Ray Comfort is well known in Christianity, but where did he come from and what are his motives?

Have you ever heard of Ray comfort? He’s crazy friends. Those were the very first words I ever heard. When I first heard of Ray comfort. It was a friend of mine. And he had heard of Ray read one of his books and he asked me that question. I said no, I’ve never heard of Ray comfort. This crazy guy. Put a book in my hand, didn’t think I’d read it. Read it. And then sometime after that I watched a video of Ray comfort, open air preaching in Washington Square park. I heard That sophisticated New Zealand accent and it was over. We connected later his daughter met me, dropped to her knee proposed to me 200 more times after that. And the rest is history Ray. Today we’re talking about your very favorite subject here on way of the Master yourself know how can I follow that? I know right. But but Ray, look, I know this is uncomfortable for you. It’s it’s not, you know something you want to do. But we want to do it because by God’s Grace, he’s used you to impact many lives, Mark and mine to begin with here today. And we’re gonna talk about that. But you know, people see our television program, they read your books, they see you on our Youtube channel sharing the gospel with people all over. And They may see you witnessing, but they don’t know much about your story like where did you come from and what what your life is all about. So ray and 2.3 seconds fill us in. I’m a nobody from nowhere with nothing but love for God and that’s it. Yeah. Amen. Well you know what I love before we jump to the video of your testimony which will do what you don’t want to do and tell us about yourself. But I love what you’ve always said when people compliment you and say Ray, it’s amazing. You open their preach, you go out, you share the gospel if you do all this stuff and you have a you have a response to that. You are a what Tell me I’ve forgotten. I know I’m a lot like a normal biblical christian. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. I love that. And that is what we are and what we should be doing, proclaiming the gospel. So without any further ado friends. Ray comfort story. When I go in, I like to lighten things up a bit. You know, I just showed my I. D. And you can’t see this. But this is my idea is this is what I show them. Okay. I had no christian instruction whatsoever. My mom was jewish. She married a gentile just after the Second World War, went to church three times in 22 years as a non christian and each time I was incredibly bored. I’m not exaggerating. I would think to myself if I can’t sleep one night I’ll get a preacher to come and talk to me. I had a very happy childhood. I wasn’t molested. Wasn’t beaten up. I was bullied at one stage, but looking back it was incredibly happy to have my own business making as much money as I want. I had my own house, my own car, beautiful wife had made one kid, Total freedom. Didn’t have my own boss at 18 or 19 years old. So in my happiness I had a sense of futility and this is what, this is what came to me. At about the age of 20 10 out of 10 die, I began to think about that. And one night I looked at my wife, she’s just gone to sleep and I thought she could die in a second. Her heart could give out and all my material things in my house, my business, my freedom would be futile, it would be empty. No one talked about death was like this huge elephant in the room, it’s like the whole of humanity has lined up on a cliff. There’s 1000 people and they’re stepping off this cliff one after the other and no one’s saying how can we get out of this line? For about six months. I lived in the sense of futility not outwardly, but just in words, thoughts and I was on a surfing trip and a young christian guy who didn’t really know what he’s doing. He just became a christian explained the gospel to me. He took 6.5 hours to leave me to christ. But I remember reading the bible verse where jesus said, you’ve heard it said by them of old, you shall not commit adultery. And I thought well I’ve never committed adultery. If there’s a heaven, I’ll probably make it there. And then I read the words, but I say to you, whoever looks upon a woman to lust for her has committed adultery already with her in his heart, I thought you’re kidding. God sees my thought life. It was like that was the revelation. I don’t think people understand that if God can make a brain, he can see what he’s made. I’m in big trouble on judgment day, I’m going to end up in hell and that’s when the cross made sense. I’ve heard that Jesus died on a cross. I used to pray to jesus at night, mention them in my prayers, blah blah blah. But it was meaningless until I realized I was a sinner, I needed a savior, I was condemned. And yet because of what Jesus did on the cross, I could be forgiven, I could be exonerated. My death sentence could be commuted because Jesus paid my fine, which means God could legally dismiss my case and so I repented that night became a christian, 3 30 in the morning, went outside, looked up at the stars and everything looked different. Just the absolute transformation just left me with my mouth wide open. I found everlasting life I witnessed to everybody I met, not in a fanatical, wide eyed way, but when I met people I bring carry tracks everywhere. I got in a box and began preaching in the local city. If anyone could have been considered a fanatic in those days, it was me. One sign you are saying is that jesus will be your Lord. And when he says, go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. You’ll do what your Lord commands you to do. You’re going along. You know, in life. And suddenly death comes in under the door. Takes your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, take your wife or your husband or your Children can happen slowly and happen instantly in the next 