"What if someone says, ‘I’ve
broken every one of the Ten Commandments’?"
Do not take this statement
to mean that the person has seen the gravity of his
sinful state before God. He may say something like,
"I’m a really bad person!" It is often
used as a way of shrugging off conviction. Say to him,
"Well let’s take the time to go through them
one by one and see if you have." As he is confronted
with the righteous standard of God’s Moral Law,
pray that the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin.
"You are trying to make me feel
guilty by quoting the Ten Commandments."
Ask the person which
one of the Ten Commandments makes him feel guilty. Simply
state, "The Bible says, ‘You shall not steal.’
If you feel guilty when you hear that, why do you think
that is? Could it be because you are guilty?" God
gave us our conscience so we would know when we break
His Law; the guilt we feel when we do something wrong
tells us that we need to repent.
"What should I say to someone
who acknowledges his sins, but says, ‘I just hope
God is forgiving’?"
These people could
be referred to as "awakened, but not alarmed."
explain that God is forgiving—but only to those
who repent of their sins. Ask him, "If you died
right now, where would you go?" If he says, "Hell,"
ask if that concerns him. If it does concern him, ask,
"What are you going to do?" Then tell him
that God commands him to repent and trust the Savior.
If it doesn’t concern him, speak of the value
of his life, the threat of eternal damnation, and the
biblical description of hell. Caution him that he doesn’t
have the promise of tomorrow, and plead with him to
come to his senses.
"I believe I will go to heaven
because I live by the Golden Rule."
Much of the world
knows the Golden Rule simply as "do unto others
as you would have them do unto you" (see Luke 6:31).
According to this verse, if we can live by this rule
and love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves,
we fulfill the Law. Ask those who claim to do this if
they have ever lied, stolen, hated, or looked with lust.
If they have broken any of these Commandments, then
they haven’t loved those they have lied to, stolen
from, etc. This will show them that they have violated
the Golden Rule. They are under God’s wrath (John
3:36), desperately needing the Savior's cleansing blood.
"I have broken the Ten Commandments,
but I do good things for people."
Many people do similar
things. They may steal from their employer or cheat
on their taxes, then give to a charity or spend Thanksgiving
helping at a soup kitchen. They think they are balancing
the scales: they have done bad, and now they are doing
good. However, the Bible reveals that the motive of
guilty sinners is one of guilt (see Hebrews 9:14). They
are at-tempting to bribe the Judge of the Universe.
However, the Judge in this case will not be corrupt-ed.
He must punish all sinners. Good works cannot earn mercy;
it comes purely by the grace of God. He will dismiss
our iniquity only on the grounds of our faith in Jesus.
"How can you know that you are
saved?"
A two-year-old boy
was once staring at a heater, fascinated by its bright
orange glow. His father saw him and warned, "Don’t
touch that heater, son. It may look pretty, but it’s
hot." The little boy believed him, and moved away
from the heater. Some time later, after his father had
left the room, the boy thought, "I wonder if it
really is hot." He then reached out to touch it
and see for himself. The second his flesh burned, he
stopped believing it was hot; he now knew it was hot!
He had moved out of the realm of belief into the realm
of experience.
Christians believed
in God’s existence before their conversion. However,
when they obeyed the Word of God, turned from their
sins, and embraced Jesus Christ, they stopped merely
believing. The moment they reached out and touched the
heater bar of God’s mercy, they moved out of belief
into the realm of experience. This experience is so
radical, Jesus referred to it as being "born again."
The Bible says that those who don’t know God are
spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1; 4:18). We
are born with physical life, but not spiritual life.
Picture unbelievers as corpses walking around who, by
repenting and placing their faith in Christ, receive
His very life. There is a radical difference between
a corpse and a living, breathing human, just as there
is when sinners pass from spiritual death to life. The
apostle Paul said if you are "in Christ,"
you are a brand new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Those who now have
God’s Spirit living in them will love what He
loves and desire to do His will; they will have a hunger
for His Word, a love for other believers, and a burden
for the lost. The Holy Spirit also confirms in their
spirit that they are now children of God (Romans 8:16).
Those who believe on the name of the Son of God can
know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:12,13).
Paul wrote to the
church at Corinth, "My speech and my preaching
were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God" (1 Corinthians 2:4,5). What
Paul was saying was, "I deliberately didn’t
talk you into your faith, but I let God’s power
transform you." He didn’t reach them through
an intellectual assent, but through the realm of personal
experience.
Suppose two people—a
heater manufacturer and a skin specialist—walked
into the room just after that child had burned his hand
on the heater. Both assured the boy that he couldn’t
possibly have been burned. But all the experts, theories,
and arguments in the world will not dissuade that boy,
because of his experience. Those who have been transformed
by God’s power need never fear scientific or other
arguments, because the man with an experience is not
at the mercy of a man with an argument. "For our
gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance . . ."
(1 Thessalonians 1:5).
"I was once a born-again Christian.
Now I believe it’s all rubbish!"
