Unlocking the Power of God’s Law in Evangelism

Notebook.

Tonight we've got four.

Including tonight, we have four Wednesday nights left.

So here's what I'm going to do.

We are on page 37 in your outline.

We're going to finish up in the next three weeks.

So tonight and then two more.

And then on the final night, I have a message that I would like to preach to you.

And so we'll end it.

So tonight and three more weeks.

So tonight, two more weeks, we'll be finished with this.

And then I have a message I'd like to preach that the Lord laid on my heart regarding this subject.

Obviously, I want to share something with you.

By the way, we do have section six back there.

I don't have anything else laid out today except section six.

It was laid out last week.

So if you don't have it, feel free to go ahead and grab it.

It's on that back table or on the counter back there at the bookstore.

There are also ten commandment tracts.

You can pick those up now or later.

And in that box with the Ten Commandment tracts, there are also some ten commandment book markers.

Those might even work better than the gospel tracts.

But I'd like for you to have those.

And we're going to talk about the law in evangelism tonight.

But before I do that, I want to talk to you just a little bit, and I want to share something with you that I hope and I believe it will bless your heart.

I think it will really, really encourage you tonight.

But first of all, let me say that I'm using, again, I'm going to continue to say this.

I use the illustration with the new move in bags more than anything because they are really the best tool that we have at Heritage Baptist Church to reach people with the gospel.

I believe that it is, like I said, you have a name, you have a gift.

It is a warm call if you want to call it that.

And so the opportunity is there.

The potential is amazing.

And I don't mean to put anybody on the spot tonight.

He just happens to be here.

I didn't know he was going to be here, but he's here.

And so I'll include him in my illustration.

I hope he won't get upset.

Not my illustration, my story.

Saturday.

Now, a lot of times people can't go out on Tuesdays.

And so if you can't come out on Tuesdays for whatever reason, we also have Saturdays as an option to come out.

And some do.

And so tice comes out on Saturday, comes out on Tuesday as well.

But he came out with me on Saturday, and we grabbed, we grabbed one new move in sheet and I grab one.

And as I said before, what I like to do is I like to do whatever happens to be on that.

On one of the streets, there might be one or two addresses on the same street, maybe three or four, maybe half a dozen, but on this particular sheet, there were only two that were on that one street.

So we'll do that one and then we knock the doors of all the other houses on that street.

So we got two warm calls and then we got, the rest are cold calls.

As it happened, we don't have a lot of time on Saturdays.

He had something that he had to do with his boy, band practice or something, soccer, something like that.

And so we couldn't spend a lot of time.

I had a granddaughter's birthday party to attend.

In fact, I had two granddaughter's birthday party to attend.

You reckon that was important?

That was important to me.

So we determined we were going to spend a couple hours out.

I think it ended up being an hour and a half, really.

So we took one and a half hour.

On Saturday we had one new move in sheet and we stopped at the first house.

And the first house on the list happened to be a gentleman by the name of Keith Jacobson and struck up a conversation with him.

Nice guy.

I didn't know if he was gonna be at first.

No, I'm teasing.

Nice guy.

Super nice guy.

And he was just really, really friendly.

Of course, his wife came out and she was a lot sweeter.

She was a really sweet lady.

Sweeter than he is.

But no, she was real sweet.

They were sweet.

So we just, we struck up a good conversation and he told me where he was from.

And in the end he said, well, I'll come tomorrow.

I'm gonna come to your friend day now.

You know how many times people tell you I'm going to come?

Well, when I walked away from there, this doesn't happen very often, but when I walked away from there, I believed 99.95% that he was going to come.

And I don't say that with very many, but sure enough, he showed up, brought his wife on Sunday morning, and stayed and ate some lunch with us and then stayed for the preaching afterwards.

And by the grace of God, he's back here tonight.

Brother Jim Taylor went by his house, a visit with him last night, and they exchanged pleasantries and Keith said, I need a haircut.

Jim said, well, I'm a barber.

So Keith went over there and got a haircut and came back tonight.