24 hours, 150,000 people will die and after death. The judgment of God’s going to judge by the holiness of his law, lust as adultery, hatred, as murder. And every time you sin, you store up his wrath and hell is real. And you’re heading there all lives in the lake of fire. What are you going to do on judgment day? But fortunately God is rich in mercy. And he provided a savior. Who died for you on the cross rose again on the third day. If you repent and trust in him, God will grant you the gift of everlasting life. I need to say, please get right with God Today. Don’t put it off till tomorrow because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Yeah. You know I found everlasting life, I cannot but speak that which I’ve seen and heard. Mm What a moving video produced by our good friends from anchored North and Ray. It’s one thing for people to watch this and not know you but Mark and I know you we’ve lived life alongside you now for a number of years in ministry. I know you as my father in law after God answered your prayer for an ex gang member rapping Arab son in law and uh, and I can testify to the consistency of your life in this regard. Now I know again it’s hard for you to discuss this. I remember someone that was greatly used by the Lord in the Middle East, they told me they were often complimented by people because of what the Lord did through them. So they often would carry with them in their shirt pocket a little plastic bag of dirt whenever someone would complement them, they quietly clutch it and remember what they were Sorry I I am kind of calling you a dirtbag but not really. But I know you know what you’re made of. But but I wanna just give praise to God for how he’s worked through you. I think of what’s happened to our ministry, our television program that you’re all watching now that is airing in every state in America and in every country in the entire world. I think of our Youtube channel now with tens of millions of views, hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I think of the reach that we’ve had through our training academies. Your books are gospel tracks and hundreds of millions have gone around the world and I am so grateful for how the Lord used you. But the journey wasn’t always easy. So I’d love you to speak to kind of what you’ve gone through to get to where we’re at now. I carry a little bag of dirt that I throw at people at. You know, I I think of a W Tozer said before God uses a man. God breaks a man. So be ready if you want to be used of God to be broken by the Lord sacrifices got a broken spirit, contract heart and I know what I am and when you’ve got a broken spirit, you’re like a horse that’s had its spirit broken. It’s got a bridle on and when the master says turn right, turn right and left and left because that spirit is broken, you got your strength, you still got the energy but it’s been harnessed, it’s been bridled and that’s what I feel like as a christian, I still got my own sinful wicked heart, rebellious heart, but jesus is my Lord and when he says to do something, I jump to it because I’m terrified to go through chasing ever again. The bible says despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither faint nor rebuked of him because whom the Lord loves chasing. So we have that knowledge that we go through these really tough trials. Bring us to our knees, which is the safest place to be. And so when someone compliments me, I really don’t take it to heart. It’s like a it’s it’s encouraging. It’s a blessing and I love it. But it’s like water off a duck’s back because I know who should get the glory Amen. And you know there are lives that God uses as a testimony, especially when men know that it’s not them. It’s God’s grace through them because they know their fallen sinful nature. But I love that little verse by Longfellow who said that the heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night. That’s figurative. But that’s literally been your life. You get up at midnight around midnight most nights and you’re seeking the Lord and your writing and your you’re praying and crying out for the loss and God has used that and friends. That’s a testimony to how God can use any of us if we’re willing to surrender our lives and be conduit through which he works. He used us all in different spears and capacities, but a surrendered life will be used by him for his glory Mark real quick. I shared my interaction in terms of how I got to know. Ray. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yours? Well, the first thing that I noticed about Ray is that he has one speed and he heads in one direction forward, right? And boy who doesn’t want to be around somebody like that. The first time I went open air preaching with him, I had no desire ever to open up, reach you were there and you actually open air preach the first time we went to watch Ray Open Air Preach, I’m thinking to myself, what is this guy going to do? Is he gonna walk around the facility? Is he gonna be praying? What’s he got there? He got up on the soapbox and he just started to preach, he said, don’t overthink it, just get up there into it because you can talk yourself out of it, you can think yourself out of it. There’s a million places where you’d rather be, but this is where God has called you. Just just do it. And remember Ray had reached out to me one time, he said, hey, A bunch of atheists are willing to have dinner with me, you wanna go have dinner with 40 atheists or whatever it was. I’m thinking this guy’s crazy and we went there and I think 10 or so agreed to come on camera and there’s Ray just eating his food and answering questions with the atheists and then before they knew, it he went and paid the bill, you know, for everybody and that’s kind of the outflows, the overflow of his life. It’s contagious and I absolutely love it. Amen. And you know, Ray