Transcription
It's a pleasure to be here and share with you what I'm very passionate about: what I would think is probably the most important message that every Christian should hear. Which is knowing how to share the gospel, our understanding the gospel clearly, and knowing how to share it. You see, if you do it wrong, then you will either create no convert because you didn't give the true message, the right message, or you will create a false convert; someone who thinks is a Christian but it really isn't.
Have you ever come across people you meet in the streets, you haven't seen in church for some time? You walk to them and you say, "Hey, how are you? It's good to see you. I haven't seen you for some time in church," and they say things like, "No, I don't go to church anymore. It's just a phase that I still go through. I'm grown out of it now. You know, I I don't believe anymore. I don't do that anymore." Have you ever come across that? It's very frustrating what that happens, and that's one example of a false convert. Well, we need to help them. We need to help them with God's grace, and these people might still be in church today, so we need to be able to share with them and tell them the true message, the the gospel message.
Now I've got some good news for you and some bad news. Okay, the good news is is that I have a whole two hours to share the gospel with you, and but the bad news is I have a whole two hours to share this very special message with you. You're here for a whole two hours. It actually doesn't do it any justice. This is something I trained people over more than 30 hours to know how to do. I'm trying to condense this; this is going to be very basic. It's going to be very squashed, kind of a study. I'm going to do my best to share that with you. I'm going to be doing two things today. I'll be showing you today how not to evangelize, okay, how not to share your faith so that you can avoid making false converts. So that's my first half of my talk, and the second half of my talk is going to be how to share your faith properly and how to evangelize effectively.
I'm Lebanese. I was brought up in Lebanon by a Christian family, but I wasn't a Christian myself. I I was an atheist, professing to be wise, and I thought I knew better. And despite that, I always thought I always knew that if God really did exist, it will be the most important truth they'll ever know; it will be the most important thing in my life. When I finally repented and put my faith in Christ, I couldn't contain myself. I couldn't stop telling people about it. In fact, I used to go down the streets and stop people and tell them about Jesus; something I couldn't hold back. It was like a one massive explosion. I'm going to tell you about that in just a few minutes, but today I'm going to tell you how to evangelize the way Jesus did it.
Now, did you know that Jesus used the principle to reach the lost, which is completely forgotten today? It used to be used or has been used by the Apostle Paul, Steven, Timothy, Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, George Whitfield, John Wickliffe, the L Moody, A.W. Tozier, Charles Feeney, Martin Luther, and many other great features like that. We have completely forgotten how to share the gospel the way these guys have done it, and what I'm about to share with you today is not going to be some new discovery; it's something that's been around for a long time. We've just forgotten how it's done. Matthew 28:19 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The word "go" here really should be both in red and capitals. It's red because Jesus said it, and it's in capitals because it's a commandment, and I think people forget that. B. They think it's a request; it's not a request. That is not requiring you to do this or requesting you to do; is commanding us to do this. That's why this is referred to as the Great Commission. It certainly is very great, but despite that, what I find strange is that if this is a commandment, then why in the last thirty years or so since I've been a Christian, I have been hardly approached by anyone who claims to be a Christian wants to tell me about Jesus. I mean, I don't know about you, have you? I mean, since you've been a Christian, how many times have you been approached by a random person who wants to tell you about Jesus? It's really unbelievable that it doesn't happen very much.
In fact, apparently 95% of all the Christians have never won a soul to Christ. Eighty percent of all Christians do not consistently witness for Christ. A frightening less than two percent of Christians are involved in evangelism. And according to Dr. Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ, he says only 2% of Christians share their faith on a regular basis. Now why is that? Why do Christians not share their faith? What's holding them back? Clearly, there is something that's going wrong, isn't it? Dr. Kermit Long says, "With all our education, our fine buildings, our image of the church, we are doing less to win people to Christ than our unschooled forefathers did. We're no longer fishers of men but keepers of the aquarium, and we spend most of our time swiping fish from each other's bowl." That means we're not fulfilling the Great Commission right. In fact, we're just shifting congregation or nicking members from one church to another. That's what's really happening. Talking about the aquariums, this guy who has the largest private aquarium in a church has a sign in this church that says, "The greatest tragedy next to dying without God and without hope is to stand at the Judgment Day empty-handed, having lived in a world of sinners without winning one person to Christ." These are some serious strong words. Christians are not sharing their faith. What stops you from sharing your faith? I mean, if you think about it, what is the main reason why Christians actually don't share their faith? The main reason—here's a clue right there—it's fear. It's literally fear: fear of embarrassment, fear of rejection, fear of not knowing what to say, fear of saying the wrong thing.
