Free Revival's Golden Key by Ray Comfort

ago, before I understood the function of God’s Law, I told a prostitute of God’s love and was delighted that she immediately began weeping. Unbeknown to me, her tears were not tears of godly sorrow for sin, but merely an emotional response to the need of a father’s love. In my ignorance, I joyfully led her in a sinner’s prayer. However, I was disappointed some time later when she fell away, and her tender heart became very calloused toward the things of God.
    Paradoxical as it may seem, the Law makes grace abound, in the same way darkness makes light shine. It was John Newton, the writer of “Amazing Grace,” who said that a wrong understanding of the harmony between Law and grace would produce “error on the left and the right hand.” I don’t know if any of us could claim to have a better understanding of grace than the one who penned such a hymn.
    The question arises, Should a sinner be moved by Law or grace, by fear or love, when it comes to his salvation? We’ll look at this in the next chapter.

 
    CHAPTER 9
    FROM WHAT DID THEY FLEE?
    I n 1993, the Washington, D.C. traffic authorities found themselves in a public dilemma. Members of a foreign embassy had been issued numerous parking tickets for breaking the law, but because their status made them immune to any form of prosecution, they therefore felt no obligation to pay for their violations. To that date, they owed the city six million dollars in unpaid fines.
    What happened? They simply had no respect for the law, or for the agency of the law, because there am no fear of future punishment. They consequently became bold in their lawlessness.
    However, in an effort to force them to pay their debts, authorities came up with a scheme where vehicles that were driven by traffic violators would not be able to be registered, so violators would therefore be unable to drive their cars.
    The same thing has happened with the Church. It has failed to preach future punishment for violation of
    God’s Law. Therefore sinners have become bold in their lawlessness. They have lost respect both for the Law and for its agency, the Church.
    In San Diego, a strip club has a large sign that reads “We didn’t create sin, we just perfected it.” One TV channel boasted of their adult programming: “ Guararv teed to break more Commandments than any other lineup .” A magazine cover in the Los Angeles Airport was headlined “Teenage Sex Romps. Stuff so bad, it’s good. We’re so ashamed.” The secular world has be-come devoid of the fear of God; but how can they be expected to fear the Lord when much of the Church is offended by the doctrine? Unbeknown to them, they are daily clocking up debt to the Law, thinking that they will never have to pay the bill. They are storing up wrath that will be revealed in the Day of Wrath (Ro mans 2:5). If on that Day they are found in debt, they will pay for it with their souls. There will be hell to pay. Unless they are convinced that the Day of Reckoning is coming, that God will bring to judgment every secret thing, whether it is good or evil, they will continue to believe that God does not require an account.
    Not Moved by Fear
    L. E. Maxwell, Bible teacher and principal at the Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada, wrote of how students came to a knowledge of salvation. Some were “moved by fear” and others were “moved by love.” He noted that between 1931 and 1949, of the 2,507 students, nearly sixty-five percent were moved by fear, and only six percent were moved by love. The remaining twenty-nine percent came with another motive or couldn’t remember why they came to the Savior.
    This side of Judgment Day, one can only surmise as to how those not moved by fear ever found a place of repentance. This thought provokes the following inquiries:
    ■    When they found a place of repentance, of what did they repent? It must have been “sin.”
    ■     When they understood that they had sinned against God, did they