people would be surprised that you still deal with fear. I mean you’ve been open air preaching and sharing the gospel one on one for four decades plus, but you still deal with fear and how do you conquer it? Well, every little old lady looks like Goliath to me when I get a gospel seriously and you just got to fight it. You know, the analogy I use is that, can I ever encourage you seriously jump into a pond that’s so cold with big chunks of ice that will kill you in three minutes, hypothermia and say no, no, wait, So what’s that little four year old boy felon began drowning. You wouldn’t hesitate to jump in. You forget about your flesh, the icy water because love would overcome that fear. And perfect love casts out fear. The waters of personal evangelism are definitely freezing. I mean, you just, if you want to have a conference with christians don’t use the word evangelism in the conference, we’ve learned that, you know, and because it’s terrifying to most people, you gotta use another word to get them along transformed or something like that, something like something like that. So I love conquers fear. Perfect Love Carcetti Amen. And you’ve often quoted that really victory is not found in just not having fear, but it’s in making sure that you move forward despite it. It’s the conquering of it. It’s not not feeling it so friends. It’s one thing to talk about what Ray has done, but we want to inspire you. That’s why we exist as a ministry to inspire and equip christians and fulfilling the great commission. So I want you to watch Ray in action and the scariest place in the world, his own neighborhood. Are you spiritual people? Sometimes, sometimes sometimes you believe God exists. Sometimes you don’t correct what would make you doubt God’s existence? I believe everyone can familiarize when things go wrong in your life personally. So you think about God, I think bad thoughts about them when things go wrong or good thoughts. It depends if it’s something drastic. Um, then yeah, I’ve, I’ve doubted his, his his existence now. Why do you think the world is in such a mess? Um, because of all the media, honestly, all the things that, that are just not God made man made man made you ladies. Have you been born again? Do you know what that means? Yes. Have you been born again? I’ve tried try what? Try being born again? What happened? Let’s go back to the wrong ways? Actually old ways. So someone says give your life to christ and you tried it and you went back to your old ways. Why did you give your life to christ was it because you’re a sinner heading for hell or we are told that jesus would help you in life and make things better, I want him to help me and make things better. But then you just fall into the all the earthly things, all the world, worldly things, you know that just that are around you. So Cathy you have not been born again. I haven’t been born again, You know what it means? Um Yeah, you just explain No, wait, no, actually I don’t explain again. Okay, we’ll pull back and I’ll ask you a very probing question. Do you think you’re a good person, are you going to make it to heaven? I don’t think I’m a good person. And what about you, Katherine? I’m a good person. How many lies have you told in your life? A few? Have you ever taken something that belongs to somebody else? Honest? Um maybe. How about that one? So that’s a yes. Have you ever used God’s name in vain? OMG Yeah. And one to go and I hope you’re listening. Okay, jesus said if you look with lust, sexual desire of someone, you commit adultery in the heart. Have you ever done that? Lost lust? And what about you, Kathy? And you’ve lied and stolen and used God’s name in vain. So both of you, I’m not judging you both told me that you’re lying, thieving blasphemous adulterer at heart? You’ve broken four of the 10 commandments If God judges you by those commandments on judgment day, you’re going to be innocent or guilty guilty heaven or hell does that concern you a lot all the time. Like, I think about that a lot of the times, like in my daily life basis, like, I just sit down and have moments by myself and I’m like, oh my I’m gonna go to hell. Did you just blaspheme? Yes. So what did God do for guilty sinners? So he wouldn’t have to go to hell. He forgives us. Did something, Oh, he died for us. The punishment on the cross. It’s as simple as this. You and I broke God’s law. The 10 commandments. The Bible calls the 10 commandments the moral law. And Jesus paid the fine. If you’re in court and someone pays your fine, the judge can let you go. You can say, look, Kathy and laura are guilty, but someone’s paid their fine. They’re out of here and he can be just and merciful at the same time. Well, when jesus was on the Cross, he cried out, It is finished. In other words, the debt has been paid. That’s what he came to do. And then he rose from the dead and defeated. Death. And if you’ll repent and trust in him, God will remit your sins, dismiss your case, forgive your crimes commute your death sentence and let you live forever. All because of what jesus did on the Cross. So here’s the summation If you two ladies died today, God forbid. But if you had an aneurysm in your sleep or your heart attack, 150,000 people die every 24 hours if you die in your sins and God gave you justice, you’d end up in hell. There are two things you have to do to be saved. You must repent and trust alone in Jesus. When are you gonna do that? Like every day from now on, Starting now, Okay would you be okay if I pray with you ladies so tender. You know there’s some witnessing encounters where they just touch your heart by the response and just seeing that the gospel is coming to work. I want to talk about Cathy and laura but first Ray real quick I talked about how you did this in your own neighborhood. So what do you do on a regular basis? Our friends can no, twice a