The other night while in Wal-Mart, I and another brother-in-the-Lord had a chance to witness to two young men who were apparently shopping. As we walked down one of the aisles I heard one of the young men singing, “ … has my heart and won’t let it go …”. He was in close proximity to me, so I asked him, “What has your heart?”. He replied, “That girl has my heart.”.
I responded to this by asking, “Shouldn’t God have your heart?” and proceeded to ask him his name and if he was saved. He said his name was D, and positively replied that he was “saved”. In fact, D stated that he was supposed to be in bible study at that very moment and it was interestingly crazy that we were sharing about Christ with him. D's friend was a bit "stand-off-ish" and kept some distance between us and him.
As our conversation progressed it turned out D had not heard about the truth of the Law & the Gospel. He had not heard that God is a righteous judge and will demand perfect holiness on the Day of Judgment. D had never heard that he would be “guilty as charged" and justly condemned on the Day of Judgment. D had never been told that there is Wrath to come from a Holy God who hates sin with all of His being.
As I proceeded through the Law with D, his friend became very nervous and antsy. This second young man (we never got his name) told D that he was going to get a CD player and that he would catch up with D shortly. We wouldn’t see this young man again until a little later in the evening.
With his friend now gone, D was intently listening to the grace of God shown in Jesus Christ. D had never heard that Jesus bore our sins in His own body, perfectly satisfying the wrath of God against sin. D had never heard that Christ’s death, burial and resurrection was proof that the Savior had defeated sin, death, the grave and the Devil. D had never heard that a man must be “born again” to see the kingdom of God. D had never heard that if Christ saves you all things become new.
D was another prime example of a gospel hardened culture who has been told that they are going to heaven because they “prayed that prayer”.
D had not heard that there will be many on that Day who will cry out to Jesus, “Lord, Lord …and He will say, ‘Depart from Me I never knew you, you who practiced lawlessness’.”
Having shared the Good News of the Gospel I urged D to repent towards God and place his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I then explained the high cost of following Christ and that as Christians we are to take up our cross daily and follow Him. I explained that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we must forsake our sin, the world and all that is in the world and follow hard after Christ the author and finisher of our faith.
D received the message of the Gospel with apparent joy and gladness and even asked about Church times, reporting that he would definitely be in our Church on Sunday morning.
We thanked D for his time and my brother and I proceeded to make our way out of the store to my truck. As we were leaving Wal-Mart we noticed D’s nervous, antsy friend walking very rapidly with a huge square bulge under the right side of his sweatshirt. D’s friend was apparently in the process of stealing the CD player that he went away to get earlier in our gospel conversation.
I few seconds later D appeared out of the opposite door to Wal-Mart headed to his car. Not knowing what would happen, my brother and I decided not to confront D and his friend but to get the license plate number of the car and give it to Wal-Mart management. That is exactly what we did. The manager assured me that D and his friend were about to have another encounter with the law that night.
