Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Ray Comfort: Transformed By The Gospel, Compelled To Share It!

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Ray Comfort: Transformed By The Gospel, Compelled To Share It! · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:03
  Welcome to Worldview Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events, defending biblical Christianity.
• 0:13
  No topic, off limits.
• 0:16
  And now, here's your host, David Fiorazzo.
• 0:20
  Friends, family in Christ, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode, for watching, listening, and sharing, and your prayers for the podcast.
• 0:28
  You're not going to believe how many we've done.
• 0:30
  I'll tell you that in a minute before we get to our guest today and a brand new book that's coming out soon.
• 0:36
  I want to remind you, we just got the press releases for the Worldview Matters conference.
• 0:41
  We've got 14 speakers coming to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
• 0:45
  It's next April 30th and May 1st.
• 0:48
  Why am I telling you this so early?
• 0:50
  Because a lot of people wanted to go to the last conference but said, oh, I made plans to do other things, and I had my plane tickets or whatever.
• 0:57
  So I'm saying plan your vacation around a biblical worldview summit.
• 1:03
  Two days, 14 speakers, $89.
• 1:06
  And we will be live streaming for those of you that can't make it.
• 1:08
  The conference site is worldviewmattersconference.com.
• 1:12
  worldviewmattersconference.com.
• 1:15
  You can see all the guests.
• 1:16
  And speaking of guests, I want to mention...
• 1:19
  We started out, I don't know, four years ago?
• 1:21
  I don't remember now.
• 1:23
  I don't even remember who our first guest was.
• 1:26
  I think it might have been J.B. Hickson.
• 1:27
  But episode 100, we had Curtis Bowers.
• 1:31
  Episode 200, Pastor Dean Dwyer from Australia.
• 1:35
  Episode 300, Alex Newman.
• 1:38
  Episode 400, Heidi St. John.
• 1:41
  Episode 500, Ken Ham.
• 1:43
  And in the middle of that, we had Jack Hibbs on as well.
• 1:47
  And I want to introduce you to the guest today of episode number 600, an author and Bible teacher with over 100 published books, including...
• 1:58
  Hell's best kept secret, God doesn't believe in atheists, and idiotic things people did in the Bible.
• 2:05
  He's recognized through the TV programs he does and co-hosts, the films he produces, and the many, many wonderful resources from the ministry he founded, Living Waters.
• 2:16
  Living Waters Ministry, born and raised in New Zealand.
• 2:19
  And he and his wife, Sue, have lived in Southern California now for over 35 years.
• 2:24
  It's a pleasure to welcome you, Ray Comfort, to Worldview Matters.
• 2:29
  Good to see you, sir.
• 2:30
  Oh, thanks for having me on.
• 2:31
  I was born twice in New Zealand, by the way.
• 2:34
  What's that?
• 2:35
  I was born twice in New Zealand.
• 2:37
  Okay, born and born again.
• 2:39
  Awesome.
• 2:41
  Awesome.
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  Well, before we get to your book, and friends, the book is coming out.
• 2:44
  You can get it at livingwaters.com.
• 2:46
  You can go to Amazon.
• 2:47
  You can go to 316publishing.com.
• 2:50
  It's called Compelled.com.
• 2:52
  It's Ray Comfort's story, and you can get it.
• 2:55
  You can preorder right now.
• 2:57
  It's coming out in a matter of weeks.
• 3:00
  Ray, before we do that, I wanted to thank you for another book.
• 3:02
  And this is I wasn't planning on doing that, but this is on my book table at home.
• 3:07
  Whitfield Gold, you compiled this.
• 3:09
  I love these sermons and quotes from George Whitfield.
• 3:13
  I wanted to get your take on.
• 3:15
  on the movie A Great Awakening that was a phenomenal film that was just done in the recent months.
• 3:22
  I know you probably saw it, and you're a big Whitfield fan.
• 3:27
  Open-air preaching.
• 3:28
  Talk to us a little bit about that, and then we'll jump into Compelled.
• 3:30
  I want to say it twice.
• 3:34
  I've been a big advocate of the movie Ben-Hur.
• 3:39
  For years, I've said that's the best movie I've produced because it shows the life of Christ, and it's just had me in tears.
• 3:45
  A Great Awakening left Ben-Hur in the dust.
• 3:49
  I, the first time I went, my son-in-law took me.
