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Christian ministries around the world have come together
to create the International Curriculum.
These teachings are to help the Church in
different nations and to equip Christians in the
comprehension of their faith in order to become
active servants of Jesus Christ.
This teaching is entitled Personal Evangelization.
This is the first session taught by Ray
Comfort.
My name is Ray Comfort.
I'm going to share a teaching with you
called Hell's Best Kept Secret.
In the late 70s, God opened an itinerant
ministry to me.
Living out of travel, I found to my
horror that up to 80% of those
making a decision for Christ were falling away
from the faith.
Let me bring it up to date for
you.
In 1991, a major denomination was able to
obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ.
They could only find 14,000 in fellowship.
In other words, they couldn't account for 280
,000 of their decisions.
This is normal, modern evangelical results.
I discovered this way back in the 70s.
So I made it a matter of prayer
and began to study the gospel proclamations.
A man like Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley.
What was the difference with Charles Spurgeon in
England or John Wesley?
And how God used them in a powerful
way in the world.
I discovered that there was a principle there
that is practically ignored by the evangelization that
we do now in our society.
The Bible tells us that the law of
the Lord is perfect.
To illustrate the function of God's law, let's
look for a moment at civil war.
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 react by saying, that's not good
news.
It doesn't make sense.
I don't have a $25,000 speeding fine.
My good news wouldn't be good news too,
it'd be foolishness.
But more than that, it would be offensive
to you.
Because I'm insinuating you've broken the law when
you don't think you have.
But if I put it this way, it
may make more sense.
On your way to this meeting, the police,
the law, clocked you at going 55 miles
an hour through an area set aside for
a blind children's convention.
There were 10 clear warning signs stating that
15 miles an hour was the maximum speed.
But you went straight through at 55 miles
an hour.
What you did was extremely dangerous.
It's a $25,000 fine.
The law was about to take its course
when someone you don't even know stepped in
and paid the fine for you.
You are very fortunate.
Can you see that telling you what you've
done wrong first actually makes the good news
of someone paying the fine for you make
sense?
If I don't clearly bring instruction that you've
violated the law, then the good news will
seem foolishness and offensive.
But if I clearly bring instruction that you've
violated the law, then that good news will
become good news indeed.
Now in the same way, if I approach
an impenitent sinner, someone whose understanding is darkened,
and say, Jesus Christ died on the cross
for you, it'll be foolishness to him and
offensive to him.
Foolishness because it won't make sense.
The Bible says that.
It says the preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness.
And it'll be offensive to him because I'm
insinuating he's a sinner when he doesn't think
he is.
As far as he's concerned, there are a
lot of people worse than him.
If I follow in the footsteps of Jesus,
it may make more sense.
If I can take the time to open
up the divine law to open up the
ten commandments and show the sinner precisely what
he's done wrong then what he becomes, as
James says, convinced of the law as a
transgressor the good news will not be foolishness
it will not be offensive it will be
the power of God unto salvation.
Now with those few thoughts in mind by
way of introduction let's look at Romans 3
verse 19.
We're looking at God's word to see what
it says about the law in Romans 3
verse 19.
Now we know that lots of the things
the law says says to those who are
under the law and we know that God's
word says that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world not just the Jews
but all the world might become guilty before
God.
So one function of God's law is to
stop sinners' mouths and leave them guilty before
God.
The following verse, Romans 3 verse 20 Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall
be no justice justified in his sight for
by the law is the knowledge of sin
So God's law tells us what sin is
1 John says that sin is transgression of
the law Now let's look at Romans 7
verse 7 Romans 7 verse 7 says What
shall we say then?
Is the law sin?