And so within that hour and a half, we did the rest of the block.

We didn't have one bad visit.

It was a Saturday and so we caught a lot of people at home.

We didn't have one bad visit.

In fact, every person who opened the door, am I right?

Am I?

Did we?

Well, nevermind, we'll talk about it.

Anyway, it was, I don't remember a bad visit.

I don't remember a bad visit.

I honestly don't.

And I guess it would have to really qualify as bad for me to say it's a bad visit.

But the fact is most everybody was really pleasant.

And in fact, out of the ones that we caught home, about three or four said they were looking for a church home.

And here's the reason why.

Because that whole area was new, fairly new, and there were a lot of new people.

There were a lot of people who had just moved in, although they weren't on the list for whatever reason.

Maybe they'll be on there next month, but they weren't on there this month.

And so I just, I wanted to share that with you and tell you that it doesn't, you know, it doesn't work out like that every single week, but this particular week, the Lord really blessed and allowed us to meet Keith and his sweet wife Marsha and then the potential of others to go back and follow up on.

So I came in on Monday morning and Savannah said, I want you to hear a voicemail.

So I went down to her office and this is what we found.

I got it.

Okay.

It's only 40 seconds long, so get the volume up here.

Okay, listen to this.

Okay, listen.

Oh, wait, I'm recording.

Here we go.

I got it.

Okay, you ready?

You ready?

Guys?

I had stopped by my house and dropped off a beautiful package with some things and some information about your church.

And I was wondering, do you guys make house calls just to kind of talk in prayer?

I'm kind of in a really bad situation and really just don't really have anyone I can turn to or talk to.

And it was almost like a godsend when you guys stopped by my house because I was having a really dark moment when you guys dropped it off.

But you can reach me.

All right.

She started giving personal information there.

So I stopped the recording right there.

So I reached out to this lady that day.

It's Monday.

I called, no answer.

I left a voicemail.

I left a text.

No answer Monday, no answer Tuesday.

As I was driving in, she called me.

Tonight.

As I was driving in, she called me and she explained more of the situation when she said she was having a dark moment.

The dark moment was she shared with me all the things that she'd been going through over the past in a very short period of time.

I'd say within months, a couple of months, or, you know, within a few months.

And she said she was just done.

And she was very seriously contemplating suicide.

And she was on the phone with a friend of hers, and she said that she was crying, and she said, I'm just done.

I just know that committing suicide would be a better option.

And then she hung up with every intention, she said, of committing suicide.

And she said, for whatever reason, she decided to go out on the porch.

When she went out on the porch, she found our bag on the door.

Amen.

And she said.

She said, the Lord just spoke to her heart and said, don't give up yet.

Now, I want to know if there's anybody in here who remembers being on tangle brush on Saturday in Sundera Ranch.

Is anybody in here?

Were you on tangle brush?

Because I asked her where her address was.

She said she was on tangle brush.

Somebody on Saturday left a new move in bag on a door.

And you not only maybe saved a life, you very well could save a soul.

Was that a blessing?

Phew.

I get choked up.

So we have an appointment, my wife and I, to go over there tomorrow night at 530.

So if you think of it, about 530.

Pray for us.

See what we can do.

All right.

We're on page 37 in our section six, and we are talking about personal evangelism.

We talked about several things already.

I won't review everything.

We're on section six.

The soul winner's message.

The soul winner's message.

We talked about three stops on the road to heaven.

Why do I need to be saved?

Who can save me, and how am I saved?

These are the three basic components needed to successfully convey a thorough salvation message.

And I really want to emphasize that because being thorough is so important.

We don't want to.

We don't.

We don't want to skim over this thing and do it superficially.

And we're not.

We don't want to be constrained by time.

If we don't have the time, then make an appointment to come back.

Don't just try to go for the prayer.

That's not what we're looking for.

We're not looking to get a notch in our belt.

We're not looking to get a feather in our cap.

We're looking to see souls saved.

We want to see people who genuinely understand the gospel, but it's.

Again, I said this before, and I'm going to say it again, it's not overly complicated to share the gospel, but it is simplistic.