• 3:53
  I took some Kleenexes with me because I thought I might love.
• 3:56
  I lost my Kleenex in the theater and I was going to rip my shirt off and ball into it at one point.
• 4:01
  It was so moving.
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  It's not a movie.
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  It's not entertaining.
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  It's a spiritual experience.
• 4:08
  It is absolutely wonderful where the coal miners, he goes to preach to them and they begin to mock him.
• 4:14
  And then they throw coal at him and he keeps preaching.
• 4:18
  And I thought, I know what's going to happen.
• 4:20
  I know this is the first time I saw it.
• 4:22
  The coal miners begin dropping to their knees and it was just so moving.
• 4:27
  I love the part in there, and this is spoiler alert, but who cares, where he was in an Anglican church and the staunch Pharisaic Anglican ministers were there looking on him condescendingly as he stood up at the pulpit with his...
• 4:40
  wig, etc.
• 4:42
  And he rips the wig off and he slams his fist on the pulpit and dust comes off the Bible.
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  Then he rebukes those Pharisaic ministers and calls them dead men.
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  And then he turns to the congregation and said, have you been born again?
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  You must be born again.
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  Is your name written there?
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  And I was just goosebumps.
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  It is absolutely magnificent movie, perfectly produced, something that Sue and I do a lot because we've done a lot of
• 5:08
  films and movies in the past, my wife, is we'll watch old black and white movies and I'll just turn to Sue and say, bad lighting.
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  Oh, hear that sound, the sound man, where is he?
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  Is he going out for a cup of coffee or something?
• 5:19
  But there was nothing in that movie that I could criticize.
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  It was beautiful produced, beautiful script, very, very moving and I absolutely love it and I encourage every Christian to go and watch it and if you haven't watched it, you just need to repent.
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  That's right.
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  And I just I think I loved it.
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  And I wasn't expecting to feel so convicted all over again that what am I doing for the cause of Christ?
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  I saw Whitfield and and just the movement, the people that he preached to and how that affected the American Revolution.
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  So much history there that was was just astounding that we forget because it's not taught in.
• 5:57
  schools anymore.
• 5:58
  But anyway, Ray Comfort, we want to talk about your brand new book, Compelled.
• 6:02
  You've been in ministry for many, many decades, and yet now you're coming out with an autobiography.
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  Talk to us a little bit about how that came to be after writing so many books before this.
• 6:15
  Well, my publishers were incredible.
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  They squeezed me like an orange.
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  I thought I'd remembered everything in my past.
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  They said, no, no, no.
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  We want to know
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  what was your thoughts as you were coming down the birth canal, almost.
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  It was like everything from the past.
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  About when I was in kindergarten, how I first memory was sitting cross-legged at the front of the whole class because I was the shortest one.
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  And I bring out the fact that I was just tunnel-less.
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  I couldn't run, couldn't jump.
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  The only thing I could do was the hurdles, because I'd go under them.
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  I'm short.
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  I'm last to know when it rains.
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  And yet, because I can't sing, I can't dance, I've got no talent, when I became a Christian, I realized that God uses people without talent.
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  That is huge.
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  You know, you don't have to have talent to have faith.
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  Anyone can have faith in God.
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  It's a level playing field, and that means that God can use you in a wonderful way.
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  And so I related...
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  Stuff about my parents, my mum being Jewish, my dad being Gentile, my mum marrying a Gentile, ostracised.
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  from her family because she married outside the Jewish race or outside the Jewish community.
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  How my great grandparents fled persecution in Europe, went to England, changed their name from Stein to Cook because they didn't want persecution.
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  How when I was born, they put Methodist on my birth certificate, not because I was a Methodist, but because they were afraid of another Holocaust because I was born in 1949, four years after the Second World War ended.
• 7:43
  And how I was brought up with no Christian upbringing whatsoever, and yet I was taught the Lord's Prayer when I was about seven or eight and used to pray every night.
• 7:51
  And it brings out all these different things that happened, plus the fact that when I became a Christian, I absolutely, I'm not exaggerating, I exploded with gratitude.
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  Gratitude has been the prime thing.
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  high octane fuel that has motivated me to preach with zeal for the last 50 or so years.
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  I am so grateful that God took me out of death and gave me everlasting life.
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  Because my big dilemma in my testimony was that I had a Solomon experience.
