The Call To Evangelism — Ray Comfort

I left the big one home so you wouldn't feel intimidated. Anyway, it's good to be here, wherever here is. A GPS gave up. Let me deal with the elephant of the room. People often ask why my Bible is so big.

There's a reason for it. As you get older, your eyes go. In fact, I've been suffering from short-term memory loss recently, but worse than that, I've been suffering from short-term memory loss recently.

So the eyes tend to go, and so you need a bigger print. And so this is one of those large print Bibles. Here's Genesis chapter one. It's always good to keep your ID in your Bible in case you lose it. So Proverbs 10, please, in your Bibles, Proverbs 10, I think it's 22, sorry, Proverbs 11 .4.

Pastor asked why I didn't stand up. It's because it doesn't make too much difference. I'm always nervous when there's a tall pastor because his pulpit's usually so big. People wonder where the noise is coming from when I speak.

Anyway, Proverbs 11 .4 says, riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. I was recently standing in front of my mirror, gazing at my physique, my shirt off. My shirt off, and I looked at myself and said out loud, could be worse, and I heard my wife say, not much.

I was with a doctor recently, and I feel sorry for doctors because they have such a negative lifestyle. Everyone that comes to see them has got a problem. The doctor says, how are you doing? Not good.

And it must be depressing for them, so I went to see this doctor, brand new doctor, I determined to cheer him up in some way. And so he gave me a physical checkup. He checked in my left ear, had this little device, and 60 seconds doesn't sound like too long a time, but it's a long time when someone's looking in your ear.

I thought, what's he looking for, a brain light on the other side? What's going on? And after the 60 seconds, he stood in front of me, and with a sober tone and look on his face, he said, I want you to grab the earlobe and pull it down firmly.

So I did. I reached out, grabbed his earlobe, and pulled it down firmly. It cheered him up. It worked. I'd like to begin today by sharing my testimony, if I may, because it's relevant to what I'd like to speak about.

From the Fear of Death to Faith in Christ

I believe this is a very important message. It's my passion. It's on my heart. I was brought up in a home that had no religious instruction whatsoever. My mother was Jewish. She married a Gentile, and because she married a Gentile, family cut her off.

They were kind of hurt by the whole religious thing, so they gave me no instruction whatsoever. I think I went to church three times in a whole 22 years. I believed in God, prayed every night for about 10 years.

I would rattle through the Lord's Prayer just out of habit. But at the age of 20, I realized I'd accomplished everything in life that I ever wanted. I had my own home. I had my own business. If someone asked what I did for a living, I'd say, I mind my own business.

What do you do? I had my own wife. We'd made one child at that time. I had everything material I could want, extremely happy, as Moses, enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. But I realized I was part of the ultimate statistic, 10 out of 10 die, and it made no sense to me that all you attain in life, no matter what it is, it's going to be ripped from your hands by this thing called death that nobody talked about.

It was like I had this big happiness bubble, and the sharp pin of reality was going to one day prick it. I remember one night, I'd been married for about three years, sorry, three months, looked at my beautiful wife.

She was asleep. As I looked at her, I thought, death could seize upon her at any time, seize upon me, seize upon everything I love, and I'd have nothing to live for, despite all my material concerns. I remember tears streaming down my cheeks as I began to think of the futility of life.

I wondered if medical science would have an answer, but man at that time was too busy placing a man upon the moon to worry about what was going on on earth. So I thought, I wonder if the medical profession could help me.

So I went to see a doctor to see at least if I could extend this precious life of mine by living healthily, and I walked into his room, and he was sitting behind a desk smoking a cigarette, looking like death warmed up, and he was dead a few years later.

So the sense of futility gripped me as I couldn't figure out why I was alive, and never thought that God would be the answer. When I cried out, why, and tears streamed down my cheeks, I never thought that I was crying out to God, but I was.

And he faithfully heard that cry, and six months later I came to Christ, I was on a surfing trip with a friend who was a Christian, a brand new Christian, didn't really know what he was doing, took six and a half hours to lead me to Christ.

