Militant Evangelism! (18 page)

"'For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in
Me
,' says the Lord" (Jeremiah 39:18).

This is the message we are to deliver. He who keeps his life will lose it, but those that trust in the Lord will be safe on that Day. On the Day of Judgment, the sword of the Word of God will not fall upon him, because it fell on the Savior two thousand years ago. The name
Ebed-Melech
means "servant of a king." Those who are servants of the King will be true to the commission given them and carry out His every command.

CHAPTER TEN: THE TEN STAR GENERAL

”... looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

I
n previous chapters we have established that it is very clear from scripture that God doesn't want sinners to perish. His will is for the world to be saved, and it is also clear from scripture that we should be seeking to
fulfill
the Great Commission. How then can we motivate ourselves to do so?

I wonder if you are happy with your reaction to the word "evangelism?" Does it produce a feeling of guilt or joy? Do you run
to
your evangelical responsibility as did Philip to the Ethiopian in Acts Chapter 8, or do you run
from
your evangelical responsibility as did Jonah? The answer will more than likely be, "A little of both." The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You could identify with me when I said in an earlier chapter I was pleased to have an empty seat next to me in a plane. Our heart wants to seek and save that which is lost, but our
Adamic
nature would far rather stay tucked in the bed of indifference. However, my motivation comes from the knowledge that,
if I really care about the person who sits next to me,
I will make every effort to witness to him.

I remember sitting next to a man in his early twenties who wasn't at all open to the things of God. He wasn't antagonistic, just apathetic. My questions received minimal response. I could have easily pacified my conscience by saying that I had done all I could to reach out to him.

As I was typing on my laptop computer, he looked at it and said, "I'm not reading what you are writing—my eyesight isn't good enough." Suddenly, I saw my opportunity and said, "This is an amazing computer. It can create
huge
type." I quickly typed out, "Unless you repent, you shall perish," and said, "Watch this." I put a 60 point "font" in front of the scripture, pushed a few buttons, and before the man's eyes appeared the huge wording, "UNLESS YOU REPENT, YOU SHALL PERISH." He was very quiet. I told him they were the words of Jesus, and that if he as much as lusted after a woman, he had committed adultery in his heart. He looked at me and soberly said,
"I'm going to Hell a thousand times over then
. ”
For the next few moments I had the opening to reason with him about his salvation. If we love the world enough, we will break free from every argument, reason, excuse, rationalization,
defense
and justification we can find for silence, given to us by the devil or by our fearful and dispassionate mind.

In the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, he tells how he continually prays for Philemon, saying that he has heard of the "love and faith" which he has, both towards the Lord and towards his brethren. Then he says that the "sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus" (Verse 6).

The Greek word for
effective
means "active, operative and powerful." Isn't that what we want? We want to be active, operative and powerful in our witness for the Gospel. The key to getting this effectuality is very clear.

Both the love and faith Paul spoke of are not
passive.
Love is not dormant. If we have love for God and man, we will share our faith because from those two fruits of the Spirit (love and faith) spring most of the other fruits. Love will produce goodness, gentleness and patience, while from faith issues joy and peace. Our love will be the gasoline to motivate us, and our joy will be the energy that keeps our battery charged.

The fact that God wants sinners to be saved is the very reason He tarries (2 Peter 3:9), so the sooner the Gospel of repentance is preached to all nations, the sooner men will repent, and the sooner Jesus Christ will return to this earth to set up His everlasting Kingdom.

The Key

In Philippians, Paul speaks of God exalting Jesus and giving Him a name which is above every name, and that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). Then he says that we should work out our salvation with "fear and trembling." How do we obtain those commanded virtues
of
fear
and
trembling
'!—by seeing Jesus Christ as "Lord." This same thought is brought out in Psalm 2:11-12. Yet, many Christians still see Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels, the man from Nazareth limited to time and space. They still picture Him as the man who grew tired, hungry and thirsty. If that is our image of the risen Son of God, whether it
be
in our mind or a picture on the wall, we must rid ourselves of it because it is hindering us from growing in God.

