Long, but worth the read
Clint
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Hell"s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort
This message was first preached in August 1982. Hell"s Best Kept Secret is non-copyrighted, duplication is encouraged.
www.LivingWaters.com " Living Waters Publications, P.O. Box 1172, Bellflower, CA 90706 " Order line: 1-800-437-1893
Hell's Best Kept Secret
In the late seventies, God very graciously opened an itinerant ministry to me. As I began to travel, I found
that I had access to church growth records, and found to my horror that something like 80 to 90% of those making a
decision for Christ were falling away from the faith. That is, modern evangelism with its methods is creating
something like 80 to 90 of what we commonly call backsliders for every hundred decisions for Christ.
Let me make it more real for you. In 1991, in the first year of the decade of harvest, a major denomination
in the U.S. was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. That is, in
one year, this major denomination of 11,500
churches was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could only find 14,000 in fellowship,
which means they couldn"t account for 280,000 of their decisions, and this is normal, modern evangelical results,
and something I discovered way back in the late seventies; it greatly concerned me. I began to study the book of
Romans intently and, specifically, the gospel proclamation of men like Spurgeon, Wesley, Moody, Finney, Whitfield,
Luther, and others that God used down through the ages, and I found they used a principle which is almost entirely
neglected by modern evangelical methods. I began teaching that principle; I was eventually invited to base our
ministry in southern California, the city of Bellflower, specifically to bring this teaching to the church of the U.S.
Things were quiet for the first three years, until I received a call from Bill Gothard, who had seen the teaching on
video. He flew me to San Jose in northern California; I shared it with a thousand pastors. Then in 1992 he screened
that video to 30,000 pastors. The same year David Wilkerson called from New York. He called from his car. (He
had been listening to the teaching in his car and called me on his car phone.) Immediately, he flew me 3,000 miles
from L.A. to New York to share the one-hour teaching with his church; he considered it to be that important. And
recently I heard of a pastor who had listened to the audio tape 250 times. I"d be happy if you"d listen just once to
this teaching which is called "Hell"s Best Kept Secret."
The Bible says in Psalm 19, verse 7, "The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul." What is it that the
Bible says is perfect and actually converts the soul? Why scripture makes it very clear: "The law of the Lord is
perfect converting the soul." Now to illustrate the function of God"s law, let"s just look for a moment at civil law.
Imagine if I said to you, "I"ve got some
good news for you: someone has just paid a $25,000 speeding fine on your
behalf." You"d probably react by saying, "What are you talking about? That"s not good news: it doesn"t make sense.
I don"t have a $25,000 speeding fine." My good news wouldn"t be good news to you: it would seem foolishness. But
more than that, it would be offensive to you, because I"m insinuating you"ve broken the law when you don"t think
you have. However, if I put it this way, it may make more sense: "On the way to this meeting, the law clocked you at
going 55 miles an hour through an area set aside for a blind children"s convention. There were ten clear warning
signs stating that fifteen miles an hour was the maximum speed, but you went straight through at 55 miles an hour.
What you did was extremely dangerous; there"s a $25,000 fine. The law was about to take its course, when
someone you don"t even know stepped in and paid the fine for you. You are very fortunate."
Can you see that telling you precisely what you"ve done wrong
first actually makes the good news make
sense. If I don"t clearly bring instruction and understanding that you"ve violated the law, then the good news will
seem foolishness; it will seem offensive. But once you understand that you"ve broken the law, then that good news
will become good news indeed.
Now in the same way, if I approach an impenitent sinner and say, "Jesus Christ died on the cross for your
sins," it will be foolishness and offensive to him. Foolishness because it won"t make sense. The Bible says that:
"The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness" (1Cor. 1:18). And offensive because I"m insinuating
he"s a sinner when he doesn"t think he is. As far as he"s concerned, there are a lot of people far worse than him.
But if I take the time to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, it may make more sense. If I take the time to open up the
divine law, the ten commandments, and show the sinner precisely what he"s done wrong, that he has offended God
by violating His law, then when he becomes, as James says, "convinced of the law as a transgressor" (Jam. 2:9),
the good news of the fine being paid for will not be foolishness, it will not be offensive, it will be "the power of God
unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16).
