Sin, Righteousness, Judgment and the Gospel
John 16:8-11
December 17, 2006

This is a repeat of a message that I gave on March 16, 2003. It has a lot of Scripture quotations. Remember, as always, as I read the scripture quotations that it is the word of God.

[Prayer]

Before Jesus’s crucifixion, he explained to his disciples that he was going back to the Father and that, when he went, he would not leave them alone, that he would send the counselor, Holy Spirit, into the world to continue the work that he had started. This is what he said in John chapter 16, verses 8 through 11:

“8When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” (John 16:8-11 –NIV)

The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.
Judgment:
I’m not going to say exactly where I’m going with this message, but I’m going to talk about judgment first. In verse 11, Jesus said, “…in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” The prince of this world, of course, is Satan, the devil. He already stands condemned. There is no salvation for him. So, when Jesus speaks about judgment, in this case he is talking about condemnation. There is condemnation. We know for a fact that, at least, Satan stands condemned. Just what is he condemned to?

Well, here’s what Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-46:

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

I might point out at this time that the righteous were not righteous because they helped and took care of “the least of Jesus’s brothers,” but they took care of the least of Jesus’s brothers because they were righteous.

But look at what the King will say to those on his left in verse 41: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” This punishment will be prepared for the devil and his angels, but others will also be subjected to it. Look at what it says in verse 46: “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” And in the apostle John’s vision of the final judgment in Revelation chapter 20 he says, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:15) This is the same “lake of fire” where the devil had been thrown in Revelation 20:10 right before the final judgment. Revelation 20:10 says that they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Two different words are used in the New Testament to refer to the places where God’s eternal punishment is carried out. (And I should point out that punishment is not really the appropriate word. In the Bible, punishment is used to bring about repentance and a change in behavior. God punishes those he loves and treats as sons. What we are talking about here is God’s vengeance. There will be no chance for repentance for the unrighteous, only God’s vengeance.) Two different words are used for the places of punishment or vengeance. One is Gehenna. It is used twelve times in the New Testament. It is always translated hell in the NIV, the New American Standard, as well as the King James, the RSV and the New Living Translation.  According to my Bible dictionary, Gehenna refers to the Valley of Hinnom or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which in Jesus’s time, was the trash dump outside of Jerusalem. It was kept burning continually. In Old Testament times, it was a place where people sacrificed their children to pagan gods in the hope of gaining power and prosperity. It was a place of extreme evil and wickedness. Listen to what God says through the prophet Jeremiah:

31They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire– something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. 32So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 33Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. (Jeremiah 7:31-33)

This Gehenna, this Valley of Ben Hinnom is an awful, evil place. Listen to what Jesus said when he rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the law for their self-righteousness and hypocrisy. This is from Matthew 23:15:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” (Mat. 23:15)

Hell is Gehenna. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees were teaching their disciples to be sons of the Gehenna where people had sacrificed their own children to pagan gods and where the trash and garbage was now dumped and burned! It was also the place where they, themselves, were headed. In verse 23 Jesus says, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

Here are some other places where the word hell (Gehenna) is used. Matthew 5:22 (This is Jesus speaking):

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

And Matthew 5:28 and 29:

“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

Mark, in his gospel, adds, “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched,” a quote from Isaiah 66:24. “It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

And Matthew 10:28:

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Now let’s go on to the second word that’s used in the New Testament to refer to a place of torment, hades. Hades, in Greek mythology, is the underworld, which is ruled over by the god Hades. It’s the place where the dead go. The word Hades occurs ten times in the New Testament and numerous times in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint. (The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was in use at the time of Jesus and of the early church.) In the Septuagint, hades is used to translate the Hebrew word Sheol. In the Old Testament, Sheol is the place where the dead go. It is sometimes translated as hell (in the King James), sometimes as the grave. It is never translated as hell in the NIV. (If you look at the NIV footnotes, frequently when the translators used the word grave, there will be a footnote that says: Hebrew: Sheol. In the New Testament, in the NIV, hades is never translated as hell. Sometimes it is translated as “the depths,” as in Luke 10:15:

“And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.”

