Revival's Golden Key by Ray Comfort

had my way, I would declare a moratorium on public preaching of “the plan of salvation” in America for one to two years. Then I would call on everyone who has use of the airwaves and the pulpits to preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of God and the Law of God, until sinners would cry out, “What must we do to be saved?” Then I would take them off in a corner and whisper the gospel to them. Such drastic action is needed because we have gospel-hardened a generation of sinners by telling them how to be saved before they have any understanding why they need to be saved.
    Don’t use John 3:16. Why? Because you tell a sinner how to be saved before he has realized that he needs to be saved. What you have done is gospel-hardened him.
    What did he say? “Don’t use John 3:16.” That sounds like heresy! However, I don’t think D. L. Moody would consider such advice unbiblical. Look at what he said:
    It is a great mistake to give a man who has not been convicted of sin certain passages that were never meant for him. The Law is what he needs...
    Do not offer the consolation of the gospel until he sees and knows he is guilty before God. We must give enough of the Law to take away all self-righteousness. I pity the man who preaches only one side of the truth—always the gospel, and never the Law (Pleasures and Profit of Bible Study, Morgan and Scott Ltd., p. 111).
    The Light Didn't Waken Him
    Peter lay soundly asleep in Herod’s prison (Acts 12:6). This is faith in action. Faith snoozes, even in a storm. Stephen had been stoned, James had just been killed with a sword—and Peter sleeps like a parishioner in the back row of a dead church. He was bound with chains between two soldiers. More guards stood before the door of the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and stood by him, “and a light shone in the cell.” There is a strong inference that the light didn’t awaken Peter from his sleep, because the Scriptures then tell us that the angel struck him on the side. As he arose, his chains fell off, he girded himself, tied on his shoes, put on his gar- ment , and followed the angel. After that, the iron gate leading to the city opened of its own accord, and Peter was free.
    The sinner is in the prison of his sins. He is taken captive by the devil. He is bound by the chains of sin, under the sentence of death.
    It isn’t the gospel light that will awaken him. How can “Good News” alarm a sinner ? No, the Law must strike him.
    He is asleep in his sins. He lives in a dream world. But it isn’t the gospel light that will awaken him. How can “Good News” alarm a sinner? No, the Law must strike him. He needs to be struck with the lightning of Sinai and awakened by its thunderings . That will rouse him to his plight of being on the threshold of death. Then he will arise and the gospel will remove the chains of sin and death. It will be “the power of God to salvation.” Then he will gird himself with truth, tie on his gospel shoes, put on his garment of righteousness, follow the Lord, and the iron gate of the Celestial City will open of its own ac-cord.
    Our nation is full of people—both in and out of church—who have come under the light of the gospel, but who have never been struck by the Law. (In a later chapter, we will look at how many this may actually be.) They are still asleep in their sins, unaware of their terrible plight because the Law has never awakened them. The power of the Commandments must open their eyes before the light of the gospel can be of benefit. Look at this sequence in what Paul writes to the Ephesians: “Therefore He [the Lord] says, ‘Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light’” (Ephesians 5:14). There must be an awakening before Jesus Christ gives us light. Dr. Timothy Dwight, former president of Yale University, concluded: “Few, very few, are ever awakened or convinced by the encouragements and promises of the gospel, but almost