PARDON ME IF I GET A LITTLE PUSHY

This booklet was written to express and to explain to friends and family members, why we take their relationship with Christ so seriously. Why, we can seem to be a little pushy at times. I want to explain that are not being pushy as much as concerned and burdened for them. My prayer is that you will read this book and take it from the spirit in which it was written, and consider God’s great love for you .

Index

CHAPTER 1 OUR LOVE FOR YOU AND GOD

CHAPTER 2 THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS

CHAPTER 3 THE NECESSITY OF YOU PERSONALLY RECEIVING

CHAPTER 4 THE CONCERN OF A FALSE HOPE

CHAPTER 5 THE ONLY WAY WE CAN TELL

CHAPTER 6 OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE LORD

Pastor Jerry Beaver

CHAPTER 1

OUR LOVE FOR YOU AND GOD

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” - Romans 8:35

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:37-39

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” - Romans 9:1-3

I really believe that friends and family are a gift from God. There was a story of a man in England who was very, very wealthy. He had made a million bucks and retired at the age of fifty. In his career, he had been a supervisor, so his job had been to deal with people. He decided, “Once I get out of the people business, I’m just going to go and be by myself and have some solitude.” When he retired, he got all of his bills paid by automatic debit. He decided to just lounge by the TV for a little while.

About three years later, nobody had heard from him because that’s what he’d wanted. He’d wanted solitude. Suddenly, there was a gas leak in the building, so the management went through, checking out all of the apartments. He didn’t come to his door, and neither would he answer his phone.

The superintendent of the building came and opened the door and went into this apartment. There, sitting in a lounge chair with the TV going and a Christmas tree lit, was a skeleton. It was now the middle of July, so it was from some Christmas of past years that this fellow had died. He had had a tree with one present to himself underneath the tree, but no one had missed him for those three years that he had passed away.

I read that story and said, “Would not that be sad if that were me? Wouldn’t it be sad if no one would miss me for three years?”

It has been said that if you have one good friend in this life, then you have got more than many millionaires have.

I thank the Lord for my best friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m as excited to be a Christian today as I was when I first got saved. Thank God for John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

1 John 4:16 says, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

Likewise, in the beginning of this book Paul said, “Thank God for that love. No matter what situation comes my way, nothing shall separate me from that great love that had God send his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for me.”

He said that he thanked God for that great and mighty love that was shed abroad in our hearts through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then Paul makes a shocking statement in Romans 9:3 that he wished himself accursed from that great love. WHY, when God had been so great and graceful to Him? Paul was on the road to Damascus and God smote him to the ground. He thought that killing Christians was a good thing. God showed his love to Paul in that Paul was persecuting the church, but God said, “Paul, I love you anyway.” He put his feet upon the Rock and now he that used to be Saul, a killer, became Paul the Apostle when he took the Savior.

When Paul looked out upon his kinsmen, when He looked out upon all his friends and all of his family, he said he could wish himself accursed from Christ because he loved them so much, he did not want to see them go to hell.

For normal people, that is hard for us to understand. I compare it to the love that I would have for my child. Many of us, if it was between us and our children, if our child needed a kidney, we would give him or her a kidney. Probably many of us would say that if our child needed our last kidney, we would give it to them!

That is the sort of thing Paul was saying, “I would give myself and my salvation away.” Though he could not do it, but he said, “My heart is with my people so much that I would willingly give it away for them if I could.”

Now that is Christianity in action! That is what The Christian life based on, sacrificial Love. 1 John 4:20 says, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” You see, God is love, and because God loved me so much, I, likewise, love people.

You look at other religions out there and they are about blowing up and killing the infidel, but we are called as Christians to love our neighbor and to love even our enemies. Jesus said that one of the greatest commandments was to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 19:19, 22:39; Mark 12:31). We are even to love our enemies because God is love (I John 4:16). Husbands are called to love their wives, wives are called to love their husbands, and we are called to love our children, our grandchildren, and so on.

Why? The reason to love? Look at the other religions, Buddhism and Islam, and you will see that they are not commanded (as Christians are) to love. That is because Christianity is real and the others are man’s philosophies. Man’s philosophy is to kill those who get in your way. “Revenge is all mine,” say the many other religions.

Romans 12:19 says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Back in Romans 9, in essence Paul says, “I would give myself away that they might have Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and experience the same love from The Lord.”

Now you may be reading this book and you think to yourself, “This Christian that I know, they are so fanatical when it comes to their faith, they even seem pushy at times.” Let me say on their behalf, “Pardon me, if I step on your toes” because I know there is a great need for you to be saved. Maybe you are already saved and know the Lord, but you are not walking with the Lord. This person still seems fanatical, and they are very concerned that you must get back in church and walk with the Lord. Sometimes they may be a little bit pushy about Christ and church too, but the reality is that we see the great necessity, as Paul did, of you walking with the Lord.

