Awaken the Sinner
"And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly." And his chains fell off his hands.”
-Acts 12:7
“God has a wonderful plan for your life.” Have you ever told anybody that? Almost every Christian uses this very common phrase when witnessing to someone. “God will give you love, joy, peace, and lasting happiness.”
Let me ask you a question. The date was 9-10-01, the day before the September 11th tragedy, and you were standing before a sea of faces in Tower One. You have been brought there to share the gospel with these people. You know what is about to happen the next day. Would you tell them,“God has a wonderful plan for your life”? I wouldn't think you would. You might think to yourself, “These people are about to die a horrific death in less than twenty-four hours! I can't tell them that God has a wonderful plan for their lives!”
Think about this: every single person in this world, who is not a Christian, is going to die and spend eternity in the Lake of Fire! A horrific eternity of gnashing of teeth, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”! They are in the same predicament as every single person in the Trade Towers on 9/11 (They are going to die.). Maybe not as soon, but they are going to die. We think that the death of the people in the Trade Towers was horrible (and it was), but Hell is much worse than any death on earth.
The “wonderful plan” message is unbiblical! Nowhere in the Bible do you see the “wonderful plan” message preached. So, what was preached?
The Bible says in Galations 3:24 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” It also says in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul…” We should be using the law of God to convict the sinner of his sins. How do we do that?
God has placed ten cannons at our disposal to use in the battle for the souls of men. These ten cannons are the Ten Commandments of God's law.
God has given every man a conscience. When we take an unbeliever through the Ten Commandments and show him where he has violated the law of a just and holy God and how he has to face this God on the Day of Judgment (Acts 17:30), he will tremble before God. Hebrews 10:31 states, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Matthew 5:6 states, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled…” We shouldn't make an unbeliever thirst for love, joy, peace, and lasting happiness; we should make him thirst after righteousness. The way we do this is to show him his corrupt state before God. After he realizes his state before God, he will cry for mercy.
As the verse at the top of this article states, “And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, 'Get up quickly.' And his chains fell off his hands.” The light filling the cell where Peter was held did not awaken him. It took the hand of the angel striking Peter before he awoke.
In the same way, the light of the gospel is not enough to awaken a sinner from his deadly sleep of sin. The Bible says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness…” We must use the law to make what Jesus did on the cross make sense. Without using the law we are trying to convince a sinner that he needs the Savior when he doesn't think he does. He thinks he is a good person. Proverbs 20:6 states, “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness…” (KJV) We must use God's law to strike a sinner to awaken him to the realization of his state before a just and holy God.
In Romans 3:19 it states, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” The law of God stops the mouths of sinners.
I once recalled hearing that a Christian went to the dentist, and while he was there he asked the girl cleaning his teeth (who was also a Christian) whether or not she had witnessed to the Dentist. She responded by saying, “No, the Dentist is doing really well right now, he wouldn't be receptive to the gospel.”
Is the gospel only limited to those in the “down and outs”? No! A thousand times, No! Nowhere in the Bible do you see the gospel only being preached to people in the “down and outs”!
We are not here to try and compete with the world and offer better things than the world. We shouldn't be saying to unsaved people, “Jesus is better than drugs, sex, pornography…” We should be telling unbelievers to escape from the wrath to come!
The “wonderful plan” message props the sinner up until the Day of Judgment. On that day God will judge every man according to his deeds. This is the message we must tell the unsaved: that they should repent (Acts 17:30), that is, turn from and forsake sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ. And, we should only tell them that after they have come under the conviction of the law.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Some have used the terrors of the Lord to terrify, but Paul used them to persuade.” That is what we must do! “…by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6)
We have a divine call from the Master of the universe, Jesus Christ, to share the gospel with everyone. I implore you, if you aren't sharing your faith, then start. And if you are sharing the gospel but aren't using the law, then start using the law! Don't prop the unsaved up until Judgment Day when they look at Him and say, “But Lord…” for He will say, “Depart from me…I never knew you.”
(The Statesman's note: This article was written by me for Contend for the Faith newsletter: www.contendforthefaith.net . I strongly support Contend for the Faith newsletter.)