But we don't want to lose, we don't.

We can make it so simple that we lose the value and the cost of salvation.

We don't want to do that.

And so there's a balance there.

So.

All right, so we.

Oh, actually, I have that written down here in that first paragraph.

While this sounds simple, and it is, we don't want to be so simplistic with free salvation that we undermine its cost.

Amen.

And at the same time, we don't want to convolute the simplicity of salvation with doctrine that will be learned by the new Christian over time.

They'll get it.

They'll get it.

If they get in and we do our job correctly and preach the gospel and get them involved in Sunday school and teach the word of God, they'll learn.

They'll learn from the old hymns.

Amen.

They will.

So, all right, so let's move on then down to that last paragraph just before number one, before we consider the answer to these questions.

What questions?

Why do I need to be saved?

Who can save me?

How am I saved?

Before we consider the answer to those questions, it's imperative that we first consider the role of God's law in evangelism.

The three questions of why, who, and how will be answered with the law of God in view.

All right, so let's move on.

Number one, the law.

Why do we use the law?

Because the law magnifies.

Number one, the law magnifies.

Now, I have tracts with me.

My New Testament is in my truck.

But I've got gospel tracts with me, and I will always start out with a gospel tract.

And I used to keep a coin, a penny, ten commandments stamped on a penny.

They were great.

They were great gifts, but I can't get those anymore.

So I have tracts back there and I also have bookmarks, and I'm going to start using these.

So I always start out with the tract just to let them know who I am, where I'm from.

And I always have this ready.

And I always, always, always, if they give me the opportunity to present the gospel, I will always use the law of God.

Always.

And you'll see why.

Number one, because the law magnifies.

It makes sin more obvious.

Romans chapter seven, verse seven, says, what shall we say then?

Is the law sin?

God forbid.

Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law.

For I had not known lust, except the law said, thou shalt not covet.

Okay, so it magnifies the law.

It makes sin more obvious.

I'll illustrate this in number two.

Number two, the law intensifies.

It intensifies.

It increases the degree of conviction.

Let me read the verse.

Romans 713 was then, that which is good made death unto me.

God forbid, but sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good.

What's good?

The law.

That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

That's what we want.

We want sin to become exceeding sinful in their eyes.

Why?

Because everybody agrees that they're a sinner.

No one will deny that.

Everybody agrees it agrees with that.

But they just don't understand the depth of sin and the cost of sin and the magnitude of sin.

They don't understand that.

And so the law, what the law does, it brings their sin into focus.

If you're, and I think you've heard me use this illustration before, I'm fairly heavy footed when I'm in the cardinal.

Not as bad as I used to be.

I actually fairly do fairly well anymore.

If the speed limit's 60, I'll usually do 68 or 70.

They usually grade on a curve.

I feel safe there.

Well, I haven't had a ticket in about 30 years that says something, I reckon.

But I have been known to get a little free, usually if I'm listening to preaching while I'm driving.

So if I'm driving, let's say I am doing 75 in a 60, or if I am doing 85 in a 70, I know I'm speeding, right?

I know it, and I know that it's not.

I know it's breaking the law.

I know I am.

But I'm not too worried about it because I'm just keeping up with traffic.

And in fact, every now and then somebody passes me.

And so I think, well, I'm doing pretty good until I get over the top of the hill and I see that policeman down there at the bottom of the hill.

And then what happened?

Sin became exceeding sinful.

When the law appeared, the sin was magnified.

It was intensified.

I knew I was doing wrong.

But, man, when the law appeared, when the law came into the picture, oh, man, my heart sunk into my stomach.

And that's happened a few times lately where I drove by and I'm like, whoo, he didn't catch.

The fact is, in Chisholm Springs, I don't know what it is, but somebody, they've got somebody called the police and they said, y'all need to start setting up in here.

I drove by the other day, I was doing about 30.

It's a 15.

Listen, it's a dumb, dumb 15 miles an hour speed limit within our entire community.

That is way too.

That's even under the.

