Militant Evangelism! (15 page)

"Brethren, do something; do something, do something! While societies and unions make constitutions, let us win souls. I pray you, be men of action all of you. Get to work and quit yourselves like men. Old
Suvarov's
idea of war is mine: 'Forward and strike! No theory! Attack! Form a column! Charge bayonets! Plunge into the
center
of the enemy! Our one aim is to win souls; and this we are not to talk about, but do in the power of God!'"

SECTION TWO: THE BATTLE ITSELF

CHAPTER NINE PERILS OF FRONT-LINE BATTLE

"Let the dead bury the dead, but you go and preach the Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60).

T
here
was
once three doctors in the city of Adam. One day a deathly disease broke out in the metropolis, and authorities traced the cause to water from nearby Lake Iniquitous. Everyone was affected because the lake was the only source of the city's water supply.

The name of one of the physicians was Doctor Ian
Dulgence
. Unfortunately, Doctor
Dulgence
was a man whose sole motive for entering the medical profession was questionable. He saw his vocation purely as a lucrative means of income. As far as he was concerned, his patients' diseases were nothing more than the means to a wage, so he was never genuinely interested in their welfare, only his own.

The second doctor was Doctor I.G.
Norance
(B. A.). Doctor
Norance
had a good and honest heart. The reason he entered the profession was for the relief of suffering humanity. However, this doctor found to his dismay, that even though his patients listened intently to his advice, they would never finish the prescribed medicine he gave them. In fact, he became very discouraged because many of his customers went back to drinking from the polluted lake. This mystified the good doctor, as he earnestly wanted to see his patients cured.

The third doctor was Doctor "Bib"
Lical
(B.A). Bib (an affectionate nickname given to him when he was a child), also had a good and honest heart, and if there was any difference between him and Doctor
Norance
, it was the fact that he would always do things according to the medical instruction book. Never would he deviate from the directions given in the manual, even down to his bedside manner.

This difference between the two could be seen in the way they dealt with their patients. Doctor
Norance
lacked knowledge as to how to effectively deal with the disease which resulted from drinking from the lake. He didn't appreciate the importance of the fact, that each patient needed a shot to kill the infection before giving him medicine which was to be taken orally. His lack of knowledge as to why the patient should have the shot, caused him to merely give the medicine alone. Besides, he disliked seeing anyone in pain, and the needle
did
cause pain. Rather than
labor
on the consequences of drinking from Lake Iniquitous, he would speak of more pleasant things. He didn't want to alarm the patient, as he considered fear to be detrimental to his welfare.

"Bib"
however,
saw fear as something that could work for the long-term good of the sufferer. While talking with his patient, he would take the time to educate him by making sure he understood why he was ill, that it was solely because he had been drinking the water from Lake Iniquitous. He would show him highly magnified pictures of the virus, and watch his patient's eyes widen as he saw the death-causing bacteria that were invisible to the naked eye. He carefully explained that the disease produced tiny worms that would eat their way through the stomach linings, then through the bowels, eventually spreading poison throughout the whole body, bringing about an excruciating death. In fact, Doctor
Lical
didn't even hint that there was a cure to the affliction until he felt the patient understood the seriousness of his plight. Did the doctor do this because he wanted the patient to squirm in fear at the thought of what would happen to him? No. He knew that if he didn't see the seriousness of his dilemma, he would not continue with the prescribed medicine, and eventually die. Not one of Doctor
Lical's
patients went back to drinking from Lake Iniquitous.

Within the Church, we have three different types of professing Christians. First, we have the self-indulgent "believer." He made a commitment to the Savior under the sound of the modern Gospel. He was told that Jesus was a means of
selfimprovement
, that He would give him an abundant life of peace, joy, happiness, etc. Despite his practice of the Christian life through fellowship, worship and prayer, he is still in his sins, because he has never been awakened by the Law of God in the Hand of the Spirit. He cares only for himself, and has no zeal at all for the lost. He looks at God as a means to his own ends, rather than Lord of his life. He
calls
Jesus Lord, but doesn't do the things He tells him. He is the "backslider in heart," who is filled with his own ways, rather than the ways of God.