Why all the fuss? You see, it is not only because of God’s great love, but because of our own great love for you. I always say that there are three things that make us family, either birth, blood, or by bride. By birth is like a mother and son relationship, blood could be uncles and cousins, and by bride brings the in-laws (or outlaws as some people would call them).

We are bonded and joined together. We have memories together, maybe from early childhood, memories as we grew up together, or maybe it was a mother or father relationship, and because we believe the Bible, we do not just want the life as we know it to just be memories; we want to spend eternity with you, like the great song “Amazing Grace”: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years …” It grieves our heart as much or really even more than if we were to lose you to death. It is like this, I cannot probably do anything to keep you physically alive, but I can spiritually. When one of our family members dies, we always say “I wish I could have done something.” We can do something spiritually now. We would hate to go to your funeral and be there standing over your casket if we could have done something, but we did nothing.

Likewise, friends, we love them also. Friends many times are just like family. What brought us together is that we had something in common. Our desire is that you would be introduced to our best friend, JESUS. The hymn says, “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sin and grief to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!” So pardon me if I get a little excited (pushy) about it and you are my friends and family, because I know the difference Jesus has made in my life I know-I know-I know-I know he can make a difference in your lives too!

Families however, have seen us at our worst, and many knew us before we knew the Lord. That could be a hang-up to you. Some remember what we used to say and what we used to do. Some have said, “Now that you’ve found religion, you’ve become holier-than-thou.” Ninety percent of the time, that is not the case. Many times it is a misconstrued burden that we have for you that you walk with the Lord.

You knew us before we knew the Lord, and you’ve known us after we knew the Lord, and maybe we’ve made some mistakes. Maybe we’ve lost our temper. Maybe we’ve done some things that were inappropriate. Let me ask on the behalf of your family and friends, and likewise myself, “Forgive us, and don’t hold it against the Savior.”

We make mistakes, but look what he has done with me; imagine what he can do with you! If God can save me, imagine what he can do you with you.

CHAPTER 2

THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS

Jeremiah 31:3 says, “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”

We are joined by birth, by blood, or by bride, or even friendship. Interestingly enough, all the different races came from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God is the Creator of all, so we all share a common father.

The Bible starts out with Genesis 1:1 saying, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” He made the oceans, he made the seas, he made man and the beasts of the field.

In Genesis 1:26 he made man, for it says, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

Genesis 1:27-8 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

God created man for fellowship and relationship. Then sin came into the picture in Genesis 3:8, “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”

Whereas before, God would come down and Adam and Eve would say, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, I can’t wait to see you!” But now sin came into the picture, so they ran away from God instead of running to God.

The great thing though is that God came to forgive us of all of our trespasses, as the Lord’s Prayer says in Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” God chose to forgive us all in spite of ourselves, so let us follow His pattern.

That is the great love that Paul was talking about. He said, “I wish that they would have the common bond of Jesus Christ.”

God said, “I see that there is a great gulf there between man and me in the relationship,” and so God said, “I’m going to bridge that gap through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, not through their works, not by their baptisms, not by their catechisms, not by any of those things or 1-2-3 prayer, but I am going to send my Son for them, and if they will receive me as their personal Lord and Savior, I will save them from their sin.” That is the bond that we should have, that is what Paul’s burden was, and that is what a Christian’s burden should be, that each and every one of us would have God first in our lives.

This is the most important thing I can do for you. Maybe you are like me: I have prayed that someone in my family would die (that I didn’t know) that was a multi-millionaire. I have imagined getting a letter from some lawyer saying that some great aunt twice removed has left me two million dollars. I do not know about you, but I be flipping out, saying, “Whoo-hoo-o! Praise God!”

Let me say, much more than I can leave you with an inheritance of a million dollars, I can give you the most precious thing that I have in my life, which is my God and my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is more precious than gold and more precious than silver.

I love it that when a fellow asked Peter for some money Acts 3:6, “Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” In essence, he was saying, “I have no money, but I have a great relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

One of the greatest things that we can do for you is preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have seen God change lives, I have seen families destroyed and husbands ready to pack it up and leave, wives ready to pack it up and leave, kids ready to pack it up and leave and run away from home, but then the Word of God is applied and homes and families are put back together, and friendships are restored.

CHAPTER 3

THE NECESSITY OF YOU

PERSONALLY RECEIVING IT

Now, I am not just talking about knowing of God. The Bible declares, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). We do not find any solace in just a superficial belief in God, but we want to know that you personally know God. We will talk later, about the only way we can know that you know Him personally.

Let us go back to a point I made earlier. Would not this life be somewhat morbid if this were all that there were? Imagine having kids and grandkids and everyone just mixing together for maybe twenty years, maybe thirty years, maybe forty years, maybe fifty years, and then you die. The Bible talks about a heaven and a hell. We will be separated for eternity!