But I remember that night, reading my Bible, or his Bible should I say, and I read the words of Jesus, you've heard it said by them of old, you shall not commit adultery. And I thought, wow, I'm okay, if there's a heaven I'll make it there, because I've never committed adultery.

And then I read the words of Jesus, but I say to you, whoever looks upon a woman to lust for her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart. And it was like an arrow hit my chest, I thought I'm a dead man, if there's a judgment day, and God has seen my thought life, I'm in big trouble if he considers lust to be adultery, if he sees the very heart within me.

And that's when I understood the cross, when I realized I had the disease of sin, I understood that God had provided the cure in Christ dying on the cross for my sins. That night I repented, put my faith in Jesus, found everlasting life, it was not possible that death could hold him, and all that come to him receive remission of sins, and the gift of God which is eternal life.

And I went crazy with joy that I had found life in the very shadow of death, this light had sprung up and God had given me light and life, and so I began sharing with everyone I met, not as a wide-eyed fanatic, but when I got opportunity I would share, I'd give out tracts everywhere.

I actually purchased a printing press, a large printing press, and put it in our home and began printing gospel tracts. I had a billboard with scripture on it, put it outside our home, I had sign writing, professional sign writing put on my car, I purchased a 34-seater huge bus and put one foot high sign writing around the bus, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and life, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

On the front window of my store I had John chapter 3 verses 1 to 16 written in three-inch professional sign writing. I got a box, put it in the heart of our city, a city of 350 ,000 people, the city of Christchurch in New Zealand, and began preaching the gospel, did that almost every day for 12 years.

If anyone could have been considered a religious fanatic in those days, it was me. Nowadays I'm much worse. Some years ago I was on the road to Jerusalem from Jericho in Israel and I was in a bus with some tourists, we were over there doing a little ministry, and I was at the front of the bus and the rest of the people were down the back.

And I was looking as we came up this hill across this valley, 3 ,000 foot down across this valley, massive valley, at the other side and thinking perhaps this is where Jesus was referring to when he gave the story of the Good Samaritan.

And I was in awe with my nose up against the window on the right side of the bus, picture this. Everyone's down the back, I'm up the front, right side, looking across this 3 ,000 foot valley when suddenly the bus went over the cliff.

And I cannot tell you how horrified I was, I just cried in my heart, I'm a dead man. Let me tell you what happened. It was a narrow road and in an effort to get around to the right, the bus driver had swung the bus, sorry, turned to the left, swung the bus to the right, putting me over this cliff, not knowing what he was doing.

Within seconds he had turned around and we're just bouncing along, everyone's laughing down the back on the straight and narrow. I went from, I'm a dead man, I'm a dead man, to I live, I live in a matter of seconds.

That was my testimony. I was hung over the valley of the shadow of death without hope, without God, without life. And in a second when I saw that cross and understood it, I moved from I'm a dead man to I live, I live.

And I cannot tell you the gratitude that exploded in my heart on April the 24th, 1972, 1 .30 in the morning when I found everlasting life. And that's a high octane fuel that drives me to do the will of God.

It gets rid of my fears, it gives me zeal in my heart. That high octane gratitude. I was in my surf shop as this brand new Christian. I think the idea with surfers is to try and look as much like seaweed as you can.

And I had arrived, I had here sun bleached on my shoulders, bright turquoise shirt with white flowers and orange corduroys, looked like something the cat had dragged in. And that's why I was surprised when a 91-year-old Presbyterian minister in a three-piece suit walked into my surf shop, extended his hand and said, I hear you've become a Christian and shook my hand.

He had $10 in his hand, I liked that man from the moment I met him. But picture this, I was a bedraggled hippie, counterculture. He was a 91-year-old, three-piece suit, Presbyterian minister, establishment, and immediately we were like that as friends and brothers in Christ.

And for years after that, we had this wonderful fellowship in Christ. And he'd tell me stories of the First World War when he was a chaplain. One day his wife called and said, George is about to die, would you come and be with us at this time?

So I went around there and she was on the phone at the doorway. The phone had a rather loud ring because George was partly deaf. She ushered me into his bedroom, he had his teeth out, looked like he had left us.

