The subject of false conversions is a frightening topic to me, but it also motivates me to examine my own life. It says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
If Jesus Christ lives in us, shouldn’t there be a huge change in our lives. Yet, poll after poll show basically no difference between those who call themselves Christians and the rest of the world. A.W. Tozer says, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved.” D. James Kennedy said it this way, “The vast majority of people who are members of churches in America today are not Christians. I say that without the slightest fear of contradiction. I base it on empirical evidence of twenty-four years of examining thousands of people.”
When Jesus gave His disciples the Parable of the Sower, it seems that they lacked understanding of its meaning: “He said to them, ‘Do you not know [understand] this parable? and how then will you know [understand] all parables?’” (Mark 4:13). In other words, the Parable of the Sower is the key to unlocking the mysteries of all the other parables. If any message comes from the parable, it is the fact that when the gospel is preached, there are true and false conversions. This parable speaks of the thorny ground, the stony ground, and the good-soil hearers—the false and the genuine converts. Once that premise has been established, the light of perception begins to dawn on Jesus’ other parables about the kingdom of God. If one grasps the principle of the true and false being alongside each other, then the other parabolic teachings make sense: the Wheat and Tares (true and false), the Good Fish and Bad Fish (true and false), the Wise Virgins and the Foolish (true and false), and the Sheep and Goats (true and false). “The School of Biblical Evangelism”
Someday we will have to face God on the Day of Judgment to give account for our lives. Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Jesus warned that many will say to Him on that day, “Lord, Lord”, but He will reply, “I know not from where you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.” Luke 13:27
This is not about works, but about true repentance, humbling ourselves before the Creator of this universe. If Christ’s sacrifice on the cross means so little to us, that we are unwilling to allow God to change our desires, then we must examine ourselves. I once heard it said that a true Christian may fall or stumble into sin, but an unbeliever dives into sin. We are not called to be sinless, but to take up our cross and follow him. Matthew 15:7-8 says, “You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Ten Commandments
What is the purpose of God’s Law and why are atheists working so hard to remove the Ten Commandments from the public square? It is because God’s Law show our guilt before a holy and just God. Romans 3:19 says, “Now 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 function of God’s Law is to stop the mouth, to keep sinners from justifying themselves by saying, “There are plenty of people worse than me. I’m not a bad person, really.” No, the law stops the mouth of justification and leaves the whole world guilty before God.
Ray Comfort gives a good illustration in The School of Biblical Evangelism. “The Bible says in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.” Scripture makes it very clear that it is the Law that actually converts the soul. To illustrate the function of God’s Law, let’s look for a moment at civil 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 react by saying, “What are you talking about? 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 to you; it would seem 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.
However, if I put it this way, it may make more sense: “While you were out today, the law clocked you going 55 miles an hour through an area set aside for a blind children’s convention. There were ten clear warning signs stating that fifteen 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 precisely what you’ve done wrong first actually enables the good news to make sense? If I don’t clearly bring understanding that you’ve violated the law, then the good news will seem foolishness and offensive. But once you understand that you’ve broken the law, then that good news will become good news indeed.
In the same way, if I approach an impenitent sinner and say, “Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins,” it will be foolishness and offensive to him. It will be foolishness because it won’t make sense. The Bible says that “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:18). And it will be offensive 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 far worse than him. But if I take the time to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, it may make more sense. If I open up the divine Law, the Ten Commandments, and show the sinner precisely what he’s done wrong —that he has offended God by violating His Law—then when he becomes “convinced of the law as a transgressor” (James 2:9), the good news of the fine being paid will not be foolishness. It will not be offensive. It will be “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). “
The Law doesn’t help us; it just leaves us helpless. It doesn’t justify us; it just leaves us guilty before the judgment bar of a holy God. Galatians 3:24 says, “ Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” I Timothy 1:8-10 says, “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but ... for sinners.”
Charles Spurgeon stated, “I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man’s heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it.”
Ray Comfort gives a good illustration in The School of Biblical Evangelism. “The Bible says in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.” Scripture makes it very clear that it is the Law that actually converts the soul. To illustrate the function of God’s Law, let’s look for a moment at civil 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 react by saying, “What are you talking about? 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 to you; it would seem 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.
However, if I put it this way, it may make more sense: “While you were out today, the law clocked you going 55 miles an hour through an area set aside for a blind children’s convention. There were ten clear warning signs stating that fifteen 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 precisely what you’ve done wrong first actually enables the good news to make sense? If I don’t clearly bring understanding that you’ve violated the law, then the good news will seem foolishness and offensive. But once you understand that you’ve broken the law, then that good news will become good news indeed.