God forbid No, I had not known sin
but by the law Paul says he didn't
know what sin was until the law told
him And over in Galatians 3 verse 24
says these words Galatians 3 verse 24 Wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ that we might be justified by
faith So the law acts as a schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith in his blood The
law doesn't help us it leaves us helpless
it doesn't justify us it just leaves us
guilty before the judgment of the almighty God
Now the tragedy of modern evangelism is that
around the turn of the century when it
forsook the law and its capacity to drive
sinners to Christ modern evangelism had to find
another reason for sinners to respond to the
gospel And the issue that modern evangelism chose
was the issue of life enhancement The gospel
degenerated into Jesus Christ will give you peace
joy, love and fulfillment that will illustrate the
unscriptural nature of this very popular teaching I
want you to listen very carefully because the
essence of what I'm saying pivots on this
next story The man who was seated in
a plane the first is given a parachute
and told to put it on because it
will improve his flight He's a little skeptical
at first because he can't see how bringing
a parachute in a plane could possibly improve
the flight After a time he decides to
experiment and see if the claim is true
As he puts it on he notices the
weight upon his shoulders he finds that he
has difficulty in sitting upright he notices that
he has difficulty in getting up and walking
but he comforts himself because he was told
that putting on the parachute would improve the
flight So he decides to give the thing
a little time and as he waits he
notices that some of the other passengers are
laughing at him because he's wearing a parachute
in a plane He begins to feel somewhat
humiliated as they begin to point and laugh
at him he can't stand it no longer
he slinks in his seat and straps the
parachute and throws it to the floor Disillusionment
and bitterness fill his heart because as far
as he was concerned he was told an
outright lie The second man is in the
parachute but listen to what he's told he's
told to put it on because at any
moment he'll be jumping 25,000 feet out
of the plane he gratefully puts the parachute
on he doesn't notice the weight upon his
shoulders nor that he can't sit upright his
mind is consumed with a thought of what
would happen to him if he jumped out
of that parachute Let's analyze the motive and
the result of each passenger's experience The
first man's motive for putting the parachute on
was solely to improve his flight The result
of 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 puts the parachute on solely to escape
the jump to come Because of his knowledge
of what would happen to him without it
he has a deep-rooted joy and peace
in his heart knowing that he's saved from
sure death This knowledge gives him the ability
to withstand the mockery of the other passengers
His attitude towards those who gave him the
parachute is one of heartfelt gratitude Now listen
to what the Mother of God says She
says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ He'll
give you love, joy, peace, fulfillment and lasting
happiness So the sinner responds in an experimental
fashion puts on the Savior to see if
the claims are true and what does he
get?
The promise of temptation, tribulation and persecution The
other passengers mock him So what does he
do?
He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ He's
offended for the word's sake He's disillusioned and
somewhat unbidded And quite rightly so He was
promised peace, joy, love, fulfillment and lasting happiness
And all he got was trials and humiliation
His bitterness is directed at those who gave
him the so-called good news His latter
end becomes worse than the first Another inoculated
and bitter backslider Saints, instead of preaching that
Jesus improves the flight we should be warning
the passengers they're going to have to jump
out of the plane So it's the point
that a man wants to die and after
this the judgment And when a sinner understands
the horrific consequences breaking God's law then
he will flee to the Savior so that
he can escape the wrath that's to come
And if we're true and faithful witnesses that's
what we should be preaching that there's wrath
to come that God commands all men everywhere
to repent because he's appointed a day in
which he'll judge the world in righteousness It's
one of happiness It's one of righteousness It
doesn't matter how happy a sinner is how
much he's enjoying the pleasures of sin for
a season Without the righteousness of Christ he'll
perish in the day of wrath Scripture says
Riches profit not on the day of wrath
but righteousness delivers from death Peace and joy
are legitimate fruits of salvation But it's not
legitimate to use these fruits as a drawcard
for salvation If we continue to do so
sinners will respond with an impure motive lacking
repentance Can you remember why the second passenger
had joy and peace?
It was because he knew that parachute was
going to save him from sure death And
as a believer I have joy and peace
in believing because I know that the righteousness
of Christ is going to deliver me from
the wrath that's to come Now with that
thought in mind let's take a close look
at an incident on board the plane We
have a brand new stewardess She's carrying a
tray of boiling hot coffee It's her first
day and she wants to leave an impression
on the passengers And she certainly does Because
as she's walking down the aisle she trips
over someone's foot and slops that boiling hot
coffee all over the lap of our second
passenger What's his reaction as that boiling liquid
hits his tender flesh?
Does he go, that's hot!
Oh yeah, he feels the pain But then
does he rip the parachute from his shoulders
throw it on the floor and say the
stupid parachute No Why should he?