I sat next to him and he says, is that you Ray? I said, yes. He says, I'm going to be with Jesus. And as I sat next to him, I thought what an honor, what a privilege I have to be present when a saint goes marching through to glory.

Now a saint isn't someone who's got a flat plate on the back of their head and fat babies with wings flying shoulder height. That's not a saint. They've been dead for 300 years. No, a saint is anyone who's repented and received imputed righteousness from God.

If you're saved, you're a saint in God's eyes. Look at the book of Ephesians to the saints of Ephesus, Philippi, the saints are at Philippi. And I was present when a saint was going to march through to glory.

So as I sat there, I thought, how will he go, Lord? How will he go? After 20 minutes, suddenly George lifted his fingers at the heavens, pointed to the sky and said, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I thought, whoa, what a way to go. Suddenly the phone rang, he sat up, and I was the one that just about died. He lasted another two years. But when he did go, we sung that hymn to God be the glory, great things he had done, so loved he the world that he gave us a son who yielded his life in atonement for sin and opened the life gate that all may go in.

What a glorious gospel we have. How can we not but speak that which we've seen and heard? Now, this is the point of me sharing my testimony. I am a Christian because Jesus gives righteousness. And on the day of wrath, I am going to need his righteousness to escape the wrath that's to come.

That's why I am a Christian, even Jesus, who has saved us from wrath to come. I didn't come to Jesus for happiness, because I was already very happy, already very fulfilled. I didn't have a God-shaped vacuum in my heart only God can fill.

Everything was full. I was as Moses, enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. If you were to be asked, what is America's greatest sin, many of you would legitimately say, well, it's abortion or homosexuality or blasphemy, adultery, fornication, pornography.

Idolatry and the Root of Human Sin

But there is one sin that is the root of all these sins, and it's the sin that God saw fit to address in the first two of the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.

You should not make yourself a graven image of any likeness, of anything on the earth or under the earth, et cetera. Idolatry is America's greatest sin. You say, what are you talking about? Well, Israel's greatest sin right through the Old Testament was idolatry.

This is how it would happen. They would forsake the moral law, and when you forsake the Ten Commandments, you have an image of God that's erroneous, a God that has no moral dictate. And when your God, your idol, has no moral dictate, doesn't say things like, you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not be a false witness, then you give yourself to sin because there's no condemnation from your God.

You see, you can make a God with your hands, or you can make a God with your mind. And this is why we have politicians that promote things that are an abomination to God, the slaughter of children in the womb, adultery, blasphemy, fornication, homosexuality, and they say, I have faith in God.

My God is like this. But their God doesn't exist. It's a figment of the imagination, the place of imagery, a God that's shaped to conform to our sins, a God that doesn't tell you what to do morally. And that leads to all other sin.

Adolf Hitler was an idolater. He had 100 ,000 Bibles printed, his own Bible. His Jesus was not the Jesus of the Bible, it was an Arian. He had a wrong image of God. But he did what he did in the name of God.

Nazis had God with us on their belts, the Nazi Germany belts. And so when you have a wrong image of God, you have no fear of God before your eyes, you can give yourself, especially to sexual sin, as Israel did so often in the Old Testament.

Rejecting the “Wonderful Plan” Gospel

And there is one thing that has promoted an idolatrous understanding of God's nature. And what I'm going to say is almost going to sound like heresy, because this is so prevalent within the contemporary body of Christ.

If you go to most church or ministry websites and look at the gospel proclamation, it will begin with, God has a wonderful plan for your life. You say, what's wrong with that? Well, think of Stephen being stoned to death, as great rocks pounded his flesh, spilled his blood, smashed his bones.

Lean down and say, wonderful plan. Or read Foxe's Book of Martyrs for bedtime reading. Or study the life and death of the apostles. Eleven of them died horrific deaths. You say, no, no, what about the abundant life?

Jesus promises an abundant life. Yeah, the word abundant just means full. It doesn't mean happy and problem free, it means full. The apostle Paul had a full life. It was full of beating, stoning, shipwreck, imprisonment, and martyrdom.

