"Why is it so important...."

On Friday afternoon, I went to Kent Station to pass out some tracts (after a long day of filming in Seattle). As I was passing out tracts, I approached a man maybe in his early 40's and asked, "Did you get one of these?" His response was pretty rare, "Dont want one." So I said, "Thanks." While trying to muster a smile. As I was walking away, the man asked, "Why is it so important for you guys to convert people?" "Excuse me? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well you guys pass out tracts and stuff, why is it so important?"
"Let me put it this way...."
"No just answer the question."
"I will answer it using this anecdote so you'll understand. If I was a Doctor and had a cure for cancer, how could I walk by a line of people who are diagnosed with cancer, and not say anything? The same applies with Christians. How can we who are saved from Hell not say anything to those who sit in the shadow of death?"
"But doesn't it say in John that God calls people?"
"Yes but Jesus made our mandate clear, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature", be "instant [ready] in season" and "out of season"."

I pray that God will one day open his eyes so that he might see how truly depraved he is before God.

I don't want to talk about Religion!!!

Yesterday evening I stopped by a local Gas Station to fill up the tank. As I walked inside the deli market that was in there, a man maybe in his mid twenty's asked me, "You having fun?" I turned around feeling a bit awkward (because I wasn't excpecting him to talk) and said, "Yeah. You?" He said, "Yeah, there's no better place to be that at a gas station. I mean what the point to be at a bar and picking up strange women. You know?" I started walking toward him and asked, "Do you know what the number one killer is in the us?" He looked at me rather quizcally and said, "No." "It's death." I said as I saw a smirk across his face. I then proceeded to ask him, "Do you consider yourself to be a good person?" "Yeah." he answered.
"Have you ever told a lie?"
"Yeah."
"Have you ever stolen anything, even if its small?"
"No..."
"Come on, you already told me you're a liar. Have you ever stolen anything?"
"Once when I was a kid."
"Have you ever looked with lust at a women? Which God sees as adultery in the heart."
"Yeah."
"Have you ever said "omg"?"
"Yeah."
"The Bible calls that blasphemy."
"So by your own admission, now I'm not judging you, you told me and now I'm saying it back, by your own admission you're a lying, blaspheming, adulterer at heart. Now on Judgment day, if God were to judge you by those standards, would you be innocent or guilty?"
"Guilty."
"Would you go to heaven or hell?"
"Well...I don't believe in hell."
"If someone were to rape and murder your mother, and if they weren't brought to justice on earth, wouldn't it make sense that God would judge them?"
"Yeah."
"Doesn't it also make sense that God's place of punishment would be hell?"
"Yeah. But I don't believe in God."
"Let me ask you a question. How do you know that this building was built, even though you've never met the builder?"
"Cause the buildings here."
"Exactly. How would you know that someone painted a painting?"
"Cause the painting is proof that there was a painter."
"Exactly. So the building is proof that there was a builder, the painting is proof that there was a painter, and creation is proof...."
"That there's a creator...I know. I don't want to continue talking about religion with you."
"Can I say one last thought?"
"You already did."
"Just one last one."
"Okay."
"Religion is man striving to make peace with God, while Christianity is God making peace with man. Think about it seriously."
"I already have."

I left the Gas Station thinking "I sure hope he did. Because there is nothing more important than his eternal salvation."

Is Salvation of Works???