In the same way, if I approach an impenitent sinner and say, “Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins,” it will be foolishness and offensive to him. It will be foolishness because it won’t make sense. The Bible says that “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:18). And it will be offensive 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 far worse than him. But if I take the time to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, it may make more sense. If I open up the divine Law, the Ten Commandments, and show the sinner precisely what he’s done wrong —that he has offended God by violating His Law—then when he becomes “convinced of the law as a transgressor” (James 2:9), the good news of the fine being paid will not be foolishness. It will not be offensive. It will be “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). “
The Law doesn’t help us; it just leaves us helpless. It doesn’t justify us; it just leaves us guilty before the judgment bar of a holy God. Galatians 3:24 says, “ Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” I Timothy 1:8-10 says, “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but ... for sinners.”
Charles Spurgeon stated, “I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man’s heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it.”
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Tracts
Do tracts really make a difference?
According to Charles Spurgeon: “ I well remember distributing them in a town in England where tracts had never been distributed before, and going from house to house, and telling in humble language the things of the kingdom of God. I might have done nothing, if I had not been encouraged by finding myself able to do something ...[Tracts are] adapted to those persons who have but little power and little ability, but nevertheless, wish to do something for Christ. They may not have the tongue of the eloquent, but they may have the hand of the diligent. They cannot stand and preach, but they can stand and distribute here and there these silent preachers...They may buy their thousand tracts, and these they can distribute broadcast.
I look upon the giving away of a religious tract as only the first step for action not to be compared with many another deed done for Christ; but were it not for the first step we might never reach to the second, but that first attained, we are encouraged to take another, and so at the last...There is a real service of Christ in the distribution of the gospel in its printed form, a service the result of which heaven alone shall disclose, and the judgment day alone discover. How many thousands have been carried to heaven instrumentally upon the wings of these tracts, none can tell.
I might say, if it were right to quote such a Scripture, “The leaves were for the healing of the nations”—verily they are so. Scattered where the whole tree could scarcely be carried, the very leaves have had a medicinal and a healing virtue in them and the real word of truth, the simple statement of a Savior crucified and of a sinner who shall be saved by simply trusting in the Savior, has been greatly blessed, and many thousand souls have been led into the kingdom of heaven by this simple means. Let each one of us, if we have done nothing for Christ, begin to do something now. The distribution of tracts is the first thing.”
According to the American Tract Society, “Fifty-three percent of all who come to Christ worldwide come through the use of printed gospel literature.” God used a tract to save the great missionary Hudson Taylor. After George Whitefield read one called “The Life of God in the Soul of a Man,” he said, “God showed me I must be born again or be damned.” He went on to pray, “Lord, if I am not a Christian, or if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ’s sake show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last!” Then his journal tells us “from that moment... did I know that I must become a new creature.”
John Wesley organized 160 tract distributors in 1757 which literally reformed the Lord's day habits of the entire city of London! Martin Luther wrote more than one tract, booklet or book for every working week of his entire life! D. L. Moody began his very fruitful evangelistic ministry in Chicago by the simple act of distributing tracts to Great Lakes seaman!
Why should Christians use tracts? Simply because God uses them. That fact alone should be enough incentive for a Christian to always use tracts to reach the lost, but there are even more reasons why we should use them. Here are a few:
Tracts can provide an opening for us to share our faith. We can watch people’s reaction as we give them a tract, and see if they are open to listening to spiritual things.
They can do the witnessing for us. If we are too timid to speak to others about the things of God, we can at least give them a tract, or leave one lying around so that someone will pick it up.
They speak to the individuals when they are ready; people don’t read it until they want to.
They can find their way into people’s homes when we can’t.
They don’t get into arguments; they just state their case.
Oswald J. Smith said, “The only way to carry out the Great Commission will be by the means of the printed page.” Charles Spurgeon stated, “When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready ...Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts.”
If you want people to accept your literature, try to greet them before offering them a tract. If you can get them to respond to a warm “Good morning,” or “How are you doing?” that will almost always break the ice and they will take it. After the greeting, don’t ask, “Would you like this?” They will probably respond, “What is it?” Instead, say, “Did you get one of these?” That question has a twofold effect. You stir their curiosity and make them ask, “One of what?” That’s when you hand them a tract. It also makes them feel as though they are missing out on something. So they are.
