There Must Be Something More

67 | God's Standards

"Let me call Grandpa Chuck to explain how he evangelized or witnessed to people as soon as he heard the message on that Sunday morning service," Meredith offered. Trey and I nodded and waited till they got back.

Grandpa Chuck wore white and red suspenders. His wavy gray hair was slicked back as if he was dressed for something. I asked about it.

"Meredith told me to dress nicely because you were coming back," he chuckled.

"We should always look presentable in a special occasion," Meredith said, wagging her finger. I shook my head, smiling.

"Grandpa Chuck," Trey said, "tell us how you witness to people. You know, as soon as you heard about Hell's Best Kept Secret."

The old man grunted and pulled his pants up. "Well, let's see..." his thick mustache wiggled in deep thought. He looked at me. "The precedent in Scripture is given in John chapter 4 for personal witness. You can see Jesus' example with the woman at the well. He started in the natural realm, swung to the spiritual, brought conviction using the seventh commandment, and then revealed Himself as the Messiah. So, when I meet someone, I'll talk about the weather, I'll talk about sport: let them feel a little bit of sanity.

"Get to know them; maybe joke here and there and then deliberately swing from the natural to the spiritual. Now, the way I do this is that I use gospel tracts. We have something like 24, 25 different tracts; we're a ministry to the body of Christ. We've printed millions and millions of tracts and our tracts are unusual. If you get a hold of them, what you'll have to do is have a stack on you because people chase you and ask for more."

Grandpa reached into his pocket and started to fumble onto something. Then he took it out. "Out of my pocket I get a pressed penny with the ten commandments on it. I got this from the church we used to go to in the countryside. We have a machine that does this. We buy the pennies new from the bank; nice golden-looking pennies and we feed them into this machine and it presses them, or it will do your thumbnail if you want to hold still. But it presses them with the ten commandments. It's legal to do this: this is considered art. It's not defacing a penny. So I say, 'Here's a gift.' He says, 'Oh...what is it?' I say, 'It's a penny with the ten commandments on it; I did it with my teeth....I do the i's with my eye teeth but the e's are really difficult.'"

We all laughed.

Grandpa studied the coin between his fingers. "Now, what I'm doing is putting out a feeler to see if he's open to spiritual things. If he negatively says, 'Ten commandments? Thanks a lot,' he's not open. But the usual reaction is, 'Ten commandments...Hey, thanks! I appreciate this.' I say, 'Ah, do you think you've kept the ten commandments?' He says, 'Ah, yeah...pretty much.' I say, 'Let's go through them. Ever told a lie?' He says, 'Ah, yeah...yeah, one or two.' I say, 'What does that make you?' He says, 'A sinner.' I say, 'No, no. Specifically, what does it make you?' He says, 'Well, man, I'm not a liar.'

"I say, 'How many lies, then, do you have to tell to be a liar? Ten and a bell rings and 'ppppbbbbtttt' across your forehead? Isn't it true if you tell one lie, it makes you a liar?' He says, 'Yeah...I guess you're right.' I say, 'Have you ever stolen something' He says, 'No.' I say, 'Come on; you've just admitted to me you're a liar.' I say, 'Ever stolen something, even if its small?' and he says, 'Yeah.' I say, 'What does that make you?' He says, 'A thief.'

"I say, 'Jesus said, 'If you look at a woman and lust after her, you commit adultery with her in your heart' (Mat. 5:28). Ever done that?' He says, 'Yeah, plenty of times.' 'Then from your own admission, you're a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart, and you have to face God on judgment day; and we've only looked at three of the ten commandments. There's another seven with their cannons pointed at you."

My hands ached in scribbling, but I didn't stop. It was too important.

Grandpa Chuck continued, "'Have you used God's name in vain?' 'Yeah...I've been trying to stop.' 'You know what you're doing? Instead of using a four-letter filth word beginning with 's' to express disgust--which is already bad enough--you're using God's name in its place. That's called blasphemy; and the Bible says, 'Every idle word a man speaks he'll give account thereof on the day of judgment' (Mat. 12:36). 'The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain' (Ex. 20:7). The Bible says if you hate someone, you are a murderer (1 John 3:15)."

That's how high God's standards are? I thought.

"Now the wonderful thing about God's law is that God has taken the time to write it upon our heart. Romans 2, verse 15: '...which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness...' Now, conscience means "with knowledge." Con is "with," science is "knowledge." Conscience. So when he lies, lusts, fornicates, blasphemes, commits adultery, he does it with knowledge that it's wrong.

"God has given light to every man. The Holy Spirit convicts them of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). Sin which is transgression of the law (1 John 3:4); righteousness which is of the law (Rom. 10:5; Philip. 3:9); judgment which is by the law. His conscience accuses him—the work of the law written on his heart (Rom. 2:15)—and the law condemns him.

"So I say, 'So if God judges you by this standard on the day of judgment, are you going to be innocent or guilty?' He says, 'Guilty.' I say, 'Well, do you think you'll go to heaven or hell?' And the usual answer is, 'Heaven.' A product of the modern gospel. I say, 'Why do you feel like that? Is it because you think God is good and he'll overlook your sins?' He says, 'Yeah, that's it. He'll overlook my sins.'

"'Yeah, well, try that in a court of law. You've committed rape, murder, drug pushing—very serious crimes. The judge says, 'You're guilty. All the evidence is here. Have you anything to say before I pass sentence?' And you say, 'Yes, Judge. I'd like to say I believe you're a good man and you'll overlook my crimes.' The judge would probably say, 'You're right about one thing. I am a good man, and because of my goodness, I'm going to see that justice is done. Because of my goodness, I'm going to see that you're punished.' "

Meredith nodded. I did too. So did Trey.

Grandpa Chucks's eyes gleamed. "And the very thing sinners are hoping will save them on the day of judgment, the goodness of God, will be the very thing that will condemn them. Because if God is good, He must by nature punish murderers, rapists, thieves, liars, fornicators, and blasphemers. God is going to punish sin wherever it's found."

I closed my eyes. Liam. He needs to hear this.