The hymn we quoted earlier, “Amazing Grace,” says, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.”

Though I love my family and are committed to them, I want to be committed to the whole picture, which is God and that of salvation and eternity. Please, do not take offense, but I really don’t take a profession of faith at face value

James 2:14 says, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” I love you enough to make sure!

There are many people who think they know God, but they are deceived. Even Billy Graham estimates that 80% of those who sit in churches are not saved. Jesus says in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

These people who have a false hope will say to the Lord, “Have we not done many prayers and things that were supposedly religious?” Then Jesus will say, Depart from me, I never knew you.

When Paul was on the Damascus road (on his way to kill Christians) he was a religious man. He was one of those folks that Paul talked about in Romans 9, one of those Israelites who had a false hope. He called himself a chief of the Hebrews. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews! He was very well-educated. Paul was going down the road with papers to bring to kill Christians who were sharing their faith about the Lord Jesus Christ. He was probably going to have them stoned just like Stephen was stoned. However, God smote him to the ground (and got his attention) and saved him from his sin.

Paul had been waiting for the Messiah to come, being that he was a devout Jew, but he did not know the Messiah. Now, going back to a part that I promised to come back to, about us wanting to make sure that you are secure in salvation … There is a time in everybody’s lives when they must meet Christ personally. I do not care if you grew up Baptist or if you grew up Catholic, I do not care if you grew up Lutheran. Toss the tradition out the window, and cling to the Bible and the cross of Jesus Christ.

Paul was religious, but he too had a time when he met Christ. He went before Felix and Festus and King Agrippa, and every time he went before them, he told the story, “I was going down the Damascus road; I was smitten to the ground. I looked up to heaven, and said, ‘Lord, who art thou?’ He said, “It is Jesus whom thou persecuteth.’”

He never got over that day when he met Jesus Christ personally. And he knew that to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). He had an assurance that salvation was his and that he was going to be with the Lord. His salvation experience was so real to him, he said, “I wish that I was accursed for my brethren’s sake.”

Joint-heirs in God and salvation, but also in heaven. John 14:2-3 says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

The old song, “When We All Get to Heaven,” says, “Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace. In the mansions, bright and blessed, he’ll prepare for us a place.”

Jesus is in heaven, I am going to heaven, and I do not want it to be just a few short years and then for our friends and family to be separated.

The problem is, we cannot really know your heart for sure, except for what we see on the outside. The Bible tells us in Matthew 7:20, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” The outward works we see are the only mirror to the heart. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Likewise, Matthew 12:34-35 says, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”

We can only judge by the outward, and we are commanded to try to reach you. We are not judging you to put you down, but to bring you up to Christ. (We will deal with more specific in the last chapter.) The first step of salvation is realizing your condition.

Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

We must help you understand you sin, and it consequences, as well as your accountability to God for your sin.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Because of our sin we earn death! That is physical death, and Spiritual death in Hell.

Hebrews 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

We are judged because of our sin, and left to ourselves, that would be bad news.

The only way we can pay our sin debt is to die for our sins.

When Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, this is what is called original sin.

Genesis 2:17 says, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Adam and Eve had eternal life, until they sinned by eating the forbidden tree fruit.

Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

The only way we can get eternal life is go back to sinlessness.

Can you be sinless? NO!

But you may say: “Well, I am not that bad of a person!”

But Galatians 2:16 says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

It is only by Christ that we can be truly saved.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Salvation is a free gift and you cannot do any thing to save yourself.

Ephesians 2:9 says that salvation is, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

It was Martin Luther (who was a Catholic priest) who was convicted about his inability to live a righteous life. He had done many things to try to merit God’s favor. One time he was coming up the steps of the Castle of Wittenburg, and it was a long set of steps and he crawled up on his knees. He crawled up even though his knees would bleed, quoting Scripture as a penance for his sin.

One day, as he studied Scripture on a limited basis (since there were restrictions back then), he came upon a verse (while on his knees up the stairs) that he had read many times, but this time he saw it differently. He read Galatians 3:11, “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.”

He suddenly said, “If I’m to live by faith, then why does everybody tell me that I have to work my way to heaven? I have got to do this and I have got to do that.” It eventually rang into his heart that the just shall live by faith, and faith alone.

He came out of the Catholic Church and started the Reformation.

He stood up and said, “Catholic Church, you know what? It’s not about works anymore, but it’s about your relationship with Jesus Christ, and him only. It’s not a matter about if whether my good outweighs my bad, but it’s about the goodness of God!”

CHAPTER 4

THE CONCERN OF A FALSE HOPE

The difference between religion and a relationship, the difference between salvation and a false salvation, is that one is “do,” and the other is “done!” It rests upon the basis of what Jesus Christ has done upon the cross.

