How do you witness to an atheist? The same way you witness to anyone following a cult and the same way you witness to a false convert. You take the person through some of the 10 Commandments. God gave us the commandments for a reason. God is righteous and Holy and His standard is perfection. Jesus summed up the 10 Commandments this way: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).
Do you love God with all your heart, soul and mind? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Let’s start with loving God. Have you always put God first in your life? What do you spend your time, money and energy on? Whatever this is – it is your god. If your affections are not for the God of the Bible, then you are worshiping a false god. Have you ever taken God’s name in vain? If so, then that’s blasphemy. God will not hold those guiltless who take His name in vain (Exodus 20:7).
There are more God related commandments, but let’s jump on down to loving your neighbor as yourself. Have you ever stolen anything? Ever taken anything that belonged to someone else in your entire life? Did you ever steal something, even if it was something small or of little to no value? If you have, then you are a thief. Most of us have never literally murdered anyone. But the Bible says that if you are angry at someone without cause or if you hate someone that it is the same thing as murder.
Matthew 5:22 states But I say to you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 1 John 3:15 says Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Have you ever hated somebody or been angry at someone? Of course you have. We all have.
How about the commandment you shall not commit adultery? Maybe you aren’t even married so you think you are ok on this one. Listen to what Jesus said, You have heard it was said by them of old time, You shall not commit adultery: But I say to you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28). Have you ever looked at someone and lusted after them?
We have only reviewed some of the 10 Commandments and we have to admit that we have broken some of them. I dare say we have broken all of them at one time or another. So we all deserve God’s wrath, God’s anger over our sins. Unrepentant sinners really do deserve to spend eternity in Hell. All sin is direct rebellion against almighty God. We are all rebellious and we are all sinners. None of us have perfectly kept all of the 10 Commandments, 100% of the commandments; 100% of the time.
So why am I bringing this up? Because even when you walk an atheist through some of the 10 Commandments, many times they will say, all of us are sinners. All of us are guilty. That’s just human nature. And they are right about this point. But then a lot of times they will also say, Well, I don’t believe in God, but if I’m wrong and He is real, I’m not afraid because I’m basically a good person. I try to do what is right. They will claim this even after we’ve just walked through some of the commandments and proven to them that they really are not good.
You see, deep down atheist have a lot in common with the cult followers and the false converts. They really do believe that they are basically good. By our human standards, they may be right. But the problem is this willy-nilly, nothing is black and white, it’s all gray kind of world people like to think we live in isn’t real. It is not reality. Everything is not relative. They imagine that they are going to stand before God some day and He is going to judge them by a set of scales that contains all the good they did in their life on one side and all the bad they did on the other side and they foolishly think that they have done more good than bad. They think God will say something like “Whew, that was close, but you tipped the scales there with slightly more good than bad, so come on in. Welcome to heaven.”
Folks this is absolute foolishness. It is nonsense and a lot of people are lost and speeding down the broad road to destruction, down the highway to Hell; all because they think they are good. The Bible is very clear that there is none good, no not one. Romans 3:10-12 states As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.
Do you see the folly in this? Many people think that they are basically good and the Bible says that none of us are good! Satan has many people deceived. He is the great deceiver. He pretends to be an angel of light. He whispers in your ear – go ahead and steal that item, no one’s watching, you can get away with it. Look at that gorgeous woman, your wife’s not around. No one will ever know. Go ahead and take that drink. One drink never hurt anybody. The devil knows your weaknesses better than you know them yourself.
Atheists – you cannot fool God. He knows you hate Him. He’s God. He created you and this world around us. He knows your very thought life – which by the way, you will even be judged on your thought life on Judgment Day! (Ecclesiastes 12:14). You cannot fool God. Romans 1and 2 tell us that you know the truth and you suppress it. You can look around creation and know that God is real. He reveals His truth to you and you foolishly reject it. You are storing up wrath against yourself on the day of wrath. You will have no one to blame but yourself on Judgment Day. You can’t blame the hypocrites. You can’t blame your momma or daddy. You can’t blame some wolf in sheep’s clothing that maybe was a pastor in a church you grew up in where he ran off with the secretary. You will have no one to blame and you will not be able to save yourself. You will be found guilty on that terrible day and you will be eternally damned.
If you follow one of the false religions in the world – it doesn’t matter which one; pick any of them – Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Catholicism, Buddhism, whichever one you foolishly follow; you will also be damned on Judgment Day. You have the same Truth available to you and you foolishly reject it for your false religion. You have no fear of the God of the Bible. You too will be without excuse on Judgment Day. Romans 3:18-19 says There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
The last group I want to talk about are the false converts. I identify with this group because I used to be one. You may be the worst group of all. You may actually receive the greater damnation. You were close enough to the Truth that you think you have it. You may intellectually know the truth of Jesus, but you have never been born again. You were so close to becoming a Christian, but you just didn’t quite make it. You were almost a Christian. But folks, almost doesn’t cut it with our perfect Father in Heaven. Almost making it to Heaven will most assuredly send you straight to Hell.