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  I didn't have the wisdom of Solomon.
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  I didn't have the riches of Solomon.
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  I didn't have the wives of Solomon, but I certainly had the philosophy of Solomon.
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  Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
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  Because of death, it's like chasing the wind.
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  I don't want to be buried in a gold coffin.
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  I don't want riches.
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  I don't want to store up wealth on earth where I'm going to leave it to another.
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  It makes no sense.
• 8:43
  And in the book, it relates how as a newly married man, as a non-Christian, I wept as I looked at my wife as she was asleep, newly married, and I thought she could die.
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  And all my wealth, and I was a young man, successful businessman, would mean nothing if she died.
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  And I thought, this is futile.
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  We're all waiting around to die.
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  Man's putting a man on the moon at those times.
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  They haven't got a clue what they're doing here on Earth.
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  Made no sense.
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  And I just cried out, why?
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  Tears streamed down my cheeks.
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  And I didn't realize I was praying to God.
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  I was just crying out, why?
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  And God heard that cry.
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  And six months later, I relate how a young Christian left his Bible open on a table and I saw the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and they cut me to the heart.
• 9:32
  and brought me to the foot of the cross.
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  And as I said, I exploded with gratitude and set up a soapbox in the heart of our city of 350,000 people and began preaching the gospel and did that every day for almost 12 years.
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  And how God led us from New Zealand to America and how he opened doors in incredible ways and did things that just took my breath away.
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  They were so, so fantastic in the truest sense of the word.
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  They were almost like fantasy.
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  But we've seen his guiding hand and
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  compel, relates all those truths one after the other like an unfolding story of miraculous hand of God and it will encourage you and it will show you that you can also be used by God if you're a nobody with nothing but a love for Him.
• 10:18
  Ray, I don't know a lot of people that have the passion and maybe that level of deep gratitude that you have that you were just describing.
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  And I'm thinking of what I would consider maybe the lukewarm church in America.
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  Are we spoiled here in this country?
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  Is it because of the religious freedom, our constitution?
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  Is it because churches aren't teaching the whole counsel of God and encouraging believers to get out and share the most important news, the gospel?
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  What are your thoughts on that?
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  Boy, you've opened up a can of worms for me, but I'll pull them out one by one.
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  You talked about the lukewarm church.
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  There's no such thing.
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  I'll tell you why.
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  Jesus said, because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.
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  So a lukewarm Christian isn't part of the body of Christ.
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  They haven't passed through the jagged edge teeth of God's law to be broken down, to become part of his body, his hands, his feet and his mouth.
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  They sit within the stomach of the body of Christ until such a time as he spews them out of his mouth.
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  And that's a fearful thing.
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  The American church is filled with false converts, tears among the weak, foolish virgins among the wise, bad fish among the good, goats among the sheep that will be sorted out on the day of judgment when Jesus will say, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew.
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  And the problem has become
• 11:43
  Instead of preaching the straight gate, for straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads their life and few that be that find it, we've preached the broad path.
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  It's easy to become a Christian.
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  The Bible says the opposite.
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  It says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
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  Jesus said, strive to enter the straight gate.
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  The word in the Greek for strive is I'm getting that pronunciation wrong, but from the word
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  from which we derive the word agonize.
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  Jesus said, strive, agonize to get in the straight gate.
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  So to be truly born again, that's like being born the first time.
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  It's an agonizing experience.
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  It's pain and sorrow.
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  And that's what scripture is speaking with.
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  Let your laughter be turned to mourning and joy to heaviness.
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  And the reason there are so few paths through that straight gate and instead enter that wide path into false conversion is because we've forsaken the biblical gospel.
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  And this is something I relate in the book
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  that I was tremendously frustrated in 1982.
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  As I began to itinerate, I found that 90%, up to 90% of those making decisions for Christ were falling away from the faith.
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  And I thought, every 100 decisions for Christ, 90 fall away.
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  And I knew it was true in our local churches, and I'd seen statistics for large crusades.
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  I thought, this is crazy.
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  If you're fishing for men, and 9 out of 10 fish get away, you better check your net.
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  So that was my cry, what's wrong?
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  And I read a portion of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon on one Friday in my pastoral office.
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  And this is what he said, what will you do when the law comes in terror?