You see, some people say, "Well, I just don't have the right personality." I don't know enough to share. People say things like, "What I'll tell you what I need to build bridges. I need to make some friendship with people," and that's what people are saying. Some people say, "I live for Jesus and let his light shine in me in the hope that that would lead them to Jesus." Okay, well, of course, the Bible does tell us clearly to do everything for his glory, and we're saved for good works, although it let me let's make it very clear: we're not saved by good works; we're saved for good works. Sometimes we tend to use the fruit of the Spirit, the way we're called to live as a means or an excuse to share the gospel. "Yeah, I don't have to tell them about Jesus; I just live it." That's a kind of argument, but the Bible says it very clearly: "Faith comes from hearing; that is, hearing the good news about Christ." Okay, so they need to hear the good news of Christ. If they don't hear it, how would they know what the good news is? Yeah, you can live all the good life of you you want, but if they don't hear the good news, they just don't know what to do; they don't know what the news is. But how do you tell them? What if they're not interested? What if you go to someone and say, "Do you want to talk about Jesus?" and this guy says, "No, not really." I mean, would that feel awkward? I'll feel awkward, right? How do you even start the conversation? How do you even do that? What do you tell them when you start a conversation? What if they say, "Look, look, I don't believe in God. I just don't believe in there is no such thing as sin or hell." What if they tell you that? What if they say, "Well, isn't God love? Well, that's all good because if God is love, then surely there's nothing to worry about." Isn't that what's possible?
I really do admire church leaders who stand at the front and proclaim boldly and encourage the congregation boldly to go out there fearlessly to share their faith. I really admire that, but if not trained, it's like sending an untrained soldier to war with just a feather duster. It's just not enough; it really isn't. I found this picture on the internet with a title saying, "In the USA, Portland, Maine, it's unlawful to tickle a woman's chin with a feather duster." Look, if you go, they just don't do that, okay? Paint it—if if you're unequipped, you're not going to be encouraged to go out there and share the gospel, are you? You're just not going to do it. If you do it, it's going to be like a suicide mission. But if you give the state-of-the-art equipment to fight, well, you won't be able you won't have to encourage anyone to go out there. In fact, you won't be able to hold them back. If people are equipped and they know how to share the faith, that they won't hold it back.
When I first became a Christian, I was living in Germany, and I remember going to the streets, out to the streets, and stopping people and telling them about Jesus. I just stopped them and and just wanted to talk to them. I was not afraid. Now bear this in mind: what's the worst that could happen? I was brought up in Lebanon; most people were dying from guns, bombs, and and snipers. You know, they're being killed in the streets, right? So there was no—what was the worst that's going to happen when I go down the streets? I mean, I wasn't going to be shot, maybe in the future, but not at the moment. Now I know not everyone has got that kind of helpful. I'll bring—I know it's kind of frightening to step out there and ante share, but even then I wasn't a fool. I mean, I took someone with me who didn't know how to answer all the questions. That person was my friend, but is now my brother-in-law, and this person knew all the answers. He knew how to answer people's questions. All I knew that I was I'm a I'm a wretched sinner and that I need Jesus to be saved. That's all I knew, but I didn't know how to share that. So even though I was not afraid, I didn't mind going out there at sharing my faith with people. The problem is that I recognized that I didn't know how to do it, and I took somebody with me. I felt like a soldier who had no weapons or a soldier that didn't know how to use his weapons; pretty much useless. If someone came to me and said, "Now God doesn't exist," my killer intellectual answer to that question or to that statement was, "Oh yes, he does." That's how I used to respond to that and followed immediately by, "Hey, Dennis, come here; I've got one for you," and get him alone to come and talk to him. I mean, I don't mind stopping people and talking to them; I just don't know what to tell them. It's really terrible. If you really believe that we're dealing with people with sinners who when they die God is going to give them justice and they can end up in eternal hell, what kind of a person would I be if I didn't go out there and tell them? What kind of verse would be like a doctor who had a cure for a deadly disease, for a terminal disease, who sits back and he does nothing, knowing that the people he's treating are dying from this deadly disease? What kind of a person would it be? He'll be worse than a serial killer, knowing he's got a cure that he's not using for people around him that exceed dying.
Basically, the plan for today is this: I'm going to tool you up a little bit. I have to I'm a stress here though; it's going to be really basic, all right? You may not feel totally confident to go out there yet to share it, but I'm going to give you all the basic tools yet you need. The tools I'm going to give you is going to help you to start a conversation, and it's going to help you to know how to evangelize the way Jesus did it. What? Why is this necessary? Well, because you've been commanded to do so. You've been commanded to go out there and share your faith. It says this: "Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. We are to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. We should be correcting those who are in opposition if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth. You should know how you ought to answer each one. You must contend earnestly for the faith." Now correct me if I'm wrong; it sounds like you need to be pretty much equipped and ready to go, okay? This is what the Bible says, and how many Christians are not equipped and ready to go? You've got to do everything possible to make sure that you're equipped. But how do you share your faith with a generation that say something like this: "I'm happy for you; I'm happy you found Jesus, but it's not for me. Look, I have my own belief, and you have yours. I'm comfortable with my beliefs; I don't need Jesus. No, thank you. I don't believe I'm a sinner; I'm not a bad person. There are people much worse than me. I don't believe in God; God is a crutch. I don't need God in my life. What about all these other religions? I just don't care; I don't want to know. And about this one, there is no right or wrong." How do you share with the person the gospel truth when they don't even care about right or wrong? They don't even know; they don't even think there is such a thing as right or wrong or such a thing as absolutes? How would you do that?