-Acts 12:7
“God has a wonderful plan for your life.” Have you ever told anybody that? Almost every Christian uses this very common phrase when witnessing to someone. “God will give you love, joy, peace, and lasting happiness.”
Let me ask you a question. The date was 9-10-01, the day before the September 11th tragedy, and you were standing before a sea of faces in Tower One. You have been brought there to share the gospel with these people. You know what is about to happen the next day. Would you tell them,“God has a wonderful plan for your life”? I wouldn't think you would. You might think to yourself, “These people are about to die a horrific death in less than twenty-four hours! I can't tell them that God has a wonderful plan for their lives!”
Think about this: every single person in this world, who is not a Christian, is going to die and spend eternity in the Lake of Fire! A horrific eternity of gnashing of teeth, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”! They are in the same predicament as every single person in the Trade Towers on 9/11 (They are going to die.). Maybe not as soon, but they are going to die. We think that the death of the people in the Trade Towers was horrible (and it was), but Hell is much worse than any death on earth.
The “wonderful plan” message is unbiblical! Nowhere in the Bible do you see the “wonderful plan” message preached. So, what was preached?
The Bible says in Galations 3:24 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” It also says in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul…” We should be using the law of God to convict the sinner of his sins. How do we do that?
God has placed ten cannons at our disposal to use in the battle for the souls of men. These ten cannons are the Ten Commandments of God's law.
God has given every man a conscience. When we take an unbeliever through the Ten Commandments and show him where he has violated the law of a just and holy God and how he has to face this God on the Day of Judgment (Acts 17:30), he will tremble before God. Hebrews 10:31 states, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Matthew 5:6 states, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled…” We shouldn't make an unbeliever thirst for love, joy, peace, and lasting happiness; we should make him thirst after righteousness. The way we do this is to show him his corrupt state before God. After he realizes his state before God, he will cry for mercy.
As the verse at the top of this article states, “And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, 'Get up quickly.' And his chains fell off his hands.” The light filling the cell where Peter was held did not awaken him. It took the hand of the angel striking Peter before he awoke.
In the same way, the light of the gospel is not enough to awaken a sinner from his deadly sleep of sin. The Bible says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness…” We must use the law to make what Jesus did on the cross make sense. Without using the law we are trying to convince a sinner that he needs the Savior when he doesn't think he does. He thinks he is a good person. Proverbs 20:6 states, “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness…” (KJV) We must use God's law to strike a sinner to awaken him to the realization of his state before a just and holy God.
In Romans 3:19 it states, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” The law of God stops the mouths of sinners.
I once recalled hearing that a Christian went to the dentist, and while he was there he asked the girl cleaning his teeth (who was also a Christian) whether or not she had witnessed to the Dentist. She responded by saying, “No, the Dentist is doing really well right now, he wouldn't be receptive to the gospel.”
Is the gospel only limited to those in the “down and outs”? No! A thousand times, No! Nowhere in the Bible do you see the gospel only being preached to people in the “down and outs”!
We are not here to try and compete with the world and offer better things than the world. We shouldn't be saying to unsaved people, “Jesus is better than drugs, sex, pornography…” We should be telling unbelievers to escape from the wrath to come!
The “wonderful plan” message props the sinner up until the Day of Judgment. On that day God will judge every man according to his deeds. This is the message we must tell the unsaved: that they should repent (Acts 17:30), that is, turn from and forsake sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ. And, we should only tell them that after they have come under the conviction of the law.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Some have used the terrors of the Lord to terrify, but Paul used them to persuade.” That is what we must do! “…by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6)
We have a divine call from the Master of the universe, Jesus Christ, to share the gospel with everyone. I implore you, if you aren't sharing your faith, then start. And if you are sharing the gospel but aren't using the law, then start using the law! Don't prop the unsaved up until Judgment Day when they look at Him and say, “But Lord…” for He will say, “Depart from me…I never knew you.”
(The Statesman's note: This article was written by me for Contend for the Faith newsletter: www.contendforthefaith.net . I strongly support Contend for the Faith newsletter.)
posted by Eli Jones | 3:14 PM
2 Comments:
The best posts get no comments...
Injustice will never prevail!
You have more important things to say in one post than about 90%
of the people who blog!
The Archon Seth
Thank you for the comment my good man... ;)
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