Revival's Golden Key (20 page)

Delightful Heart

I was killing time in a department store when an elderly man struck up a conversation with me. It wasn’t long before the conversation swung around to the things of God. When I asked this man if he had a Christian background, his answer was interesting. He said, “Oh, I am a churchgoer. I believe in God the Father; and the Son,
He’s around too... somewhere.”
His reply was both humorous and tragic. This man went to church, obviously had faith in God, believed in the deity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
yet he was not saved.

If you love God, your heart will go out to the millions who are in such a state. They are in the “valley of decision.” Valleys are often without direct light, and direct light is what sinners need. They don’t understand the issues. They are so close to salvation; it is as near as their heart and mouth. Yet without repentance, they will perish. Such thoughts are
grievous
. If you are born of God’s Spirit, you will find that something compels you to run to the lost, to reach out to the unsaved, because God gave you a new heart that delights to do His will.

Well-known author and pastor Oswald Chambers said, “So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does.” Bible teacher C. F. W.
Walthers
said, “A believer is ready to serve everybody wherever he can. He cannot but profess the gospel before men, even though
he
fore-sees that he can reap nothing but ridicule and scorn for it; yes, he is ready also to give his life for the gospel.” One cannot help but see Peter’s passion for the lost, so evidently portrayed for us in the Book of Acts. He put behind him the three denials of his Lord, and stood before a multitude on the day of Pentecost. When a crowd gathered around the lame man who had been healed, he boldly preached the gospel to them. He testified before the very ones who had murdered the Savior, and he told them so. He had a passion for his God and a passion for sinners.

What was the
apostle
Paul’s greatest passion? This longing, this aspiration, this yearning,
was simply for the salvation of the lost.
His greatest passion was for evangelism, something made evident by his own words. In the introduction of his letter to the Romans, Paul said that he was in debt to the world. His evangelistic zeal was so great that he said he would give up his relationship with Jesus Christ if it would mean that his brethren would be saved. Look at these sobering words:

I tell the truth in
Christ,
I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh (Romans 9:1-3).

I have looked at a number of Bible commentaries to see what they make of these verses. They have said that Paul could not be speaking of his own salvation. The reference is rather to Paul’s willingness to be cut off from Israel. It’s my understanding that the apostle was
already
cut off from Israel because of his faith in Jesus. If it was merely a reference to being cut off from his people, why did he say that he had
already
suffered the loss of all things? If they were but rubbish to him, why then does he have to back that up with (what seems like) oaths to make his point?

It is as though Paul was writing to hearers who would not be able to understand such love. How could evangelistic intensity weigh so heavy on a man that he was pro pared to be cut off from any association with the Lord Jesus, to see that desire fulfilled? Such a statement could not penetrate selfish minds without a thoughtful preparation. They would not believe him, so Paul testifies that in what he was about to say:

■    He is telling the truth in Christ. The very One who was truth itself was Paul’s witness that what he was about to say was true.

■    His Holy Spirit-regenerated conscience bore witness that he spoke the truth. He had cultivated a conscience that was tender before God and man, and the “work of the Law” did not accuse him of lying. His words could not be dismissed as mere exaggeration, or even hyperbole.

Deep within the soul of this man of God lay a bur-den—a great sorrow, a continual grief. Horror of horrors —he was saved, but his brethren were not.

Perhaps you do think Paul was lying when he said that his concern for the lost meant more to him than his relationship with Jesus. Maybe he had no fear that all liars would have their part in the lake of fire. Per-haps he had no concern that in bearing false witness, he would transgress the Ninth Commandment, for which Ananias and
Sapphira
where swiftly struck dead in their crooked tracks. Of course, we can’t be the judge as to whether or not Paul was telling the truth in Christ, that his conscience was bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, but there certainly is evidence of his evangelistic priority in his writings.

Moses said a similar thing when he asked that God would cut him out of the book of life, rather than judge Israel.

