God Wrote The Book

Here’s a simple question: When doing evangelism, do you tell people about hell?

When you share the gospel with a non-Christian, do you explain the meaning of sin and its ultimate, most devastating consequences? This is critical. This is essential. This is biblical evangelism. If we aren’t telling people about hell, we aren’t doing evangelism the way Jesus and the apostles did it.

Consider these verses:

In John 3, when talking with Nicodemus, Jesus says, “whoever believes in him will not perish” (v. 16). Then he says “whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

In Luke 13, Jesus makes the same statement two times: “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (verses 3 and 5).

Consider the well-known “Sermon on the Mount”. The following statements also come from the mouth of Jesus: “But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:22) “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29) And in the next verse – “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:30).

Later in Matthew we read this statement, again from the lips of Christ: “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.” (Matthew 10:28)

A few years ago I was in a Bible study with a group of men. We were discussing evangelism. One man began discussing the evangelistic methods of a particular preacher. He said, “Yeah, he uses the old fire and brimstone approach. Can you believe it?”

In other words, telling people about hell is no longer valid. It’s old-fashioned, out of style, and inappropriate for today’s world. Things are different now; people won’t respond positively to the gospel if we tell them about hell. It will “turn them off”. It just won’t work. Talking about hell is too “negative”; our message needs to be “positive” if we want to reach the lost.

What do you think? Jesus told people about hell. Shouldn’t we?

I pray you’ll take a close look at the content of the preaching of Jesus and the apostles. Read the New Testament carefully and you’ll see that hell was an integral part of the gospel message. So I challenge you today to consider this: if you’re not telling people about hell, you’re not telling them the biblical gospel and you are not doing biblical evangelism.

Like many people, I am a prodigal son. Jesus even told a parable about me (and millions of others) in Luke 15:11-31. You probably know the story (and now me) quite well.

Do you ever wonder how long it took the prodigal son to finally come to his senses (Luke 15:17)? We are not told the exact length of time, but there are two verses in this passage that indicate it probably took several years.

First, note that the Bible says that this young man “set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living” (Luke 15:13). Back in those days, it probably took a considerable amount of time, perhaps several weeks or even months, to reach “a distant country.” And he was there long enough to spend his entire inheritance.

Second, when the prodigal son returns, his older brother is quite jealous of the attention given to his brother, and so complains to the father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed you” (Luke 15:28). So it appears that the prodigal was gone for quite some time.

Yes, sometimes it takes a long time for us prodigals to come to our senses. For me, it took over 20 years. I heard the gospel as a teenager, make a profession of faith in high school and tried to live the Christian life for about 10 years. Then I decided that Christianity wasn’t for me and “set off for a distant country”, which for me was a spiritual no-man’s land, a place where I completely ignored God for the next two decades.

But God is faithful and oh so patient. After 20 years of godless living, I was irresistibly drawn back to Jesus. And for that I am eternally grateful.

When I returned to Christ, I was quite surprised at what had happened to the evangelical church. In 20 years, much change had occurred. And so I’ve spent the past 10 years trying to understand those changes, and I find myself asking these two questions:

What happened to the music? What happened to hell?

Yes, the music in the evangelical church has changed dramatically in the past 20 years, hasn’t it? And it has not been without controversy. Perhaps your local church has been through a “music war”.

But I’m not really that concerned about the way the music has changed. I’m much more concerned about the disappearance of God’s wrath from the teaching and preaching ministry of 21st century evangelicalism.

And so I’m asking you today, “Whatever happened to hell?”

Does your church still believe in it? If your church holds to the inspiration, infallibility and authority of Scripture, it is true that a reference to the wrath of God is still to be found in your church’s doctrinal statement?

Why, then, do we talk so little about hell these days? It seems to me that we have quietly and subtly removed any reference to Judgment Day from our gospel presentation. The end result is a truncated and incomplete gospel that presents an imbalanced picture of the character and glory of King Jesus. Like the psalmist, are we not responsible for telling people that “It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another. In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs” (Psalm 75:7-8).

So I challenge you to listen carefully to the way the gospel is preached among evangelicals today. Compare today’s gospel to the gospel as it was preached by Jesus and the apostles, and see for yourself whether there is any truth to this observation.

Here’s a quote from Charles Spurgeon’s book, “The Soul Winner”.