The reason why I say you may even receive the greater damnation than the atheists and cult followers is because of your non-conversion, because you think you are safe, you more than likely are living your life selfishly for yourself. You see, not only are you not going to make it to Heaven, you are keeping others from going there. Some people didn’t grow up going to church. The only Bible some people read is – YOU. The only gospel they have ever heard of is YOU. Guess what, you are showing them a perverted version. You are showing them a polluted version of the gospel.
They look at you and say what does he have that I don’t have? They are asking a very good question because if you really don’t have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you really have nothing. You may literally be more damnable than all the rest. You too will find no relief on Judgment Day. On that terrible day, Jesus will look you in the eye and tell you to depart from Him, He never knew you, you worker of iniquity (Matthew 7:23). You will be shocked beyond belief, but when the angels cast you into the eternal lake of fire, you will recognize your grave mistake. You will give an account of everything you’ve done in your life.
But the worst part for all of these groups is that it will be too late for each and every one of them on Judgment Day. Every single person in all of these groups will bow their knee and confess with their tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). But folks, it will be too late on that day. You will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, but it will be too late. It will not change your fate. It will not change the reality that eternal separation from God is full of torment, anguish and suffering. It never ends! It is everlasting damnation.
But it doesn’t matter whether you are an atheist, cult member or false convert; there is good news for you! If you can hear my voice; if you are still alive and breathing, then there is hope for you. This hope is not in me and it’s not in pastor Aaron or anybody else out here with us. There is only hope in Jesus. No matter what you have believed in the past, you can be saved. You can be forgiven for your sins. Your sins can be cleansed. You can be washed white as snow.
Remember earlier when I said that God demands 100% perfection? Jesus Christ perfectly kept the 10 Commandments. Jesus always loved God with all of His heart, soul and mind. He always loved his neighbor as Himself. Jesus did what none of us could do – He never sinned in His thoughts, words or actions. Not only did He keep the 10 Commandments to 100% perfection, He is 100% the perfect sacrifice for guilty sinners like you and me. Jesus, who knew no sin, took our sins upon Himself as He hung on that wretched cross.
Jesus took the punishment that you and I fully deserve. All we have done on our own is earned death. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Bible says that God’s anger over our sin was poured out upon Jesus. We are all guilty of breaking the 10 Commandments and He took our punishment for us. He was our substitute. He was the atoning sacrifice for God’s perfect standard, for God’s perfect justice. The Bible says that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation means the wrath was satisfied. Do you see how wonderful this is? God’s righteous anger over our sin was satisfied through the shed blood of Jesus the Christ. Jesus gave all for guilty sinners like you and me. He died on that cross. He was buried and He rose gloriously and victoriously from the grave three days later.
You can’t fool God. You may think you are white as snow, but God sees your black (evil) heart; if you are an unrepentant sinner. No matter if you are an atheist, cult member or false convert; right here tonight, if you recognize that you are a sinner; if you recognize through the power of the Holy Spirit that you really have broken God’s Law, that you do deserve to go to Hell when you die, then God can grant you repentance.
Repentance is turning away from your sins. It starts with your heart and your mind. God convicts you over your sins and through the Holy Spirit you are broken over your sins, you now desire to turn away from those sins. That is genuine repentance and real repentance that leads to salvation can only come from God. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.
Repentance is the first part of salvation. Faith goes right along with repentance. They go hand in hand. Once God reveals to you that you are a sinner who needs to repent, then He also can give you a measure of faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is more than intellectual knowledge of Him. Faith is when you realize that you cannot save yourself. You recognize that your good works will not save you on Judgment Day. Faith is when you believe; truly believe that Jesus and only Jesus can save you.
Faith comes when you stop trusting in your own self and put your trust in Jesus. You believe that He is the Son of God. You believe that He died on the cross for your sins. You believe that He paid your sin debt for you. You believe that Jesus rose from the grave. You believe that Jesus defeated sin, death and Hell. You believe that Jesus truly took your sins upon Himself and that you are now cleansed from your sins. Faith is when you understand that Jesus was seen as guilty before God for your sake (even though he wasn’t). By the same token you are now seen as not guilty (or perfect) in God’s eyes because of the righteousness of Jesus. His righteousness has been credited to you.
Are you willing to be made righteous tonight through the righteousness of Jesus? Are you ready to be saved tonight? Do you want to be born again? Do you want to turn away from your sins and put your trust in Jesus? Do you want to be saved? Do you want to stop trying to fool God who cannot be fooled to begin with? Are you tired of pretending? Are you tired of being afraid of dying? Are you tired of constantly trying to figure out if you have done more good than bad during your life? Are you tired of fooling yourself? Are you ready to get right with God? Remember, God demands 100% perfection and Jesus is the only perfect One. Are you ready to surrender your life fully and completely to Him? Are you ready?
(This message was proclaimed in the open-air in downtown Springfield on January 31, 2014)