That's under school speed limit.

That is way too slow.

And every now and then I'll get behind somebody that thinks they ought to go 15.

And it's irritating I didn't turn this on.

It's irritating, to say the least.

I tried to go around one guy last.

When?

I won't say how soon.

Long ago.

I tried to go around one person who was doing 15, and they wouldn't let me around.

They started cutting me off.

I wanted.

I'm so glad I'm a Christian.

Anyway, you get the point, right?

The law.

You bring the law into the situation.

It intensifies the sin, it intensifies it.

Number three.

The law clarifies.

It makes clear the nature of salvation needed, right?

That's what the law does.

Galatians 310 and 13 says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.

For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Christ hath redeemed us.

Verse 13 says, christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

We have to understand what the word of God says, or at least we need to get them to understand what the word of God says about our transgressing the law and what they do.

When we transgress the law, we are placed under a curse, and we transgress the law regularly, daily.

And so we need to help them to understand this isn't a light thing.

The law helps us to realize the necessity of Christ's substitutionary death without understanding why he died.

We don't recognize the value of our death, of his death in our place.

And so John ten, nine, Jesus says, I am the door, and by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.

Salvation is in a person.

Can I get an amen right there?

It's not in a prayer.

It's not in a plan.

I love it when people pray.

I will always ask them to pray, you know, if they bring me, if they allow me to go through the plan of salvation, and we get down to the bottom and I'm going to draw the net.

I will always ask them to pray, and I like for people to pray, but I always am careful to say, now, your salvation and you getting saved is not in this prayer.

It's believing in what you're praying.

And so salvation is in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ eternal life.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God.

It is a gift of God.

That's not the word I'm looking for.

For by grace, wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So often, and I used to be guilty of this, where I would put the emphasis of the gift on the eternal life.

And it is true, the eternal life is a gift, but the emphasis is through Jesus Christ.

John.

In the gospel of John, he said in chapter one, he came unto his own, and his own received him not, but to as many as received him, received him to them he gave the power to become the sons of God.

So salvation.

Yes, eternal life is a gift, but you don't get it unless you receive Jesus Christ.

So the emphasis needs to be on Christ.

And so the law is going to help them to understand they're in big trouble.

They're in big trouble, and the only way out is through Jesus Christ.

Well, let me finish that sentence here.

Jesus said, he is the door, and every door must have a key.

Every door must have a key.

And, of course, jesus is that key.

He says, woe unto you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

You entered not in yourselves.

And them that were entering in, you hindered.

He's talking to the lawyers and the scribes and the Pharisees, because they were the keepers of the law.

They were the keepers of the oracles, of goddesse.

And rather than use them to bring the world to a knowledge of God, they hoarded it and they hid it.

And then they convoluted the law.

And they made it so difficult for people to even understand the law and its use and its purpose.

And so rather than use the key to open the door, they hid it.

And so the law is the divine key that unlocks the door to salvation.

We must reclaim the key that was taken away.

Romans 320 says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.

I thought you just said the law was the key to salvation.

It is.

Look at the next part.

For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

They can't keep the law.

But in having the law present, it helps them to understand their need for a savior.

Galatians 324 says, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Amen.

Top of page 39, jesus used this key.

He used it with the rich young ruler.

In Luke chapter 18 and verse 18, he asked him this.

He said, you remember what the rich young ruler said?

He said, what must I do to be saved?

He said, well, keep the law.

He said, well, I've done that.

And he quoted him.

He said, well, honor your parents, do all of this.

He said, all that I've done from my youth up.

He said, okay, then go and sell everything you have and come follow me.

And of course he said, I can't do that.

I'm not doing that.

Turned away.

What law did he use?

What law did jesus use?

Which one of the ten commandments?

Help me out.

Which one do you think it was?

Huh?

Covet.

Thou shalt not covet.

He used the law to show the young man where he erred.

He said, I can honor my parents, and I don't lie, and I don't steal, and I do this.

Yeah, but you covet.

And then when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well in John chapter four, that one's a pretty obvious one.