“The withholding of the doctrine of the total depravity of man has wrought serious mischief to many who have listened to a certain kind of preaching. These people do not get a true healing because they do not know the disease under which they are suffering; they are never truly clothed because nothing is done toward stripping them.”

In other words, if we don’t confront people with the seriousness of their sin, we are not doing Biblical evangelism and there is no way the lost can be saved.

Let’ say you are sick, but don’t know it. In fact, you are clueless. The only symptom is a subtle rash on the back of your neck that you haven’t yet noticed. Your best friend is a doctor. The two of you go out to dinner and when you walk in front of him to enter the restaurant, he sees the rash and knows you might have the illness that accompanies it. When you sit down to order, he suddenly says “I know you might not believe me, but I think you are really sick.”

You are baffled. You don’t believe him. He tells you to go to the emergency room right away, but you laugh and think he’s joking. Eventually you give him a chance to explain the rash and the illness that goes with it. And so now you are getting concerned. Before the food arrives, you’ve come to your senses and decide to take action to get help. Without eating your meal, you head for the hospital with a sense of urgency. You’ll do whatever the doctor says – take any medicine, undergo any further tests. Whatever is necessary, you will do.

Why is that? Because you now understand the seriousness of your condition.

When we explain the gospel to the unsaved, isn’t it tempting to get right to the “good news” of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the promise of eternal life, the blessings of heaven and the streets of gold and the absence of pain, suffering and tears?

But if the person doesn’t realize his need for a Savior, he won’t take action. If a person doesn’t realize he is lost, he’ll never see the need to be found. If he doesn’t understand his disease, he won’t appreciate and pursue the cure.

Telling someone that Jesus died for his sins, without first explaining the nature and severity of his sins, is the same as your doctor friend telling you to take the medicine before he diagnosed your illness.

There’s a reason that Romans 3 comes before Romans 4 (and Romans 5 and Romans 6). Follow the pattern laid down by the Apostle Paul and explain the problem before presenting the solution. Diagnose the disease before prescribing the cure. Tell the sinner about hell before promising him heaven. Don’t take any shortcuts. Do Biblical evangelism.

The apostle Paul reveals much about himself and his ministry in his letters. Repeatedly he reminds the believers what makes him tick. If you ever want to get inside Paul’s head and heart, just start reading one of his 13 epistles and you’ll soon gain insight into both the man and his mission.

For example, let’s consider this statement: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). In other words, Paul was obsessed with the proclamation of the gospel, which we know from 1 Corinthians 15:3 was “of first importance” to him. Preaching the gospel was his Number One Priority and his all-consuming passion. He lived to preach and he preached to live.

But for Paul, guarding the content of the gospel was just as important as preaching the gospel. And so the writings of Paul are filled with descriptions of the gospel itself. If you are looking for an answer to the question, “What is the gospel?”, look no further than Paul’s epistles.

And please let me remind you that all Christians had better be constantly answering the question, “What is the gospel?” Why is that so important? Because if you do not preach the Biblical gospel as presented in the New Testament, you fall under the curse of God, according to Galatians 1:8 – “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.” Whoa. What a warning!

So I want to answer, at least in part, that all-important question, “What is the gospel?” Paul tells us that it must include “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). If you are not telling people about the death of Jesus Christ, you are not preaching the gospel; you are not doing evangelism.

But let’s go a little further in this discussion, because Paul also says that the gospel must include an explanation of not only the fact of Christ’s death, but also the meaning of His death. “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Focus now on those three critical words in the middle of that verse: for our sins.

Yes, Christ died. We must proclaim that truth from the rooftops. But we must also explain the reason He died – the purpose of His death. He died for our sins.

Do you do that when you evangelize? When you explain the gospel, do you explain in great detail what the Bible says about sin: its nature, its pervasiveness, and its devastating consequences (the well-deserved justice, punishment and wrath of God). Yes, a Biblical gospel presentation must include a discussion of what theologians call the total depravity of man.

If you don’t tell people why Christ died, you aren’t explaining the Gospel. The good news of Christ’s death must include the bad news of our sin and its ultimate and inevitable eternal consequences.

I challenge you today to evaluate “your” gospel in light of Paul’s Biblical gospel. Does it pass the test regarding the death of Christ and its meaning for guilty sinners?