Now, in case you don't believe me that there are people out there who think just like that, well, I want to share with you a video now for just a few minutes. This video was taken—this is my son Peter; we went out there to the to the streets, and this happened to be Lincoln, and we went out there and stopped and spoke to people, and we put those on camera so that we can encourage people like you and them. We use it for training and to encourage other Christians, so I want to show you how people think through this, and you tell me how you feel you could share your faith with somebody like this. "In my opinion, people are animals; we're very, very complex animals. We aren't really anything. The differences from dogs, cats, sea slugs, plants, trees is the fact that our brains have evolved to such a level that we are sentient; we are aware of our own existence, which is an anomaly in sort of biological terms, considering that no other species I like it. Well, that we know of so far. It could be another planet, other solar systems, maybe, but we don't know that for sure. Do you think it's right for me to murder someone? Hmm, depends on the circumstance. I'm hungry, and if I kill them, I'll get to steal their money. Any hmm, it's difficult one because there's all your view. Give me a very simple sort of context, but you need a lot more to it than that to build it. There is no rock in my opinion; there is no right or wrong; there are just actions. People commit actions, and they have consequences to those actions that people react to. If there is no right and wrong, then why should there be consequences? This is for instance, say I've got my phone here; I'm going to commit an action; I'm going to drop my phone. Don't drop your phone! It always is Brazilian. Yeah, exactly. Say I've just committed an action like letting go of my phone. Don't do it again! I'm not going to, but the consequence was that I dropped my phone. That was that right or wrong? Did did do I have to deserve justice for harming my phone? It's it's not each action has an equal and opposite reaction; that's just this the laws of physics as how this world works. Yeah, and it applies to people, applies to animals, applies to everything inanimate and animate, except of course that isn't true because we know that fails to murder someone. I couldn't claim it was the chemicals in my brain that made me do that. That's exactly what it is. Okay, I'll give you a scenario: I am see a woman I like the look of it; I rape her and kill her, and then before a judge and I say to the judge, 'Judge, I'm you can't you can't punish me because I'm just a load of chemicals; I'm just an animal, and I felt like doing it, and I think that just like just like a reaction. If I drop a phone and it breaks on the floor, I felt like doing it, and the reactions in my mind made me do it in the same way. I've got I've got a cause and an action. I don't think it should punish me.' What would the judge say? The judge will say, 'Hell no!' The judge would be like, 'You want why?' Because if you let someone go like that, he's just gonna go and do it again, and then every was gonna do it wrong kind of message, and then society's not gonna be you you you mention it saying you mention it sending the wrong kind of message. That implies that there is something that's right, I guess, right? You have because of your religious viewpoint; you have a strong sense of what is right, and can I ask you can I ask you a really good question? Is rape right? No. It's difficult to answer that question because if I apply my sort of always just an action, it's an action that someone's commits and that's as a consequence; it's not social; it's not right or wrong; it's just an action. You think that um murdering someone is is right for no reason whatsoever, for any reason it's okay to kill another human being for any reason? No. It depends on you though, isn't it? Okay. How is that then okay? This is what happens all the time; we meet with people who have that kind of thought process, and you have to break through that to speak to them. How do you speak to somebody like that? This is very common; you talk to them in the streets. This turned out to be one of the one of the best discussions we had with people. I don't have time to show you everything we've got; you'll see them on our website. We try to bring up the majority of what we do for you to see, but this is common. In the absence of God, there is no standard; there is no right; there is no wrong; there is no—if there is no right and wrong, well, who decides? Well, you decide; every person for himself decides. You're trying to bring to him the good news, and he says everybody decides for themselves. How do you share your faith with people who think like that? And if you insist on sharing your faith with people like that or if you insist on sharing your faith and you don't do it properly, you get caught up in some sort of intellectual gymnastics, intellectual argument with them, and ultimately it gets you nowhere, and you both get very frustrated. That's what happens. Ultimately, what happens is that we wait for something to go wrong in their lives so that we can come to them alongside them and try to tell them that Jesus will make it better. This becomes the message that Jesus will make it better. Well, Jesus will make it better. Gospel in this life is neither true nor biblical. Jesus said in Matthew 10 verse 21 and 22, 'Brother will deliver a brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake.' How could the message be Jesus will make it better in this life when Philip was crucified, Matthew was beheaded, Barnabas burned to death, Mark dragged to death, James clubbed to death, Paul beheaded, Peter crucified, Andrew crucified, Thomas speared to death, and Luke hanged? Jesus will make it better. Gospel in this life was certainly not true for them. Others were tortured; still others had trials of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment; they were stoned; they were sown into—were tempted; were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, and they called Christianity a crutch. This is really not a great advert for Christianity, right? You have all these things are what you're about to face. That's why when we share our faith, we don't mention those things. Instead, we tell them about how Jesus will make their life better, or this is what he's done for me, and look what he can do for you. This is the kind of message just comes out. We tend to sell Jesus like some sort of cheap commodity or like Santa who will bring presents to us. This is how we sell him, or like a genie in a lamp. I had so many people tell me, "I used to believe in God, but it just didn't work for me." I mean, I was in a gym, and a guy just stood—the actual gym instructor just stood there and said, "I used to be a Christian, but it didn't work for me." False convert right there. You need to know how to deal with false converts. "I tried once, and it wasn't for me." That's the kind of message you get. This is because they didn't understand the gospel, did they? They went to the front, they said their prayer, and got all excited, but they were not interested. They just not entered the Bible; they were not interested in obeying God's Word or reading God's Word or living in holiness, and they were not interested in repenting from their sins; they just