In the past 100+ years, the Gospel has lost its power. Okay…the Gospel itself has lost none of its power, but what people proclaim the Gospel is has no power.
Read the preachers of the past, and they preached the Law of God before giving the Gospel of Christ. Why? They knew that the Law “was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.”
Today, though, we preach that if a person becomes a Christian, they will have love, joy and peace. Those truly are benefits of salvation, but Christ didn’t die so that we could have joy and peace. He died so that we would be made right with God…set free from the penalty and power of sin.
Jesus told us that we needed to repent of our sins. Now, we’re told to “confess our sins.” There seems to be very little repentance in the Church today.
A few days ago (from when I wrote this), a guy on Twitter wrote, “I once had someone tell me I wasn’t fit to talk about God because I was living with my fiancé. These are the type of people that drive others away from God.” Admittedly, he doesn’t seem to call himself a Christian. He just believes in God and believes that God has helped him. Fair enough. But he also seems to have no idea what God’s standard is, or that fornication is a sin. Could that be because the Church has failed to lift up God’s standard of righteousness and holiness?
I know a young man that was killed while committing murder. Later, his grandmother said that she knew he was in heaven because he had accepted Christ when he was younger. Now, from my understanding of Scripture (and I may be wrong…for his sake, I hope I am), there is no way that kids is in heaven today. He never lived as a Christian. He only went to church because Grandma took him. There was no evidence of repentance in his life.
I was raised in the Southern Baptist church. In the 90s, I attended one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in America. Every Sunday morning, people would “get saved.” Sunday evening, they’d get baptized. Then we’d never see them again. I heard leaders in the church pray the Sinner’s Prayer with someone, then say, “Congratulations. You are saved, and when you die you will go to heaven.” Those leaders never spoke about sin or repentance, so how could these converts “repent and believe.”
Also in the 90s, there was a famous Charismatic couple that would ask people, “Did you know there are two kinds of people in the world. Those that are saved, and those who are about to get saved. Which kind are you?” “Uh…one of those who is about to get saved?” “Good! Pray this prayer…”
These are some of the reasons I’m so thankful for the ministry of Ray Comfort. Ray teaches that there is a missing key in our evangelism, and that is the use of the Law (the Ten Commandments) to show a sinner what sin is and how he has broken God’s law (“sin is transgression of the Law”).
When we share the Gospel with someone, we must first show them that they are a sinner. We can do this without being judgmental. We can do it gently and with love. We do not have to yell or shout. We simply have to instruct…and ask a few questions. We let the Holy Spirit do the convicting work as we apply the Law to the conscience.
To learn more about the need to use the Law and how to do so, watch Ray Comfort’s Way of the Master on YouTube. It will be life-changing.