Did you know that “88 percent of children raised in evangelical homes leave the church at the age of 18…never to return.”!? That’s what makes up many of what we call “backsliders”. I once did a seminar at the church that I attend, called “What are they teaching our children in Public School?”. It was at that time that I thought that the major reason that kids left their Christian faith was because of what the schools were teaching (ex. SEX ED, OCCULT, DEATH EDUCATION, ETC). Now I have come to the knowledge that most of our Sunday schools are teaching a doctrine of works equal salvation. This may sound absurd to you, but please bear with me, I will explain in detail in the next few minutes as to what I mean.
Probably most people don’t know who Martin Luther was, so I’ll give a brief summary. Without quite intending to, Martin Luther changed the course of Christianity and Western history. His 1517 complaint against specific abuses in the Roman Catholic church -- a document now known as the 95 Theses -- sparked the explosive Protestant Reformation that swept Europe for the rest of the century. Born to a Roman Catholic family (his father was a copper miner), Luther graduated from the University of Erfurt in 1505 but abandoned his legal studies to enter a monastery devoted to St. Augustine. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1507 and by 1512 was a doctor of theology and a Bible professor at the University of Wittenberg. Luther was a gifted preacher but his theology began to clash with that of the Catholic church: he wrote that salvation came not by any human work but by absolute faith in God's promise of forgiveness on account of Jesus Christ. Luther didn't anticipate the uproar touched off by the 95 Theses he sent to a bishop and archbishop to protest "indulgences" being sold by the Catholic hierarchy. His controversial beliefs earned him excommunication from the church, but he pressed on with many new followers. Luther produced the first reader-friendly German translation of the Bible and developed a new form of Christian worship that emphasized preaching and popular hymns, permitted the clergy to marry, and honored ordinary life in the world as a field for God's service.
Martin Luther said (pertaining to good works), “Little children are saved only by faith, without any good works; therefore faith alone justifies. If God’s power is able to effect that in one, then He is also able to accomplish it in all; for the power of the child does not effect it, but the power of faith; ….It is a mischievous thing [to think] that we miserable, sinful wretches will upbraid [rebuke] God, and hit Him in the teeth with our works, and think thereby to be justified before Him. But God will not allow it.”2(emphasis and words mine).
When I went to Sunday school, I learned many good moral things. I learned that the Ten Commandments were a guideline that God gave us to follow, and that a person must love Jesus, and do good works in order to get to heaven. Now to illustrate the unscriptural nature of this very popular teaching, I'd like you to listen very carefully to this following anecdote, because the essence of what I'm saying pivots on this particular illustration; so please listen carefully. You say to me, “I purchased this brand new car…and I’m giving it to you as a free gift.” I turn to you say “thanks”, and flip a penny to you. You say, “No you didn’t hear me, I’m giving this car to you as a free gift.” How would you feel? Imagine the great sacrifice God did, He sent His only begotten Son to this earth to suffer and die for our sins. What do we do? We turn to Him and offer our good (self-righteous) works in hopes of paying God back!
In Sunday school I didn’t learn the very thing that could save my soul. Sure, I heard that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, but was never told I have to repent, my sin was never made personal, I didn’t see sin as being “exceedingly sinful”3, so the sacrifice that God made by sending His “only begotten Son”4 Jesus Christ to pay the punishment for my sins on the cross was “foolishness”5 to me. For the law didn’t yet act as a “schoolmaster to bring me to Christ”6. So I thought that in order to get to heaven I have to “Love Jesus, accept Him into my heart, and obey my parents.”
If you ask the average Sunday school kid7, “How does a person get to heaven (obtain salvation)?” You will find to your surprise (as did I) that his/her theology is based on good works! They will usually say something like, “Well you have to obey your parents, help people, don’t be greedy, and love Jesus…” “Is that it?” you might ask, “Yep. That’s it.” You stand there to see this child smile at you, proud of them self for remembering so vividly what they learned in Sunday school. You should try this sometime, so far the kids I talked to answered in this manner.
So what I had to do was explain to them that one cannot earn salvation based on good works8, for God sees even our “righteous (good) deeds as filthy rags”9. Also that what they were saying about not being greedy and honoring their parents are what’s known as the “Ten Commandments”10, which James calls “the perfect Law of Liberty”11.
The “Ten Commandments” are like a mirror12, they reflect how we are in truth. You cannot use a mirror to cleanse yourself; all you can do is look into it and see yourself as you really are. You must go to the running water of Jesus Christ to wash yourself: you must Repent which means to confess and forsake your sins, and put your trust in Jesus Christ to save you13. God promises in his word that when you do that, He will give you a new nature, a new heart, and new desires; you will hate to sin. You see, no one can get to heaven simply by doing good, even mother Teresa said that she needed Jesus Christ to cleanse her of her sin.
Remember in Matthew Chapter 19, when the young ruler came to Jesus saying, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” You see this young man thought that in order to obtain “eternal life” one must do some “good thing”. Then Jesus answered and said, “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” What Jesus did here was he reproved the young man’s understanding as to the word good. He showed him by quoting the 10 Commandments, that God “requires truth in the inward parts”14, and that we should “love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength”15.
Verse 18 says, “He (young man) saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” Here Jesus showed this young man the one thing he lacked, Love for God above all things, which is the 1st of the Ten Commandments. “Ye cannot serve both God and mammon”16.
‘I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American, evangelical, and Protestant church, is that if you pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart, he will definitely come in. You will not find that any place in Scripture! What you need to know is that Salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ! And faith in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance…a turning away from sin. A hatred for the things that God hates, and a love for the things that God loves. A growing in holiness, not a desire to be like Britney Spears, not be like the world, not to be like the great majority of American Christians, but to be like Jesus Christ!’17
A number of years back I heard of “A little five year old boy [named], Andrew Mamon, [was shot by a] muslim five times in the stomach and [then was left] on the sidewalk to die, simply because he cried, “I am so afraid. But I cannot deny Jesus Christ! Please, don’t kill me. But I will not deny him!” And he died in a pool of blood!”18 Yet here in America “Christian” kids leave their faith in droves willingly. Something is radically wrong!
Charles Spurgeon said on the instruction of children, “We testify that Christ is able to change man’s nature and then good fruits will come as a matter of course. But I am afraid that in many Sunday-schools the children are taught a different doctrine, somewhat after this fashion: “Now, dear children, be very good, and obey your parents, and love Jesus, and you will be saved.” That is not the gospel, and it is not true. Often do I hear it said, “Love Jesus, dear children.” That is not the gospel. It is, “Trust Him”-Believe.” Not love, but faith is the saving grace, and that love of Jesus of a sentimental kind, which does not spring out of faith in Him, is a spurious emotion, a counterfeit of love, not at all the love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. The root of the matter is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shalt be saved;” and that is the gospel for a child of two years of age, and the gospel for a man of a hundred. There is only one gospel for all that are born on the face of the earth-“Believe in Jesus.”19 (emphasis mine).
Did you know that “more than half of all adults (53%) believe that if a person is generally good, or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in Heaven”20. Apostle Paul said in Romans, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”21 What some have done in the name of Christ is claimed that the grace of God is not sufficient to satisfy the demands of eternal Justice (such as the mormons, catholics) by adding the Doctrine of Salvation by works. I am afraid that this theology has crept into the Church in unawares. 22
I cannot emphasize it enough dear friends, we must teach our children Gods Law (Ten Commandments) is only a mirror to see ourselves in our true state, and show them that salvation is not of works but of grace and grace alone.

