Stupid Questions Ignorant Statements
I remember several teachers when I was younger that used to say, “There are no stupid questions.” Now I understand that they were trying to encourage students to not be afraid to ask anything, but the statement is false. There are stupid questions There are stupid questions and ignorant statements.
For example, during the recent devastating fires in California, some people have died and others have escaped with barely their lives. A husband and wife were interviewed a week or so ago and the newsman wanted to know how they felt. That my friend, is a stupid question. They lost everything. Literally escaped with the clothes on their backs. How do you think they felt? They were distraught. Obviously, the newsman was hoping for a breakdown on camera which he basically got. But it took asking a stupid question to get it.
Ignorant Statements
Along with stupid questions there are also ignorant statements. We seem to encounter plenty of them while street witnessing. The worst part is, the majority seem to come from professing Christians. Last Spring a professing Christian student at Missouri State University told me that open-air preaching is the wrong method. He said this isn’t how you reach people.
The student insisted that you have to get to know people before you witness to them. You have to “earn the right” to share the Gospel. His statement cracked me up and I asked him if he was really going to get to know 25,000 students and earn the right to witness to them? Of course, he said no.
None of us can meet and “earn” the right to share the Gospel with 25,000 people, one at a time during a calendar school year. I won’t call his idea stupid, but it was ignorant. Obviously, you can’t earn the opportunity to evangelize 25,000 students. But you can reach hundreds and even thousands through the open proclamation of the Gospel.
More Ignorant Statements
A mocker has been making many ignorant statements on the Seek and Save the Lost website that they don’t even warrant a response. The guy continually harps about my not having a seminary degree. I’ve read through the Bible many times and I’ve never read any instructions where you have to get a seminary degree in order to share the Gospel. In fact, the Bible supports the opposite if anything.
Jesus said go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). Not a single one of the original apostles were religiously trained men. They were in fact ordinary men. Just ordinary people like you and me. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). You don’t need a seminary degree tell people about Jesus. Demanding that you have one is an ignorant statement.
Sadly, Even More Ignorant Statements
Then last week while I was open-air preaching, a young man from my own church ☹ came up to Steven and said that we were witnessing the wrong way. He believes that you have to share the Gospel personally, on a personal level. Steven is in middle school and he rightly told the young man that we do this to draw people to talk to us, which they do.
The ironic part was while the young man from my church was criticizing our method, Steven’s dad Kelly was in the middle of a great conversation with Michael. If we hadn’t been there open-air preaching, it’s doubtful that Kelly, Steven or I would have ever run into Michael. So, while the young man was complaining about our method, it was being proven right in front of his own eyes. Open-air preaching leads to Gospel conversations. Period. To suggest otherwise is just stating more ignorant statements.
In spite of the stupid questions and ignorant statements, we will continue to share the Gospel in public. It is biblical and it is necessary. Most people focus on Jonah being in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, but that isn’t the main part of the story. The main part is that God wanted Jonah to call the city of Ninevah to repent. Jonah ran the opposite direction, yet he cried out for God to help him (after the three days and nights in the belly of the whale), then Jonah obeyed God’s original directive.
Warning Like Jonah
Please notice what Jonah did. For three straight days he walked through a city of 120,000 people (that’s slightly less than Springfield at around 160,000 people) and warned them that God was going to destroy the city in 40 days. My friends and I are out here tonight sharing the Gospel because we love God and we love people. We don’t want you to die in your sins and go to Hell. We want you to repent and put your trust in Jesus. My friends and I are warning today just like Jonah warned thousands of years earlier.
But Jonah didn’t want the Ninevites to repent. He gleefully was telling them God was going to destroy them in 40 days. In fact, he stayed around afterwards to see the destruction with his own eyes. The Ninevites were greatly hated by the Israelites. The Assyrians had murdered, raped, pillaged the Israelites and enslaved them. They totally mistreated the Israelites. Jonah couldn’t wait for payback. He was glad that God was going to destroy them. He hated them so badly that he didn’t even want to warn them. But in the end, he did. He told them that they were going to be destroyed in 40 days.
You probably know the story. The whole city repented. They fasted for three days without food or water. From the king on down, they sat in sackcloth and ashes. They even put sackcloth on their animals. They humbled themselves. The recognized that they had sinned against almighty God and that they deserved to be destroyed.
