Soundly Saved - Kirk's Hbks — Kirk Cameron

Welcome! We're thrilled to have you here. Ray and I got in early this morning, so if we have circles under our eyes, because we're working on about an hour's sleep, but we have been so pumped up about this event and this is so exciting to see all these people here with a heart desiring to learn more about how to share your faith effectively.

And then maybe some people here this afternoon who have not really stepped foot in church, but you're here to maybe check out what Mike Seaver has to say from the pulpit. That's okay too. I'm not all that comfortable in a lot of churches, but everybody here is really friendly and so I'm comfortable and I hope you are too.

Most people ask me when they meet me what I have in common with Mike Seaver and I usually point out the fact that we tend to look a lot alike and the fact that we both married the same woman. See, Mike Seaver married a girl named Kate on the show and the girl that played Kate is Chelsea Noble and I married her in real life.

We've been married for 12 years now and we have 6 kids. My kids are 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and Chelsea is 8 months pregnant. So we have a real full house at home and that's why I took the red eye last night so that I can spend as much time here as possible.

Kirk Cameron's Conversion and the Full Gospel

But it's an honor and a privilege to be here with you this afternoon. I want to tell you really quickly how I became a Christian. I was the last guy in the world that I ever thought would become a Christian.

I thought Christians were just religious fanatics, weirdos, people believing in fairy tales. I was a devout atheist most of my life. When I was 14 years old I got this job on Growing Pains. I had the world by the tail.

I was doing everything that I wanted to do. I was making money, rich, famous, could hang out with actors, actresses, movie stars. Parties, whatever I wanted. If I didn't have something it was simply because I didn't want it.

I had never heard the gospel before in my entire life. My mom tried to talk to me about God when I was a little kid and I just laughed at her. I said, Mom, that's fairy tales, you know, come on. We didn't have a nativity in our house at Christmas time.

I had no clue who Jesus was or what that was all about. I was an atheist. I met a girl. She was cute. She invited me to go to church. I thought it would be a good idea to accept the invitation, even though it was to a church.

I sat in the back row with my arms folded. I heard this pastor begin to explain what the Bible said about God. And he shared the gospel, the whole gospel, the whole thing, from beginning to end, about God's holiness and purity and His righteousness, His power, His awesome God.

He talked about sin and selfishness. And how God is offended and angry by the sin of people who rebel against Him and do what they know is wrong and just sort of do it in the face of God. And he talked about God's punishment.

And he talked about hell. But then he talked about the mercy and compassion of God and explained about how Jesus died on the cross to provide a way for us to be forgiven. And this incredible demonstration of God's love for those who have offended and angered Him.

And I was just blown away by this. I'd never really heard it this way before. I left the church with lots of questions for my friend. And it was about a month later, I couldn't stop thinking about this stuff.

And it finally occurred to me that one day I would die. I knew that I was going to die one day. And if this was true and there was a God and a heaven, I wouldn't be going. And I knew that my attitude had separated me from God and that there's no reason He should let me into heaven.

And it really bothered me. I thought, maybe I'm wrong about this, I don't know. I'm going to pray. I didn't know how to do it. I pulled my car over. I closed my eyes and I just said, God, if You're there, I need to know.

If You're real, would You please show me? And would You please forgive me? And would You change me into the person that You want me to be? And I opened my eyes. I didn't see a vision of Jesus on the windshield.

I didn't feel the Holy Spirit rushing through the air conditioning vents. Nothing weird. I just had this very strange sense that God was there. That He heard me. That He was listening. It was real to me.

I can't prove it to you. I can't explain it. But it was just real. And I went home. Someone gave me a Bible. I began to study it and learn about this amazing God who revealed Himself in nature and in sunsets and in space and in the Bible.

And instead of just treating me according to my sins and what I deserve, He's looked beyond that and said, no, I want to provide a way for you to be forgiven and give you something you don't deserve. My love and my forgiveness.

And He paid the price to make that possible. That's the God I've fallen in love with and I've surrendered my life to. And I can tell you of all the things I've ever done in my life, of all the people I've met, of the places I've been, absolutely nothing compares to knowing Jesus Christ, being forgiven of my sin and being in a right relationship with God.