David A. Kurkov
Founder of Living Sacrifice Evangelism
www.DavidKurkov.com
David@davidkurkov.com



Bibliography:
1 http://www.answers.com/Martin+Luther?cat=entertainment (Tuesday, December 25, 2007, 10:44 PM PST)
2 Table Talk by Martin Luther, Bridge Logos Publishing, PP. 200, Article CCCIV.
3 Romans 7:13 (KJV)
4 John 3:16 (KJV)
5 1 Corinthians 1:18 (KJV)
6 Galatians 3:24
7 I did this at my local church and was surprised.
8 Romans 11:6 (KJV)
9 Isaiah 64:6 (KJV)
10 Exodus 20 (KJV)
11 James 1:25 (KJV)
12 James 1:23 (KJV) “glass (mirror”
13 Acts 20:21 (KJV)
14 Psalm 51:6 (KJV)
15 Mark 12:30 (KJV)
16 Matthew 6:24 (KJV)
17 Paul Washer (www.HeartCryMissionary.com)
18 Paul Washer (www.HeartCryMissionary.com)
19 Spurgeon Gold Compiled by Ray Comfort, Bridge Logos Publishing, PP.7
20 http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=4 (Thursday November 29, 2007; 12:07 AM PST]
21 Romans 11:6 (KJV)
22 Jude 1:4 (KJV)