Militant Evangelism! (30 page)

Dogmatic Resistance

Even before I was converted, I stumbled upon a major scriptural principle. I was riding my motorbike home from work, when a rather large and vicious German shepherd rushed out of a driveway and began to snap at my back tire. As I was about to pour the power on (it was a Honda 50) and leave the animal in the dust, I had a thought: "Wait a minute!
Greater is that which I am sitting on than that which is chasing me!"
I then stopped the bike, much to the bewilderment of the dog, turned it around and chased that animal up the street.

If
satan
is chasing you, slam on the brakes and say, "Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world," then submit afresh to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You have God's promise on that (James 4:17).

Nuts to You

Sue and I were once trying to pry resistant nuts from their shells. They would crack open, but were very difficult to get out from the inside of their casings. Suddenly, a bright idea struck me. I put one in the microwave oven for ten seconds. Then, when I cracked the nut, no longer did it cling to the shell, but came out without the slightest resistance.

If there is one thing that will bring the timid Christian out of his shell, it is the heat of persecution. That's all that happened when God allowed Saul to put the early Church in the heat of the microwave. Persecution put the fear of God in the hearts of those who were exercised by it. The puritan author, William
Gurnall
, the author of,
The Christian in Complete Armour
of which Spurgeon said, "
Gurnall's
work is peerless and priceless," said:

"We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. One fear causes another. When man's terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God."

The Army of God executes deserters, cowards and traitors (Hebrews 10:26, Revelation 21:8).

Trials also can have the effect of bringing us to our knees and seeking God's will rather than our own. In South Korea, a baseball team called the "Dolphins" began a training program with a difference. They would climb a high mountain, remove their shirts and stand bare-chested in the freezing wind. Then they would dig holes in the ice, and subject their bodies to freezing cold water. They said that it made the team hardy, and also promoted team unity. They went from being a laughing stock, to the top of the league. Now all the other teams have imitated their training program.

As much as we don't like the thought, blessings tend to take our eyes off God, and trials put them back on. Icy tribulation builds strength of character within the Christian, and the cold winds of persecution purify the Church bringing a sense of unity of purpose.

We need not wait for God's chastening hand; if we chasten ourselves, we need not be chastened. We must focus our hearts on God now. Without a genuine move of His Spirit in the near future, an entire generation will destroy itself.

In 1963, the U.S. Government took the Ten Commandments off the walls of the schools and prayer from the
classroom,
and the nation is reaping a whirlwind of destruction. When there is no wall of absolute authority, anarchy comes in like a flood. When a generation has no fear of God before their
eyes, then the laws which forbid murder have no influence. On any given day in the U.S., an estimated 100,000 guns and knives are smuggled into schools.

How on earth do we move the Hand of the God of Heaven? The answer is, and has always been twofold. We must first get on our knees and beseech God to save this generation,
then
ask Him to use us to take the
means
of salvation to the unsaved. He has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. He has entrusted us with the Word of reconciliation, and it is therefore up to us to break free from that which binds us.

Three front row infantrymen were Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-
Nego
. The King told them to bow down to his idol, but rather than sin against God, they refused. They knew that the Law said,

"I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before
Me
. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those that hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments" (Exodus 20:1-6).

The three godly men loved God and therefore kept His Commandments. Their choice was to compromise and keep in good with the king, or obey God wholeheartedly and be cast into the fiery furnace. These men knew what was acceptable. Like David when he faced Goliath, they didn't need to seek the mind of the Lord in this matter, because the Law had already given them knowledge of right from wrong. Look at what they said to the King when he threatened them with such a terrible death:

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up" (Daniel 3:16-18).

The warrior of Jesus Christ will not bow down to the golden image of mammon, with its promise of gratification, security and comfort. Even if the devil threatens to heat up the furnace of persecution and tribulation seven times, he will not bow down. He looks to the Word of God as his authority "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts."

He is a soldier of Christ and therefore thanks God that he has been counted worthy to suffer for the name of the Savior. He is as Moses who broke free from the gratification of Egypt, "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin."

In the natural realm, we cause muscle growth through resistance. If you want to grow physically, get into a swimming pool and hold a five gallon container filled with water at head level. To stay afloat, you will have to kick for dear life. The key in this exercise is to have the lid off the container, face it down and let the water drain out as you kick. A great consolation is that you know that as time passes, as you tire, the weight is going to get lighter, and that knowledge will spur you on.