He didn't put the parachute on for a
better flight He put it on to save
him from the jump to come If anything,
the hot coffee incident causes a clingtide to
the parachute and he will fall off the
jump Now if you and I are put
on the Lord Jesus Christ for the right
motive to flee from the wrath that's to
come the tribulations that strike us when the
flight is bumpy we won't get angry at
God we won't lose our joy and peace
Why should we?
We didn't come to Jesus for a happy
lifestyle We came to flee from the wrath
that's to come And if anything, tribulation drives
the true believer closer to the Savior And
as a result, a multitude of professing Christians
lose their joy and peace when the flight
gets bumpy They lose their joy and peace
when the flight gets bumpy Why?
Because they are the product of modern evangelism
They came lacking repentance without which you cannot
be saved You see, there's no way
I'm going to take a cure unless I
first admit I've got the disease Why should
I take a cure if I don't believe
I've got the disease?
The law convinces me I'm diseased so they'll
accept the gospel Now biblical evangelism is
always a law to the proud and grace
to the humble Never will you see Jesus
giving the gospel the cross, the grace of
our God to a proud, arrogant, self-righteous
person No, with the law he breaks the
higher heart and with the gospel he heals
the broken heart Why?
Because he always did those things that pleased
the Father God resists the proud He gives
grace to the humble Everyone who is proud
of heart is an abomination to the Lord
Jesus told us through the gospels He said,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he has appointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor, the broken hearted the
captives and the blind These are spiritual statements
The poor mean those who are poor in
spirit The broken hearted are the contrite ones
those that mourn The captives are those whom
Satan has taken captive and the blind are
those whom the God of this world has
blinded Only the sick need a physician and
only those who are convinced of the disease
will accept the cure Now, Luke 10.25
we see Jesus doing this giving the law
to the proud Now, let me paraphrase this
somewhat for you In Luke 10.25, a
certain lawyer stood up and tempted Jesus Here
we have a professing expert in God's law
standing up and tempting the Son of God
He was proud, arrogant and self-righteous So
Jesus gave him the law He said, what
is your law?
What is your reading of it?
And he said, you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, mind, soul
and strength your strength, your power, your heart
and your mind and you shall love your
neighbor as yourself And then Jesus said this
do and you shall live And then the
Bible says but he willing to justify himself
said to Jesus Who is my neighbor?
The living Bible brings out more clearly the
effect of the law on that man You
see, the man wanted to justify his lack
of love for some kinds of people So
he said to Jesus Which neighbors?
See, he didn't mind Jews but he didn't
like Samaritans So Jesus told him the story
of what we call the good Samaritan who
was not good at all When he loved
his neighbors himself he merely obeyed the basic
requirements of God's law And the effect of
the essence of the law the spirituality of
the law of what the law demanded in
truth he was going to stop that man's
mouth He didn't say another word because he
didn't love his neighbor to that degree Remember,
the law was given to stop every mouth
and leave the whole world guilty before God
You see, a similar thing in Luke 18,
verse 18 And we read a similar thing
in Luke 18, verse 18 We won't turn
to it for the sake of time But
the rich young ruler said he had kept
the commandments So Jesus used the first of
the ten commandments I am the Lord your
God You shall have no other gods before
me to show this man that his God
was his money You cannot serve God and
mammon So we see the Lord of the
proud And then we see grace being given
to the humble In the case of Nicodemus
who was a humble Jew who acknowledged the
deity of the Son of God He was
a teacher in Israel So he obviously knew
the law And the law was a schoolmaster
to bring this godly Jew to Christ Same
with the case of Nathanael and John 1
He was an Israelite brought up under the
law He was an Israelite indeed Not just
in words And there was no deceit in
his heart And the law was a schoolmaster
to bring this godly Jew to Christ The
same with the Jews on the day of
Pentecost These were devout Jews from every nation
under heaven They were there for eight drinks
to slip God's law And the law was
a schoolmaster to bring 3,000 to Christ
Now 1 Timothy 1 verse 8 which we
can turn to tells us once again what
God's law is used for 1 Timothy 1
verse 8 says But we know that the
law is good if it is used lawfully
for the purpose for which it was designed
What was the law designed for?