Remember?

He said, go tell your husband and I'll share with you this truth.

She said, well, I have no husband.

He said, that's right, you've had five.

And the one you're living with now is not your husband.

Oh, man.

When the law entered, sin became exceeding sinful.

Jesus used the key.

Jesus used the law.

John used the law.

In first John three, four, whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is transgression of the law.

Paul used this key.

Acts 28, verse 23.

When they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets.

From morning till evening.

James used the key.

James 210 for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point ye guilty of all.

I would recommend you highlight that verse and keep that in your mind.

I would recommend you memorizing it or keeping it in your New Testament, which we are going to make available to you.

Some soul winners new Testaments.

We're going to make those available to you very soon.

I would definitely keep that one in your archives, the archive of your memory.

Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

And I say it very often.

I say, how many cars do you have to steal to be a thief?

One.

Not even cars.

How many times do you have to steal to be a thief?

Just one.

It doesn't have to be a car, doesn't have to be grand theft auto.

It can be that piece of candy you stole as a child.

And it's funny, I've said this before to you whenever I go out and I ask people, have you ever stolen when I'm using the law, have you ever stolen anything?

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

I promise you.

Most people will say, well, when I was a kid, nobody ever steals as an adult.

Then I want to say, wow, you just broke the 9th one.

You just lied.

So James used the key.

All right, so let's move on then.

Number one, why do I need to be saved?

We're going to answer these questions in light of the law.

We're going to use the law to answer these questions.

So why do I need to be saved?

If a person doesn't see the need for salvation, they'll never be saved.

Far too many people have prematurely led in a prayer and were erroneously convinced they were saved.

And all that serves to do is inoculate them against the true gospel.

The very first thing that we must help the lost to understand is that we need to be saved.

The best way to do this is to introduce the law of God or the Ten Commandments into your gospel presentation.

And so you want to do this.

And now, obviously, we're at the point in our soul winning endeavors where we've taken the bag, we've introduced ourselves, we allowed ourselves, we got to the question, and once we got to the question, they allowed us to go farther.

And I'm not going to go back to the question.

You've got sheets back there that will help you to get to that point.

And of course, what is the question?

Somebody say a little bit louder so everybody can hear it.

Thank you.

Amen.

That's the question we're trying to get to.

And that how they answer that, well, that might take you a hundred different ways, but we're going to assume they're allowing you to go through the gospel.

So the first thing that they need to understand is that they need to be saved.

They need to be saved.

So why do they need to be saved?

Because of our sin.

Letter a.

They need to be saved because of our sin.

A gospel presentation that does not major on sin is not a gospel presentation at all.

And the Bible way to major on sin, again is to use the law of God.

So when I'm talking to people, I literally just say, okay, there are really four things that we need to understand in order to get to heaven.

And I've had a lot of people, once I ask the question, I've had people say it in many ways.

Well, can anyone really be sure?

And I'm going a little off reservation here.

I'm usually going.

I'm going off of the roman road.

A little bit of deviation here, but a lot of times I will go to one.

John 513.

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may know you have eternal life.

So if I can show them in the Bible that they can know they have eternal life, I have a lot greater success in moving forward.

I say, yes, you can know.

But there's four things you have to know.

First of all, you have to understand you're a sinner.

All mankind are sinners.

Again, this one isn't hard for people to grasp or to acknowledge.

Romans 310.

These are ones, I'm highlighting these, and these are ones you need to know.

Romans 310, Romans 312.

Romans 512.

You ought to have those in your memorization as it is written.

There's none righteous.

No, not one.

The word of God says, there's none righteous.

No, not one.

Romans 312 says, there's none that doeth good.

No, not one.

And at this point, I go a little off track here, and I say, you see, because we all think we're good.

But the Bible says in Isaiah that all of our righteousnesses, all of our good works are as filthy rags to God.

And I usually have an illustration for that.

But number two, Romans 512 says, wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

And at this point, I'll usually ask them, do you know who that one man is?

A lot of times they will, and a lot of times they won't know, but most of them will.