I've been a Christian for about 14 years. And one of the things that immediately sprang to my mind was, I need to tell people about this. I need to explain to them that Jesus isn't just a fairy tale. This is important stuff.

We're talking about eternity, heaven and hell. And Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. And now I understood why. Because He died on that cross and somebody explained it and it made sense to me.

And so I wanted to share my faith with other people because I don't... I want the people I love to go to heaven. I don't want them going to hell when they die. And Jesus said clearly, without Jesus, they're going to hell.

Man, this is important stuff. And so I try to learn how to share my faith and do it effectively. And whenever I had an opportunity, I'd muster up the courage and I'd share my testimony with somebody. For you non-Christians, that just means, share what Jesus has done in my life.

And I'd have two responses that were very common. Both were very frustrating. One was, people would say, hey, Kirk, I'm really happy for you. I'm glad you found something that works for you. But I've got my own beliefs that I'm quite happy with and I don't need Jesus.

And if I'd say, yeah, you do, we'd get into an argument and it would just go nowhere. The other response is, sometimes people would say, oh man, that's really interesting. I'll go to church with you. And then the pastor would even give an invitation for people to come and receive Christ as their Savior.

And this guy wants to come forward. And I'm excited. And he says his prayer. And I'm thinking, yahoo, this guy's God. The light bulb went off, he's a Christian. And then I find that it's not long before he stops coming to church.

I can't get him to go to any church. He's really not interested in church. He's not interested in reading his Bible. He's not longing and seeking to obey the Lord and live in a way that's pleasing to the Lord.

He's not interested in the things of God at all. He was just checking Christianity out to see if it was all that Kirk Cameron said it was. And he kind of drifts off into Never Never Land. And he's into something else and tries something else.

Living in immorality and cussing and swearing and drinking and partying. All the stuff that is not the mark of a Christian who's been changed. And he falls into the category of what we commonly call a backslider.

The Problem of Superficial Conversions

And I found that I wasn't the only one experiencing these kinds of results in sharing the gospel with people. And people coming forward to receive Christ. There's something in church today that we call a fallaway rate.

Pastors know about it. It's the number of people who sort of fall away and become backsliders after they've made this decision for Christ. The current fallaway rate in the church today is something like 80%.

Okay? I'm going to explain to you a little more specifically what that means. That means that there are something like 80 to 90 backsliders for every 100 decisions for Christ. And that's normal statistics right now.

I'll make it even more real for you. In 1991, a major U .S. denomination was able to obtain 294 ,000 decisions for Christ. That is, in one year they obtained 294 ,000 decisions for Christ. And unfortunately, they could only find 14 ,000 of those people in fellowship.

That means they couldn't account for 280 ,000 of those decisions. And that's normal, modern, evangelistic results. I was shocked when I heard this. And it caused me to really look into the Word of God and study the Word of God and study other preachers, like Charles Spurgeon and Wesley and Moody and great men of God that guys use to bring people to Christ who have turned into passionate believers, not backsliders.

And I found that they used a principle that was very unique to what I had been taught. And then specifically I realized that Jesus used this same principle that's very foreign to the way that I was taught to share the Gospel.

And I want to give you an example. In Mark 10, verse 17, we have the story of the rich young ruler who runs up to Jesus, the Bible says. He runs up to Him, gets down on his knees and he says, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Now I don't know about you, but if someone ever did that to me, I would be pretty excited. I mean, that would be an opportunity of a lifetime. Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, notice what Jesus said to the guy.

First of all, notice what he didn't say. Notice he did not say, Oh, my friend, I'm so glad you asked. Listen, you've got a God-shaped hole in your heart that only God can fill. And in a little while, I'm going to die on a cross.

And if you will just believe in me with all your heart and say this prayer and mean it, you will go to heaven when you die. No, Jesus didn't say that. He said, Why do you call me good? There is no one who is good but one, that is God.

I'm scratching my head as Jesus said this and I'm thinking to myself, Man, he really, where's he going with this? I mean, it really seemed like Jesus could have benefited from a friendship evangelism course.

There's no one who's good except one, that is God. And then, he corrected this man's understanding of what good was and pointed him to the Ten Commandments. And he gave him five of them. He said, You know the commandments.