The following verse tells us The law was
not made for the righteous but for sinners
It even lists the sinners Homosexuals
If you want to bring a homosexual to
Christ give him the 10 commandments Show him
his sins against God despite his perversion If
you want to bring a Muslim to Christ
Muslims accept Moses as a prophet Give them
the law of Moses and strip them of
their self-righteousness Show them that God requires
truth in the inward parts The Bible is
filled with examples of the law doing its
work in evangelism Think of the woman caught
in the act of adultery The law called
for her blood Her only avenue was to
fling herself at the feet of Jesus And
that's the function of God's law Paul spoke
of being shot up under the law But
you say, you can't condemn sinners They are
already condemned He that believes not is condemned
already, Scripture says Now, normally in this teaching
I go through the 10 commandments But it
may be more practical for you If I
share with you how I share my faith
I'm a strong believer in following the example
of Jesus Give a look at John chapter
4 When Jesus approached the woman at the
well He spoke in the natural realm
first So that's what I do I go
up to someone and say, hi, how are
you doing?
What do you do for a job?
And then I say, did you get one
of these?
And maybe I give them a gospel tract
And then I carry in my pocket pennies
with the 10 commandments pressed into them But
you don't really need one of these, all
you need is something Christian And when they
say it's Christian, or you say that it's
Christian They just say, do you think you've
kept the 10 commandments?
And this is usually what happens Oh, pretty
much, I haven't killed anyone I say, have
you ever told a lie?
He says, yeah, one or two And then
what does that make you?
He says, a sinner I say, more specifically,
doesn't it make you a liar?
He says, oh, I'm not a liar I
say, well, how many lies do you have
to tell to be a liar?
Ten, and suddenly a bell rings One lie
makes you a liar, isn't that right?
He says, yeah I say, have you ever
stolen something?
He says, no I say, come on, you've
just told me you're a liar Have you
ever stolen something, even if it's small?
I say, yeah I say, what does that
make you?
He says, a thief I say, do you
know Jesus said, if you look at a
woman and lust after her, you commit adultery
with her in your heart?
I say, have you ever done that?
He says, yeah, plenty of times I say,
from your own admission, you're a lying, thieving,
adulterer at heart And you have to face
God on judgment day And we've only looked
at three of the ten commandments If you
hate someone, you commit murder in your heart
And as you go through the commandments They
leave us all guilty And the wonderful thing
that happens Is that the work of the
law is written in their hearts It says
it in Romans 2, verse 15 It says
the conscience bears witness Conscience means with knowledge
Con means with Science, knowledge So whenever he's
lied or stolen or lusted He's known in
his heart, but he's done wrong So on
the day of judgment, he will be without
excuse So the law brings the knowledge of
sin You may identify with this, some of
you ladies You dust your table down in
the morning It's a clean table Then you
draw back the curtains And let in the
early morning sunlight What do you see in
the piece?
Dust What do you see in the air?
Dust Did the light create the dust?
Oh no, the light only exposed the dust
And when you and I take the time
to draw back the curtains of the Holy
of Holies And let the light of God's
law shine upon the sinner's heart So he
can see himself in truth Commandment is a
lamp And the law is light That's why
Paul says, by the commandment Sin became exceedingly
sinful In other words, the law
showed him Sin in its true light And
some who have this knowledge Can now understand
That God is angry at them That His
wrath abides upon them They can see their
weight in the balance Of eternal justice And
found wanting And they can therefore understand Why
Jesus had to die Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law He became a
curse for us God commanded His love toward
us And the while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us We broke
the law He paid the fine The moment
we repent and accept What He did on
the cross We are free from the wrath
of God Charles Spurgeon A great preacher from
a hundred years ago Said they will never
accept grace Until they tremble before a holy
and just law They will never take the
cure Unless they are first convinced they have
the disease The law works It converts the
soul It makes a man a new creature
in Christ He puts his hand on a
flower And he dies He doesn't look back
Because he is fit for the kingdom So
why don't you find yourself a sinner And
experiment on him Just try it out Jesus
gave us examples Follow it If someone comes
to you and says I'm just a terrible
sinner I've committed adultery I've got lust burning
in my heart I'm filled with jealousy and
hatred Give them grace But more than likely
You'll find people saying I'm really a good
person A lot of people worse than me
They go about to establish their own righteousness
Being ignorant of the righteousness which is of
God So you must give them that life
God doesn't want you to get decisions He
wants people to be saved And for that
they need repentance And they will not repent
Because they don't know what sin is So
as I said Try it out But as
you do Remember this one story You're sitting
on a plane You're enjoying the flight And
suddenly you hear This is your captain speaking
I have an announcement to make As the
tail section has just fallen off this plane
We're about to crash We're 25,000 feet
in the air There's a parachute under your
seat So we'd appreciate if you put it
on Thank you for your attention And thank
you for flying with this airline You put
your parachute on and say Boy, am I
glad to be wearing a parachute And the
person next to you is watching a movie
And you say Excuse me, didn't you hear
the captain?