I mean, the ones who know, they'll just come around and say, well, it's Adam.

They'll understand.

They know.

Adam and Eve, they understand that.

And then, number two, most will not deny that they have sinned.

Now, follow this with me.

I want you to see this.

Most people will readily consent to being a sinner, and in their mind, they justify it by comparing themselves to everyone else.

That's why we have to make sin sinful, because they don't see it as very sinful.

Because they're trying to compare themselves to other people who are far worse off than they are.

You'll hear it all the time.

Well, no one's perfect.

I'm no worse than anyone else.

Hear it all the time.

And so we can't assume that they understand the catastrophic loss mankind suffered because of the sin committed in the garden of Eden.

In fact, they cannot comprehend it because they do not have the spiritual capacity to do so.

Letter B.

Because our sin is against God.

Why do we have to get saved?

Why must we be saved?

Because we've sinned.

Because our sin is against God.

Romans 323.

That's another one that you ought to highlight.

All have sinned and come short of what?

Of the glory of God.

We've come short of the glory of God.

Come short means to miss the mark.

It means to miss the mark.

We have all missed the mark of God's holiness or what he requires of us to enter into heaven.

We have offended Almighty God because we have broken all his ten commandments.

I'm wanting to get ahead of myself, but I'm looking at the next page, and I see it's over there.

So I'll stick with my outline here.

We've missed the mark of his ten commandments or his law.

We've missed the mark of his law.

We must help them to understand that this is not a set of civil laws that we have broken, which carries its own set of penalties, but God's law.

And breaking God's law carries an entirely different set of penalties.

And I will often illustrate that by simply saying, all right, remember I was talking about driving in my car and, you know, going 85 miles an hour.

But here's the thing.

What if I was going 110 miles an hour through a school zone while on my cell phone?

You know what they would say?

They would say, you're going to jail.

And that's true.

I probably would.

I would say, yeah, that's the.

And.

And that's a civil law that I've broken.

But we're not talking about civil laws.

We're talking about God's laws.

These are divine laws, and these are totally different.

And then I often ask the question, if someone committed a heinous crime, and the worst crime that I can even imagine is the crime against children.

If someone committed a heinous crime against children, multiple children, and all the evidence pointed to them, and they were standing before the judge, and how do you plead?

And he said, guilty.

All the evidence is there.

There's no way around it.

I'm guilty.

I did it.

And if the judge said, well, look, do you promise not to do it again?

Well, yes, judge, I do.

I promise.

I'm sorry.

I promise I won't do it again.

Now, if the judge turns a blind eye to his crime, would you call him a good judge or a bad judge?

A bad judge.

By virtue of his office, he must judge the crime.

He must enforce penalty.

And I said, now, what kind of judge would God be?

The judge of all the earth.

What kind of judge would God be if we broke all of his laws and he turns a blind eye to it?

Because people always want to say, well, God is love, and he's real forgiving.

He is that.

But he's also holy, he's also righteous, he's also just, he's perfect in his love, he's perfect in his grace, and he's perfect in his righteousness, and he's perfect in his holiness, and he's perfect in his justice.

And if we sin against him, he'd be a bad judge to turn a blind eye to it.

And everybody will agree with that.

And it wakes them up.

I mean it really.

Sometimes you can see it.

Just a shock will come over them.

Wow.

I do have to stand before God.

I am going to give account for my sins.

And so we continue to bring the law into this thing, and it helps them to understand that their sin is against God, God almighty.

We've broken his laws, not man's laws.

And they're going to stand before not a judge in a courtroom here on earth, but God almighty in heaven.

The ten commandments are God's standards of righteousness for man.

And I'm telling you that so you'll understand that when you use the law, this is.

It's potent, if you'll say this with conviction, this is God's standard of righteousness for every living human being on this earth.

It is his standard.

If you want to get to heaven, you have to meet the standard of righteousness that one acquires by keeping the law.

And that is perfection.

Perfection.

It is righteousness perfected.

The Ten Commandments.

It is holiness perfected.

