Lost Without Christ: A Wake-Up Call for the Church

Today, friends, I’m going to be speaking to you on a topic which is very near and dear to my heart — something that has shaped me over the years of ministry. It’s a topic called lostness.

I’m going to try to give you some biblical background to this, as well as read you a portion of a teaching that changed my life. A long, long time ago, I heard this message and I’ve wanted to share just a few sections of it with you.

But to begin with, let’s talk about this. All over the world, wherever I go — in country after country where the Body of Christ is strong, growing, and evangelistically aggressive — I meet with pastors, leaders, whoever it is. And it always seems to come back to one specific topic in our discussions: what is the motivation for all these workers to go out tirelessly, sometimes dedicating their entire lives, to winning people to Jesus?

It always comes back to the same thing: they realize that people are lost and that they’re going to hell without Jesus. They preach and teach about hell, judgment, and the decisions people need to make in their lives — accepting Jesus — and the consequences that wrong decisions will bring into their lives and into their futures.

This topic keeps coming up over and over again. Especially in China, this is true. They read, study, and memorize the Bible — probably more than any other country in the world — and they are constantly reminded, through Scripture, that the foundation of the Gospel is lostness: the lost state of human beings who do not know Jesus and their eternal destinies.

When I meet with a Chinese pastor, I walk into a conversation and they automatically talk about the urgent need to reach their countrymen for Christ — without hesitation. And so, they will do whatever it takes to see people come to the Lord.

If you take one verse that is really the heart and soul of the Gospel, it’s John 3:16. You’ve heard this many, many times. I’ll just read a little and comment on it as we go.

John 3:16 says, ​“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

Billy Graham used to quote these verses more than anyone else, simply because he knew they were the foundation of his ministry, the Gospel — everything he lived for.

Verse 18 is another key verse: ​“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned.” In other words, everyone else is condemned. There’s condemnation everywhere — except for those who believe in the Son and commit their lives to Him.

“This is the judgment: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light because their works were evil. Everyone who does wicked things hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his works should be exposed.”

When we go into these countries where people are coming by the millions to know Jesus, they are coming out of dark religions and dark spiritual environments. These are the great world religions — religions I talk about all the time — that are falling apart.

The pastors, the congregations, those witnessing to their neighbours and friends — they all lived in darkness. Absolute darkness. But now they’ve come into the Light.

The change is so obvious that all they think about is their neighbours and friends who are still lost, still heading into eternal darkness and judgment. These are the people they are fighting for.

This is the foundation of all the missions efforts that Empower works with around the world.

Now I want to read to you another portion of Scripture from Luke 13:22 – 30. Please excuse my voice — I’m getting over a cold, and I’ve lost my voice a bit. But it’s coming back now.

“Then Jesus traveled throughout towns and villages, teaching and making His way toward Jerusalem. Someone asked Him, ​‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’”

So He said to them, ​“Exert every effort…” — this is not talking about works salvation, that you can earn your way in. No, that’s not what this means. It’s saying: exert every effort or concentrate on this one thing, that you have to enter through the narrow door. Because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

“Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and knock on the door, begging, ​‘Lord, let us in, please!’ But He will answer, ​‘I don’t know where you come from.’

Then you will say, ​‘But we ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets!’

But He will reply, ​‘I don’t know where you come from. Go away from Me, all you evildoers.’

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God — but you yourselves are thrown out.

Then people will come from the east and west, from north and south, and take their places at the banquet table in the Kingdom of God. But indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

That confused me for years. I used to study this and wonder, ​“What does that mean?”

Here’s the best explanation I’ve found from all the commentaries I’ve studied over the years. There are people in the inner circle who are expected to be in the Kingdom of God — those who have heard the Gospel over and over again. And yet, some of them won’t be there. While others — people who were never expected to be there, from other nations, from other religious backgrounds — they will be present.