In light of these thoughts, I don’t know how anyone can call himself a Christian and not have concern for the lost. Charles Spurgeon said, “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.”

He continued, “The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman, who cares not for the scorch or the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set its heart. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the

teeth
of our exertions, and let not one go there
unwarned
and
unprayed
for.”

When an emergency vehicle drives through a city, the law demands that every other vehicle must pull over and stop. Why?
Because someone’s life may be in jeopardy.
It is to be given great priority. That’s how we should be when it comes to the eternal salvation of men and women. There is an extreme emergency.
Everything
else must come to a standstill, or we are in danger of transgressing the Moral Law, which demands “You shall love your
neighbor
as yourself.”

Hell should be so real to us that its flames burn away apathy and motivate us to warn the lost. Do we see the unsaved as hell’s future fuel? Do we understand that sinful humanity is the anvil of the justice of God? Have we ever been horrified or wept because we fear their fate? The depth of our evangelistic zeal will be in direct proportion to the love we have. If you are not concerned about your
neighbor’s
salvation, then I am concerned for yours.

The evangelistic zeal described on the previous pages should characterize a normal, biblical Christian. However, according to the
Dallas Morning News
(June 11, 1994), sixty-eight percent of professing Christians outside of the “Bible Belt” don’t see evangelism as being the number-one priority of the Church. Also in 1994, the
Barna
Research Group found that among American adults who said that they were “born again,” seventy-five percent couldn’t even define the Great Commission. A survey by
Christianity Today
(a major evangelistic magazine) found that only one percent of their readership said they had witnessed to someone “recently.” That means ninety-nine percent of their readership were just “lukewarm” when it came to concern for the fate of the ungodly. According to
Zondervan Church Source,
ninety-seven percent of the Church has no involvement in any sort of evangelism. Only once in Scripture did Jesus give three parables in a row (Luke chapter 15). He did so to illustrate God’s profound concern for the lost soul.

How is it that so many who are within the Church can profess to love God, yet neglect or even
despise
evangelism? The answer is frightening.

CHAPTER 19

THE RICH MAN

S
ome years ago, I read the story Jesus told of “Lazarus and the Rich Man,” and interpreted it in a radically different slant than most. In fact, I have searched many commentaries, and haven’t found even one with the same interpretation. I submitted it to seven godly men. Six passed it as being biblically sound. The seventh
wasn’t
too sure. I submit it to you for your consideration.

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

“So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

“And being in torments in [hell], he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar
off,
and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’

“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five
brothers, that
he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
’
And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
’
But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead’” (Luke 16:19-31).

Is this a picture of the way of salvation? If it is, then it’s totally inconsistent with every other biblical reference to deliverance from death. Those who would seek to justify good works as a means of entrance into heaven could find adequate evidence here. Let’s look at the passage in the light of such a thought.

First, what was the rich man’s sin? Obviously, it was failure to feed Lazarus. If that is the case, then he could have
earned
salvation. If a non-Christian wanted to earn his way into heaven, should he then give food to the homeless? How much food would merit eternal life?

No, since salvation is “by grace [divine influence]... through faith...not of works” (Ephesians 2:8
,9
), the rich man’s sin could not have been a mere failure to give Lazarus free food.

Perhaps his sin was the fact that he was rich. Then Abraham should have been damned, for he was rich. Was gluttony the rich man’s sin? Not necessarily. According to
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words,
“sumptuously” means “goodly.”

Why the reference to his clothing? Was his apparel or the
color
of it abhorrent to God?

Second, what did Lazarus do to merit salvation? Did his suffering in this life appease the wrath of God, and gain him entrance into the next? If so, then let us seek suffering instead of the Savior. Let us inflict our bodies as did the prophets of Baal, or crawl up the steps of some cold cathedral until blood pours from festered wounds,
then
call for the dogs to lick them. If this is a picture of the way of salvation, then eternal justice can be perverted, God can be bribed, and the sacrifice of the wicked is not an abomination to the Lord.