Some Questions for Seekers
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD... Jer. 29:13-14
Sometimes you have to wonder what it is that people want or expect from God. Most are very reluctant to even talk about God and the state of their soul. They are even more reluctant to talk to a preacher or a faithful Christian. The person who would most likely be able to help them is the person they seek most to avoid. I suppose that any person who truly cares about the souls of others has spent a lot of time thinking, praying, and studying about this matter. How do you reach someone who is lost?
First of all, it is very difficult because most will not admit they are lost. They are not sure of much of anything except that they are somehow going to end up in heaven. They have obtained this flimsy hope by simply comparing themselves with the WORST professed Christians they have known. They look for the weakest, or most hypocritical Christian they can find and then say, "Well, if they are going to heaven, I will surely make it." You have to wonder if it would make a difference in their attitude if they would compare themselves to the BEST Christians that could be found instead. It is easy for someone to feel good about themselves in any matter when they measure themselves by the lowest standard they can find. How would they measure up to a martyr who died for his faith, or one who spent years in a prison or labor camp? But even the best Christians are not the standard God will use in the day of judgment – the Word of God is. Therefore, the first step for an unsaved person in finding God is to measure themselves and their professed righteousness by the written Word of God. The law of God is the schoolmaster which brings us to Christ.
Secondly, it is very difficult to the reach the lost because they are prone to argue. They do not act like someone who is desperately seeking to the know the truth. Instead of reaching out to receive any help offered they resist all efforts to throw out the lifeline to them. Therefore, it is a struggle and many times ends up with someone's feelings hurt. They are much like an animal caught in a trap who fights the one who tries to help him. Reaching them would be so much easier if they would simply receive help instead of rejecting and resisting it.
The basic problem with all people who are not saved is that they simply do not believe. Most do not believe the Word of God. They have been exposed to unbelief and criticism of the Bible all their life. This world system that is headed by the devil himself has thoroughly indoctrinated them against God and his Word. Besides being exposed to phony Christians who have been immoral or otherwise wicked, they have listened to the lectures of infidels in school, watched the blasphemy on TV, filled their souls with the music of the most immoral and ungodly people on earth, and their mind is blinded and their heart is hardened. At the same time they have had little or no exposure to true Christianity and Bible faith. They are full of doubts about God, so they try to explain everything without Him, but they still have a heart that is full of fear and doubt about what is awaiting them on the other side of death. Most of them have some kind of desire to believe, but they refuse to strike out in search of God with an honest heart and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to find Him. They are too entangled with the world and with those whom they have identified themselves with all their lives. They wait and wait, hoping that one day something will "come over" them or some revelation from God himself will transform them somehow into what they need to be, but that will never happen as long as they refuse to lay down their load of junk and start seeking God's face in earnest.
Here are some thoughts to consider for those who are concerned about the lost and want to do something to help them find God. These are the issues that need to be dealt with before an unconverted person is going to hear the Gospel. It would also be good for the person who is not prepared to stand before God to consider these things.
Do they really want to know the truth?
This is the first thing to be determined. If this person is not interested at all you are going no where by continuing to lecture him about God and his soul – he is not listening. You may think he is, and he may put on a pretense that he is, but the words are not penetrating his heart because he has his shield up. He is resisting because he is a careless, unawakened, sinner. The best hope for him is for you to plant some seed by testifying of God's goodness and mercy to you. We can tell them what God has done for us and then live before them so they will be forced to recognize that there has truly been a divine work done in our life. We can give them some Scripture and make them a matter of prayer, but to win a person like this to God on the spot is not going to happen. Furthermore, the more you press the harder his heart is going to become. I know many people who have been hardened by the repeated assault of would-be soul-winners to the point that they refuse to even talk to anyone about it anymore. If he will receive the Word of God there is hope for his soul now, but as long as a person is rejecting the Word of God there is no hope for his soul. There is no way he can have saving faith in God if he refuses to believe what God has said and written down in a book and preserved through the ages.
Are they really willing to be completely honest in their heart before God?
If this person will not stand still before God and quit justifying and excusing himself for his unbelief he is not going to find peace with God. Jesus said, in the parable of the sower, that it was he that in a "good and honest heart" received the Word that remained and brought forth fruit. God will not be lied to or deceived and until a person can truly realize that fact and stop trying to hide from God by dodging the truth about themselves, they will find no hope.
