Many ministries around the world have worked to
create this international curriculum.
These teachings were developed to help Christians in
many nations to become disciples of Christ.
This is lecture number one on personal evangelism.
Our teacher will be Reverend Ray Comfort.
My name is Ray Comfort.
I'm going to share with you a teaching
called, My
name is Ray Comfort.
I'm going to share a teaching with you
called, In
the late seventies, God opened an itinerant ministry
to me.
As I began to 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 result.
I discovered this way back in the seventies.
So I made it a matter of prayer
and began to study the gospel proclamations of
men like Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, and others
that God greatly used down through the ages.
I found they used a principle which is
almost entirely neglected by modern evangelism.
The Bible says that the law of the
Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
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.
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.
There's a $25,000 fine.
The law was about to take its course
when someone you don't even know stepped in
and paid the fine for you.
You are very fortunate.
Can you see that telling you what you've
done wrong first actually makes the good news?
Someone paying the fine for you makes sense.
If I don't clearly bring instruction you've violated
the law, then the good news will seem
foolishness and offensive.
But if I clearly bring instruction 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 has 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's a lot
of people worse than him.
But if I follow in the footsteps of
Jesus, it may make more sense.
If I 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 when 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 the what's of the things
the law says, it says to them who
are under the law, it says to them
who are under the law, 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.
Following verse, Romans 3, verse 20, therefore by
the deeds of the law, there shall no
flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin.
So God's law tells us what sin is.
First John says sin is transgression of the
law.
Then over somewhat to Romans 7, verse 7.
Romans 7, verse 7 says, Paul's speaking, 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, 24, says these
words, Galatians 3, 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 to Jesus Christ that we might
be justified through 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
bar of 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 Now
to 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 Two men were
seated in a plane First was given a
parachute and told to put it on because
it would improve his flight He's a little
skeptical at first because he can't see how
having a parachute in a plane could possibly
improve the flight After time he decides to
experiment and see if the claim is true
As he puts it on he notices the
weight upon his shoulders and he finds that
he has difficulty in sitting upright However he
consoles himself with the fact that he was
told the parachute would improve the flight So
he decides to give the thing a little
time As he waits he notices that some
of the other passengers are laughing at him
because he's wearing a parachute in a plane
He begins to feel somewhat humiliated As they
begin to point and laugh at him he
can'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 given a 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 the thought of what would happen if
he jumped without the 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 put the parachute on solely to escape
the jump to come And 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 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, 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, temptation, tribulation, and persecution The other
passengers mock him So what does he do?
He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ He's
offended for the word's sake He's disillusioned and
somewhat embittered And quite rightly so He was
promised peace, joy, love, fulfillment and lasting happiness
And all he got 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 But it's the point
of the man who wants to die And
after this, the judgment And when a sinner
understands the horrific consequences of breaking God's law
then he will flee to the Savior solely
to escape the wrath that's to come And
if we're true and faithful witnesses that's what
we 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 You see,
the issue isn't 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 Now 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 that thought
in mind let's take a close look at
an incident on board the plane We have
a brand new stewardess She's carrying a tray
of boiling hot coffee It's her first day
She wants to leave an impression on the
passengers And she certainly does Because as she's
walking down the aisle she trips over someone's
foot and 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,
he's not going to say that 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 the cling tights
of the parachute and even looks forward to
the jump Now if you and I put
on the Lord Jesus Christ for the right
motive to flee from the wrath that's to
come when tribulation strikes when the flight gets
bumpy we won't get angry at God we
won't lose that 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 Sadly,
we have multitudes of professing Christians who lose
their joy and peace when the flight gets
bumpy Why?
Because they're 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 a disease so
that I'll accept the gospel Now, biblical evangelism
is always 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 Now, with the law he breaks the
hard heart and with the gospel he heals
the broken heart Why?