Sometime it is simply left as hades. The New Living Translation sometimes translates hades as the place of the dead. The more literal translations don’t try to translate it, but simply leave it as Hades.

To get an idea of what hades means, we need to look at the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. (I’m quoting quite a bit of scripture here because we usually don’t spend much time on passages that talk about God’s judgment.) Here’s what it says:

19“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
24So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29“Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:19-31 –NIV)

I’m quoting the NIV which says, in verse 23, “In hell, where he was in torment…” But the word used is actually Hades. Let’s look at a couple of other translations. The NASB says:

“And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

While the New Living Translation says:

“…and his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham.”

Therefore, Hades is the place the dead go to await resurrection to God’s final judgment. At the end of the age there will be a final judgment. Anyone whose name is not found written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire, the second death. Hades will also be destroyed at that time. Revelation 20:14 says, “Then, death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.” I believe that the lake of fire is what Jesus was referring to as Gehenna and virtually all the bible translations translate as hell. To quote the late J. Vernon McGee, “Hell is not yet open for business.”

J. Vernon McGee spoke a little humorously about hell in that quotation, but it is a very serious subject which, I am convinced, we have not been taking anywhere nearly seriously enough. There are many more references to God’s wrath and judgment and to torment and eternal punishment, to being burned up and consumed, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched—which I have not mentioned.  (But they’re there.)  Think very seriously about the consequences of God’s judgment.

The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.
Sin:
John 16:9 says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt with regard to sin because they don’t believe in him. Now, I want to talk about what sin is. If we are condemned, what is it that we will be condemned for? 1 John 3:4 says, “Everyone who breaks the law, sins; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the breaking of the law. The law the apostle John is talking about is God’s law. He gave it to Moses to record in the Old Testament. And when Jesus came, he made it even clearer that it wasn’t only what we do outwardly in keeping the law that counts, but what’s in our hearts.

Before we look at the Law, I want to remind you that God, who made us and who sustains our very lives from moment to moment, does not change. If he took sin very seriously in the past, he looks at it in exactly the same way today. Now let’s look at some of the commandments.

The sixth commandment says, “You shall not murder.” The Law of Moses prescribes the death penalty for murder. We think that it’s a very serious thing to commit murder, also. We still have the death penalty in our civil law (at least in most places in the United States) for murder. But listen to what Jesus said about the sixth commandment: “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” (Matt. 5:22 –NASB) I used the NASB translation because “in danger of the fire of hell,” as some of the other translations render it, makes it sound like your not quite guilty enough to go to hell, but just coming close. You are not just coming close. You are guilty.

Now let’s look at the seventh commandment. The seventh commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery.” It’s not even illegal to commit adultery anymore. It was illegal to commit adultery in Ohio until around 1975. I don’t know what the penalty was, but it certainly wasn’t death. But look at what the Law of Moses says about it. Here it is—Leviticus 20:10:

“If a man commits adultery with another man's wife– with the wife of his neighbor– both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” (Lev. 20:10)

And here’s what Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27) Who isn’t guilty? (I was going to say, “That’s a rhetorical question,” but it’s too serious to make light of it. And by the way, in the Law of Moses, any kind of sexual immorality was to be punished by the death penalty, not just adultery—any kind of sexual immorality.)

The fourth commandment says: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Now listen to the penalty that the Law of Moses prescribes for not honoring your father and mother:

18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.” 21Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. (Deut. 21:18-21)

“You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.” How serious do you think God is about his commandment to honor your father and mother? The father and mother are commanded to bring their rebellious son to the elders to be stoned.