And so when we say, oh, God has a wonderful plan for your life, we don't present the gospel biblically. But if you want to hang on to that, because it's such a part of your gospel proclamation, let me see if I can change your mind with this one illustration.

You've been asked to speak at the World Trade Center on the 100th floor of the World Trade Center building, September the 10th, 2001, the night before the horror of 9 -1 -1. As you look at the vast sea of faces in front of you, a thousand people, and you know that every one of these people are going to die horrific deaths.

Some will fall 100 stories to the unforgiving sidewalks of New York. Others will stay within the building and fall with it and be crushed to death to a point where their bodies will never be discovered.

Or others will be burned alive with jet fuel. What are you going to say to these people? God has a wonderful plan for your life. You can't say that. Not to people who are about to die. Oh, no, you'd say something like this, oh, please listen to me.

The Bible says it's appointed a man once to die, and after this, the judgment. When you stand before God, you have to face a holy God who sees lust as adultery, hatred as murder. Every time you sin, you store up God's wrath.

Did you know that? Nothing is hid before the eyes of Him with whom we have to give an account. God is holy, and He'll by no means clear the guilty, and He's set aside this day in which every idle word a man speaks, He'll give an account of on the day of judgment.

And the Bible warns it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Better to fall onto the face of the sun to fall into the hands of the living God than your sins. Because the scriptures say all liars are their part in the lake of fire.

What a fearful thing. You'd say, do you know what death is? The Bible says death is wages. It's payment from God. We have been given the death sentence because we've violated His law, like a judge who has a heinous criminal in front of him who's raped three young ladies and slit their throats.

And that judge is angry and he says, you're going to electric chair. You have earned this. This is your sentence. This is what you deserve. This is your wages. And God has given us wages because we have earned it by our sins.

The Bible says lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. You see, we think to God it's all together just like we are. But the Bible says He is nothing like you and I. He's holy and righteous and will by no means clear the guilty.

The Cross, Substitution, and the Call to Repentance

But the same God is rich in mercy and He provided a Savior. God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus was the express image of the invisible God. The Old Testament says, a body you have prepared for me and God filled this body as a hand fills a glove.

And this perfect sinless man then gave his life as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. It's as simple as this. You and I broke God's law. Jesus paid the fine. That's why He cried out, it is finished, just before He died.

It is finished. The debt has been paid. Like a judge in a court of law can dismiss a guilty criminal, even though he's guilty, if someone pays his fine. You can say fine's paid, you're guilty, but you're out of here.

God can dismiss our case, commute our death sentence, let us live forever, all because of the suffering death and the resurrection of the Son of God. And what we must do is repent and trust in Him. That's what you'd say to people who are about to die.

And then you'd plead with them and say, oh, don't put this off. Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart. 150 ,000 people die every 24 hours. You could be dead tomorrow. That's what you'd say to people who are about to die.

You wouldn't speak of a wonderful plan. So why would you change the message for the man on the street who died 150 ,000 people every 24 hours, who some may die as horrific deaths as those in the World Trade Center burned alive in a car, crushed in a car, or dying of some cancerous, terrible disease?

If you have to change the message, then you have another gospel. Think of David approaching or being approached by Nathan. Nathan had been commissioned by God because David had violated his law. He'd broken all of the Ten Commandments.

He was a worker of iniquity. He had coveted his neighbor's wife, stole his neighbor's wife, lived a lie, committed adultery, committed murder, dishonored his parents, and thus dishonored God. So what did Nathan do to him?

Did he come before him and say, David, God has a wonderful plan for your life? What's that got to do with anything? He was there to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. So what did Nathan do? He told a story of a man who stole another man's lamb, his pet lamb, and killed him.

And David was indignant. He said, that man will restore fourfold and he will die. And Nathan said, you're the man, why have you despised the commandment of the Lord? And David said, I've sinned against God.

Would he have said that with a wonderful plan message? I've sinned against God? He would have said, well, your wonderful plan, let's see if it's as good as my wonderful plan. Let's see if it's as better.

Let's see if it's better. And he probably would have experimentally given it a go. And that's what happens when you talk to sinners about a wonderful plan. They say, is my life happy? Am I fulfilled? Is God's wonderful plan better?