Because he always did those things that pleased
the Father God resists the proud and gives
grace to the humble Everyone who is proud
of heart is abomination to the Lord Jesus
told us whom the gospel is for 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 captains and the blind Now, they're spiritual
statements The poor means those who are poor
in spirit The broken hearted are the contrite
ones those that mourn The captives are those
of whom Satan has taken captive and the
blind are those whom the God of this
world is 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
grace to the poor giving the law to
the proud Now, let me paraphrase this somewhat
for you In Luke 10, 25 a certain
lawyer stood up and he tempted Jesus Here
we have a professing expert on 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 written in the 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 And he
said You shall love your neighbor as yourself
And then Jesus said This do and you
shall live And then the Bible says that
he willing to justify himself will love his
neighbor 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 It
said 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 as 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 was that it stopped that man
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 We
see 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
Lord of the proud Then we see grace
being given to the humble In the case
of Nicodemus He 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
the schoolmaster to bring this godly Jew to
Christ Same with the case of Nathanael and
John 1 Who 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 Same with the Jews on the day
of Pentecost These were devout Jews From every
nation under heaven Who therefore ate, drank and
slept God's law The law was a schoolmaster
to bring 3000 to Christ Now 1 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 8 which we can turn
to Tells us once again what God's law
is used for 1 Timothy chapter 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 Fornicated If you want to
bring a homosexual to Christ give him the
10 commandments Show him that he has sinned
against God The spider's perversion If you want
to bring a Muslim to Christ Muslims accept
Moses as a prophet Well, 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 shut up under the law But just
so 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 Given to us in 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?
Maybe I'll 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
You 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 I say,
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 Never 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 times I say, from
your own admission you're a lying, thieving adulterer
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 your heart It says in Romans 2,
verse 15 It says, the conscience bears witness
Conscience means with knowledge Con means with And
science is 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 is sin?
What do you see on the table?
Dust What do you see in the air?
Dust Did the light create the dust?
Oh no, the light merely exposed the dust
And when you and I take the time
to draw back the curtains of the Holy
of Holies It lets the light of God's
law shine upon the sinner's heart So he
can see himself in truth The 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 someone
who has 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
the one thing And they can therefore understand
why Jesus had to die Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law being made
a curse for us God commanded His love
toward us and 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're 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 for a holy and just law
They'll never take the cure unless they first
convince they have the disease The law works
It converts the soul It makes a man
a new creature in Christ He puts his
hand to the plow and he doesn't look
back because he's fit for the kingdom So
why don't you find yourself a sinner?
And experiment on him Just try it out
See if it works Jesus gave the example
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
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 light 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 if 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
it 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 You look next to you
watching the movie Excuse me Didn't you hear
the captain?
Put the parachute on He turns to him
and says I really don't think the captain
means it Besides, I'm quite happy as I
am, thanks Well, don't turn to him and
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 he's going
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 Jump without a parachute Splat
I'm sorry, I beg your pardon I said
if you jump without a parachute more of
gravity on the ground He says, goodness me
I see what you're saying Thank you very
much And as long as that man knows
as long as he has knowledge that he
has passed through the door and faced 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 He says, excuse me Did you hear
the command from the captain of our salvation
put on the Lord Jesus Christ He turns
to you and says I really don't think
God means it God is love Besides, I'm
quite happy to end things Don't turn to
him with zeal, without knowledge 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 fill your marriage He'll
help your alcohol problem He'll help your drug
problem He'll take away your loneliness Just give
your heart to Jesus No, you'll give him
the wrong motive for his commitment Instead say,
God give me courage And tell him about
the jump he's going to have to make
Tell him, if you die without the Savior
Just once, says the Bible we die And
after this, there will be a judgment If
you have lusted you've committed adultery If you've
hated someone you've committed murder If you've told
one lie you're a liar On the day
of wrath the fist of eternal justice will
come down upon you and grind you to
pieces God bless 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
If God was to lay it all on
us And if on that day of justice
God presented all his sins God in his
great holiness could pick him up as an
unclean thing and cast him into hell But
instead he's given him heaven He's commanded his
love toward him And what is he to
sin if Christ died for him He falls
on his knees in the blood-sodden soil
of Calvary's cross Cries, Oh God if you
do that for me I'll do anything for
you He says, I delight to do your
will, oh my God Your law is written
upon my heart And like the man who
knew he had to pass through the door
face the consequence 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 never forsake the righteousness
of God and Christ because his very life
depends on it Such converts become soul winners
not pure women laborers not
layabouts assets not liabilities for
the local church Let's bear in prayer as
we close Father, we pray that we'd be
as the Marines 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 Father, if we're not let us
make our calling and election sure by crying
out God forgive me I'm a sinner by
exercising repentance towards God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ In his name we pray
Amen