The Ten Commandments are God's standard for heaven.

Now, when witnessing, I will often ask, and I put this down here for you.

When witnessing, I will often ask, do you believe that God has a standard for heaven, or do you think he will let anyone in?

The answer is usually divided.

Half will say, oh, he'll let anyone in.

The other half will say, well, no, he has a standard.

And I'll ask them, do you know what that standard is?

Some do, some don't.

But at this point you don't even have to ask that.

Just hand them the ten commandment card or the tract and go over it with them.

Here's God's standard right here.

Well, let me ask you this.

Have you ever told a lie?

That's commandment number nine.

Nobody denies telling a lie.

Everybody agrees.

Everybody, everybody, everybody knows it.

They all admit telling a lie.

Then I will say, okay, well, have you ever stolen anything?

That's commandment number eight.

And then like I said, some will say, well, when I kidde, but almost a very few.

And I've run into a few said, no, I've never stolen anything.

And then I said, kudos to you.

Then I move on.

Have you ever used God's name in vain?

99% will say, well, yeah.

And then at that point I'll ask them, have you always honored your parents?

It's amazing.

All of them will say, oh yeah, I've always honored my parents.

And then I say it, a little comical, but serious enough where they know that it's not a joke.

I say, okay, now wait a minute.

You always honor your parents, but you just admitted to be a lying thief who uses God's name in vain.

Does that honor your parents?

Well, no.

Well, then let me ask you this, Dan.

If you died today and you had to stand before God and he judged you by his law, would you be innocent or guilty?

You see how powerful that is?

I didn't condemn them.

The law of God did.

All I did was brought the law, and it made sin exceeding sinful.

The law judged them.

I didn't judge them.

And then I go in to say, of course the truth is no one has ever kept all ten commandments throughout their entire life except Jesus.

We can't keep the law.

And then I show them how, that if you just James 210, whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all Romans 310.

There's none righteous.

And then I go on to share with them how that of course, the rest of the gospel, you know, that's all bad news.

And then the gospel means good news.

Ten commandments are bad news.

It's bad news.

But we've got to get them to that point.

Look at this illustration that I put here at the bottom of page 41.

The ten Commandments are like ten sharks in the ocean.

Don't dismiss using the law, please.

I mean, it took me a long time to actually learn this.

I didn't do this for years.

And it wasn't until I started our second church in Tacoma that I was introduced to using the law on evangelism.

And once I saw it and the potency of it and the success that it brought, and I say success, you know what I mean?

True salvation.

I was like, wow, why didn't I use this before?

And so I heard this illustration, and it's great.

So the Ten Commandments are like sharks in the ocean.

A person might be enjoying a nice swim in the ocean and consider you foolish for yelling at him to grab the life preserver as you throw it to him.

But if you tell him, say, turn around, turn around, and he turns around and he sees ten sharks swimming toward him, all of a sudden, that life preserver looks mighty precious.

That is the effectiveness of using the law to help someone understand their need for a savior.

Jesus is that lifeguard.

He is that life preserver, and we're going to toss that to him.

But first we've got to get him to see that there are sharks in the water.

There are sharks in the water.

Those sharks are the Ten Commandments, and they are there to destroy you.

And that's what the law does.

That's what sin does.

So we have to pause right here and once again emphasize the enormity of man's corruption.

By the fall.

We must major on it because the Bible majors on it.

We can't.

We can't just can't whitewash man's sin.

We can't whitewash how corrupt man is and how deeply we've offended God.

Again, you don't want to overdo it.

I mean, you're standing there.

You can discern, really, if there's some conviction going on in their heart.

You may not have to, you know, don't overdo it.

The Holy Spirit, I believe, will give you understanding and help you to know when to move on.

But if you don't think he's getting it, don't move forward.

They've got to know that they're a sinner, that they've sinned against God, and that sin is what's condemning them to hell.

Romans eight, seven, eight says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is subject to the law.

It is not subject to the law of God, neither can be.

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Ephesians 417 says, I say, therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.