weren't interested. They walked away from it. We call them a name when when people walk away from Christianity; we call them backsliders. We have another name for them; it's called the fall away, right? I'm going to show you some fall away right here. It's going spend a little time show you showing you some statistics to just make this very clear to us how big this problem is. It will also highlight the need to evangelize correctly, and you'll see where these problems have started. Otherwise, you're just going to create some more false converts; that's what's going to happen, which is even worse than not evangelizing at all, be, and you'll see in a minute why. It says, "A major denomination with eleven and a half thousand churches got about two hundred and ninety-four thousand decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could only find about fourteen thousand in fellowship. This means despite the usual intense follow-up, they could only account for approximately two hundred and eighty thousand of their converts. That's 95 percent of people they could not account for. This is very modern evangelistic results in 2005. This guy following a crusade said, 'Our church, which participated at every stage, received about twenty-five names for follow-up. There were mostly people in our area who did not identify with the church. We were instructed that many of these decisions might be fuzzy about what happened at the crusade, and we should make sure they really understand the gospel, but we had cold receptions and not even enough interest to even begin the recommended Bible study class for new believers. To my knowledge, none of these 25 even visited our church after several contacts and pastoral visits.' According to Pastor Almec Murdock, Chuck Colson states that for every 100 people making a decision for Christ, only two may return for follow-up a few days later. George Barna says the majority of people—that's majority means 51% or more or 51% minimum—making decisions leave the church in six to eight weeks. So more than half leave the church within six to eight weeks. Here are some statistics from the Assemblies of God between 1995 and 2005—that's over a period of 10 years—Assemblies of God churches reported amazing over 5.3 million decisions for Christ. That's 5.3 million decisions for Christ within a 10-year period. The net gain in attendance was just under two hundred and twenty-two thousand. That means that over five million decisions could not account for; over five million decisions cannot account for. This is a worldwide problem."
Here are some statistics from England. In Leeds, England, a visiting American speaker acquired four hundred decisions for a local church. Six weeks later, only two were still committed, and they eventually fell away.
The UK census in 2001 showed that we had forty-two million Christians. In 2011, the census showed that we only have 33 million. That's nearly 9 million Christians who fell away in ten years. That's a net difference, or just under 1 million people walking away from church every single year, according to this report. That's referring to those people who believe that a single creator had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation. So these are supposedly people who believe in Jesus.
Did you know that there is a Jedi Knights religion in the UK? Did you know that paganism is on the increase? Spiritualism is on the increase, and agnosticism increased, but the Jedi religion is still doing the best. You know the best way of sharing the gospel with a Jedi? Make sure you don't use any force. Okay?
If that's not enough, 88% of children raised in the Ban Jellicle homes leave Church at the age of 18, never to return. You know the biggest thing that gets to me from that statement is the fact that they never return; they leave and never return. Now, what's going on, really? What's going on? Something is not right.
In a joint statement, youth specialists Josh McDowell and Ron Luce made this announcement: "Incredible as it may seem, accepting Christ and making a profession of faith makes little to no difference in a young person's attitude and behaviors. The majority of our church young people are adopting a Christianity, but it is not true Christianity." That's a shocking admission; it really is. But McDowell is not alone in this. Ninety-eight percent of youth ministers and pastors McDowell surveyed agree with that statement.
In a national radio program, a Christian youth leader said that young people were leaving the church in droves because of a lack of opportunity in church. Now, honestly, ask any pastor you like about a lack of opportunity for young people, and they will tell you that there is a lack of people. It's not the lack of opportunity; there is a lack of people in Sunday School, visiting the sick and the elderly, going out with the evangelism team, and cleaning the church. Okay, so that can't be it. It can't be the lack of opportunity. Kennedy, maybe there's a different reason why young people are moving away from churches in droves.
There are probably many who have not repented, who name the name of Christ but have not departed from iniquity. Iniquity means lawlessness. Lawlessness is the law of Christ, not the law of man. There are also false converts because they are not seeking righteousness, and they're not seeking holiness. Let me show you some statistics about that. There's going to be a lot of statistics for those who profess to be born-again Christians. So these are the people who say they're born-again Christians. Okay, they say 45% believe that gambling is morally acceptable. They say that 49% of them believe that fornication is morally okay. Fornication is when somebody lives with another person of the opposite sex and has a sexual relationship without being married to them. Forty-nine percent believe enjoying sexual thoughts or fantasies about someone is morally okay, and 33% believe that it was okay to kill a baby while it's still in the womb. These are statistics for born-again Christians, is what they say. They're supposedly Bible-believing Christians.
In 2005, an article appeared in World magazine called "Porn Again, Porn Again." It said that 53% of men belonging to the Christian organization called Promise Keepers visit porn sites every week. Promise Keepers are those men who made a promise, and they made a promise that they're going to be committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity. More than half these people did not keep that promise. Only 46% of born-again Christians (adults) believed in the existence of absolute moral truth. That means over 54% don't think that God has moral absolutes. That could explain why so many people live their lives as though there are no moral accountability at all. Although most who consider themselves to be Christians say they know the content of the Bible, less than one of them demonstrate the knowledge through their actions.
So, according to this, out of the 33 million professing Christians in the UK, there are millions who say that they love God and yet they are liars, thieves, fornicators, adulterers, and child murderers. Some serious stuff. It seems much a false warning to Titus applies to the modern church today. They profess to know God, but in their works they deny him. Apparently, neither their beliefs nor their behavior aligns with biblical Christianity.