As you step into the waters of personal evangelism, the weight of apprehension may seem unbearable, but as you pour yourself out for the Gospel, you will have the knowledge that God will relieve you of the weight. Each time you exercise yourself in this, you will strengthen yourself spiritually.

Hive of Activity

Pray that God would
raise
up more
laborers
, because there are so few. Sometime ago, I finished speaking at a church in Minneapolis, when the pastor of evangelism took hold of the microphone. He was an ex-cop, and his voice cracked with emotion as he spoke of an accident victim he once held in his arms. The critically injured man thrashed back and forth for a moment, sighed deeply, then
passed into eternity. The pastor's voice was filled with emotion, because his own church had over a thousand members, and only five attended his evangelism class.

It was obvious that the army's hive of activity was in the barracks of everything but evangelism. He pleaded, saying, "What's wrong with you?
Don't you care that people in our city are going to Hell?
I can teach you to rid yourself of fear . . .
" His
was no proud boast. The prison doors of fear
can
be opened with very simple keys—a knowledge of God's will, ordered priorities, love that is not passive, gratitude for the cross, and the use of the Law before Grace.

The Voice of the Rescuer

On a warm spring day in New York, a fire broke out in a high rise building. When firemen arrived, they saw a man on a ledge on the 12th floor. Smoke billowed out from the building, blinding the terrified man and forcing him to the very edge. Death seemed to licks its lips.

Quickly, a fireman was lowered from above by a rope, and thankfully rescued him before he was forced to jump to his death. The delivered man said that it was a miracle that he was saved. He said that he was blind, but heard the voice of his
rescuer,
and from there clung to him for dear life.

How perfectly that sums up our salvation. We had climbed the stairs of the high rise of sin, and
found that the Law of sin and death forced us onto the ledge of futility. We stood blind, fearful, helpless and hopeless ...
until we heard the voice of our Savior.
We heard the joyful sound of the voice of the Son of God, as He reached out His holy hand and snatched us from death's dark door.
But there are still others on the ledge going through the terror we once experienced.
We cannot rest until we direct them into the hands of Jesus.

I thank God that He saved me while I was young, while I still have energy to reach out to the lost. I pray that God will make me to know the number of my days that I might "apply my heart to wisdom," and it's the epitome of wisdom to spend every ounce of energy and every moment of every day seeking, in some way, the salvation of souls.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE THREE-FOLD BATTLE

"Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy" (Psalm 107:2).

T
he moment we put our faith in the Son of God, we step right into the middle of a threefold battle. We find that we are torn by the enemies of the world, the flesh and the devil. The flesh, whose appetite was fully satisfied with the pleasures of sin, is suddenly starved to a point of gnawing at the mind for want of food causing what the Scriptures call a "war in your members." Thoughts which once were acceptable, suddenly stir the alarm of conscience. Not long after my conversion, I became so concerned about this battle within my mind, I sought deliverance prayer. I was a little disappointed that nothing happened. It wasn't a demon, just the rotten aroma of my corrupt and sinful
Adamic
self. I was now a new creature in Christ Jesus, old things had passed away, and all things had become new. The old nature stunk because it was dead in Christ, and now I had to bury it.

Just after our first child began to walk, he picked up a blanket and adopted it as his "cuddly." He would take that blanket wherever he went. In the usual child-like manner, he would put two fingers and part of his blanket into his mouth and make sucking noises. When it was washed and hung on the clothesline, he would stand beneath it and jump up to try and grab it. We felt that we had better try and break the habit before his wedding day, so we cut it in half and gave it to him. Then the next day, we secretly cut it in half again, and every few days, we would cut it in half, until the thing just became so small, it just disappeared.

That is what we are to do with the flesh. It is forever running around like a turkey with its head chopped off. It is dead, but it won't lie down without a little help from the whetted blade of the two-edged sword. The witless creature not only needs to have its head removed, it needs to be gutted, plucked, and its soft flesh carved on the wooden plate of Calvary's cross. That will put thanksgiving in our hearts.

The only access the enemy has to us is through the flesh, and if we deal with it once and for all, the world will have no attraction for us and the devil will have no foothold on us. It is vital to identify this
Judas in our heart.
That old nature is nothing more than a cowardly traitor who will cry, "Master, Master," and then betray
the Son of man with a kiss. We must so hang Judas by the neck until he "bursts asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gush out." If we do not deal with this enemy, he will be our downfall.