Perhaps you almost pass out at the thought of passing out a tract. Don’t worry; you are not alone. We all battle fear. The answer to fear is found in the prayer closet. Ask God to give you a compassion that will swallow your fears. Meditate on the fate of the ungodly. Give hell some deep thought. Confront what it is that makes you fearful.
If you are a friend of mine and you are convicted to share the gospel after reading this, I am willing to provide you with as many tracts as you want at no cost to you. I also have books by Mark Cahill that you give out or read yourself. My only requirement is that you actually use them. Tracts are not a substitute for talking to people, but I have found that tracts have helped me become more bold in my faith.
Reference: The School of Biblical Evangelism by Ray Comfort
According to Charles Spurgeon: “ I well remember distributing them in a town in England where tracts had never been distributed before, and going from house to house, and telling in humble language the things of the kingdom of God. I might have done nothing, if I had not been encouraged by finding myself able to do something ...[Tracts are] adapted to those persons who have but little power and little ability, but nevertheless, wish to do something for Christ. They may not have the tongue of the eloquent, but they may have the hand of the diligent. They cannot stand and preach, but they can stand and distribute here and there these silent preachers...They may buy their thousand tracts, and these they can distribute broadcast.
I look upon the giving away of a religious tract as only the first step for action not to be compared with many another deed done for Christ; but were it not for the first step we might never reach to the second, but that first attained, we are encouraged to take another, and so at the last...There is a real service of Christ in the distribution of the gospel in its printed form, a service the result of which heaven alone shall disclose, and the judgment day alone discover. How many thousands have been carried to heaven instrumentally upon the wings of these tracts, none can tell.
I might say, if it were right to quote such a Scripture, “The leaves were for the healing of the nations”—verily they are so. Scattered where the whole tree could scarcely be carried, the very leaves have had a medicinal and a healing virtue in them and the real word of truth, the simple statement of a Savior crucified and of a sinner who shall be saved by simply trusting in the Savior, has been greatly blessed, and many thousand souls have been led into the kingdom of heaven by this simple means. Let each one of us, if we have done nothing for Christ, begin to do something now. The distribution of tracts is the first thing.”
According to the American Tract Society, “Fifty-three percent of all who come to Christ worldwide come through the use of printed gospel literature.” God used a tract to save the great missionary Hudson Taylor. After George Whitefield read one called “The Life of God in the Soul of a Man,” he said, “God showed me I must be born again or be damned.” He went on to pray, “Lord, if I am not a Christian, or if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ’s sake show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last!” Then his journal tells us “from that moment... did I know that I must become a new creature.”
John Wesley organized 160 tract distributors in 1757 which literally reformed the Lord's day habits of the entire city of London! Martin Luther wrote more than one tract, booklet or book for every working week of his entire life! D. L. Moody began his very fruitful evangelistic ministry in Chicago by the simple act of distributing tracts to Great Lakes seaman!
Why should Christians use tracts? Simply because God uses them. That fact alone should be enough incentive for a Christian to always use tracts to reach the lost, but there are even more reasons why we should use them. Here are a few:
Tracts can provide an opening for us to share our faith. We can watch people’s reaction as we give them a tract, and see if they are open to listening to spiritual things.
They can do the witnessing for us. If we are too timid to speak to others about the things of God, we can at least give them a tract, or leave one lying around so that someone will pick it up.
They speak to the individuals when they are ready; people don’t read it until they want to.
They can find their way into people’s homes when we can’t.
They don’t get into arguments; they just state their case.
Oswald J. Smith said, “The only way to carry out the Great Commission will be by the means of the printed page.” Charles Spurgeon stated, “When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready ...Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts.”
If you want people to accept your literature, try to greet them before offering them a tract. If you can get them to respond to a warm “Good morning,” or “How are you doing?” that will almost always break the ice and they will take it. After the greeting, don’t ask, “Would you like this?” They will probably respond, “What is it?” Instead, say, “Did you get one of these?” That question has a twofold effect. You stir their curiosity and make them ask, “One of what?” That’s when you hand them a tract. It also makes them feel as though they are missing out on something. So they are.
Perhaps you almost pass out at the thought of passing out a tract. Don’t worry; you are not alone. We all battle fear. The answer to fear is found in the prayer closet. Ask God to give you a compassion that will swallow your fears. Meditate on the fate of the ungodly. Give hell some deep thought. Confront what it is that makes you fearful.
If you are a friend of mine and you are convicted to share the gospel after reading this, I am willing to provide you with as many tracts as you want at no cost to you. I also have books by Mark Cahill that you give out or read yourself. My only requirement is that you actually use them. Tracts are not a substitute for talking to people, but I have found that tracts have helped me become more bold in my faith.