Of those who cheated, Christians confessed 74%, and non-Christians 76%. Those who lied to teachers: 83% and 85% for non-Christians. Those who lied to parents: 93% for non-Christians and 93% for Christians. Whatever happened to honoring your parents? Who physically hurt someone when angry: 63% versus 67%. Who was satisfied with their ethics and character: 91% vs. 90%. It's not much different, is it? Not much different at all. I thought we're supposed to be light and salt in this world.
Let's do one more. The vast majority of teenagers, typically about 8 out of every 10 teens, had engaged in some form of music piracy during the past six months, regardless of gender, age, region, academic performance, and the marital status of the teens' parents. According to a book by Monica Furlong, she said, "Children who do not come from church-going homes, as I did not, now grow up largely ignorant of Christian ideas in a way unimaginable half a century ago." Are we talking about that in just a second? The comments about religion by journalists and oppressed and on television suggest that even the basic Christian ideas are no longer understood by university-educated people, still less by others. Indeed, even churchgoers can reveal an ignorance of the main elements of Christian belief. So obviously, these new converts, these new churchgoers, apparently don't understand the basics of Christianity. Okay, so what are we telling them? What are we telling these people? Why are they behaving that way? What's their understanding? What's gone wrong? Is how we evangelize to people and how we spread the gospel to be blamed for all of this?
A.W. Tozer wrote—this is my opinion—that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved. James Kennedy made a similar comment, saying, "The vast majority of people who are members of churches today are not Christians. I say that without the slightest fear of contradiction. I base it on empirical evidence of 24 years of examining thousands of people." Dr. Tom Rayner, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, said that the cause should be there: many unregenerate members. "If our research approximates eternal realities, nearly one-half of all church members may not be Christians." He's saying, "Look, if what we discovered represents what's applicable to a lot of the churches worldwide, then half of all church members worldwide are not Christians." I'm not kidding you. That's got to frighten you. It frightens me just to hear that; it really does.
So what happened? Why is that? What's causing that? What's their idea of Christianity, and where did it come from? Where did it come from? Look, you know, I have to confess to you, I believe this is the most frightening verse in the Bible; the frightening Scripture in the Bible will be found in Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 23. Jesus spoke of many who considered themselves to be Christians, yet not saved. He said this: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day—what day? Judgment Day—'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Cast out demons in your name? And done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who work lawlessness, or who you practice lawlessness.'" That's really strange, right? Because I check out this list: they called him Lord, they prophesied in his name, they cast out demons in his name, and they did wonders in his name. These people are more spiritual than most of us. They're more spiritual than most of us, and yet they will be rejected by the one they called Lord. So why are they rejected? Because they did not do his will and because they practice lawlessness—not the law of man, of course. We're talking about the law of Christ.
You see, false converts have got a measure of spirituality, which is what we're talking about now. False converts have got a measure of spirituality. Judas certainly did. He apparently convinced the disciples that he was—he cared for the poor. In fact, he seemed so trustworthy; they trusted him with what? With the money. He looked after the money. In fact, when Jesus said, "One of you is going to betray me," did everybody point at Judas and say, "That must be him"? No, they rather did something else. What did they do? They doubted themselves first. They said, "Lord, is it I?"
So why are we surrounded with false converts? Because we changed the message of the gospel; that's why. We're surrounded. Instead of being good news for sinners who were made righteous before Christ to escape the wrath of God, we have settled to the gospel that implies that the primary purpose in saving us is to unfold a wonderful plan for our lives, to solve our problems, to make us happy, to rescue us from the hassle of this life, or that we should accept God because God loves us. You have a God-shaped hole in your heart. Jesus can be your best friend. Your sins are forgiven, and you will have peace, and you will go to heaven. How many of us use this in the past? Man, how many of us use this in the past? We've all done it, haven't we? That's because we're not equipped, so we—we resort to those things. You see, you can't have any of those things until you reconcile with God. You have to be reconciled, and none of those things reconcile you with God. So we're using this stuff that they will get after they're reconciled with God, but they are not the things that reconcile us with God.
Some will say that all you need is to believe in God. All you got to do is just believe in God, and that's it. Well, you know what? If that's true, if all it takes is to believe in God to be saved, then who believes in God more than the devil? The devil knows God more than you and me put together—all of us—and he's not going to be saved. If becoming a Christian gives you a wonderful life, solves your problems, and gives you happiness, then what about all these Christians who got martyred, right? In the book of Acts, the first person who declared this faith got stoned to death. His name was Stephen. That doesn't sound wonderful, does it? That can't be the message.
According to the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary worldwide, an average of 171,000 Christians annually are martyred for their faith. So that can't be the message. We get more Christians being martyred today than more than a hundred years ago combined. So that can't be the message. There are books written about this. I mean, there are books you can go and buy them from Amazon about people who've been martyred. Imagine you tell an unbeliever that God has got a wonderful plan for them. He gets publicly stoned, or he gets burnt at the stake. What is he going to do? He's going to shout and say, "Well, well, well, wait a minute, before you throw your first stone, this guy said I was going to have a wonderful life. I didn't sign up for this. It's not what's going to happen." So that can't be the message.