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  When the trumpet of the archangel shall tear you from your grave, when the eyes of God shall burn their way into your guilty soul, when the book shall be opened and all your sin and shame shall be punished, can you stand against an angry law in that day?
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  And I thought, what is he doing?
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  That's so different from God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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  I thought he's using the law to bring the knowledge of sin.
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  He's showing that sin is exceedingly sinful, like Paul said in the book of Romans.
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  He said, I had not known sin but by the law.
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  He said, by the commandment, sin became exceedingly sinful.
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  He said, the commandment, which I thought was ordained to life, brought death to me.
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  And the Scriptures speak of the law being used as a schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ.
• 13:58
  And as I studied men like Whitfield, Wesley, Moody, Luther, all those that God used down through the ages, they said, never, never preach the gospel without proceeding it with the law.
• 14:09
  It's a mistake because you'll fill the church with false converts.
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  You must diagnose the disease before you give the cure.
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  You give the cure to a man who doesn't believe he's sick, he's not going to appreciate it or appropriate it.
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  And when you preach the cure of the gospel to someone who has no knowledge of sin, they won't appreciate it, they won't appropriate it.
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  They won't truly repent.
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  It'll be superficial.
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  They'll continue in sin with no fear of God before their eyes.
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  And thus we have a church filled with false converts in contemporary Christianity.
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  And what we need is to be sons of thunder and not be afraid to put the fear of God on the people.
• 14:44
  The Bible says, through the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.
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  And if people don't fear God, they won't depart from evil.
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  Scripture says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
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  And there's a good fear and a bad fear.
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  There's a fear that has torment.
• 14:57
  But there is a good fear, and that good fear will cause you to put on a parachute.
• 15:01
  If you're standing on the edge of a plane 10,000 feet up and you're fearful, that fear is your friend because it's going to make you cling to the parachute.
• 15:09
  And when you fear God, you'll cling to the parachute of the Savior.
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  Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 15:14
  So we've got to take people, this isn't hellfire preaching, this is using the Lord to bring genuine contrition.
• 15:20
  This is what Paul did with Felix.
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  He reasoned with Felix of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, and Felix trembled.
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  Why?
• 15:29
  Because suddenly, hell became reasonable.
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  And when hell becomes reasonable, then the Savior is your only means of forgiveness.
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  That's when you flee to Jesus Christ and say, Oh God, forgive me, I'm a sinner.
• 15:41
  Like David, who had no concern about his adultery or his murder until Nathan said, You're the man, why have you despised the command of the Lord?
• 15:49
  And that's when David said, I've sinned against heaven.
• 15:51
  And that's what the prodigal son said, I have sinned against God.
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  And when men don't realize their sin is primarily vertical, they'll not exercise biblical repentance.
• 16:00
  It'll be superficial, experimental, and horizontal.
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  And thus, as I said, you'll have false converts who join the church, need entertainment to keep them going, although they'll fall away, but they're not really part of the body of Christ.
• 16:13
  So we need to get back to biblical evangelism.
• 16:15
  Yes.
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  and Compelled gives a story of how what I've said unfolded and how we were invited to come to the US to bring this teaching particularly to the Church of the US and how a pastor saw it was biblical.
• 16:29
  And I waited for three years for God to open doors.
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  I said, Lord, I know I'm here.
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  You've led me.
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  You've guided me.
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  why am I sitting around doing nothing for three years?
• 16:38
  I did go to MacArthur Park, most murderous portion in LA, and begin preaching the gospel.
• 16:43
  That was an incredible experience, but I was waiting for God to open doors, and suddenly they burst open when a well-known minister got hold of the teaching.
• 16:51
  He said, this is so important.
• 16:53
  and he had me preach it to a thousand pastors in San Jose.
• 16:56
  He put it on video and screamed that video to 30,000 pastors, and that exploded the ministry and led to a television program where Kirk Cameron actually called me and said he'd heard the teaching.
• 17:06
  He said, how can we get this to the church?
• 17:09
  That manifests itself in a television program that's in its 11th season and has been going to 190 countries for about 20 years.
• 17:18
  So I look back on the whole story and say, boy, God took this little nobody from nowhere, little Kiwi from New Zealand, a place of sheep, and used me in an exciting way to take the gospel to sinners who are sitting in the shadow of death.
• 17:34
  Ray, thank you for sharing your heart.
