgment, when multitudes will cry
out to Him, Lord, Lord.
And He will say, depart from me.
I never knew you, you who practice iniquity.
You workers of lawlessness.
You have no respect for the divine law.
The Bible says let everyone who names the
name of Christ depart from iniquity.
So today you need to readjust the motive
of your commitment.
Maybe you see your own sin in a
new light this evening.
Maybe you see your wandering eyes toward other
men, other women, that you're not married to.
You finally see that that is lust and
adultery in the eyes of the Lord.
Your white lies, your little white collar crimes,
cheating on your taxes, taking things from the
office, from work, from school, is deceit and
theft in the eyes of the Lord.
And it makes you a liar and a
thief.
And you see that you need to get
right with God today.
What do you need to do that's different
from what you've done in the past?
You need to repent of your sin and
put your faith in Jesus Christ.
Repentance is not a work that you and
I work up in order to be saved.
God grants us the gift of salvation by
granting us the ability to turn from sin,
which we can't do on our own, and
put our faith in Jesus Christ.
Repentance simply means to turn away from sin.
To turn from sin, turn toward God.
Desire to have nothing to do with sin
again and begin to desire following after God
in obedience with a heart surrendered to Him.
He is the Lord.
And then put your faith in Jesus Christ.
It doesn't mean just believe in Him intellectually.
It means to trust in Him the same
way you trust in a parachute if you
were jumping out of a plane at 25
,000 feet.
If I gave you a parachute and you
just believed in it, sang songs to it
on Sundays.
Yes, I believe it's a parachute.
Yes, I do now.
That's not going to help you when you
jump.
You got to put it on.
That's the only way it's going to save
you.
And that's what the Bible says.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll
be saved.
Please don't let your pride stop you.
Pride is a killer.
Don't let it stop you.
I'd like to pray for you.
And in a moment, if you'd like to
be included in this prayer, I'm going to
ask you to lift up your hand.
But before you do, if you're thinking, well,
I really should raise my hand.
I need to raise my hand.
But what will everybody think?
That's pride.
You prefer the praises of men to the
praises of God.
And the Bible says everyone who is proud
of heart is an abomination to the Lord.
God resists the proud, but He will give
grace to the humble.
So humble yourself before the mighty hand of
God.
He will raise you up in His perfect
time.
If this is the day that you need
to raise your hand and surrender to Jesus
Christ, because you see yourself in desperate need
of His cleansing blood, and because you know
you've never departed from iniquity, but you want
to begin today, I'm going to ask you
to raise your hand.
Who's going to break the ice?
Listen to your conscience.
Let the Holy Spirit speak to you right
now.
Now is the time for salvation.
Don't wait.
Don't put it off.
You could die tonight.
If your heart is not right with the
Lord, and you die in your sins, there
is no second chance.
The wrath of God still abides on you,
whether you think you're a Christian or not.
You must come clean and come through the
door of repentance and surrender to Jesus.
Raise your hand to God.
Let Him know that you are in desperate
need of His forgiveness.
And as sinner, I'm going to give you
one more minute.
This is between you and God.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you so much for this
night.
I thank you that you don't sugarcoat things,
and you don't give us silly messages just
to make us feel good.
We are not good people.
You've said that only one is good, and
that is you.
We are filthy dirty, and you love us
enough to tell us the truth, that Jesus
Christ's brutal death on the cross was the
extreme length you went to to make things
right for us.
Our sin is no trivial thing.
It's wicked in your sight, and it cost
you the life of your Son to fix
it, to redeem us, and that blood is
so precious.
I thank you for that blood of Christ
tonight.
I thank you for the courage you've given
people tonight to see their sin for what
it is, and to repent of their sin,
to not make any mistake about their salvation,
and to throw themselves completely at your feet.
Father, fill them with the Holy Spirit tonight.
Cleanse them of their sin.
Make them a new creature in Christ.
Pour out your grace upon them.
Blot out their sins.
Remove the guilt from their soul, and ignite
a passion in them to go out and
preach the gospel to every creature, to do
like Jesus did, to seek and to save
the lost.
Raise up laborers for your harvest.
Let's do away with this statistic of only
2% of Christians sharing their faith.
Holy Spirit, make us new.
Empower us the way you empowered the church
in the book of Acts, to go out
from the upper room and preach the gospel
to a dying world that's sinking in to
hell, to have enough compassion for our friends
and family to tell them about Christ, but
first to convince them of the disease so
that the cure will be truly precious to
them, and that they might be saved.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
If this message this evening has struck a
chord in you, I beg you to listen
to the next message that will be given
by Ray Comfort.
It is called True and False Conversion.
It's vitally important.
We're going to take a short break, come
back and listen to this message, and we
are going to begin to learn the difference
between true and false converts, a subject that
you don't hear much about in church today,
and then we're going to talk about how
to effectively share your faith and put those
tools into your hands.
Let's take a quick break and we'll come
back.
God bless you.