Errant Evangelism, Part 2

Among those who responded to the truth and had God really begin this miraculous work within them the godly fear was tempered with favor. There was that sense of, “I can't believe that He would love me. Why, why would He? How is that even possible? I don't understand.” They are not misunderstanding the Gospel. They really do not rightly grasp Who God is! It’s what He's like. The amazing thing is that the God we have so horribly offended by killing His Son, [by adopting our own lifestyles and letting our sins kill Him], by however you want to phrase it, that same God invades human lives and changes them and makes them something they never had any hope of being. And He does it because He loves them.

But it has to begin with that fear first. That's got to be the first part.

Personal Testimony:

One of the main ways the Lord got me back in 1976 was through finally seeing Him for Who He really is. I had been married for three years and was still messed up on drugs. I couldn't break it. I couldn't do anything about it. One day that spring I was laying on the bed in our bedroom. My wife was off teaching school, and I was messed up. And I just cried out, “Oh, God, I can't do anything about this. I can't. There's nothing I can do. I thought I was a Christian; I thought I was okay with You, but I know now I am not okay with You. This is not honoring You."

I went to my pastor, and I said, “Pastor, I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that I'm a sinner and that He came to save sinners. I know all of that, but I don't understand the need for the blood.” And you see, the reason I didn't understand the need for the blood is because I didn't know who He is. I understood what He does; I did not understand who He is. Nobody had ever told me “He's God the Son.”

I had heard about the virgin birth, that it had happened, but I didn't understand it. I didn't understand that He had to be born of a virgin so that He would not have a sin nature. I didn't understand that. I didn't understand that He had to be completely pure and perfect in every aspect of His being. I didn't understand that only the blood of Someone like that could wash away my sins.

I thought all He had to do was die. I knew that He was obviously a very good man, and I had always assumed that because He was a very good man that if He dies, that's got to be good enough. But that wasn't good enough. I had to know who He is. And the moment I found out who He is I surrendered myself immediately to Him. And it changed my life completely. It enabled me to turn away from the drugs. It enabled me to turn away from the smoking of the cigarettes. It enabled me to turn away from all kinds of things that were not pleasing to Him in my life. But those were only the symptoms.