You shall not lie. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. Honor your father and your mother. And the man said, Yes, I've kept all these since I was a youth. And Jesus said, Well, there's one more thing that you lack.

And he pointed him to the essence of the first and the second commandment. And he said, Go and sell all your goods and give to the poor. Then you'll have treasure in heaven. And then come, follow me. And the Bible says the man went away very sad.

He just left. Jesus didn't chase after him, trying to strike up a friendship with the guy. He just left. And I'm scratching my head thinking, Man, what was Jesus doing? That's not the way you're supposed to do it.

I mean, that's not what I learned in my discipleship evangelism course. He didn't talk about God's love. He didn't pray with him. He didn't talk about God's grace. Nothing. What happened? It was my immature understanding of what Jesus was doing.

He was putting into practice a principle that is extremely effective and necessary for preparing a person's heart for grace. And Jesus used it all the time with proud, self-righteous people. And so did Paul.

And so did Peter. And all the great men of God who have used the principles of biblical evangelism down through the ages. I've begun putting this principle into practice myself and found the results to be life-changing and amazing in my talking with non-Christians about the gospel.

Because it helps the gospel make perfect sense. I want to explain it to you today in a message that we call Hell's Best Kept Secret. I first heard it from a man named Ray Comfort. It rocked my whole world.

And I want to share it with you just the way that I was taught it. If you have your Bibles, pull out your Bibles. If you don't want to take notes, we're going to put the verses up on the screen so that you can see them.

And we're going to go through them kind of quickly, just in the interest of time. So, listen fast. If you don't have a Bible and notes, that's okay. You can hear this message later on tape through our website.

And we've got resources out in the back and you can catch it all in the notes and things later. Okay. The Bible says in Psalm 19, verse 7, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Now, what is it that the Bible says is perfect and actually converts the soul?

It's right there. The scripture makes it clear. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Now, to demonstrate the function of God's law, I'd like us to look for a moment at our own civil law.

Imagine if I said to you, I've got some good news for you. Someone has just paid a $25 ,000 speeding fine on your behalf. You'd probably look at me and say, What? What are you talking about? That's not good news.

It doesn't make sense. I don't have a $25 ,000 speeding fine. My good news wouldn't be good news to you. It would sound like foolishness. But more than that, it would sound offensive. Because I'm actually insinuating that you've broken the law when you don't think you have.

As far as you're concerned, you're a very good driver. However, if I said it to you this way, it might make more sense. On the way to this meeting today, the law clocked you at going 55 miles an hour through an area set aside for a blind children's convention.

There were 10 clear warning signs stating that 15 miles an hour was the maximum speed, and you went straight through at 55 miles an hour. What you did was extremely dangerous. There's a $25 ,000 fine.

The law was about to take its course when someone you don't even know stepped in and paid the fine for you. You are very fortunate. Can you see that by telling you precisely what you've done wrong first actually makes the good news make sense?

If I don't help you clearly understand that you've broken the law, then my good news is going to sound like foolishness. It's going to be offensive. But once you understand that you've violated the law, then the good news of the fine being paid for you becomes truly good news.

God's Law, Sin, and the Need for Grace

Now, in the same way, if I go up to a normal, unrepentant, non-Christian, and I say to him, I've got some good news for you, man. Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. It's going to sound like foolishness to him.

It's going to be offensive. It's not going to make sense. It's foolishness because it really doesn't make sense. The Bible says that. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

And offensive because I'm insinuating that the guy's a sinner when he doesn't think he is. As far as he's concerned, there's plenty of people far worse than he is. He doesn't think he's a bad guy at all.

But if I take the time to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, it might make more sense. If I take the time to open up the divine law, the Ten Commandments, and show him precisely what he's done wrong first, that he's actually angered God by violating his law, then when he becomes convinced that he's guilty, or as the Bible says, convinced by the law a transgressor, then the good news of the fine being paid for him will not be foolishness.

It will not be offensive. It will be the power of God to salvation. Make sense? Now with that thought in mind, let's take a look at Romans 3, verse 19. Now we know that whatever things the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

So that's one function of God's law. To stop the mouth of sinners and leave the whole world guilty before God. To stop the mouth of a person saying, I'm not a bad person. No, I'm a very good person. It stops the mouth of a person trying to justify themselves and leaves the whole world guilty before God.