Put the parachute on He turns to you
and says I don't think the captain means
it Besides, I'm quite happy as I am,
thanks Well, don't turn to him You say,
please Put the parachute on It'll be better
than the movie It doesn't make sense If
you tell him to put the parachute on
Because it'll improve the flight You're telling him
to put it on for a wrong motive
If you want him to put it on
and keep it on Tell him about the
jump Excuse me If you jump without a
parachute Splat!
Sorry, I beg your pardon I said, if
you jump without a parachute Law of gravity
He says, goodness me I see what you're
saying Thank you very much And as long
as that man knows As long as he
has knowledge To face the consequences Of
breaking the law of gravity There's no way
you're going to get that parachute off his
back Because his very life depends on it
If you look around you'll find There are
multitudes of passengers enjoying the flight They're enjoying
the pleasures of sin for a season You
say, excuse me Did you hear the command
from the cat of our salvation Put on
the Lord Jesus Christ He turns to you
and says I really don't think God means
it I don't think God means it God
is love Besides, I'm quite happy as I
am, thanks Don't turn to him with zeal,
without knowledge And say, please Give your heart
to Jesus He'll give you peace, joy, love,
fulfillment Fill the God-shaped vacuum in your
heart He'll heal your marriage He'll heal your
alcohol problem He'll take away your loneliness Just
give your heart to Jesus No, you'll give
him a wrong motive for his dedication Instead
of saying, God give me courage And tell
him about the jump Say, if you die
without the Savior It's appointed a man once
to die And after that's the judgment If
you've lusted, you've committed adultery If you've hated
someone, you've committed murder If you've told one
lie, you're a liar If you've lied once,
you're a liar In the day of wrath
The fist of eternal justice will come down
upon you And grind you to pieces God
bless you Now, I'm not talking about hellfire
preaching Hellfire preaching will produce fear-filled converts
Using God's law will produce tear-filled converts
This one comes merely to escape the fires
of hell And because the law wasn't used
to show him he deserves hell He doesn't
appreciate God's mercy There's no gratitude in his
heart But this one comes knowing he's sinned
against heaven He's violated the law of a
holy God On the day of justice God
must allay all his sins as evidence of
his guilt Or mighty God in his holiness
Could pick him up as an unclean thing
And cast him into hell But instead he's
given him heaven He's commended his love toward
him And what is he to say that
Christ died for him?
He falls on his knees In the blood
-sodden soil of Calvary's cross And cries, O
God, if you do that for me, I'll
do anything for you He says, I delight
to do your will, O my God Your
law is written upon my heart And like
the man who knew he had to pass
through the door And face the consequences of
breaking the law of gravity Would never take
the parachute off because his very life depends
on it So he who comes to the
Savior Knowing he has to face the holy
God on the day of wrath Never forsakes
the righteousness of God and Christ Because his
very life depends on it Such converts become
soul winners Not pew warmers Laborers
Not layabouts Heirs Not liabilities From
the local church Let's bear in prayer as
we close Father, we pray that we'd be
as the Bereans And search the Scriptures to
see if these things are so And that
we'd examine ourselves To see if we're in
the faith And Father, if we're not Let
us make our calling and election sure By
crying out God to give me I'm a
sinner By exercising repentance towards God And
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ In his
name we pray Amen