Remember, he's walking in the vanity of his mind.

He's not thinking and acting through the spirit.

He's acting through his mind, through his flesh.

He said, they're having the understanding darkened.

His understanding is darkened.

He's alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

They might look pretty on the outside, but inside they're full of dead men's bones.

And Jesus said that I didn't.

So devastating is sin's influence upon the human consciousness that now in America, it is glamorized.

Sin, that is, is glamorized.

And it's recognized to the degree that those who stand for morality and call wickedness immoral are perceived as haters, bigots, intolerant, the cancers of society.

And a threat to democracy.

In this room right here, you, in the eyes of most every liberal, you are a threat to democracy.

Outside of responding to God in faith for salvation, there is no thought or word or deed that a lost man can do to please God.

He is altogether unrighteous.

And that's Isaiah 64 six.

We are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fate as a leaf.

And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

I am going to get through in the next two weeks because I have a message.

I want to preach to you.

So I'll have to speed this up as we move along.

But I want you to understand this sin.

A preacher used to say this, and he said it so often from the pulpit, make sin ugly.

Paint sin ugly.

And he was talking to parents, to their kids.

And I think we need to do the same thing not only in our own lives, but in the lives of those who we're dealing with, when we bring.

When we're trying to bring salvation into their life, when we're trying to help them to see their need for salvation.

Paint sin ugly.

Don't move on until they see it for what it is.

There might be somebody in here tonight.

I mean, I've been talking about this, and now all of a sudden, we brought the law into the situation.

We brought the law.

We added that into the equation.

And maybe you're even sitting here tonight, and you're thinking, you know, I never really saw it as that bad.

But now, man, I need to get saved.

I don't know everybody.

I don't know your heart.

I only know that I'm saved for sure.

And I can tell you, I've met so many people who have sit in churches for years and years and years and ended up getting saved later in life.

My wife and I met a pastor's wife who was a pastor's wife for 35 years.

And she knew she was lost, but she was afraid that going forward would mess up her husband's ministry.

She was afraid of what everyone in the ministry would say.

All of her friends, all the pastor's friends, all the wives.

Finally, her pastor, her husband preached on hell one day, and the holy spirit got ahold of her and she said, I am not going to hell for anyone.

And after 35 years in ministry, she walked the aisle and got saved.

I've said this before.

I can't think of a worse place to go to hell from than a church pew.

So if you're here tonight and you're not saved, man, this stuff is real.

We've offended a holy God and we've got to stand before him one day and he's going to judge like a righteous judge should.

Child of God, you know that you are saved.

I wonder if you'd be willing tonight, man, just say, I'm going to grab some of these tracks.

I'm going to get some of those ten commandments, and I'm going to go over this thing, and I'm going to learn how to do this, and I'm going to share the gospel with others, and I'm going to use the law.

Use the law.

It's not hard.

And you can come up with your own illustrations, but I hope that we'll commit to doing this.

I appreciate Brother Scott tonight.

He came up to me and he said, brother, I committed to God to give out.

How many did you say?

Two tracks a day, two tracks a week, brother.

That's a start, isn't it?

That's great.

Thank you for doing that, brother.

Thank you.

That courageous encourages me.

Let us all do the same thing.

Amen.

Let's stand together tonight and let's have a verse of invitation we won't linger I'm going to let them play through a verse or two and Caleb sing a verse or two.

I'm going to pray and then they'll begin.

And then it's just up to you.

You come.

If the Holy Spirit speak in your heart, you can either come here or you can make an altar right there where you stand, where you sit.

But just let God do business.

Do business with God if he's dealing with your heart.

Father, again, we just say thank you for how you worked in our own hearts and lives to bring the message of salvation to us.

And, Lord, I pray like David did.

Like David was just a vessel that you used to bring the gospel to me when I was ready to hear it.

I want to be that vessel.

I pray that you'd use us to be that vessel, to bring the truth and the gospel to others when they're ready to hear it.

Lord, let us be your glove that you put on and use for your honor and glory.

I pray it in Jesus name with heads bowed.