Now let’s look at the first and second commandments. The first and second commandments say:

2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3You shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:2-6)

How seriously does God take these two commandments? Look again at what he said must be done to those who break them or even temp other people to do so. This is from Deuteronomy 13:6 through 10:

6If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, 7gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. 9You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (Deut. 13:6-10)

Do you see how serious this is? –your own brother, your son or daughter, the wife that you love or your closest friend. Do not yield to them. Show them no pity. Jesus says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 10:37-39)

Now let’s look at the third commandment. It says (or, more accurately, God says), “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” There was a time when a radio or TV station that allowed God’s name to be misused, or for that matter, allowed any profane or obscene language, would have had its license suspended, and the people involved would have been subject to a fine and possible prison sentence. Not so anymore. But look at what God has to say. This is from Leviticus 24:10 through 16:

10Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) 12They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them. 13Then the Lord said to Moses: 14“Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15Say to the Israelites: ‘If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; 16anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.’” (Lev. 24:10-16)

How lightly we take the misuse of God’s name. But God does not take it lightly. When I say that we take the misuse of God’s name lightly, I’m not saying that we ourselves are freely profaning God’s name, but that we don’t see it as seriously as we ought to when someone else does.

Let me ask you a few questions. What is God’s penalty for murder? It’s death, right? (I didn’t quote the scripture earlier, but it’s in there.) OK, now what’s God’s penalty for blaspheming his name? Also death. Now, how would you feel if you saw someone beat another person to death? And how do you feel when you hear someone misusing God’s name?

I’ve talked about six of God’s ten commandments so far. I’m going to talk about one more before going on. It’s the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment says:

8Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

God gives a reason for keeping the Sabbath. It is because he, as Creator of all things, made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them in six day, but rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. The Ten Commandments are also listed in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verses 6 through 22. In Deuteronomy, the reason given for keeping the Sabbath is for the Israelites to remember that God redeemed them out of slavery in Egypt. The purpose of the Sabbath is for us to remember that God is our Creator and our Redeemer. To remember that God is our Creator and Redeemer.

Now, I’m going to read from 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The apostle Paul is talking about the Israelites’ journey through the desert after they had left Egypt. Here it is:

2They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3They all ate the same spiritual food 4and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
6Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” 8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did– and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9We should not test the Lord, as some of them did– and were killed by snakes. 10And do not grumble, as some of them did– and were killed by the destroying angel.
11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

The spiritual Rock that went with them was Christ. The things that happened to them happened as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.
Righteousness and the Gospel:
I’ve been talking about the law. Moses described the righteousness that is by the law this way: “The man who does these things will live by them.” But we know that no one will ever be declared righteous by keeping the law (Rom. 3:20). The purpose of the law is to make us accountable to God (Rom. 3:19). We know that, in fact, the law was not given so that we could be justified by it, but rather, it was put in charge of us to lead us to Christ (Gal. 3:19). We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8,9). How disappointed I was to realize that I couldn’t earn my salvation. How much I wanted to say, “I did it myself by my own effort.” Instead of being grateful that I didn’t have to do what I was not able to do, I was disappointed. Pride is the sin of the devil. I think also that I did not fully understand all the implications of the law and the seriousness of sin. Maybe I still don’t.

You know, our congregation has been getting smaller for the last ten years. I looked at a 1993 phone list a while back and there were almost 140 names listed. I think we had twice as many people in Sunday Worship three years ago, and twice again as many three years earlier. I keep thinking that we ought to be doing something—maybe like fishing and inviting people to one-to-one bible study as we did in the UBF days. Maybe so, but just before I started this message, I asked myself the question, “Am I more worried about numbers than about souls?” The answer was, “You bet!” As soon as I thought, “You bet,” I tried to figure out some way to word it so that it didn’t sound so bad. But I was rebuked by the Spirit for trying to be dishonest.

Anyway, I’ve had this question in my mind for quite a while: “Why don’t I (or most of us, for that matter) take the salvation of those around us more seriously?” We can reason from the scriptures that it’s a very important thing. In fact, there is nothing else that is remotely close to being as important.

I talked about God’s judgment. Do you really believe that people around you—even in your family—will be condemned to hell—thrown in the lake of fire? Christians marry non-believers. The righteous marry the wicked. Do you enjoy the company of someone you know is going to be condemned to God’s eternal punishment? Do you feel like you’re using that person? Can you have any comfort, security or pleasure from the company of a person whom you know will be dropped into the lake of fire where the smoke of his or her torment will rise forever?

