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Transcript 244C — How Do You Witness the Gospel?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I was wondering what kind of approach you're to use when sending out the Gospel. What exactly are you supposed to say? I know that there's different ways of approaching. In other words, I know that God is a God of love, and God loves us. And you were saying that we are under God's condemnation, that is, the unbelievers. I remember that you had said something about the fact that this approach of saying that God is a God of love, is something you didn't quite understand.
HC: Well, let me ask you. If someone was in a burning building, and you knew that at any moment the floor was going to collapse, and they would be plunged to their death, and you came to talk to them to show them the way of escape, what would you start talking about? Would you start talking about, "You know, we're having a picnic this afternoon and I'd surely like to invite you to the picnic." Would you start talking that way? No. You'd say "Hey! You’re in trouble! The floor is going to collapse any minute, and you've got to get out of here. You're on the threshold of death." That's how you'd talk, wouldn't you?
All right. When Jonah came to Nineveh, he had the knowledge that in forty days God was going to destroy Nineveh. What did he talk to them about? Did he come there and say, "People of Nineveh, God loves you, and He has a wonderful plan for your life. And He's just waiting for you to come to Him." Did he talk like that? No. What did he say? He said, "Repent." He said, "Repent, because God's judgment is upon you."
Now you see, we first of all must be absolutely honest when we bring the Gospel. Now there's a fantastic desire on our part to sell Christ. Now if I was selling vacuum cleaners, or anything else, I would be tempted to put everything into superlatives, wouldn't I? And I certainly wouldn't accent the bad things that I knew about my vacuum cleaners. I certainly wouldn't point those out. At least I would be sorely tempted not to do that. I would try to just point out all the good things, and make it as palatable as possible in order to make that sale.
Now this is what most of us do when we are presenting the Gospel. We want to create a climate of good will and happiness. And so we want to accent nice things, all the attractive features of the Gospel.
But the Bible doesn't come on that way. The Bible has ugly things to say. The fact is, this idea that God loves you is foreign to the Bible. If you read Psalm 5 (and we have to be honest), in verse 5 God says, "The boastful may not stand before Thy eyes. Thou hatest all evildoers." Well now, that's pretty rough, isn't it? "Thou hatest all evildoers." And in Psalm 11:5, "The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and him that loves violence, His soul hates. On the wicked He will reign coals of fire and brimstone. A scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup." Now if we're going to be honest, we have to come to someone and first of all tell him where he stands in relationship to God. We can't concoct our own salvation. We have to be faithful to the whole counsel of God.
The fact is, how can we really tell someone he ought to be saved, if we don't first of all tell him what he has to be saved from? This is the thing that's a mystery to me. If I go to someone who is an unsaved man, living his wicked life, and I say, "You know, God loves you" . . . "Well, isn't that nice? God loves me. What else?" . . . "Well, He's got a program for you. And you know, I want to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ" . . . "Well, tell me about that. God loves me. I would like to be identified with this Lord Jesus Christ."
And so I can become identified, and yet I can still continue to be the kind of a person I am to a high degree, because God loves me as I am. You see, what am I being saved from? "Oh well, you're going to be saved from your misery, your loneliness. You'll have a purpose in your life" . . . "Well, that's good. That's good. I would like to have a friend that I can count on, because so many of my human friends are just not trustworthy. And yes, I have to admit I've been kind of running around in circles, and it would be really great to have a purpose in my life."
But is that salvation? That isn't salvation at all, is it? Salvation is to be saved from sin. This is what salvation is. Salvation is to recognise the dismal, the awful truth that I'm a sinner, and I'm under the wrath of God. And God is going to pour out His anger on me, because I am a reproach to Him. I am the wicked one. I'm at war with God. I'm in rebellion against God. And I'm in trouble. God created me, and I've rebelled against Him, and I deserve His hatred. I deserve His wrath. And what am I going to do now? What am I going to do? I'm going to be destroyed eternally because of my sins.
Well, now, now God has something wonderful to say to you. You can know the love of God. You can know how to be reconciled with God, if you'll trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, God made provision for those who will believe in Christ, that they can have their sins already paid for. They can go into Heaven without ever having to face the Judgment Throne. Now that's something worthwhile talking about, isn't it?
CALLER: Okay, I know that. But my main question is, how do you approach other people? Sometimes I find that I have difficulty talking to different people, using different ways to talk to them about the Word of God.
HC: Your question really is, How can I open up the conversation? How can I get into the matter of speaking to someone?
It's going to depend entirely on the situation. I would think, first of all, as a prerequisite, we ought to be praying much for opportunity to witness. It is God's work that we are doing. We're not doing it in our own strength, or in the flesh. And God has to set up the opportunities. And we have to be sensitive to opportunities.
Secondly, it is going to depend on the situation. If you're talking to someone, you can start talking about the weather. "Oh my, isn't it a warm day!" And from there you can say, "You know, one thing I've learned is that there is a God in Heaven who controls the weather. He is the one who upholds the universe by His power. When men complain about the weather, really, effectively, they're complaining to God." Well, that will be kind of shocking thing to this person. And he may not be interested at all in talking about God. He begins to sense what's coming. And the Bible says, "Don't cast your pearls before swine." We don't have to force the Gospel on someone. If they mock the Gospel, or if they turn a deaf ear to it, we turn and go to someone else.
But they may sense that you want to talk about God, and the door opens up a little bit. And then you can say, "You know, God has a lot more things to say in the Bible. And one of the terrible things I've discovered is that the whole human race are sinners, that all of us are under the wrath of God. Have you ever thought about that?" And now you're right into the whole message of salvation.
Or you might be talking with somebody, and maybe you've just read in the newspaper about a tragedy, where someone has died, or where there has been a holocaust of some kind. And you can start talking to someone about that newspaper article. And then say, "You know, there's a tragedy facing mankind that's infinitely worse than that. I've been studying the Bible" . . . [You notice you should always go back to the Word of God because it is your authority. It isn't what you think. It's what the Bible says] . . . "I've been studying the Bible, and I discover that the whole human race is headed for a terrible tragedy. And that is because man was created by God."
In other words, there are many many different lines that you can start out with. You can talk about the fact that people are worried about what's going on in the world. What does the future hold? And it's very simple then to simply turn that conversation to saying, "You know, there's one in the universe who knows about the future, and that is God. And I've been studying the Bible, and I discover that God indeed has got some very definite things for the future. And they're not good for the human race. The wars that we're hearing about, and the threat of nuclear war, and all this, are child's play, compared with what the world really has to face." And then again you can go right into the condemnation that is upon man.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you.