Is it problem-free? Can he supply all my needs and make me rich and prosperous? And they experimentally give Jesus a try. And there's no have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, create in me a clean heart, O God. That's genuine conversion. And that comes when the moral law is used to bring the knowledge of sin.

Using the Moral Law to Awaken Conscience

When you open up the commandments as Jesus did in Mark 10 verse 17, remember that rich young ruler come running to Jesus, knelt down and said, good master, what should I do to inherit eternal life? He ran to him.

He was earnest. He knelt down. He was humble. He said, good master. He was complimentary. And then he asked the question that we long for people to ask us, what can I do to inherit eternal life? What did Jesus do?

Did he speak about a wonderful plan? No. Didn't even give him the cross. Didn't give him the gospel. Instead, he gave him the commandments. After he reproved his understanding of the word good, he says, why do you call me good?

There's none good but God. You ask any non-Christian, are you a good person? They'll almost always say, yes, I am. Proverbs 20 verse 6 says, most every man will proclaim his own goodness. Oh, I'm a good person.

Why? Because they're ignorant of God's righteousness. They go about to establish their own righteousness in their ignorance. And so we must reprove them and say, hey, let me show you what good is in God's book.

And you do that by doing what Jesus did. He said, you know the commandments. And then he named the commandments. And that's how you bring a knowledge of sin. Paul said, I had not known sin but by the law.

He said, by the law is the knowledge of sin. By the commandment. Sin became exceedingly sinful. The law prepares the heart for grace. It's like a doctor who wants to convince his patient to take a cure.

He's not going to take the cure unless he's first convinced he's got the disease. And sinners will not be convinced they have the disease of sin if that moral law isn't expounded and opened like Jesus did.

Moving from Hostility to Conscience

You say, man, this is a heavy thing. You know, I don't know if I could do that. Well, there is a way you can do it. Romans 8 verse 7 says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

The carnal mind, the unregenerate mind of the unsaved person, is in a place of enmity against God. It's in a state of hostility. Not against the idol he has in his mind, his own image of God, that celestial Santa Claus or divine butler, but he is in a state of enmity against the God who revealed himself in Scripture.

This is never more clearly illustrated than when people use God's name in blasphemy. Our nation has become blasphemous. Our nation is just like King David, committing adultery, committing murder, killing babies in the womb, blaspheming God's name, given to sexual sin.

How could anyone use God's name as a cuss word? Think about it. Would you use your mother's name as a cuss word? I ask hardened sinners, they say, oh no, I wouldn't do that. I say, why is that? Because you would dishonor her.

And yet people use God's name in place of a four-letter filth word to express disgust. We don't just dishonor God, we bring wrath upon ourselves, dare sinners for blasphemy in the Old Testament. And so we're a nation given to sin, just like King David.

The carnal mind is enmity against God, and that enmity is illustrated in blasphemy. But listen to what it says. The carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So that hostility towards the God revealed in Scripture is directed at the moral law, is not subject to the moral law, that's the carnal mind. It's in a place of rebellion. Don't you, God, tell me what to do with my life when it comes to morality.

That's what's written in the heart of man, wicked, rebellious. So if you want to witness to someone, you have to move away from the enmity of the carnal mind. So how do you do that? Well, you do what Paul did in Romans chapter 2, do what Jesus did in Mark 10 verse 17.

Move from the carnal mind to the conscience. It's a very simple thing to do, I do it all the time. Paul in Romans 2 said, you who say you shall not steal, do you steal? You say you shall not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

What's he doing? He's speaking to the conscience, the work of the law written on the heart because the conscience bears witness. And when the conscience bears witness, there's no enmity. You have a friend, you have an ally right in the heart of the enemy.

The conscience will bear witness and say, it's wrong to steal, wrong to lie, wrong to commit adultery, wrong to kill. It's written upon the heart, it's engraven with the point of a diamond, the Bible says in Jeremiah.

Conscience will drive men to drink, it will drive some to suicide. It is that prevalent, so strong a voice. And so that's what you appeal to when you open up the moral law. And so you can have Einstein sitting next to you in a plane, which would be strange because he died years ago, but you've got an Einstein and you feel intimidated because of his intellect.