Next verse. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So God's law tells us what sin is. 1 John 3, verse 4 says, Sin is transgression of the law.

That's the biblical definition of sin. Transgression of the law. Romans 7, verse 7. I had not known sin except through the law. So what Paul is saying here is, I wouldn't have known what sin was unless the law had told me.

That's how he knew what sin was. In Galatians 3, verse 24, The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. So the law teaches us. It is a schoolmaster that leads us to Jesus Christ so that we might be justified through faith in his blood.

The law doesn't justify us. It just leaves us guilty. The law doesn't help us. It just leaves us helpless. We are saved by God's grace. We are not saved by the law. The law is just like a mirror that shows us that we're filthy, dirty, and in desperate need of God's cleansing, which comes through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.

And the tragedy of modern evangelism is that around the turn of the last century, about a hundred years ago, when it got rid of the law and its ability to convert the soul, to drive sinners to Christ, modern evangelism therefore had to find another reason for sinners to respond to the gospel.

And the issue that modern evangelism chose to attract people to Jesus was the issue of life enhancement. The gospel degenerated into Jesus Christ will give you love, joy, peace, happiness, and lasting fulfillment.

Now to demonstrate the unscriptural nature of this very popular teaching, I'd like you to listen to the following story because the essence of what I'm saying pivots on this particular point. Two men are seated on an airplane.

The first is given a parachute and he's told to put it on because it would improve his flight. Now the guy's a little skeptical at first because he can't see how putting a parachute on in a plane could possibly improve his flight.

But after a while, he decides to experiment and see if the claim is true. And as he does, he notices the weight of it on his shoulders and the fact that he can't sit straight up. But he comforts himself with the thought that he was told the parachute would improve his flight, so he decides to give the thing a little time.

And as he waits, he starts to notice some of the other passengers are laughing at him because he's wearing a parachute on a plane. He starts to feel a bit humiliated. And as they point and laugh, he finally can't stand it any longer.

He slinks in his seat, unstraps the parachute, and throws it on the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart because as far as he's concerned, he was told an outright lie. Now the second man is given a parachute, but listen to what he's told.

He's told to put it on because at any moment he would be jumping 25 ,000 feet out of the plane. He gratefully puts it on. He doesn't notice the weight of it on his shoulders or the fact that he can't sit straight up.

His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he jumped without that parachute. Now let's analyze the motive and the result of each passenger's experience. The first man's motive for putting on the parachute was solely to improve his flight.

The result of his experience was that he was humiliated by the passengers, he was disillusioned, and somewhat bitter toward those who gave him the parachute. As far as he's concerned, it'll be a long time before someone gets one of those things on his back again.

Now the second man put on the parachute solely to escape the jump to come. And because of his knowledge of what would happen to him without the parachute, he has a deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart knowing that he's going to be saved from sure death.

This knowledge gives him the ability to withstand the mockery of the other passengers. His attitude toward those who gave him the parachute is one of heartfelt gratitude. Now listen to what the modern gospel says.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll give you love, joy, peace, happiness, and lasting fulfillment. In other words, Jesus will improve your flight. And so the sinner responds, and in an experimental fashion, puts on the Savior to see if the claim is true.

And what does he get? Just what Jesus promised. Temptation, tribulation, persecution. The other passengers mock him. So what does he do? He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ. He's offended, for the word's sake.

He's disillusioned and embittered. And quite rightly so. He was promised peace, love, joy, happiness, fulfillment. And all he got were trials and humiliation. His bitterness is directed toward those who gave him the so-called good news.

And now he's worse off than he was before because now he thinks he's given Jesus a try, and all he got was a big letdown. Another bitter and inoculated backslider. Instead of telling people that Jesus improves their flight, we should be warning the passengers they're going to have to jump out of the plane.

That it's appointed for a man once to die, and then comes judgment. And when a sinner understands the horrific consequences of violating God's law, then he will run to the Savior to escape the wrath that's to come.

And if we're true and faithful witnesses, that's what we'll be telling them. That there is wrath to come. Just like Jesus did. Like Paul did. Like Peter did. Like all of Scripture does. This is nothing new.

We've just gotten away from it over the last hundred years. Acts 17 .30 says, God commands all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.