Now, with those few thoughts in mind by way of introduction, let"s now look at Romans 3, verse 19. We"ll
look at some of the functions of God"s law for humanity. Romans 3, verse 19: "Now we know that whatsoever
things 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." So one function of God"s law is to stop the mouth. To stop sinners justifying themselves
and saying, "There"s plenty of people worse than me. I"m not a bad person. Really." No, the law stops the mouth of
justification and leaves the whole world, not just the Jews, but the whole world guilty before God.
Romans 3, verse 20: "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by
the law is the knowledge of sin." So God"s law tells us what sin is. 1 John 3:4 says, "Sin is transgression of the law."
Romans 7, verse 7: "What shall we say then?" says Paul. "Is the law sin? God forbid! No, I had not known sin
but
by the law." Paul says, "I didn"t know what sin was until the law told me." In Galatians 3:24, "Wherefore, the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." God"s law acts as a schoolmaster to bring
us to Jesus Christ that we might be justified through faith in His blood. The law doesn"t help us; it just leaves us
helpless. It doesn"t justify us; it just leaves us guilty before the judgment bar of a holy God.
And the tragedy of modern evangelism is because around the turn of the century when it forsook the law in
its capacity to convert the soul, to drive sinners to Christ, modern evangelism had to, therefore, find another reason
for sinners to respond to the gospel. And the issue that modern evangelism chose to attract sinners was the issue
of "life enhancement". The gospel degenerated into "Jesus Christ will give you peace, joy, love, fulfillment, and
lasting happiness." Now to illustrate the unscriptural nature of this very popular teaching, I"d like you to listen very
carefully to this following anecdote, because the essence of what I"m saying pivots on this particular illustration; so
please listen carefully.
Two men are seated in a plane. The first is given a parachute and told to put is on as it would improve his
flight. He"s a little skeptical at first because he can"t see how wearing a parachute in a plane could possibly improve
the flight. After a time he decides to experiment and see if the claim is true. As he puts it on he notices the weight of
it upon his shoulders and he finds that he has difficulty in sitting upright. However, he consoles himself with the fact
that he was told the parachute would improve the flight. So, he decides to give the thing a little time. As he waits he
notices that some of the other passengers are laughing at him, because he"s wearing a parachute in a plane. He
begins to feel somewhat humiliated. As they begin to point and laugh at him and he can stand it no longer, he slinks
in his seat, unstraps the parachute, and throws it to the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart, because,
as far as he was concerned, he was told an outright lie.
The second man is given a parachute, but listen to what he"s told. He"s told to put it on because at any
moment he"d be jumping
25,000 feet out of the plane. He gratefully puts the parachute on; he doesn"t notice the
weight of it upon his shoulders, nor that he can"t sit upright. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would
happen to him if he jumped without that parachute.
Let"s analyze the motive and the result of each passenger"s experience. The first man"s motive for putting
the parachute on was solely to improve his flight. The result of his experience was that he was humiliated by the
passengers; he was disillusioned and somewhat embittered against those who gave him the parachute. As far as
he"s concerned it"ll be a long time before anyone gets one of those things on his back again. The second man put
the parachute on solely to escape the jump to come, and because of his knowledge of what would happen to him
without it, he has a deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart knowing that he"s saved from sure death. This
knowledge gives him the ability to withstand the mockery of the other passengers. His attitude towards those who
gave him the parachute is one of heart-felt gratitude.
Now listen to what the modern gospel says. It says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He"ll give you love, joy,
peace, fulfillment, and lasting happiness." In other words, "Jesus will improve your flight." So the sinner responds,
and
in an experimental fashion, puts on the Savior to see if the claims are true. And what does he get? The
promised temptation, tribulation, and persecution. The other passengers mock him. So what does he do? He takes
off the Lord Jesus Christ, he"s offended for the word"s sake (Mark 4:17), he"s disillusioned and somewhat
embittered, and quite rightly so. He was promised peace, joy, love, fulfillment, and lasting happiness, and all he got
were trials and humiliation. His bitterness is directed toward those who gave him the so-called "good news". His
latter end becomes worse than the first: another inoculated and bitter backslider.
Saints, instead of preaching that Jesus improves the flight, we should be warning the passengers they"re
going have to jump out of the plane. That it"s "appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb.
9:27). And when a sinner understands the horrific consequences of breaking God"s law, then he will flee to the
Savior solely to escape the wrath that"s to come. And if we"re true and faithful witnesses, that"s what we"ll be
preaching. That there is wrath to come; that God "commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Why?