Are they willing to start looking for a reason to believe instead of a reason to not believe?
Everyone has doubts and unanswered questions in the beginning of their journey to God. In fact, that is a part of our experience all the way through life, but the doubts diminish and the questions get fewer as we grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord and his Word. If a person is going to ever find peace with God he must put these issues on the table and wait for God to give him understanding. The true seeker will seek to believe while the insincere resister will cling to his doubts and questions and seek for a way to not believe. He supposes he can force God to answer all his questions and erase all his doubts before he commits anything to God. It simply does not happen that way. First, we believe – then God manifests himself to us. To the unconverted sinner, believing in God is nothing more than an intellectual exercise – you believe based upon your knowledge. But faith in God is a moral decision – not an intellectual one. We trust Him simply because of who He is – and who we are. As someone said, "I have learned two things: There is a God … and … I am not Him." They may say, "Well, I just do not KNOW, so how can I believe?" The disciples also said to Jesus, "increase our faith." Another man pleaded with Jesus by saying, "Lord I believe! Help Thou mine unbelief!" All of us have to come to that place. If you really want to KNOW – you can! But it does not happen because God waves a magic wand over your head and removes all doubts and questions. God says it happens when you "search for me with all your heart." When you believe God because He is God!
Are you willing to work on the basis that God is just and sometimes His ways are above finding out?
You must start from some basic facts about God. First of all, the most basic fact about God is that He must be just or He cannot be trusted. This is the point upon which almost every thinking person stumbles before they come into a true relationship with God. The devil accused God of being unjust when he first spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He has been suggesting the same thing to the minds of men ever since. There is not a person on earth who has not at one time or another accused God of injustice in their heart, if not with their tongue. We have accused God of injustice because of hard things in our lives. I guess we all expect to live perfectly happy lives without any loss or pain, but that is just not going to happen in this sin-cursed world in which we live. Those who suffer greatly sometimes become bitter toward God because they feel He has been unfair to them. Most consider their trial worse than everyone else's, but "there hath no temptation (trial) taken you but such as is common to man." No matter the depth of your heartache and suffering others have felt it also – it is not unusual, but common to man. Suffering and trials enrich those who do not become bitter toward God, while they impoverish those who charge God with injustice. So all doubts about the justice of God are based on selfish reasoning. But God is not unjust and He does no evil. Man is the sinner and it is wicked men who have caused all the evil that has ever existed. It is simply God who gets blamed for it by these same men. You must come to the point where you understand that all the injustice, and all the evil in this world is not the work of God but of men. Most accuse God of being unjust because He allows evil people to do cruel and wicked things to others. "How could a loving God allow such things to happen?" How many times have we all heard such statements? I have always thought it quite hypocritical for people to say such things because those same people completely refuse to allow God to stop them from their sinning. They maintain the right to do as they please and refuse God because they do not want Him to put any restrictions on their activities. Yet they expect Him to interfere in the lives of others they consider to be evil and stop them from doing what they do. If these flimsy arguments against God's justice are so easily overthrown here what will it be like for the sinner when he stands before God?
Are you willing to lay aside the things you do not understand and reckon yourself lacking in knowledge instead of continuing to accuse God of being unjust?
No one is on the road to understanding and knowing God until he truly realizes he is very little – and God is very big. My objections and my arguments are offensive to a holy God and they must cease if I hope to ever approach his throne. They will seem so trivial and foolish when once I get close enough to God to begin to see all things clearly. But for now I must lay down these things that so easily beset me and strive to give my heart to God. Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Job did not understand what God was doing and why all that evil had come upon him, but he knew God was just and God was good, and he was able to rest his soul in those facts in spite of the circumstances. Someday every person will look back with shame upon their foolishness in doubting God and arguing with Him about what was right and wrong. If we are ever going to be born again of God's Spirit it will be by faith in Christ, his Son. The Bible talks about the "faith of God" and the "faith of Christ" numerous times. That means that Christ sees us, not for what we are, but for what we can be. That is how He can love us and have such long patience with us. We must have that "faith of Christ" and see ourselves also for what we can be instead of what we are now. Join with God in believing that you can know Him and become his child by faith in Christ, and the doubts will disappear and the questions will become irrelevant.
Mike Miller (Pastor)
Straight Paths Bible Church
Tuesday, January 25, 2011