You see, it isn't an issue of happiness, but an issue of righteousness. It doesn't matter how happy a sinner is, how much he's enjoying the pleasures of his sin, without the righteousness of Christ, he's going to perish on the day of judgment.

The Bible says, riches are worthless on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. You see, that's how I knew I needed a Savior. Kirk Cameron had riches. I had happiness. I had everything going for me.

But I knew that none of those things would do me any good when I stood before God on the day of judgment. That wouldn't impress God. He saw my sin. In spite of the fact of how He's blessed me, I sinned and offended Him.

It was the righteousness of Christ that I needed in order to be saved. Now this is important. Please listen. Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation. They are the results of salvation. But it's not legitimate to use these fruits as draw cards for salvation.

Why? Because if a person comes to God to find peace and joy and happiness without a truly repentant heart, broken over their sin, grieved in their heart that they have offended their Creator, and come through the door of repentance, they will not find peace with God.

They will not know the joy of the Lord. They will remain separated from God by their sin. By nature, children of wrath, the wrath of God will still abide on them. Enemies of God, separated from God, from Christ, without hope.

Now think of the second passenger. He had joy and peace in his heart. Why? It was because he knew that the parachute was going to save him from sure death. That's why he had peace and joy. And as a believer, I have, like Paul said, joy and peace in believing.

Because I know that the righteousness of Christ is going to save me from the wrath to come. Now with that thought in mind, let's take another look at an incident on board the plane. We have a brand new stewardess.

It's her first day on the job and she's carrying a pot of boiling hot coffee. She really wants to make an impression on the passengers. And that's exactly what she does because as she's walking down the aisle, she accidentally trips over somebody's foot and slops this boiling hot coffee into the lap of our second passenger.

Now, what's his reaction as this boiling hot liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he go, Oh man, that hurt! Yes, of course, he feels the pain. But then, does he stand up, unstrap the parachute, throw it on the floor, and say, The stupid parachute!

Of course not. Why should he? He didn't put the parachute on for a better flight. He put it on to save his life. And if anything, the hot coffee would cause him to cling tighter to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.

And if you and I have come to the Lord and put on the Savior for the right motive, to escape from the wrath that's to come, then when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we're not going to get angry at God.

We're not going to lose our joy and peace. Why should we? We didn't come to Jesus for a happy, more fulfilled lifestyle. We came because we know we violated His law and we've run to the love of Jesus Christ on the cross to escape from the wrath that's to come.

And sadly, we have literally millions of professing Christians who lose their joy and peace when the flight gets bumpy. That shouldn't happen. If anything, tribulation drives the true believer closer to the Savior.

It doesn't make them fall away. Why is this happening? Why do they fall away? Why do they lose their joy and peace? Because they're the product of a man-centered gospel. They came forward lacking repentance.

And without repentance, you cannot be saved. For years, I struggled with something called evangelical frustration. I so wanted people to come to Christ. I wanted them to get it and understand and surrender their life to Jesus that I unknowingly gave them this man-centered gospel with lots of enthusiasm, trying to really sell it.

And I'd say something like this. Man, you're never going to find peace without Jesus. You're never going to find it. I've tried everything. Money, celebrity, everything. Nothing's going to fill that hole like Jesus.

And if a person would respond and say, hey man, alright. Yeah, alright. I'll pray a prayer. Cool, let's try it. And I'd pray with them. And I'd tell them, man, when you say this, you've got to mean it with all your heart.

You've got to be sincere. It's not the words, it's the sincerity of your heart. And if we'd pray together, God, forgive me, I'm a sinner. He'd be like, God, forgive me, I'm a sinner. And I'm thinking to myself, man, this guy doesn't seem sincere.

He doesn't seem broken over his sin. There's no outward sign that the guy is really broken-hearted before the Lord. But if I could see inside of his heart, I would see that he was 100 sincere. He sincerely wanted to give this Jesus thing a try to see if he could get a buzz out of it.

He had tried sex, drugs, money, alcohol. Why not try this Jesus thing and see if it's as great as all these Christians say that it is? He wasn't broken over his sin. He wasn't fleeing from the wrath to come.