The Whole City Humbled Themselves
So they humbled themselves in the hope that God might show them mercy and not wipe out the whole city. They were right. God did show them mercy and they were not annihilated. So Jonah shared God’s truth with his mortal enemies, wanting to see their destruction. He told them what God told him to say because he wanted God to destroy the city in 40 days. Jonah didn’t evangelize with a right heart, but he did share God’s truth with the Ninevites.
My friends and I don’t want you to go to Hell. We don’t want you to suffer God’s righteous judgment forever. We don’t want you to be eternally damned. No, we come out here with a right heart. We want you to be saved. Our hope and prayer is that you will be like the Ninevites and that you will recognize your sinfulness and God’s Holiness.
We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. None of us are righteous. Not a single one of us can make ourselves right with God under our own power. No, we’ve all rebelled against God. We’ve all broken God’s Law, the 10 Commandments. We are all guilty. We have all lied, most of us have stolen, none of us have loved God with all our hearts. We’ve lusted, coveted, and murdered people in our hearts by hating them. We are guilty, guilty, guilty. There’s absolutely nothing that you can do on your own to change that.
God Spares Sinners That Repent And Trust Jesus
Just like God spared the wicked Ninevites, He spares wicked sinners like you and me too. If, we repent and trust Jesus. But God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Oh, humble yourself tonight like the Ninevites did back in the time of Jonah. They recognized that they had sinned against God. Is this you tonight? Do you realize that all your sins have been primarily against God?
Every lie is serious. Every wicked thought, wicked desire is an affront to almighty God. Yes, every time that you’ve lusted, coveted, hated or been angry, you have sinned against God.
We’ve all built up a mountain of sin debt that none of us can wipe out. Think about it, you can’t erase one little white lie, let alone all your sins. What will you do with your sins on Judgment Day? It’s appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. What will you say on that great and terrible day of the Lord?
Don’t Continue In Rebellion
Oh, don’t continue rebelling against God. Humble yourself. Humbly admit that you are a sinner. Confess your sins to the great God of Heaven and earth. Cry out for God to save you. Repent and put your faith in Jesus. Oh, do this tonight. Come to Jesus – the only Savior of mankind. There is no other. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
We have all fallen short of God’s glory. We have all sinned against God and the wages of sin is death. If you die in your sins, you will be separated from the love of God for all eternity in a very real place called Hell. There’s nothing you can do on your own to change this. You can’t make yourself clean. No, you can’t make yourself right. You can’t hide your sins. There’s nothing that you can do on your own to get back right with God.
But God demonstrated his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). We are the sinners. You and I are the rebels and revilers. We are the sinful creatures, yet God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. This is hard to wrap your mind around. The Creator, came to this earth, suffered, bled, and died on a cruel cross for us. For guilty criminals like you and me.
Must Receive This Amazing Gift
Oh, but you must receive this amazing free gift. You receive it through repentance and faith in Jesus. The Sinless One died for the sinful. The Perfect One died for us imperfect creatures. The Righteous One died for the unrighteous. Jesus paid the sin debt that He did not owe. The Lord suffered God’s wrath over our sins. He was the propitiation for our sins – if we repent and surrender our lives to Jesus.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Romans 3:24-26).
Wrath Was Satisfied
Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. God’s wrath was satisfied when He poured His anger out over our sins upon His own precious Son. Through the shed blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, folks, you can be justified, you can be forgiven, your sins can be washed white as snow, if you will surrender your life to Jesus Christ. You can receive the righteousness of Jesus credited to your account and Jesus takes your sins upon Himself, if you turn from your sins and turn to Him.
Will you do this tonight? Your guilty conscience can be cleared. Your sins can all be forgiven. God will remember them no more. This doesn’t mean God is forgetful, no it means that God no longer holds you accountable for your sins, if you repent and trust Jesus. You can start a new life tonight. Yes, you can receive the greatest gift of all time. You can become a new creature in Christ Jesus, if you repent and surrender your life fully and completely to Him.
Oh, will you admit that you are a sinner? Will you confess your sins to God? Folks, will you cry out for God to have mercy upon you? Will you believe in the Lord Jesus with all your heart? Oh, will you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus? Will you call upon the precious name of Jesus tonight and be saved? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved. Be saved. Repent and believe the Gospel.
(This message was proclaimed in downtown Springfield, MO on October 20, 2017)