"Because He has appointed a day, in which He will judge the world in righteousness" (vs. 31). You see, the issue
isn"t one of happiness, but one of righteousness. It doesn"t matter how happy a sinner is, how much he"s enjoying
"the pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb. 11:25). Without the righteousness of Christ, he"ll perish on the day of
wrath. "Riches profit not on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death" (Prov. 11:4). Peace and joy are
legitimate fruits of salvation, but it"s not legitimate to use these fruits as a draw card for salvation. If we continue to
do so, sinners will respond with an impure motive lacking repentance.
Now, can you remember why the second passenger had joy and peace in his heart? It was because he
knew that parachute was going to save him from sure death. And as a believer, I have, as Paul says, "joy and
peace in believing" (Rom. 15:13), because I know that the righteousness of Christ is going to deliver me from the
wrath that"s to come.
Now with that thought in mind, let"s take a close look at an incident on board the plane. We have a brand
new stewardess. She"s carrying a tray of boiling hot coffee. It"s her first day; she wants to leave an impression on
the passengers, and she certainly does. Because as she"s walking down the aisle, she trips over someone"s foot
and slops that boiling hot coffee all over the lap of our
second passenger. Now what"s his reaction as that boiling
liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he go, "Ssssfffff! Man that hurt"? Mmm-hhh. He feels the pain. But then does he
rip the parachute from his shoulders, throw it to the floor and say, "
The stupid parachute!"? No. Why should he? He
didn"t put the parachute on for a better flight. He put it on to save him from the jump to come. If anything, the hot
coffee incident causes him to cling tighter to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.
Now if you and I have put on the Lord Jesus Christ for the right motive, to flee from the wrath that"s to
come, when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we won"t get angry at God; we won"t lose our joy and
peace. Why should we? We didn"t come to Jesus for a happy lifestyle: we came to flee from the wrath that"s to
come. And if anything, tribulation drives the true believer closer to the Savior. And sadly we have literally multitudes
of professing Christians who lose their joy and peace when the flight gets bumpy. Why? They"re the product of a
man-centered gospel. They came lacking repentance, without which you can"t be saved.
I was in Australia recently ministering; Australia is a small island off the coast of New Zealand. And I
preached sin, law, righteousness, holiness, judgment, repentance, and hell, and I wasn"t exactly crushed by the
amount of people wanting to "give their hearts to Jesus." In fact, the air went very tense. After the meeting, they
said, "There"s a young guy down in the back who wants to give his life to Christ." I went down the back and found a
teenage lad who could not pray the sinner"s prayer because he was weeping so profusely. Now, for me it was so
refreshing, because for many years I suffered from the disease of "evangelical frustration". I so wanted sinners to
respond to the gospel I unwittingly preached a man-centered message. The essence of which was this: "You"ll
never find true peace without Jesus Christ; you"ve a God-shaped vacuum in your heart that only God can fill." I"d
preach Christ crucified; I"d preach repentance. A sinner would respond to the alter; I"d open an eye and say, "Oh
no. This guy wants to give his heart to Jesus and there"s an 80% chance he"s going to
backslide. And I am tired of
creating
backsliders. So I"d better make sure this guy really means it. He"d better be sincere!" So I"d approach the
poor guy in a Gestapo spirit. I"d walk up and say, "Vhat do you vant?" He"d say, "I"m here to become a Christian."
I"d say, "Do you mean it?" He"d say, "Yeah." I"d say, "Do you
REALLY MEAN IT!?" He"d say, "Yeah, I reckon."