When a person maintains
that he was once a Christian, but came to his senses,
he is saying that he once knew the Lord (see John 17:3).
Ask him, "Did you know the Lord?" He will
then be forced to say, "I thought I did!"
This gives you license to gently say, "If you don’t
know so, then you probably didn’t." If he
didn’t know the Lord, he was therefore never a
Christian (1 John 5:11–13,20).
Explain to him that the
Bible speaks of false conversion, in which a "stony
ground" hearer receives the Word with joy and gladness.
Then, in a time of tribulation, temptation, and persecution,
falls away. If he is open to reason, take him through
the Ten Commandments, into the message of the cross,
and the necessity of repentance and faith in the Savior.
"I’ll wait until I am old,
then I’ll get right with God."
You may not get the chance.
God may just lose patience with you and end your life.
Perhaps you don’t think He would do such a thing.
Then read Genesis 38:7 to see how God killed a man who
was wicked. Jesus told of a man who boasted that he
had so many goods that he would have to build bigger
barns. God called the man a fool and took his life that
night.
Those who say they will
repent in their own time lack the fear of God. Their
understanding of His nature is erroneous. If they caught
a glimpse of His holiness, His righteousness, and His
consuming justice, they wouldn’t trifle with His
mercy. Such arrogance needs to be confronted with the
thunders of Mount Sinai. He is not wise who thinks he
can outwit his Creator, enjoy a lifetime of sin, and
repent at the last minute. Deathbed repentance is very
rare. God killed a husband and wife because they told
a lie (Acts 5:1–10). He lost patience with them.
Most people think that God’s patience is eternal.
It evidently is not.
The Bible says that it is
through the fear of the Lord that men depart from sin
(Proverbs 16:6). If they don’t fear God, they
will be complacent about their eternal salvation (Matthew
10:28).
"Will people who have never heard
the gospel all go to hell because they haven’t
heard about Jesus Christ?"
No one will go to
hell because they haven’t heard of Jesus Christ.
The heathen will go to hell for murder, rape, adultery,
lust, theft, lying, etc. Sin is not failing to hear
the gospel. Rather, "sin is the transgression of
the Law" (1 John 3:4). If we really care about
the lost, we will become missionaries and take the good
news of God’s forgiveness in Christ to them.
"You are using scare tactics by
talking about hell and Judgment Day."
In the late 1980s, TV commercials
in the U.S. asked, "What goes through the mind
of a driver who is not wearing a seat belt in a head-
n collision?" Then they showed a crash dummy having
its head crushed by a steering wheel in a collision,
and said, "The steering wheel!" Those were
scare tactics, but no one complained because they were
legitimate scare tactics. That’s what happens
in a head-on collision if you are foolish enough to
not put on a seat belt. To warn of hell is fearful,
but it is absolutely legitimate, because the Bible says
that it is a fearful thing for a sinner to fall into
the hands of the living God.
"Is ‘hell-fire’ preaching
effective?"
Preaching the reality of
hell, without using the Law to bring the knowledge of
sin, can do a great deal of damage to the cause of the
gospel. A sinner cannot conceive of the thought that
God would send anyone to hell, as long as he is deceived
into thinking that God’s standard of righteousness
is the same as his. Paul "reasoned" with Felix
regarding righteousness, temperance, and judgment to
come (Acts 24:25). This is the righteousness that is
of the Law and judgment by the Law. Felix "trembled"
because he suddenly understood that his intemperance
made him a guilty sinner in the sight of a holy God.
The reality of hell suddenly became reasonable to him
when the Law was used to bring the knowledge of sin.
Imagine if the police burst
into your home, arrested you, and shouted, "You
are going away for a long time!" Such conduct would
probably leave you bewildered and angry. What they have
done seems unreasonable. However, imagine if the law
burst into your home and instead told you specifically
why you were in trouble: "We have discovered 10,000
marijuana plants growing in your back yard. You are
going away for a long time!" At least then you
would understand why you are in trouble. Knowledge of
the law you have transgressed furnished you with that
understanding. It makes judgment reasonable.
Hell-fire preaching without
use of the Law to show the sinner why God is angry with
him will more than likely leave him bewildered and angry—for
what he considers unreasonable punishment.
"I hope I’m going to heaven when
I die."
Of all the things that you should
be sure of, it’s your eternal destiny. To say "I
hope I’m going to heaven" is like standing at the
open door of a plane 25,000 feet in the air and, when asked
"Have you got your parachute on?" answering with
"I hope so." You want to know so— and you
can, simply by obeying the gospel. If you repent and place
your faith in Jesus Christ, He will give you eternal life
and you can know that your eternity is secure. These verses
also make clear that those who refuse to trust in the Son
of God can likewise know that they do not have eternal life—they
will remain dead in their sins.
_______________________________________________________
This
concludes our 31 Days of Evangelism Tips and Training. I hope it has
been a help to you and has given you a new zeal to win the lost and build up the
kingdom of God.
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