We judge sometimes and assume certain ​“good” people will be in the Kingdom. But the truth is, it’s not about being good or hearing the message often. It’s about who responds with sincerity and Truth. Who recognizes their lostness and comes to know Jesus.

That’s why people are coming from the north, south, east, and west — people we never expected — and they are the ones coming in.

Now I want to close this by reading a few points from a paper that was presented to me years ago. Some of the language is old English, and the writer used very King James-style words. I’ll try to help you out as we go.

This section is titled: The Eternal State of the Lost.

5. The state and condition of these sinners who are lost is fixed. There will be no alternative. There remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. This is from Hebrews 10.

God has no additional or supplemental plan or provision for atonement, mercy, or redemption — none known or probably possible.

6. The condition and the pangs of the lost will be forever. In Mark 9:43, the Saviour states their punishment will be in hell — in the fire that never shall be quenched.

In several other passages (Daniel 12, Matthew 3, Matthew 13), the happiness of the righteous and the sufferings of the wicked are set forth in a parallel manner. No indication is given that the duration of one will not be equally extended as the other.

The words eternal, everlasting, forever, as used in the New Testament, refuse to be redefined. Some people try to change their meaning — but these words are clear. As used by the Saviour and the apostles, they mean what they appear to mean. They convey a reliable, however awful, Truth about the duration of punishment.

If heaven is unending, so is hell — for the same words are used to describe both.

7. The lost man’s doom is inescapable. There is a great gulf fixed, and those that would come from there cannot. Mercy will not be extended. Leniency will not be offered. Amnesty will not be declared. Paroles will not be issued.

Over the entrance of hell are inscribed these words: ​“Abandon hope, all ye that enter here.”

When I first heard this — when these words were spoken from the pulpit and we were handed this message — I was just sitting there in pieces, thinking, ​“This is the reality of my life now.”

This is the closing summation:

When the unconverted dies, his soul goes into immediate and conscious suffering. Then, at the resurrection, his unredeemed body will be raised and reunited with his unregenerate, tormented soul. All of those resurrected will be confined to a region where there is no hope, no end, and no good thing to hold the balance against evil.

It is a place where nothing good can follow them. No holy beauty. No innocence. No guiltless love of parents, wife, child, brother, or friend. No virtue. No decency. None of the social decorum that at least made vice more tolerable here on Earth. And no restraining providence of God — no interference from Him at all.

It will be a congregation of the unsaved, in the unregenerate state in which they died, driven together into one settlement. There, all the cruel acts of men will be played out remorselessly — cannibals, headhunters, rapists, murderers, addicts, rioters, the lawless, liars, and all other varieties of unsaved men and women will be there.

And added to that will be the tormenting demons, an unquenchable fire, and continual weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. In this place and condition, they will exist forever.

This is the biblical meaning of lost.

And this certain, terrifying, eternal condition of the lost is a powerful motivation for evangelism and missions.

It also offers a solid reason why evangelicals should never be drawn aside into giving priority attention to anything else — not even social concern.

And here, I want to clarify something. Today, people are saying, ​“Let’s not preach about making a decision — about heaven or hell. God’s going to let everyone into heaven. Let’s just make people’s lives better. Let’s feed them, clothe them, save them from injustice. That’s the Gospel.”

Well, friends, that is part of the Gospel. But this is where I’ve learned from overseas — from the national workers we support. This is the essence of what we’re talking about.

They say 95% of their efforts are dedicated to preaching the Gospel — sharing Jesus, speaking about lostness, confronting the false promises of other religions.

But do they neglect loving people on Earth? Absolutely not.

They pray for the sick. They share their food. They give clothing. They do it all when they see the need.

Is that the number one priority? No. That’s the Gospel — which will last for eternity.

We are not called to make people feel better for 70 or 80 years on Earth — only to let them go to hell. No, we have to do both.

And that’s why we partner with national workers who are doing both — preaching the Gospel and meeting needs. Because that’s what Jesus did.

He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. But He also died on the cross — so that people could be with Him forever.

That was the focal point. And it still is.