The answer is No!!

My Sunday School class is working through a great book on evangelism by Mark Dever tilted The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. Chapter 6 of the book  is quite interesting. The title of the chapter is "What should we do After we evangelize?" Personally,I have been sharing my faith since I became a believer back in the fall of 1996. I began working in full time ministry since 2000 on a college campus. Over the years I have heard various reposes to the Gospel as I shared my faith broadly. Some came to Christ, most did not.

Dever's book does a good job at explaining the responses people may give when we share the Gospel. Today, I want to focus on the negative reposes someone may give. The negative reposes to the Gospel could be - "I'm undecided, I want to wait, not now maybe latter, or flat out NO!"

All of those responses indicate the spiritual condition of the human heart. Paul states in Ephesians 2:1 that everyone was at one point "dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked." Everyone is born into sin (original sin) and everyone is guilty of sin by their actions (breaking God's law). No one is born innocent because we have the stain of original sin. Also, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 that, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. It their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." No one wants to come to God on their own. Our hearts are dead. This can be masked by the moralist or the "good ole' boy who will give you the shirt off his back" person but we were all dead.

People will give us different answers when we share the Gospel with them. Unless they repent and believe the answer is no. Remember unbelievers can not come to Christ unless the Holy Spirit is drawing them (John 6:44, 65). I have been around individuals who I would have bet a $1,000 were being drawn by the Holy Spirit. They seemed so close. They starting to my Bible Study, ended a bad relationship and wanted to change. But in the end, they never believed. Nice people, but never believed.

There is no neutrality with God. Either you are in love with Jesus or you are not. There is no middle ground. You are either on His team or you are not (1 John 3:10). Those who do not believe is evident by their lives. They love the lifestyle or the pleasure of sin over loving Jesus. So they politely say, "I will wait or not now or I am not as religious as you." We must be bold and explain to our unbelieving friends that the "I will wait, or I am not as series as you" answer is no. They are saying no, to the King of the universe. Jesus is not ultimate to them. Jesus is not beautiful to them. The reality of having their sins forgiven does not stir them. Therefore, they remain under the wrath of God, forever.

 It is our job, as Christians, to pray for our lost friends and share the Gospel with them. At the same time answering their questions honestly and at the same time trusting in the all wise, sovereign God of the universe - we plant (or share the Gospel) and God does the salvation work (1 Corinthians 3:6). Just because someone may say "no" TODAY does not mean they will never repent and believe TOMORROW. So, be bold fellow Christians. Share the Gospel boldly!