In your evangelism be so careful to make sure that you only point the sinner to Jesus Christ and no other place. Direct them to go to Christ at once, not to pray for a new heart, not to look for a feeling, but to go in faith and trust that Christ will save them from their sins.
God sincerely calls sinners. We can see it in the tears of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can see it throughout Scripture. There are the most affectionate invitations given, over and over and over, bidding sinners to come if they will come. And they must come bankrupt.
We need to press people that way. You come with nothing. He wants nothing from you. You don’t have to have right feelings. Brethren, it’s a deception otherwise. Do you know why? Because here is what happens: “Go home and pray that God will give you a new heart.” So what do they do? “God, give me a new heart.” They actually believe that they are being sincere. They won’t repent, but they believe that their prayer for repentance or for the Holy Spirit is sincere. But it’s not sincere.
But you send them to do this and what happens? “Lord, give me a new heart.” And what do they start doing? They start looking: “Is He doing it?” “Do I feel it happening?” “Do I feel regeneration happening?” “Lord, give me a new heart.” “What is it going to feel like?” “What is it going to feel like if He gives it?” “I’m wondering, is that feeling there?” And you see what you’ve done when we do this? And if so many came back and said “That is exactly what I was doing when evangelizing.” You see, this is what has been happening.
The eyes of the sinner, where do they need to be in order to be saved? As the serpent was lifted up… You can see that thing being run through the camp of Israel. If their eyes were there they were healed. If you send people to do any other thing. And where do their eyes go? Their eyes go on themselves. Their eyes go on other things. Their eyes are no longer on Christ. Their eyes have to be on Christ. Their gaze has to be there. That is what this Gospel is all about. Your only hiding place is in Christ. That is what we were singing about. That is what we know to be the Gospel. Our only hope is in Christ. That is the Gospel, trusting in what He has accomplished.
We see Christ bleeding, we see that atonement, that satisfied God, that is where we send them, their eyes have to be there. It is only in there that they are going to find their hope. It is only in there that they are going to find their salvation. Brothers and sisters, we have us a Gospel, but that guy that is down your street, for one, how is he ever going to believe in this Christ unless we go there and tell him of this Christ. And if we tell him of this Christ the last thing you want to do is then go on to tell him something that gets his eyes off of Christ. Don’t do that!
Listen. We press that sinner “This is your only hope.” And if that doesn’t work and that is not satisfactory to him, if the eternal life we have to offer and the heaven we have to offer and the salvation and Christ Himself… if there is not satisfaction there for the sinner, if he is not going to find all of his hope there, give him no other hope. There is no other hope. Leave him hopeless other than that. Well meaning Christian, you point that sinner to the city of refuge and no other place. And you bid him “Escape there at once!”
Look, don’t let your Calvinism tell that sinner to wait on God. Waiting is deadly. You tell this person to in anyway wait, you tell this person to in anyway just wait for God to do something, set themselves to pray. What are you doing? They are enemies of Christ, and you are helping them feel comfortable right there in that situation. Brothers and sisters, how is he going to believe in Christ that he has never heard. And how is he going to hear unless someone goes and proclaims.
And I just want to ask you all: That guy that lives down your street, how is he going to hear unless you go?
