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everything but evangelism. What did Jesus do when He confronted a sinner? He made the issue one of righteous-ness rather than happiness. He used the Ten Commandments to show sinners the righteous standard of God.
    In Mark 10:17, a man came running to Jesus, knelt before Him, and asked how he could obtain everlasting life. This man came “running.” He “knelt” before the Savior. It would seem that his earnest and humble heart made him a prime candidate as a potential convert. Yet Jesus didn’t give him the message of God’s grace. He didn’t even mention the love of God. Neither did He tell him of an abundant, wonderful new life. Instead,
    He used the Law of God to expose his hidden sin. This man was a transgressor of the First of the Ten Commandments. His money was his god, and you cannot serve both God and money. Then the Scriptures reveal that it was love that motivated Jesus to speak in this way to this rich young man (Mark 10:21).
    Every time we witness to someone, we should challenge our motives. Do we love the sinner enough to make sure his conversion is genuine; or do we love the feeling of getting another decision for Jesus —when in truth our zeal without knowledge has just produced an-other potential Judas?
    Every time we witness to someone, we should challenge our motives. Do we love the sinner enough to make sure his conversion is genuine?
    Why did Jesus take the time to use the Ten Commandments? His method seems a little archaic compared to the quick and easy instant converts of modem methods. Dr. Martyn Lloyd'Jones gives us the answer:
    A gospel which merely says “Come to Jesus,” and offers Him as a Friend, and offers a marvelous new life, without convincing of sin, is not New Testament evangelism. (The essence of evangelism is to start by preaching the Law; and it is because the Law has not been preached that we have had so much superficial evangelism.) True evangelism... must always start by preaching the Law.
    When you use the Law (the Ten Commandments) to show the world their true state, get ready for them to thank you. For the first time in their lives, they will see the Christian message as an expression of love and concern for their eternal welfare, rather than of merely proselytizing for a better lifestyle while on this earth. They begin to understand why they should be concerned about their eternal salvation. The Law shows them that they are condemned by God. It even makes them a little fearful.
    Look at how John Wesley reconciles the use of the Law (to produce the fear of God) with love:
    The second use [of the Law] is to bring him unto life, unto Christ that he may live. It is true, in performing both these offices, it acts the part of a severe schoolmaster. It drives us by force, rather than draws us by love. And yet love is the spring of all. It is the spirit of love which, by this painful means, tears away our confidence in the flesh, which leaves us no broken reed whereon to trust, and so constrains the sinner, stripped of all to cry out in the bitter-ness of his soul or groan in the depth of his heart, “I give up every plea beside, Lord, I am damned; but thou hast died” (emphasis added).
    Perhaps you are tempted to say that we should never condemn sinners. However, Scripture tells us that they are already condemned (John 3:18). All the Law does is show them their true state. If you dust a table in your living room and think it is dust-free, try pulling back the curtains and letting in the early morning sunlight. You will more than likely see dust still sitting on the table. The sunlight didn’t create the dust, it merely exposed it. When we take the time to draw back the high and heavy curtains of the Holy of Holies and let the light of God’s Law shine upon the sinner’s heart, all that happens is that the Law shows him his true state before God. Proverbs 6:23 tells us that “the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light.”
    It was the wrath of the Law that showed the