The second doctor is typical of the believer who is truly born again. He is a genuine convert, but he is in ignorance as to how to effectively reach the lost. He has been unwittingly shaped by twentieth century evangelical tradition. He preaches Christ crucified, repentance and faith, thinking that is complete biblical evangelism. However, his message lacks the Law to bring the "knowledge of sin." He also neglects to mention future punishment, so his converts don't stick, mainly because they are "his" converts, rather than God's. He doesn't see the need to follow the example of Jesus, and use the needle of the Law to penetrate the flesh for the saving medicine of the Gospel. He thinks that it is biblical to draw people to Christ through the promise of a rich, full, abundant and wonderful life, rather than driving them to the Savior with the Law of God, as did Spurgeon, Wesley, Whitefield, Moody, Finney, Luther, and others God so greatly used to reach the lost. He gives the patient the cure before convincing him that he has the disease, and so the medicine of the Gospel runs off his flesh, and is unable to do its saving work. In his zeal without knowledge, he circumnavigates the Divine means of producing contrition. He doesn't use the Law to convince the sinner that he has sinned against God, so there is therefore no
"godly
sorrow" that "works repentance."

Doctor Bib
Lical
however, is the Christian who has gained light on
biblical,
rather than
traditional
evangelism. He knows that those who drink in iniquity like water have a disease which has ten clear symptoms. Sin is transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4), and the Ten Commandments tell the sinner what sin is (Romans 7:13). He realizes that he must convince the sinner that he has the disease of sin, and he cannot do this without the Law (Romans 7:7). If he isn't first "convinced of the Law as a transgressor" (James 2:9), he will eventually use the Grace of God as an occasion of the flesh; he won't continue taking the cure. The Law must penetrate the flesh and make a way for the Gospel that is able to save his soul.

The Christian who knows that biblical evangelism is
Law to the proud and Grace to the
humble,
will take the time to open up the Commandments as Jesus did, so that the sinner will see the seriousness of his plight. He will not be afraid to use scriptures that take away his sense of well-being such as,
" ...
fear Him who has power to cast both your body and soul into Hell" (Matthew 10:28), or "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God" (Hebrews 10:31). He knows that the effect, if used in conjunction with the Law and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, will result in the sinner seeing the seriousness of the disease of sin, and he will then take the cure of the Gospel with deep appreciation and gratitude. The Christian who has evangelical zeal
with
knowledge, lets the arrows of God's Law pierce the sinner deeply, and waits for the hand of God's conviction to press him down (Psalm 38:2) until he says with the Psalmist, "There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me." It is only then that the sinner will "
labor
" and become "heavy laden," and seek the Savior to find rest to his soul.

The Abundant Life

Still, the question may
arise,
Why not use the fact that Christians have a full and happy life, to draw people to the Savior? The answer is clear. It is not biblical. Nowhere in Scripture do you find Jesus,

Paul,
or any of the disciples telling people that Jesus will make them happy. But what about the "abundant life" Jesus said He had come to bring? True, the Christian life is full. Study the life of Paul and see if you think he was bored while being stoned, shipwrecked, beaten and whipped. Check out what happened to the disciples when persecution hit. Read
Foxe's Book of Martyrs,
or
study
the life of John Wesley and see a man with a mission. He took the Great Commission seriously, and was
always abounding
in the work of the Lord, knowing that his
labor
was not in vain.

But, doesn't the Bible say, "Happy are the people whose God is the Lord?" (Psalm 144:15). Yes, and of course it is true. When a nation has God as their Lord, and obeys the Ten Commandments, then there is no theft, lying, murder, greed, lust, etc. In fact, the first of the Ten Commandments sets the stage for the rest.

It begins with the words, "I am the Lord your God," and when a people have God as their
Sovereign,
they are happy—as happened with Israel under Solomon. But when there are Christians in a nation whose God is not their Lord, there will be persecution, if they are living "godly in Christ Jesus."

Christians who are in ignorance as to biblical evangelism will be drawn into the unscriptural methods of modern evangelism, as I was for many years.

Tomb-stone Evangelism

I spoke to a lady once who had lived in both Texas and California, and she said she preferred tornadoes to earthquakes. The reason she gave, was that you had no choice when in an earthquake, but if you could see a tornado moving across the horizon, you knew you were safe. There was however, one drawback. "But," she said, "
if
it remains still, you are in big trouble!" If the twister didn't seem to be moving, it was actually heading for you.