• 17:36
  I have the same desire to see the American church overcome these issues with false converts and entertainment to try to keep people, but giving them the world instead of the word.
• 17:47
  But let's move on.
• 17:48
  I want to ask, you mentioned Whitfield, Wesley, Spurgeon.
• 17:52
  Who are some of your mentors maybe in your life that you've met?
• 17:57
  Charles Spurgeon.
• 18:00
  I haven't met him, but I would love to.
• 18:02
  I think he was quotable in the sleep.
• 18:05
  There's really nobody living in, they being dead yet speak.
• 18:10
  People have said to me, wow, you are so knowledgeable.
• 18:13
  Do you read a lot of books?
• 18:14
  And I say, no, no.
• 18:16
  And what they don't realize is that when I began itinerating and I've preached in about a thousand churches, so this has happened a lot.
• 18:23
  I'd arrive at the airport, maybe a pastor's there to meet me and we'd go back to his office and I'd say to him, I've got a favor to ask you.
• 18:30
  He'd say, what do you want?
• 18:31
  I said, can I see your library?
• 18:32
  And his eyes would lighten up because every pastor has a library full of books.
• 18:36
  He'd say, sure.
• 18:37
  And he'd take me to his library.
• 18:38
  I said, just leave me here for half an hour if that's okay.
• 18:41
  And I began searching his library with my nose.
• 18:43
  I didn't search his library with my...
• 18:45
  eyes I searched with my nose because I was looking for books that were over a hundred years old.
• 18:50
  What I'd do is I'd pull them out and go, yeah, that's got that smell, it's really old, and I'd open it up and somebody with the same spirit that's in me was in them,
• 19:01
  They got excited by the same thing that excites me.
• 19:04
  And I'd look to the chapter that said how to bring conviction of sin, turn to that chapter, and there it was.
• 19:09
  In pencil, not ballpoint, in pencil it was underlined or circled.
• 19:13
  Always the cream, and I'd just say, pastor, you got a photocopier?
• 19:17
  Slap it on the photocopier, and I got the cream
• 19:20
  of that book within about five minutes, which I brought home with me and put into my book.
• 19:24
  So I'm not greatly educated, but this smelling out old books really, really helped me find the cream to share these biblical principles that are so important.
• 19:34
  Amen.
• 19:35
  Friends, I want to remind you of the websites again, livingwaters.com.
• 19:38
  You can go to the store to get compelled.
• 19:40
  Also, 316publishing.com.
• 19:43
  And of course, it's on Amazon as well.
• 19:46
  So, Ray, I'm sure you've made some mistakes that you've learned from or corrected in your life.
• 19:51
  Maybe when you first were out there open air preaching or street preaching, what is something maybe that you tried doing or the method has changed because of the Internet or something?
• 20:01
  It was something that you've learned that you've changed or...
• 20:04
  Done differently now.
• 20:06
  Yeah, I preached a man-centered gospel for about eight years.
• 20:11
  Stood on a soapbox and literally a thousand times said to people, you'll never find true peace without Jesus.
• 20:17
  You'll never find true happiness.
• 20:18
  And I thought, this is just so silly.
• 20:20
  There's guys in front of me, they're having sex with their gorgeous girlfriends.
• 20:23
  And they're super happy.
• 20:24
  They're enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season.
• 20:27
  So I resort to things like, you'll never find true happiness without Jesus.
• 20:32
  And they've got their true happiness without Jesus.
• 20:34
  but they have sinned for a season.
• 20:36
  So it didn't make sense until I understood this principle of using the law to bring the knowledge of sin.
• 20:41
  So no longer do they have to try and attract people.
• 20:44
  I got a net and put it around them and show them they needed God's mercy using that principle.
• 20:49
  So that was my big mistake and it was a great regret that I had that I led 28 of my surfing buddies to Christ using a little booklet called Four Laws.
• 20:57
  And I just say, one, two, three, four, say this prayer.
• 21:00
  I think 27 of them backslid.
• 21:03
  They didn't backslide, they didn't slide forward in the first place.
• 21:05
  They had false conversions and their latter end became worse than the first.
• 21:09
  They're like a pig going back to its wallowing in the mire or a dog going back to its vomit.
• 21:15
  And so I did great damage with my zeal without knowledge.
• 21:17
  I was like Peter.