Besides, what if a person says, "Look, I don't need a wonderful life and a lasting peace. I already have one, thank you. I don't need God's love; I love myself enough, thank you. Or I don't worry about having a God-shaped hole in my heart. I've got a great life, and the emptiness I've already got it filled with beer, friends, and pornography." How are you going to explain that to them? He said, "No, thank you." How about, "I don't need Jesus as my best friend; I already have far too many. I'm trying to get rid of some." Oh, "I don't need my sins forgiven. You may be a sinner, but I'm a real nice guy. Go and ask my friends; I'm a real good guy." I don't need my life to be better; it's already great. Try that. So try somebody comes to you and tells you that. Are you going to show your faith now? Is that really the Christian message?
If Christianity is all about enhancing someone's life, to rescue them from their life of misery, then why not pray that they get a life of misery so that you can share the gospel with them? How many of you pray for your friends to have a life of misery? You know what? Why would you just go ahead and slash their tires and make sure you're there when they find out so you can share the love of Jesus with them? Will that make more sense? Okay, so this method of sharing your faith—these lists of things that I mentioned to you—they have a name. They're called the seeker-sensitive, the seeker-friendly, the seeker-driven, and seeker-oriented way of sharing the gospel. This became popular in the late 20th century. That's why earlier on I was showing you these quotes. This was not popular previously. This is just a recent thing. It was never the message of Christianity, and it was never shared that way in the past. That's because what the Bible expects sinners to do cannot be achieved by those methods. That's why we get so many false converts these days, and that's how not to share the gospel. That's how not to do it.
So what does the Bible expect sinners to do? Let's find out what the Bible is requiring us to do. According to John the Baptist: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." According to Jesus: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." According to Peter: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Paul said, "God now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness." Again, in 2 Peter 3:9, it says, "The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." Jews and Greeks must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. What's a connecting theme here? What's a connecting idea? It sounds like repentance. Look, but what does repentance mean? Let's make that very, very clear. Repentance in Greek means metanoia. Metanoia means a change of mind. According to the dictionary, it means three things: to turn from sin, and it dedicates one's life to the amendment of one's life; to feel regret or contrition, which means remorse or deep sorrow; to change one's mind. What message do you give someone to cause them to have deep regret for their sins, turn from their sins, and dedicate their lives and minds to live to God's will? What message do you give them? So I'm not trying to make them believe in God; I'm trying to get—get them to admit they're sinners, and I'm trying to get them to repent and put their faith in Jesus. That's what I'm trying to get them to do. But why would anyone want to repent if they don't think they're sinners? Why would they want to do that?
To make it worse, the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. It's foolishness because they don't see a need for Jesus, and it's offensive because you're calling them a sinner, but you don't want to offend them. So you tell them about the fruit of salvation: love, joy, peace, and lasting happiness, right? That's what it's come down to, isn't it? And so on. But they will never get peace with God because the Bible says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." The NLT version puts it in this way: "For the sinful nature is always hostile to God." So unless we reconcile with God first, we can't have any of those fruits. We can't get them because we are his enemies. Therefore, the fruits cannot be used as a legitimate drawcard. You can't use those to draw a sinner because it will only happen when you're reconciled with the God who is perfect, holy, and a judge who demands justice and payment not just for every action but for every thought and every idle word. Matthew 12:36 says, "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment."
So what was Jesus' mission, and why did he come and die on the cross? He did it primarily to deliver us from God's wrath to come. Who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification? For he had made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Once God's wrath is no longer abides in us, we can then experience all these wonderful things that God has for us. We can experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You can have it then. You see, one message promotes selfishness and self-centeredness, which means: What can God do for me? What is it good—what is going to do for me? What gifts will God give me? You know this Almighty and wonderful, strong, powerful God—what is he going to do for me? What might he give me? It's all about me, me, me. The other message is God-centeredness. It's understanding that you appear—you are wretched before a holy and just God. It's God-centeredness. He paid the penalty so that I can be right with God. I could be righteous before God. We no longer deserve judgment because Jesus has already paid the fine for us, and we live in holiness to please God.
You see, evangelism is like this. Imagine it's midnight. You're at your house, and you look next door, and your neighbor's house is on fire, and you think, "No way, they haven't noticed." So you want to go there and get them out. So you walk to your next-door neighbor and you knock at the door, and they open up the door at midnight, and you want them out. So you try to entice them to get out with a nice hot chocolate drink that you had prepared for them in your house, and you say, "Why don't you come out and have a nice hot chocolate drink with us in my house that I prepared for you? It's really lovely." And the guy completely looks positon and says, "Pardon? You know what time it is? I'm not interested, and besides, if I want a nice hot chocolate drink, I've got one at home. I can do my own." And imagine if this guy goes around and says, "Wait, wait, wait, you don't know how wonderful my hot chocolate drink is. If you have my hot chocolate drink, you will never want another hot chocolate drink again. This hot chocolate drink will make you very happy. It will change your life. It will change everything for you. It will be wonderful. You would love this." What would he do? He'll be so angry; he would shut the door and go back to sleep. Really? There's another way you could tell them the actual truth. You'd say, "Your house is on fire. Get out." Okay? That will be much easier. Win it much easier. And the irony of this story is the fact that if he did get out, you may actually give him the best hot chocolate drink ever. Yeah, but that is not the reason why you wanted him getting out, did you? You want him to get out because he's going to die in a burning house, but you're trying to entice them with the wrong thing. Although what you're enticing them with, you might get—and you might actually like—I'm not trying to get the atheist to believe in God or by using the fruit of the Spirit, but I'm wanting to warn them of the real problem. The real problem is the pending judgment that's coming on them from a perfect and holy God. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to convince people to believe in God's existence. It's like you're trying to convince the criminal that there is a judge. You see, if you make a criminal believe that there is a judge, what is that going to do? That's going to condemn him. So it's not good news, so the criminal—if you make the criminal believe that there is a judge that exists, it's not going to rescue him. The reason why an atheist cannot find God is the same reason why a criminal cannot find a policeman: he doesn't want to find one.