The Apostle Paul said that we "have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more" (2 Corinthians 5:16). The word "flesh" is "
sarx
," and means "human nature with its frailties." Look at the Amplified Bible's rendering of the verse:

"... even though we did once estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."

A five star general has a way of encouraging the troops, just by his existence. He is someone for the average soldier to look to for leadership. He carries an authority—power to make life and death decisions (yours), and he didn't get to his position of responsibility by sitting in passivity. His place of status commands respect.

Our Captain of the Lord of Hosts is no longer "lower than the angels." That was purely for the "suffering of death." He is now "crowned with glory and
honor
." His position commands our utmost respect, our veneration, our worship.
He is to be feared.
He is the Lord of Glory, all power has been given unto Him, with the glory that He had with the Father "before the world was."

Isaiah saw Him in His pre-incarnation glory and said that he saw the Lord sitting upon a glorious throne, and that He was "high and lifted up and His train filled the temple . . . the seraphim cried, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts ... the posts of the doors moved at the voice of Him ... then said I, Woe is me!
For I am undone!"
(Isaiah 6:3-5). John also saw Him in His glory and said that he saw "the Son of Man ... and His eyes were as a flame of fire ... and His voice as the sound of many waters ... and His countenance was as the sun shines in His strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead" (Revelation 1:13-17).

This is what the Scriptures are saying when they speak of the sharing of our faith becoming effective
by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
The word "acknowledgment" means to
understand
every good thing we have in Christ. You and I have treasure in earthen vessels.
The very source of all life dwells in us.
We have Christ in us, the hope of glory. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him. If we could comprehend what we have in the Savior, we would never lack joy, and we would never for a minute let apathy enter our hearts. We would radiate with love for God at what He has given us in Christ.

Paul spoke from experience when he expressed the fact of not knowing Jesus "after the flesh." We are not told what knowledge he had of Him in His flesh, but he certainly knew Jesus in His glory. The blinding light from Heaven took away his eyesight, on the road to Damascus. His fleshly eyes glimpsed light inaccessible. When he wrote to the Thessalonians, his mind wasn't clouded by a false image of the Son of God because he knew Him as the "King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who only has immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable."

He wrote that the Thessalonians shouldn't be troubled because "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power . . . " (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).

As we see Jesus Christ as the Lord of Glory, we will not only work out our salvation with "fear and trembling," but the fear of God in us will begin to work for the salvation of those around us who are at present the heirs of eternal damnation.

This same vengeance with fire is spoken of by the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 66:

"For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and those slain by the sword shall be many" (Verses 15-16).

A friend once told me how his daughter jumped out of bed, and with a radiant face told how she had dreamed of the coming of the Lord. She said how she had heard the trumpet sounding and had seen Him in His Glory, flames were leaping from house roofs, and those who were inside were fleeing in terror. But this little girl woke up radiant,
because she was forgiven, she had nothing to fear.
She was one of those who will "love His appearing." The Scriptures tell us that it "does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). The second the trumpet
sounds,
in one "twinkling of an eye" we shall be transformed into a body not subject to the terror that the ungodly will feel. We shall have boldness on that Great Day, but for those still in their sins, that Day will be a day of unspeakable terror! The Apostle Paul says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ... wherefore knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men."

Each of us should be able to say with the hymn writer:

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift Sword, His Truth is marching on."

What Must Our Sins be
Like
?

The prophet Isaiah tells us of our unregenerate state before God by saying that "we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses
are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isaiah 64:6). Note carefully that it is not our
sins
that are as filthy rags in His sight,
but our
righteousnesses
.
If that is the case, what must our
sins
be like in the perception of our Holy Creator? If that which is "highly esteemed" among men is an abomination in the sight of God, what must that look like which is detestable among men?