• 21:19
  who took a sword and in zeal without knowledge cut off people's ears because once someone's had a false conversion.
• 21:25
  I tried that Jesus thing, I was born again, love the Lord, and it's just trash.
• 21:28
  Don't believe it anymore.
• 21:30
  They're the hardest ones to reach.
• 21:32
  So I did make some big mistakes.
• 21:35
  However, there's nothing I really regret.
• 21:38
  I've put my foot in the mouth many, many times.
• 21:42
  Said things that are just crazy.
• 21:44
  But that's how you learn.
• 21:45
  You know, you've got a guy who breaks the tape at a marathon.
• 21:49
  He wins.
• 21:49
  He gets a gold medal.
• 21:50
  But he's got bruises.
• 21:52
  He's had self-denial.
• 21:53
  He hasn't eaten chocolate for two years.
• 21:55
  Hadn't had milkshakes or anything like that or chocolate cake.
• 21:58
  For years, he's denied himself to get where he's at.
• 22:00
  And he's built up muscle.
• 22:01
  It's been hard work.
• 22:03
  That's what it's like to share the gospel.
• 22:05
  People can look at me and say, look at you breaking the tape.
• 22:07
  You're a gold medalist.
• 22:08
  No, no, no, no.
• 22:09
  It's not a gifting.
• 22:11
  It's been hard work to get, bro.
• 22:12
  I've got bruising.
• 22:13
  I've got scars.
• 22:15
  Put my foot in the mouth.
• 22:16
  But it means that you can get here too by just studying to show yourself approved.
• 22:21
  God can take anyone and use them in wonderful, wonderful ways.
• 22:24
  You can learn how to make an atheist backslide in 20 seconds.
• 22:29
  You can learn how to destroy self-righteousness in about 10 seconds just through little principles.
• 22:33
  Let me share them with you.
• 22:34
  If you've got an atheist, just say to him, do you really believe the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything?
• 22:41
  Because that's what an atheist believes.
• 22:43
  Nothing, there was nothing in the beginning, but nothing gave us flowers and birds and trees, the sun, the moon, the stars, puppies, kittens, male and female, the marvels of the human eye, the miracle of childbirth, the incredible human brain.
• 22:55
  Everything was created by nothing.
• 22:58
  That's worse than insane.
• 23:00
  Insane.
• 23:01
  And so when you tell an atheist what he believes, that that's where he defaults to, often they'll say, oh no, I don't believe that.
• 23:08
  I believe there was something in the beginning, it just wasn't God.
• 23:11
  So you can learn how to make an atheist backslide.
• 23:13
  You can just look at a building and say, how do you know there was a builder?
• 23:17
  And the atheist will say, because there's a building there.
• 23:20
  Look at the painting, how do you know there's a painter?
• 23:22
  Well, the painting is there because the painter painted it.
• 23:25
  Paintings don't paint themselves.
• 23:26
  And then you say, ready?
• 23:28
  Creation, creator.
• 23:30
  You cannot have a creation without a creator.
• 23:32
  And you know his conscience is on your side, so you don't have to spend too much time talking to an atheist about the existence of God because you know that he knows God exists.
• 23:41
  Then there's other principles you can learn very easily.
• 23:44
  Someone says, I'm a good person.
• 23:45
  I say, really?
• 23:47
  You think you're a good person?
• 23:49
  I said, I can make a change of mind in 10 seconds.
• 23:51
  Do you respect Jesus?
• 23:52
  I said, oh, yes.
• 23:54
  Jesus said, there's none good but God.
• 23:56
  So who's lying, you or Jesus?
• 23:58
  And then we'll still say,
• 24:00
  It's me.
• 24:01
  And suddenly you've just got rid of self-righteousness by saying that Jesus said there's none good.
• 24:05
  And so these little principles can save you time and arguing about the existence of God or someone can say they're a good person.
• 24:13
  No, there's none good.
• 24:15
  When you look at God's standard of goodness, it means moral perfection and thought, word and deed.
• 24:18
  And when you explain that to someone, they go, boy, you're right, I'm not good.
• 24:22
  If you lust, you commit adultery, you hate someone, you commit murder.
• 24:25
  That's how high God's standard is.
• 24:28
  Ray, we're down to a couple minutes already, and it's gone by so fast.
