I received the following question via e-mail the other day, and I am posting my response publicly in hope that it will help someone:
In reference to your post, “How My Understanding of God was Wrecked“, could you write about how it practically changed your approach to evangelism?
Well, to answer simply, before I heard and understood the message ¡°Hell¡¯s Best Kept Secret¡± (which is what wrecked my understanding of God for the better), I had not a clue how to share the Gospel!
I remember one day in particular, just a month or so after I had been saved, where the youth group I was attending had a day set aside to go and do street evangelism. A long time has passed since then, but I remember us walking around downtown Oklahoma City handing out free food to homeless people and somehow trying to ¡°get them to become¡± Christians.
I remember thinking that day about those people who claim to have led dozens or hundreds of people to the Lord, and saying to myself, ¡°How can I lead someone to the Lord? If I coerce them into saying a prayer with me, what are the chances that what they are saying is really sincere? What if they simply don¡¯t believe me, or don¡¯t see their need for Jesus?¡± It seemed to me an extremely difficult task to truly ¡°lead someone to the Lord¡±, and at that time I was totally ignorant of how to Biblically go about doing it.
I am sure that I told them that they need Jesus because he will make their life happier, or because he would help them get a job or have food to eat or whatever. As a youth group, we were probably sharing everything but the true Gospel:
1. That it is appointed for man to die once, and then the judgement
2. That we will be judged for our sins; for every thought, word, or deed that we have committed against God¡¯s holy law
3. That Jesus Christ became flesh, died on the cross, and rose from the dead in order to suffer God¡¯s wrath for us, take away our sins, and give us eternal life
4. That we must repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone, so that we might be justified by faith and regenerated (born-again) by the Holy Spirit
The Gospel is so clear in Scripture (especially in Romans) that it blows my mind that we were not clearly taught in church and youth group how to simply and effectively share these Truths with the lost.
What we did (in our ignorance) was the equivalent of a firefighter running through a burning apartment block and telling the people to get out of their homes because it would make them happy or because they could have a good job or food to eat the next day. Those things might actually be true (if you don¡¯t die, you¡¯ll be happy and be able to work and eat!), but that is not the reason the firefighter wants the people to leave their apartments: they must leave because they will burn to death if they don¡¯t!
Jesus died to save us from the wrath of God. We must warn people to repent and flee to the Savior to be saved. The door of mercy is flung open, and we must use the law of God to show people their sin so that they will see their need to run through that door to the foot of the Cross.
Think again of the firefighter in the apartment complex. If he runs from door to door telling people that if they leave home they will be happier tomorrow than they were today, they will probably laugh out loud and call the guy a nut. But if he is a faithful firefighter, and he tells them that the fire is spreading and their building will be engulfed in any minute, they will act quickly and be thankful for the firefighter and his message. The difference in the two messages and in the results of the two messages is like night and day. This is very important to understand. Heaven and hell are at stake. Please study the following scriptures:
¡°save others, snatching them out of the fire¡±
Jude 1:23
¡°God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.¡±
2 Corinthians 5:19b-21
¡°Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law {comes} the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law {the} righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even {the} righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus¡±
(All Scripture Quotations from NASB)