"Okay, I"ll pray with you, but you"d better mean it from your heart." He said, "Okay, okay." "Now you repeat this
prayer sincerely after me and mean it from your heart sincerely and really mean it from your heart sincerely and
make sure you mean it. "Oh, God, I"m a sinner." " He"d say, "Uh"oh, God, I"m a sinner." And I"d think, "Man, why
isn"t there a visible sign of contrition. There"s no outward evidence the guy is inwardly sorry for his sins." Now, if I
could have seen his motive, I would have seen he was
100% sincere. He really did mean his decision with all his
heart. He sincerely wanted to give this Jesus thing a go to see if he could get a buzz out of it. He had tried sex,
drugs, materialism, alcohol. "Why not give this Christian bit a go and see if it"s as good as all these Christians say it
is: peace, joy, love, fulfillment, lasting happiness." He wasn"t fleeing from the wrath that was to come, because
I
hadn"t told him there was wrath to come. There was this glaring omission from my message. He wasn"t broken in
contrition, because the poor guy didn"t know what sin was. Remember Romans 7, verse 7? Paul said, "I had not
known sin but by the law." How can a man repent if he doesn"t know what sin is? Any so-called "repentance" would
be merely what I call "horizontal repentance". He"s coming because he"s lied to men, he"s stolen from men. But
when David sinned with Bathsheba and broke all ten of the ten commandments (when he coveted his neighbor"s
wife, lived a lie, stole his neighbor"s wife, committed adultery, committed murder, dishonored his parents, and thus
dishonored God), he didn"t say "I"ve sinned against man." He said, "Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and
done this evil in your sight" (Ps. 51:4). When Joseph was tempted sexually, he said, "How can I do this thing and
sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9). The prodigal son said, "I"ve sinned against heaven" (Luke 15:21). Paul preached
"repentance toward God" (Acts 20:21). And the Bible says, "Godly sorrow works repentance" (2Cor. 7:10). And
when a man doesn"t understand that his sin is primarily vertical, he"ll merely come and exercise superficial,
experimental, and horizontal repentance, and fall away when tribulation, temptation, and persecution come.
A.B. Earl said, "I have found by long experience that the severest threatenings of the law of God have a
prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they"ll not
escape danger until they see it." Now I"d like you to do something a little unusual. I"ll not embarrass you; I give you
my word. But I would like to ask, how many of you were thinking of something else when I was reading that quote
from A.B. Earl? Now, I want to admit something to you. I was thinking of something else when I was reading that
quote from A.B. Earl: I was thinking, "Nobody"s listening to me; they"re thinking of something else." So, to make a
very important point, I"d like you to be really honest. If you were thinking of something else and you
haven"t got a
clue what A.B. Earl said, could you raise your hand up nice and high"up nice and high. It"s usually half to twothirds
and we"ve got that here tonight. Let"s try again."God bless you, Pastor, for your honesty.
A.B. Earl was a famous evangelist of the last century who had 150,000 converts to substantiate his claims.
Satan doesn"t want you to get a grip of this, so listen very closely.
A.B. Earl said, "I have found by long experience [that"s the true test] that the severest threatenings of the
law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for
mercy; they"ll not escape danger until they see it."
You see, you try and save a man from drowning when the man doesn"t believe he"s drowning, he"ll not be
too happy with you. You see him swimming out in the lake; you think, "I think he"s drowning. Yes, I believe he is."
You dive in, pull him to the shore, without telling him anything. He"s not going to be very happy with you. He won"t
want to get saved until he sees that he"s in danger. They"ll not escape danger until they see it.
You see, if you came to me and said, "Hey, Ray," and I said, "Yeah." You said, "This is a cure to
Groaninzin"s disease; I sold my house to raise the money to get this cure. I"m giving it to you as a free gift." I"d
probably react something like this: "What? Cure to what? Groaninzin"s disease? You sold your house to raise the
money to get this cure? You"re giving it to me as a free gift? Why, thanks a lot. Bye."That guy"s a nut." I mean,
that"s probably how I"d react if you sold your house to raise the money to get a cure for a disease I"d never heard of
and your giving it to me as free gift, I"d think you"re rather strange.
But instead, if you came to me and said, "Ray, you"ve got Groaninzin"s disease. I can see ten clear
symptoms on your flesh. You"re going to be dead in two weeks." And I became convinced I had the disease (the
symptoms were so evident), and said, "Oh! What shall I do?" And then you said, "Don"t worry. This is a cure to
Groaninzin"s disease. I sold my house to raise the money to get this cure. I"m giving it to you as a free gift." I"m not
going to despise your sacrifice; I"m going to appreciate it and I"m going to appropriate it. Why? Because I"ve seen
the disease that I might appreciate the cure.
And sadly, what"s happened in the U.S. and the Western world as follow is that we have preached the cure
without first convincing of the disease. We have preached a gospel of grace without first convincing men of the law,
that they"re transgressors; and, consequently, almost everyone I try and witness to in southern California or around
the Bible belt has been born-again six or seven times. You say, "You need to give your life to Jesus Christ." "Uh, I
did that when I was seven, eleven, seventeen, twenty-three, twenty-five, twenty-eight, thirty-two"" You know the
guy"s not a Christian. He"s a fornicator. He"s a blasphemer, but he thinks he"s saved because he"s been "bornagain".