• 24:32
  A lot of questions I wanted to ask we don't have time for, but there's a photo album, extensive photo album in your book, Compelled, and I wanted to ask you, there's a picture, I think, of your Bible, your personal Bible.
• 24:44
  A lot of people would love to know.
• 24:46
  I know it takes discipline and work and reading and setting that time aside.
• 24:49
  What does your daily quiet time look like generally?
• 24:53
  How has that helped you through the years?
• 24:54
  I have got a good guy.
• 24:55
  Scotty, can you grab my Bible and bring it here?
• 24:58
  It's just over here.
• 25:00
  Scotty is my faithful brother of the Lord who I've witnessed with and preached with for many, many years.
• 25:05
  And he heard me mention my Bible and it's just out of reach, but I'll just
• 25:08
  The picture's worth a thousand words.
• 25:09
  Oh my goodness.
• 25:11
  I don't know where to put it.
• 25:15
  Yeah, so this is my preaching Bible.
• 25:18
  It's the pocket edition.
• 25:20
  I left a big one at home so you wouldn't feel intimidated.
• 25:22
  But let me tell you why it's so big.
• 25:24
  People say, why is this so big?
• 25:26
  And I say, when you get older, your eyes go, so you need large prints.
• 25:28
  This is a large print version.
• 25:29
  Here is Genesis chapter one.
• 25:33
  In?
• 25:34
  Yeah, in the beginning.
• 25:36
  So this-
• 25:38
  This is the mother of the Evidence Study Bible.
• 25:45
  This has all my teaching notes in it, and we transferred them to the Evidence Study Bible, and it gave birth to that.
• 25:51
  So that's very popular.
• 25:52
  It was commended by Franklin Graham and many Christian leaders.
• 25:55
  That'll help equip Christians, but I shouldn't be talking about it because I'm here to talk about what the publishers would like me to talk about my book, Compelled.
• 26:02
  Well, that's okay.
• 26:03
  This is part of it.
• 26:04
  Part of it, I mean, the compelled, it came out because of your work, putting in that personal time, reading your Bible, doing the sermons, going out and preaching.
• 26:13
  You have that experience.
• 26:15
  Ray, go ahead.
• 26:17
  I avoid the question.
• 26:18
  I read the Bible every day without fail, have done for 50 years.
• 26:21
  I thought every Christian did it, but most Christians don't.
• 26:24
  So I meet someone and says, I'm a Christian.
• 26:26
  Do you read your Bible every day without fail?
• 26:27
  And they usually say this.
• 26:29
  I try to.
• 26:30
  So do you try and eat your food?
• 26:33
  You don't try and eat your food.
• 26:34
  You eat your food because you prioritize it.
• 26:36
  And I say, put your Bible before your belly.
• 26:38
  It will never go wrong.
• 26:40
  And the other thing you talked about devotions, et cetera.
• 26:43
  I've been getting up to pray for about 40 years, most nights during the week, around midnight.
• 26:48
  And that sounds like it's very spiritual, but guys that work night shift do it every night.
• 26:52
  And so it's no big deal.
• 26:53
  We can do it for the Lord.
• 26:55
  And that's really what I look on as why God has blessed our ministry.
• 27:00
  It's because of prayer and trusting in his faithfulness.
• 27:02
  And so it's nothing that I've done.
• 27:04
  It's everything that God has done.
• 27:05
  And if we just slip into his principles of seeking him in prayer, putting prayer first, putting his word first, his blessing comes upon us in a big way.
• 27:14
  Praise God.
• 27:15
  There's so much more I know, but it's in your book, Compelled.
• 27:18
  Friends, it comes out October 28th.
• 27:20
  You can pre-order it now.
• 27:21
  Ray, it's so good to reconnect after several years of not talking, but thank you for all you do.
• 27:27
  God bless your ministry.
• 27:29
  Continue to enlarge your territory.
• 27:30
  I appreciate you and your team that you get to work with and the work you do to inspire a lot of people.
• 27:36
  Good to see you, sir.
• 27:37
  Thanks for your time.
• 27:38
  Well, thank you for your time.
• 27:39
  God bless you, brother.
• 27:41
  Thank you.
• 27:42
  Friends, share this one.
• 27:43
  This is so important.
• 27:44
  And check out that book, Compelled.
• 27:45
  God bless you.
• 27:46
  And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.
• 27:49
  See you next time.