Reference: The School of Biblical Evangelism by Ray Comfort
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Shocking Message
Today I simply recommend that you listen to a message given by Paul Washer in 2002. It is based on Matthew 7:13-27 which says, “Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but every bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles. Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who builds his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. The rain fell and the floods came and winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell, and great was its fall.”
It is a very powerful message that every professing Christian needs to here. You can listen or watch it by here.
It is a very powerful message that every professing Christian needs to here. You can listen or watch it by here.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Is Repentance Necessary?
I seldom hear about repentance in Christian circles today and, to be honest, until recently I felt that it was not necessary. I thought that the Holy Spirit would change you after salvation. But after studying God’s Word and after seeing so many teenagers claim to be a Christian because they said a prayer, I now have changed my mind.
Jesus said that He came to call “sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13) and his first public word he preached was “repent” (Matthew 4:17). Paul preached “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). In his book One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven, Mark Cahill say that, “if there is no desire to walk away from sin, the person is not really making a true heart commitment to the Savior. In John 6:44 Jesus says, ‘No One can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him.’ If God is drawing someone to Him, He would also be drawing the person away from his sin.”
In Acts 2:38 it says, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” In Acts 3:19 Peter further says, “Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
Ray Comfort in his book The School of Biblical Evangelism states, “If repentance wasn’t necessary for salvation, why then did Jesus command that repentance be preached to all nations (Luke 24:47)? When He sent out His disciples two by two, they “preached that men should repent” (Mark 6:12).”
One of the main reasons that so many people fall way from their Christian faith may be that they never truly repented in the first place. If so, they may have a false sense of their salvation. We do not have to clean ourselves up to come to God, but we do need to have the desire to turn away from sin. That does not mean that we will suddenly have no temptations or that we will no longer sin, but at least we are willing to give God control of our life.
Jesus said that He came to call “sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13) and his first public word he preached was “repent” (Matthew 4:17). Paul preached “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). In his book One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven, Mark Cahill say that, “if there is no desire to walk away from sin, the person is not really making a true heart commitment to the Savior. In John 6:44 Jesus says, ‘No One can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him.’ If God is drawing someone to Him, He would also be drawing the person away from his sin.”
In Acts 2:38 it says, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” In Acts 3:19 Peter further says, “Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
Ray Comfort in his book The School of Biblical Evangelism states, “If repentance wasn’t necessary for salvation, why then did Jesus command that repentance be preached to all nations (Luke 24:47)? When He sent out His disciples two by two, they “preached that men should repent” (Mark 6:12).”
One of the main reasons that so many people fall way from their Christian faith may be that they never truly repented in the first place. If so, they may have a false sense of their salvation. We do not have to clean ourselves up to come to God, but we do need to have the desire to turn away from sin. That does not mean that we will suddenly have no temptations or that we will no longer sin, but at least we are willing to give God control of our life.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Evangelism
My main concern right now is for evangelism. As Mark Cahill says, do we care that our friends and other people we meet are going to hell, and even more important, do we care enough to do something about it. If you are reading this and do not know for sure that you are headed for heaven, go to NeedGod.com . If you do know for sure, why are you not telling others about the Good News. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade said that only 2% of Christians witness on a consistent basis.
One way to get started witnessing is by leaving tracts. I still remember one tract that my mom used to use when I was a child. It had a big impact on my life and made me think about where I would spend eternity. It is still available today and you can see it at Chick Publications . The other thing that is helpful is to listen to Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort at LivingWaters.com and Mark Cahill at MarkCahill.org . They give a lot of help in knowing how to use the Ten Commandments in witnessing. Galatians 3:24 says, “Wherefore the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Just imagine what this country could be like if all believers started obeying the Great Commission instead of living for themselves. Pray for a revival, but then join me in being part of the answer by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
One way to get started witnessing is by leaving tracts. I still remember one tract that my mom used to use when I was a child. It had a big impact on my life and made me think about where I would spend eternity. It is still available today and you can see it at Chick Publications . The other thing that is helpful is to listen to Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort at LivingWaters.com and Mark Cahill at MarkCahill.org . They give a lot of help in knowing how to use the Ten Commandments in witnessing. Galatians 3:24 says, “Wherefore the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Just imagine what this country could be like if all believers started obeying the Great Commission instead of living for themselves. Pray for a revival, but then join me in being part of the answer by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
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