So also the Bible tells me that they already know the truth: "That since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse because God is manifest in them. He has revealed himself in them." I like this translation. It says, "Because God has made it obvious to them." Why do they not believe? Because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. God doesn't suit their lifestyle. God gets in the way. They did not want to be accountable to him. They don't want to be accountable to this God. The Bible says he commands that they repent because he has appointed the day in which to judge the world in righteousness. That's pretty serious. There's no mention of a promised easy life. There's no mention of life enhancements, some spiritual feeling, or a fulfillment—none of those things on there. We promise them love, joy, peace, lasting happiness. We promise them all these things only to find out later what they get is exactly what the Bible promises them: they'll get trials, tribulations, temptations, hardships, problems, persecutions, dangers, sorrows, suffering, afflictions, destitute, torment, and all kinds of evil. Tell me what happens if you—if you go to a person and he promised him love, joy, peace, and lasting happiness, and he gets all this—what actually happens? He will be very annoyed. He'll walk away so disappointed, never to return. He will never return because you lied to that person. You lied to him. You said all these wonderful things, and to be honest, these are not a great list of benefits. You know, I mean, if you're trying to sell something, this is not how to sell it. You can't—you can't—these are not good benefits.
The answer is easy. How do you do it? Well, you do it the way Jesus did it. We call it the way of the Master. The Master here is Jesus. We do it the way Jesus did it. In Mark 10:17, a rich young ruler came running to Jesus, knelt before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Look, and just be honest with me, how many times did you have someone running to you, kneeling before you—never mind young, rich, and ruler—and—and asked you, "What should I do to be saved?" How many times you get that—get that many times? No. Wouldn't you love that if that would happen? And you love that. Well, what did Jesus say to this guy? What every good evangelist would tell them. This is what Jesus said: "Say this prayer, asking God to come into your heart and really mean it, and then you will have eternal life." Did he say that? No, he didn't say that. What Jesus did first is that he corrected this man's understanding of what is good. He said, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God." But then Jesus said this: "Say this prayer, asking God to come into your heart and really mean it, and then you'll have eternal life." They say that—they didn't say that. He said something totally different, right? He pointed out to this man the Ten Commandments. He actually used six of the Ten Commandments. He said, "You know the commandments: You must not murder; you must not commit adultery; you must not steal; you must not testify falsely; you must not cheat anyone; honor your father and mother." The man said, "Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth." I have to say that's very impressive. I don't know anyone who would have kept these Commandments from their youth. He's either lying or he's really good. That's when Jesus said this to this guy. Okay, he said, "Okay, you have done well, good and faithful servant. You must now say this prayer, asking God to come into your heart and really mean it, and then you'll have eternal life." Is that what he said? No, you still didn't say that. What did he say? Jesus not finished with him yet. That's why he then pointed the essence of the first and the...
Second commandment to this guy? He said, "There is still one thing you haven't done. Go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me." The Bible says this: that this man faced fell and went away sad, for he had many possessions. And the guy left unsaved. That doesn't sound like a good ending, does it? That wasn't a good ending. This guy just walked away. Why did Jesus do that? What was that all about? Why did Jesus talk to him in that way? And what an opportunity, from our point of view, this was. What an opportunity. Jesus didn't mention grace. He didn't mention prayer. He didn't mention a wonderful life. He didn't do any of those things. And to be honest, is this how you would have handled it? If somebody came to you running and and on their knees and they want to know, would you would you have handled it that way? Now we would have been right there saying, "Say this prayer right now." When we we would have done that. When we we would have never used the 10 commandments to point out the sin of men. On the surface of it, it sounded like Jesus needed a friendship evangelism course, didn't it? That's okay, because that's our shallow understanding of evangelism. This is what modern evangelism has done to us. This shocks us today, but it didn't shock anybody in those days. But it shocks us today because how we've been conditioned to share the gospel. Jesus was using the law to convict this man. It's not the only time when Jesus did this.
