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Redeemer Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

Fearing for the Unconverted

Selected Scriptures

1. Introduction
A. I Have Fear in My Heart
1. I am afraid for you who think you’re a Christian, when in fact you are not.
2. I am afraid for you who come to Redeemer faithfully, knowing that you’re not a
Christian, yet you continue to refuse to submit to the Lord’s command to repent
and believe the gospel.
3. I am afraid for you who deeply question whether or not you are a Christian, but
too prideful and stubborn to admit it—why risk it?
4. I am afraid for you kids in our church who think that you can wait until you’re
older to commit your life to Christ, resting on your parents’ salvation and
believing the lie that when you’re grown up you can easily throw off the pattern
of belief and behavior you are establishing right now.
5. And I am afraid for those of you who have never been to Redeemer before, and
perhaps rarely if ever darken the door of any Christian church, and ignorant of
the real message of Christianity.
B. The Bottom Line: I am afraid for anyone who is not a Christian.

2. Lesson
A. The Reason for My Fear
1. I know what God is like and what he requires cf. Exod 34:6-7a
2. I know what you are like: you are guilty. God says that all are guilty cf. Rom 3:9-
18, 23.
a. In case you may be inclined to object, thinking that you are not guilty before
God, let me give you some concrete examples
1) Rom 1:28-32
a) Have you ever been greedy?
b) Have you ever been envious?
c) Have you ever been deceitful or manipulative?
d) Have you ever gossiped or slandered?
e) Have you ever been arrogant or boastful?
f) Have you ever been disobedient to your parents?
g) Have you ever lacked mercy or compassion for the weak?
h) If so, you are guilty before God and are worthy of death; that is, you
deserve death.
2) 1 Cor 6:9-10
a) Have you ever committed an act of sexual immorality, lust, use of
pornography?

Selected Scriptures: Fearing for the Unconverted © 2005 by R W Glenn

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b) Have you ever committed adultery? The most recent statistics say that
60% of men and 40% of women have. That’s 6 out of 10 married men
and 4 out of 10 married women! Some of you must have.
c) Have you ever committed homosexual acts?
d) Have you ever coveted?
e) Have you ever been drunk?
f) Have you ever cheated?
g) Have you ever stolen? Even the smallest item that did not belong to
you?
h) If so, you are guilty, and you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
3) Gal 5:19-21
a) Have you ever erupted in anger?
b) Gotten embroiled in disputes, dissensions, and factions (or cliques)?
c) Have you ever acted in ways like any of these things the Bible
mentions?
d) If so, you are guilty, and you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
3. I know the consequences for your guilt: you will not inherit the kingdom of God;
rather, you will be condemned to eternity under the wrath of God in the torment
of hell cf. Rom 2:5; Matt 13:49-50; Rev 21:8.
4. I know that by your own power and strength, you can do absolutely nothing to
save yourself from the wrath of God cf. Eph 2:1 (dead in sin); Rom 6:17, 20
(enslaved to sin).
a. I am afraid for you because I know that rather than submitting to the Lord’s
will, you prefer to try to save yourself.
b. Yet deep down you know it’s futile.
1) Think about it—how many times have you resolved to stop being greedy
or envious or deceitful or manipulative, or resolved to stop talking behind
people’s backs, or resolved to stop being disrespectful and disobedient to
your parents?
2) How many times have you told yourself that you would stop your
sexually immoral behavior or your drunkenness or drug use or your affair
or your homosexual lifestyle or your underhanded business practices or
your outbursts of anger?
3) How many times? How many times have you resolved to say no to sin
and found yourself right back doing it again? Found yourself doing
precisely what you endeavored never to do again? A hundred times? A
thousand times? A million?
4) By your own power you cannot save yourself.
5. I know that your only hope is found in Jesus Christ—without a right relationship
with Jesus you cannot avoid the coming judgment of God cf. Eph 2:4-7; 2 Thess
1:7-10a.
a. I am afraid for you because you do not want to believe that your only hope is
in a right relationship with Jesus Christ—you want to believe that there are
other ways of getting there, other ways of avoiding the judgment, but there
aren’t.

Selected Scriptures: Fearing for the Unconverted © 2005 by R W Glenn

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6. If you are not a Christian this morning, you are in grave danger. So I am afraid for
you.
B. Alleviating My Fear: You need to abandon every other hope, for your only true
hope, the Lord Jesus Christ
C. How to Hope in Christ Alone
1. How not to hope in Christ alone
a. Not by works cf. Eph 2:9
b. Not by birth cf. John 1:13
c. Not by baptism or any other religious rite cf. 1 Pet 3:21
d. Not by intellectual agreement with facts cf. Jas 2:19
e. Not by spectacular supernatural experiences cf. Matt 7:21-23
f. Not by praying a prayer or signing a card or walking an isle
2. How to hope in Christ alone
a. Trust in Jesus Christ alone (plus or minus nothing) as a living person to
escape the wrath of God in judgment cf. Acts 16:31.
b. We trust by entrusting ourselves to Christ—we give all that we are for all that
he is cf. Matt 11:28-30.
3. Consider the Cost: Because becoming a Christian involves surrendering the
entirety of our lives to the care of Jesus Christ, not willingly holding back a single
corner of it for our own private use, Jesus tells you to consider the cost cf. Luke
10:26-33.

3. Conclusion
A. Do Not Delay
1. To the self-deluded: Do not be deceived into thinking that your works, or church
attendance, or baptism, or intellectual assent to the facts of the gospel, or your
warm spiritual experience is sufficient to save you from the wrath of God to
come—trust in Christ today.
2. To the self-aware unbeliever: Do not continue to harden your heart to the
message of the gospel. In fact, if you are planning to continue to resist, you
would be better off never to come back to Redeemer, for every week you sit
under the light of the gospel you heap judgment upon yourself—with every
successive Lord’s Day, your future punishment becomes more severe.
3. To the self-doubter: Come talk to me or Pastor Don or Pastor Doug, let us help
you discern the source of your insecurity, that we might at least eliminate the
option of the absence of the new birth.
4. To the child of Christian parents: Do not be so foolish to think that you will live
longer than today. Plenty of children die every year—and too many are
unprepared to meet the Lord. And remember that the patterns you establish now
(putting off your Christianity) will follow you as you grow up; in fact, they tend
to get worse.
5. To the first-timer: This may be your first time ever hearing the good news that
you can be spared from the wrath of God to come. Take action on what you
heard—trust in Jesus today.
6. All of you: Do not delay.
B. Response Cards: I want to encourage you to take action.

Selected Scriptures: Fearing for the Unconverted © 2005 by R W Glenn

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Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7
Minnetonka, MN 55345
Office: 952.935.2425
Fax: 952.938.8299
info@redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.solidfood.net

Selected Scriptures: Fearing for the Unconverted © 2005 by R W Glenn