Why don’t we seem to take people’s salvation more seriously? We act as though we think that the punishment won’t be too severe—or that it won’t really be eternal—or that, somehow God will overlook most sin. He won’t. It’s not that he takes pleasure in vengeance, but that he will not compromise with evil. He takes no pleasure in our suffering. He loves us. Jesus suffered in our place so that we would not have to suffer for our own sin. Somehow, we are missing the greatness of the gift of God.

Last week (actually, three-and-a-half years ago), I was talking about this situation with my son-in-law John and my daughter Lisa. Lisa produced a book called Hell’s Best Kept Secret. It’s about evangelism. The author, Ray Comfort, says that he was bothered for quite a few years by the fact that 90 percent of the people who accept Christ fall away after a short time. His contention is that the reason for this is that they are only told part of the gospel. They are told that Christ will improve their lives—their marriage, their business, or whatever—or maybe even that he will save them from hell. But they are not told anything that will make them understand how far they are from God’s standards—how sinful they really are. That’s the purpose of the law—to tell tham. God provided it for that very purpose. I’ve read about two-thirds of the book. I don’t have time to go into the arguments and scriptures, but it makes a very convincing case that the reason people fall away is that they don’t really believe, and that they don’t really believe because they have not been convicted of sin by the law. They have an “I’ll try anything once” kind of attitude when they accept Christ.

On Tuesday, I discussed my message with Don. He called me on Wednesday and told me to listen to Alistair Begg, which I did. Alistair Begg was apparently just finishing up a series of messages on the Ten Commandments. He said something very similar to what Ray Comfort, the author of the book Lisa gave me, was saying, that people need to be convicted of sin by the law. In fact, he said that the reason we, as believers, have no zeal for evangelism is that we have only received half a gospel. According to Luke 7:20-47, if we have sinned much, we are forgiven much. If we are forgiven much we will love much. But if we don’t think we have sinned much or have been forgiven much, how can we love much? For all these reasons I’ve spent a lot of time, not only talking about judgment, but also about the law. (Incidentally, about ten years ago, I heard a message that Ray Comfort preached on this topic. When he had about ten points left and was running out of time, he said the following: “And now briefly, which when spoken from the pulpit means absolutely nothing…”—and then he went on.)

And now briefly, there’s something else that I’ve noticed that I want to point out. I don’t know the exact percentage, but it seems to me that somewhere around half of the people who came to UBF were from a Roman Catholic background. I’ve also noticed that people from a Catholic background have a much stronger sense of commitment to Christ than those who are not.

Now the official doctrine of the Catholic Church is, essentially, a salvation by rituals. It won’t save anyone. It acknowledges the necessity of the cross of Christ, but says that the work or merit of Jesus is applied through rituals such as baptism and the Eucharist. (I hope I’m not offending anyone from a Catholic background too much. If I’ve gotten it wrong, please let me know.) But one thing about the Roman Catholic Church that is missing from many protestant churches is the high standard of morality. The Roman Catholic Church has always emphasized the seriousness of sin. I think that fact goes a long way toward explaining the stronger commitment of those from a Catholic background.

In Ezekiel chapter 33, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel and said:

7“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 9But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.
10“Son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ 11Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:7-11)

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather wants them to turn and live. But he holds Ezekiel responsible for their blood if he doesn’t warn them. I read this scripture for the first time many years ago and it’s troubled me. This is not an “Old Testament thing.” When the apostle Paul preached the gospel to the Jews in Corinth and they rejected it and became abusive, he told them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” (Acts 18:6) Or when Paul was saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders he said, “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.” (Acts 20:26,27) Paul believed that, if he didn’t proclaim the whole will of God and people continued in their sins, he would be responsible for the destruction of their souls.

I never felt very comfortable about “witnessing.” In fact, going fishing on campus in the UBF days was like an extreme spiritual battle. Once I started to talk to people it wasn’t too bad, but walking up to them to start a conversation was really hard. And when I would try to talk to anyone at work, it would really be awkward and they would try to change the subject. At one point, I concluded that I just didn’t have a gift of evangelism.

Well, if you don’t think you have a gift of evangelism, let me ask you this question: Do you have a gift of healing? If not, do you ever pray for someone to be healed? If so, why?

[Prayer]