And Luke 10:25, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" This lawyer is not a solicitor. I've got to make this very clear. He's an expert in God's law. The New Living Translation makes it clearer. It says, "An expert in religious law stood up and asked Jesus, 'How do I get eternal life?'" What did Jesus do? He gave him the law because he was proud, arrogant, and selfish, or self-righteous, even. We have an expert of law standing there and testing the Son of God, saying, "And what do you think we should do to have eternal life?" That's what the that was the attitude by which he was reaching out or talking to Jesus. So Jesus did what he does. He gave him the law. He said, "What is it written in the law? What is your reading of it?" You see, he was talking to a law expert so he could tell him that he said, "What do you think it says?" This is what the guy said: "You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." He knew the law, didn't he? He knew it very well. And she said, "Do that, and you will live." Then the scripture says, "But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" This Bible version explains it better. This says, "The man wanted to justify his lack of love for some kinds of people, so he asked which neighbors." This translation is even better. It says, "Looking for a loophole, he asked Jesus, 'How would you define neighbor?'" Typical lawyer, right? It was no different 2,000 years ago. He's looking for a loophole. Some things never change. You see, he did in mind the Jews, but he didn't like the Samaritans, and Jesus knew that. And then Jesus told them the story that we call the Good Samaritan, who was not good at all. Nowhere does the Bible call this Samaritan good. It's nowhere in the Bible. You see, by loving his neighbor as much as loving himself, actually he simply obeyed the basic requirements of the law. He didn't do anything special. It was the minimum requirement. He did nothing special. But this expert on the law, not only did he not love his neighbor, but worse, he wanted to justify himself. But the law stopped his mouth. That's because the law is given to stop every mouth and leave the whole world guilty before God. So Jesus was using a principle that's very effective and very necessary to prepare man's heart to receive the message of grace. If you understand this principle properly, then for the first time you will know what sin is. For the first time you will understand the need of grace. For the first time the gospel will make sense. For the first time you will see the need for Jesus. You would need to understand this. This is the most important teaching I can think of giving to any Christian.
After the break, we're going to see how evangelizing the way Jesus did it works, how you would do it, and how it looks in everyday life. But before I go, I want to show you a short clip of some of the responses we got when we're sharing our faith in this street, the way that Jesus did it. Not once did we tell these guys that God will give them love, joy, peace, or lasting happiness. Not once did we give them that, or we didn't say, "God has a wonderful plan for your life." We didn't say that, and we didn't say, "You've got a god-shaped hole in your heart." We said none of those things, and yet we got this response, and this is what we're looking for. "I must be legit here as well. What you just said is far better than what my own thoughts were on the same trip. Are you gonna do it now? Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. Do you have a Bible at home? No. Well, I'm gonna give you a Bible. Will you read it? Yeah. Will you take it seriously? I'll really try. Are you serious that you'll repent and put your faith in Jesus? Yeah. And if you die in your sins today and God gave you justice, where will you be? We're for…live in a good place. If you if you don't repent and put your faith down there…" So, Cory, a big serious question: "When will you do that?" "When will I do that? Let's start straightaway. I think it's a good idea. Yeah. Are you going to think about that tonight? Cuz I'm not asking you for your money and asking you so much; it I'm asking you to save your soul. Does that make sense? Yeah. Have you got a Bible at home, Jacob? Nana, your nan has…well, I can give you a Bible today if you want, but if not, you can borrow one off your off your nan. But you're going to think about the things you've spoken of? Yeah, real…does that make sense? Yes. All you think about what I've said today, Jack? Of course. It's like this thief; he's not gonna go and look for a place…" Melissa, that this one we caught, does he…so what did he do? Events…he haunts…so what do we do before God? We hide. We run because we don't want to get called for the things that we're not doing with you. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you see what I mean. All are doing is using sense and logic. But Daniel, want to thank you very much for your time. God bless you. And all I'd like to do is, if it's okay, vo…let's give you a Bible. Yeah, okay. Well, if you want to come over here, we'll get a Bible of my friend. Thank you. Listen, I thank you very much. You view it this way before…is this something that you thought of God in this way before, like the judge who justifies both sees justice and love at the same time? No, no. Now, if you were to die today, right now, not knowing this and your face Judgment Day, where would you be? I was so glad I began to help because I've set…but you've got to do two things to avoid that. What are they? Sigh…sorry for the commandments…American…and I believe in Jesus. But your faith in Jesus, not on yourself. Because earlier I said, 'Would you make it?' And what did you say? Suggest…now you know you can put your faith in yourself, right? Yeah. Put your faith in Jesus. Okay. So when will you do that? Um…wow, it seems very…sign from now…really…so they know that you have a clear understanding of this. This is something you'll give more thought to in the future. Funny you should say that. Your words will stay with me for a while because I've never had anyone teach me to be quite like this before. One…I never had anyone speak to me like this before. Quite like this before. What does that mean? That means Christians are not sharing their faith. That's what it means. No one is sharing their faith, or at least a biblical way, the way Jesus did it. We didn't talk to these people for hours, by the way, as you can see. We put down how many minutes later they came to that conclusion that they need to repent and put their faith in Jesus. So it wasn't like we met with them for years and we were building bridges and friendships, which is what people think you've got to do. You've got to sit there, and I mean there's a place for doing that, and I'm not saying don't do that, but you don't need to do that in order to share your faith. You don't need to do that. You don't need to sit there waiting for years before you can tell them the truth. I mean, what would happen if that person died the night before? Or what if what if I didn't talk to them and in 24 hours they died? Where would they go? What's their predicament? Where would they go? Well, after the break, I'm going to show you how to share your faith, how to share your faith effectively, and how to get people to the realization that they need to repent and put their faith in Jesus. The other thing that I'm going to share with you is how to start a conversation because probably once you know what to do, you would need to know how to start a conversation. So I'm going to show you how to do that. That's going to be in part two, so I hope to see you then. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you.