But if you do what Jesus did and say, Albert, do you think you're a good person? Suddenly, you bring it down to a level playing field. There's no argument, there's no arguments, apologetical arguments about evolution, hypocrites in the church, judgments of God.

All those are pushed aside as he suddenly finds himself under the light of the moral law trying to defend himself from the conscience, which is accusing him from the inside. So how do you do this? I mean, practically, well, I use gospel tracts.

Practical Evangelism Through Gospel Tracts

I always carry tracts on me. These are our million dollar bill tracts. These aren't real million dollar bills. If they were, I wouldn't hold them up in front of human beings. They have the gospel on the back.

I always carry tracts on me. I'm never in public without tracts, and I've said all over the world, if anyone ever finds me in public without tracts, I'll give them $1 ,000 cash. Someone saw me in a swimming pool once and said, uh-huh.

I said, uh-huh, because tracts helped me to bring the subject up. If I see a non-Christian, I say, hey, did you get one of these? It's a million dollars. They say, wow. I say, you'll think of me when you get the change.

And people go, wow, it's a million bucks. I can quit work. I said, there's a gospel message on the back. Make sure you read it. They say, okay, thank you. No offense. You know, I believe in relationship evangelism.

You know where they say you build a relationship with someone for one or two years and you have to earn the right to share the gospel with them? I believe in relationship evangelism. When I meet a sinner, I build a relationship with them for one, maybe two minutes before I share the gospel with them, because there's a sense of urgency, because he could die tonight while I'm messing around, waiting for two years to build a relationship with him.

Who are the hardest people to witness to? Isn't it relations? They're the hardest people to witness to. I can witness to strangers, no problem. But my sister, who's not a Christian in New Zealand, the whole thought of it terrifies me.

I say, what, is your sister a monster? No. It's just that if some stranger says, get out of here, you silly little man, I don't like your silly voice, your accent, it makes me sick, go away, go away, go away, go away.

Doesn't worry me. I say, okay, catch you later. But if my sister says that to me, I've lost everything. I've lost my relationship with my sister. So that's a mountain for me. So why on earth would I run around trying to build relationships with people and make it harder for me by taking my time?

Best to go up to strangers. Best is straight away. So how do you do that practically? Well, this is what I normally do. Let me share my approach with strangers. You ready? Maybe you get your pen ready and a piece of paper if you've got it, or iPad.

This is what I do when I meet a stranger. I say this, how you doing? Do you like that? You got that? Just say hello. How you doing? Good morning. I'm Ray. He says, hey, I'm Fred. Nice to meet you, Fred.

Fred, I've got a question for you. He says, what? I say, do you think there's an afterlife? That one question has helped me deal with my fears more than anything else. Do you think there's an afterlife?

I didn't mention God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, heaven, hell, sin, righteousness, judgment, blood of Christ, or any of these things that make them and us feel a little uncomfortable. I just said, do you think there's an afterlife?

And this is, I'm not exaggerating, this is what happens almost every time. Fred says, well, I don't know. I said, do you think about it much? He says, all the time. I think, all the time? Fred's human.

He's not the Antichrist. He hasn't stabbed me in the throat with a sharp blade. He's the average American. 87 of Americans want under God kept in the Pledge of Allegiance. They're not Antichrist. They believe in God.

They're open to the gospel. So all I've said is, do you think there's an afterlife, Fred? And he says, well, I hope so. I said, well, let's find out how you're going to do on the Day of Judgment. Are you a good person?

He says, yeah, I'm a really good person. That's very predictable. I said, well, let's go through the commandments, Fred, to see how you're going to do it. Okay. How many lies have you told in your life?

Have you ever stolen something? Ever used God's name in vain? Ever looked with lust? He says, man, I've done all those. I said, well, Fred, I'm not judging you, but you just told me you're a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterate heart.

You've got to face God on Judgment Day. What are you going to do? How can you justify yourself? How can you escape hell? He said, man, I don't know. And then you share the gospel. And he says, thank you for sharing this with me.