"If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”
Two men are visiting the doctor for a health check-up. In the first surgery, the doctor gives a clean bill of health but hands him a large syringe and advises him to inject himself daily to “Improve your health.”
Not understanding how daily injection could possibly improve his health, he is bit sceptical. Finally, he decides to see if the claim is true. After inserting the needle into his arm, he notices its rather large size, and afterwards he has an ache in his arm that restricts his movement slightly. Consoling himself with the promise of better health, our first patient decides to give it a few days.
Because he’s the only one injecting himself, some of his friends start smirking at him, which only adds to his humiliation. Unable to stand it any longer, he throws the syringe and medicine away. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart because as far as he is concerned, he was told a lie.
The second man visits another surgery and again gets a clean bill of health and is also handed the syringe, but this doctor also provides the reason. A new strain of the plague has broken out – it is 100% fatal. This injection will save your life.
Our second patient gratefully injects himself. He doesn’t notice the size of the needle nor that slight numbness in his arm. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he didn’t take that daily injection. When other people laugh at him, he is not shaken because he knows what is coming.
We have spent the last few weeks looking at the law – the 10 Commandments. Why? Well, to quote John Stott from the first blog in this series, “We cannot come to Christ to be justified until we’ve first been to Moses to be condemned. Once we have gone to Moses and acknowledged our sin, guilt and condemnation, we must not stay there. We must leave Moses and go to Christ.”
Far too often in our lives and in our evangelism, we rightly urge people to be ‘saved’. And there may have been a time when that would simply have been enough. At that time there was enough of a Christian worldview for people to have understood that. However, that is not the case anymore. We live in a post Christian (even anti-Christian) society and when you urge people to be saved they honestly would ask “Saved from what?”.
I fear that much of the message being heard by the lost today (thankfully not from us), is “Come to Jesus and he will make your life better.” However, this shallow form of evangelism is like the first patient in our story. They ‘give Jesus a try’ but when it becomes uncomfortable for them or when friends ridicule, they quickly walk away partially because they have never heard the full message of the Gospel.
We need to take our evangelism examples from Jesus and the Apostles. They preached repentance first. So, we likewise, first need to preach the bad news before people are ready to hear the good news. Like the second patient – we warn ‘of the wrath that is to come.’ That way, when troubles come they stand firm, knowing from what they have been saved.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that we are all ‘fire and brimstone’ all the time. (However, a healthy dose is not a bad thing from time to time as Jonathan Edwards discovered when he preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”)
Rather, by asking a series of questions, you can guide them through a few of the 10 Commandments asking if they have kept them. Usually, they will come to the conclusion by themselves that they stand guilty before a Holy God. You have taken them to Sinai; you have held up the mirror of the law. Now you can take them to Calvary and show them grace.
When, through an examination of the demands of the law and a knowledge that he stands condemned, a repentant sinner’s heart cries out “What must I do to be saved?” Now you can show them the great love and condescension of God. How at the cross both justice and mercy meet. How the Father, in Christ is satisfied, and for those to come to Christ they can be forgiven.
Is this the ‘silver bullet’ in which I will have 100% success in evangelism? No! However, you can rest assured that you have preached the full message of the Gospel and with Paul say “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.” (Acts 20:26-27). We have a duty to proclaim the full message of the Gospel – we leave the results to God.
Song for the day.
This isn’t a song but as I mentioned it earlier, I think every Christian should a least once in their lives have listened to Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”. It is about an hour long but it will be one of the best hours you can spend – so I urge you set aside that hour, turn off the TV, put the phone on silent, open you Bible and just listen. You will be challenged and you will be blessed. Here is the link.
Prayer for the day.
Father,
Thank you for your Law to us that we see so clearly in Scripture. We’re saddened because there’s so much shallow understanding of these great holy truths. When we understand them, we understand the meaning of salvation. When we understand them, we understand that You have given us a gift that is beyond comprehension. We have violated Your Law. We understand that. We should be and are under a curse. We would remain under that curse forever were it not for the Lord Jesus who covered us with a robe of his righteousness. Lord, let us not neglect of Law. Help us to implement these things and grant us that we can awaken sinners, that we can bring them to fear the One that they naturally do not fear, that they may flee to Christ who waits with open arms to receive them.
In Jesus name.
Amen
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