What"s happening? He"s using the grace of our God for an occasion of the flesh. He doesn"t esteem the
sacrifice. For him it"s not a bad thing to trample the blood of Christ underfoot (Heb. 10:29). Why? Because he"s
never been convinced of the disease that he might appreciate the cure.
Biblical evangelism is always, without exception, law to the proud and grace to the humble. Never will you
see Jesus giving the gospel, the good news, the cross, the grace of our God, to a proud, arrogant, self-righteous
person. No, no. With the law he breaks the hard heart and with the gospel he heals the broken heart. Why?
Because He always did those things that please the Father. God
resists the proud and gives grace to the humble
(Jam. 4:6; 1Pet. 5:5). "Everyone who is proud of heart," scripture says, "is an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 16:5).
Jesus told us whom the gospel is for. He said, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, the broken-hearted, the captives and the blind" (Luke 4:18). Now, they are
spiritual statements. The poor in spirit (Mat. 5:3). The broken hearted are the contrite ones (Is. 57:15). The captives
are those of whom Satan has taken captive to do his will (2Tim. 2:26); and the blind are those of whom the god of
this world has blinded lest the light of the gospel should shine on them (2Cor. 4:4). Only the sick need a physician
(Mark 2:17), and only those who are convinced of the disease will appreciate and appropriate a cure.
So we"re going to now very briefly look at examples of law to the proud and grace to the humble. Luke
10:24"Luke 10:24. And when I give you a reference from the pulpit I"ll give it twice, because I know that men are
present, and men need to be told things twice."Men need to be told things twice. This can be backed up biblically.
When God speaks to men in the Bible he uses their name twice. "Abraham, Abraham"Saul, Saul"Moses,
Moses"Samuel, Samuel"" Because men need to be told things twice. Women once. I don"t know how many
times I"ve sat in a pew, preacher said, "Ah, Luke 10:25." I turn to my wife and say, "What"d he say?" She says,
"Luke 10:25." I say, "Thank you, dear."
HELP-MATE. That"s why God created women, because men could not
handle it on their own. The whole thing is: men lose things, women find things. "Where"s the keys love?" "Hangin"
on your nose, Dear." I mean, I don"t know how many times I"ve opened the cupboard, "[Burp] There"s no honey
here, Honey!" She says, "Here is here, Dear." Where would man be without women? Mm? Still in the Garden of
Eden. Eve found the tree. Adam didn"t really know what was going on. In fact, if you look at the creation of woman,
to create woman the Bible says God put man into a deep sleep. And Scripture doesn"t say he ever came out of it.
In Luke 10:25 we see a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Jesus. This is not an attorney, but a
professing expert on God"s law. He stood up and he said to Jesus, "How can I get everlasting life?" Now, what did
Jesus do? He gave him law. Why? Because he was proud, arrogant, self-righteous. Here we have a professing
expert on God"s law tempting the Son of God. And the spirit of his question was, "And what do you think we"ve got
to do to get everlasting life?" So Jesus gave him law. He said, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of
it?" He says, "Ah, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; love your
neighbor as yourself." And Jesus said, "This do and you shall live." And then the Scripture says, "But He,
willing to
justify Himself, said to Jesus, "Who"s my neighbor?" " The
Living Bible brings out more clearly the effect of the law
on the man. It said, "The man wanted to justify his lack of love for some kinds of people; so he asked, "Which
neighbors?" " See, he didn"t mind Jews, but he didn"t like Samaritans. So Jesus then told him the story of what we
call the "good Samaritan" who was not "good" at all. In loving his neighbor as much as he loved himself, he merely
obeyed the basic requirements of God"s law. And the effect of the essence of the law, the spirituality of the law (of
what the law demands in truth), was that that man"s mouth was stopped. See, he didn"t love his neighbor to that
degree. The law was given to stop every mouth and leave the whole world guilty before God.
Similarly, in Luke 18, verse 18, the rich, young ruler came to Jesus. He said, "How can I get everlasting
life?" I mean, how would most of us react if someone came up and said, "How can I get everlasting life?"
Hell's Best Kept Secret
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