I am using religion in a negative sense today, saying that religion is man’s attempt to get to God, whereas true faith in Jesus Christ is God reaching down to man.

Even many man-made Christian religions say that if your good (on a scale of one to ten) outweighs your bad, then God will grant you a majority vote on your works and you will go to heaven. That sounds good, but the problem with that is that although many people believe it, it is not what the Word of God says.

The problem with a works-salvation is that this system is subjective. It is subjective based upon the person and based upon the culture. In this, what may be wrong for you may not be wrong for someone else. In Africa, they eat monkey brains. I think that should be illegal, amen? I call it gross; they call it a delicacy! The problem with works-salvation is just that: it may be drinking, it may be smoking, it may be caffeine, it may be spitting on the sidewalk. It’s relative, depending upon the person.

But the standard of what I should or shouldn’t do is not based upon me, it’s based upon God and his eternal standard. “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1Peter 1:16). Holiness is the standard. Go ahead and try to live as Jesus Christ did - perfectly.

Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Now, I can understand that all the wicked things I ever did are terrible. But Isaiah didn’t say that. He says that all of the good things we have ever done are as filthy rags! (Rags, meaning back then, that the rags were wrapped around leprous skin that was pussing out. You’d take it off and skin and meat and everything would come off with these rags. That’s what these “filthy rags” were talking about.)

All of our good deeds are as filthy rags compared to the standard of holiness that is required for heaven. It would be like trying to fill up the Grand Canyon with cans of shaving cream. You can tell that I was a good bus kid because I would have tried something like that. But you’d start spraying that that shaving cream and it would then start to evaporate, and it would be an endless process. It could never ever be done!

And that’s what we see in religion today. People are just squirting religous shaving cream, trying to do all this different stuff, and it’s never going to amount to anything in heaven. You ask someone, “Are you going to heaven?”

“Sure!”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a good person!”

“Good as compared to whom?”

“Well, I’ve never murdered anybody or raped anybody!”

But that’s not the standard. Are you as holy as God? Do your works match up to God’s?”

Now, the great thing is to look at 2 Timothy 1:9, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”

God has saved us, not according to our works, but according to his works and the cross of Jesus Christ. God grades on the cross, not on the curve!

I loved it when, back in school, everybody failed the test, because that put the blame upon the teacher. It was never my fault, it was not because I didn’t study or any of those things. (Right!) But I loved it when everybody failed because that meant I had a chance that they were going to grade on the curve! The curve is when they do something to help everybody out.

But God doesn’t grade upon the curve, but upon the cross. God doesn’t say, “Well, they almost got there.” That’s not what the Bible says. God grades upon Jesus bleeding and dying and saying, “It is FINISHED!” It’s not according to my works, but according to his love, his purpose, and his grace.

Now, if I have to pick between you and one of my sons, you’re dead meat. If you needed a heart, and my son had a heart, you’re going on to glory. But God sent his only begotten Son to die on the cross for your sins in spite of what you’ve done, whether you’re a serial killer or a pornographer or what. It doesn’t matter. God sent his Son to die for you.

God died for us, not according to our works, but according to his purpose. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

You see, God knew that sin would contaminate mankind, and God planned to send Jesus Christ. Genesis 3:15 says, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

If there could have been any other way than the cross, God would have purposed it. But out of grace, he sent his only begotten Son for me. It’s not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:9).

Galatians 3:24 says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Works, the law, was never meant to be a means of salvation. It was meant to show that something greater was to come, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I can imagine the Old Testament saints saying, “I can’t live this!” And this prepared their hearts for the coming of the Messiah.

The law reveals to us our inability to save ourselves. That’s the first step of salvation. That’s why we preach sin. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

All of our works are filthy rags, no matter how religious we might be. Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Romans 11:6 says, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

Paul is saying there that salvation is only through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the only way you’ll go to heaven! You won’t go to heaven because of your baptism. You won’t go to heaven because you “lived a good life.” It’s not because you tried to do the best you can. It’s not because you turned over a new leaf. It’s only because you came to that spot when you recognized your need and you responded to the Savior.

But you say, what about works? Well, works have a purpose if you do not respond to God's forgiveness because then works are a condemner. Galatians 3:10 says, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

That’s God’s standard, all of the entire law, and nobody can say that they did that.

Evangelist Ray Comfort goes up to people and asks them, “Would you say that you are a good person?”

They say, “Yeah ….why?”

Then he asks them, “Well, have you ever told a lie?”

“Well, maybe one.”

He says, “If you commit adultery, that makes you an adulterer. So if you’ve told a lie, then that makes you what?” If they hesitate, he says, “How many lies does it take to make you a liar? It takes one.”

Then he asks them, “Have you ever stolen anything ever?” They say, “Back when I was a kid.”