I hadn't told him there was wrath to come. He wasn't repenting over his sin. He didn't even know what his sin was. I glossed over that. Remember Romans 7, verse 7? I would not have known sin except through the law.

How can a guy repent if he doesn't even know what sin is? You see, in our culture today, people don't want to believe something is true unless they experience it for themselves. They don't want to take my word for it.

They don't want to take your word for it or your pastor's word for it. They don't even want to take the Holy Bible's word for it. They want to experience it for themselves. Then it becomes true for them.

Think of it this way. If you saw a man out on a lake who's drowning, but he doesn't think he's drowning, and you think to yourself, man, I think that guy's drowning. Yes, he's in trouble. He's drowning.

I'm going to go save him. You run out into the lake. You grab the guy by the neck. You swim up to the shore and you throw him up on the sand without telling him anything. He's not going to be very happy with you.

He's not going to want to get saved until he sees that he's in danger. Or think of it this way. If you came up to me and said, hey, Kirk. I said, yeah? Hey, man. This is a cure for Groninson's disease.

I sold my house to raise the money to buy this cure for you and I'm giving it to you as a free gift. I'd probably look at you and say, what? Groninson's disease? You sold your house to raise the money to buy this stuff for me and you're giving it to me as a free gift?

Oh, gee. Thanks a lot. Bye. Oh, man. That's another one of those nuts. That guy's so strange. I mean, that's probably how I'd react if you told me you sold your house to raise the money to buy a cure for a disease I hadn't even heard of.

But if you said it to me this way, it might make more sense. Hey, Kirk. You've got Groninson's disease. You're going to be dead in two weeks. I can see ten clear symptoms on your flesh. And then we talked about it and I became convinced that I had the disease because the symptoms were so evident.

And then I said, oh, man. I see what you're saying. What do I do? And then you said to me, don't worry. This is a cure for Groninson's disease. I sold my house to raise the money to buy this cure for you and I'm giving it to you as a free gift.

Despise your sacrifice? I'm not going to think you're strange. I'm going to appreciate it. I'm going to thank you. And I'm going to appropriate it. Why? Because I've seen the disease so that I appreciate the cure.

And sadly, what's happened is that we have preached the cure without first convincing people of the disease. We've preached a gospel of grace without first convincing people of the law that they're transgressors.

And as a result, we have literally millions of people in our country who think they have a relationship with Jesus because they invited Jesus into their heart, they accepted Jesus, but they did not come through the narrow gate of repentance, stripped of the false notion that they're a good person, surrendered to the Lord of the universe.

Why? Because they've never been convinced of the disease, that they truly appreciate the cure. 1 Timothy 1, verse 8. You don't need to turn around, I'll just tell you what it says. It says,. But we know that the law is good if it is used lawfully for the purpose for which it was designed.

If we use it wrongly, it's bad. People use the law and create legalism, stuff that's not good. But when it's used lawfully for the purpose for which it was designed, the Bible says it is good. Okay, what was the law designed for?

The following verse tells us. The law was not made for a righteous man, but for sinners. It even lists the sinners, the ungodly, the unholy, adulterers, perverts, murderers, liars. You see, if you want to bring an atheist to Christ, you don't need to get tied up in intellectual arguments with the guy.

Just give him the Ten Commandments, God's law, and let his own conscience work on him. The law was made for the ungodly. If you want to bring a Jew to Christ, give him the law of Moses. Give him the law of Moses.

Let it prepare his heart for grace. If you want to bring a Muslim to Christ, same thing. Give him the law of Moses. They respect Moses as a prophet. Give him the law of Moses, and let it strip him of his own self-righteousness and bring him to the foot of a blood-stained cross.

If you want to bring your children to Christ, we don't need to get them to join the God Club and convince them it's cooler than MTV. No. Show them the Ten Commandments so that they can see their personal sins against the Lord.

And they'll understand why Jesus died on the cross for them. And they'll know why they should cling to him forever and never let go. Think of the woman caught in the act of adultery. She had committed adultery.

Violation of the Seventh Commandment. The law called for her blood. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to turn but to fall at the feet of the Son of God for mercy. You see, that's what the law does.

It condemns. And maybe you're saying, no, no, no. You can't go around condemning sinners. But the truth is, they are condemned already. John 3, verse 18. He that does not believe is condemned already.