day I get on my bike with my dog Sam who wears sunglasses as I wear sunglasses and he’s on a platform on the bike and as I’ve said before, we get more attention in the presidential motorcade, people run, go past, give thumbs up, women call out how cute handsome speaking about me obviously and people run out of their homes with their cameras regularly come running out, can I take pictures and when I go to the local college students gather around cause there’s something disarming about a guy that’s wearing sunglasses and has a dog wearing sunglasses? Everyone loves dogs. So it’s a great platform for me to say, Would you like to come on camera? Would you like to tell me what you think happens after someone dies? That’s awesome. You know, Mark again before we get to Kathy and Laura. Um, what I love about what Ray is doing is he’s fulfilling really the model that jesus gave right, Jerusalem, judea samaria, the remotest parts of the earth. You always start at home and then you work out from there. We are both big proponents of missions, but often times it’s sad that people want to go out to the mission field. They’re not sharing the gospel at home. But Ray did this in his neighborhood. You and I have done it in our neighborhood, speak to the fact that that’s tough. But how do we overcome that fear and reach out to our neighbors? You know, a lot of youth groups are willing to go to the 10 40 window to reach the unreached, but they’re not willing to go across the street to reach someone who is within their eyes. Uh, every day they see they see them. Of course it’s difficult. I remember the first time we went door to door and we knocked on my next door neighbor’s house. Um, and I was scared, you know, quite frankly and I think she was like 90 years old. She invited us in and there you were just sharing the gospel in all of its simplicity. Just and just listening, we let the cards fall where they may, we need to be willing to reach our neighbors if we’re willing to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. Is it difficult? Absolutely nobody said it was going to be easy. I mean that difficult is really what makes it great. So obey the commands of God, be ready in season and out of season to preach the Gospel. And if you don’t have time to preach the Gospel, verbally will then have those gospel tracts in hand in tow ready to be handed out. It’s that urgency, right? One of my favorite illustrations of years that you use is that whole flashlight evangelism analogy. You know, I mean if people were given $1000 for every person they witness to every neighbor, you share the Gospel with give a track to get $1000. I mean we would do it. People would force themselves to overcome their fear to do it. And then you bring in the kicker. Are you willing to do for the love of money? What you’re not willing to do for the love of God. Ouch, It’s convicting. But but Mark, who was it? I’m trying remember who was it that said? We need to have eternity stamped on the insides of our eyelids. I love that. I love that quote, I can’t remember who said it. But um yeah, it’s you know, we, we need to have eternity stamped on our islands and the idea is whether awake or asleep, we always have thoughts of eternity and I like what she said inside the video there and that was just simply this. I think about it all the time and let’s come to the truth of the matter is we all really do think about it all the time and if you don’t, it’s because you are trying to quench it, you’re trying to sur press that it’s ever before our eyes because death is ever before. Amen. So Ray on Cathy and laura, one of the things that was surprising was that one of the young ladies said I’m not a good person. How rare is that? It’s very rare but still I take them through the commandments because I remember I was walking along the driveway once and this gentleman was trying to witness him. He says ah yeah I’ve done terrible things. You know I’ve done this and I’m a really bad person. So I took him through the commandments. He couldn’t wait to get away from me because he wasn’t sincere in what he was saying. He was just probably trying to get rid of me and say I’m a sinner, I don’t want to talk about that sort of thing. But yeah, so I always take them through the commandments. So they see that they really are in trouble with God on judgment day. Yeah. Amen good stuff. Alright Friends. Well as we’ve done a number of times here on the way of the master, we have shown you clips from the Holy Land. We went to Israel some time ago and filmed there and I think you’re gonna enjoy this clip. Mhm Jericho was one of the first sites to be excavated in Israel back in 1907 years later, the city was excavated by British archaeologist. John Garst Garst uncovered the remains of a network of collapsed walls and dated them to around 1400 BC. The time he believes the Israelites surrounded the city and the walls came tumbling down just as the bible claims. Years after Gar sting archaeologist Bryant wood found that the pottery located at the site was common at the time when Israelites attacked. Jericho archaeology continues to find evidence to support the claims of the bible excavations like these answer once and for all the questions concerning the historicity of the bible, of all the questions associated with the bible. The most personal and important one is the big question, where are you going to spend eternity? Okay. It’s completely predictable that skeptics are always going to bring up things that don’t validate the bible but it’s also inevitable that we keep finding things because we know that God’s word is true. But like I was talking about in the video guys, it’s one thing to know about historical validations of Christianity or archaeological validations and whatnot. But unless you know the one who made history, the one who made archaeological sites to be possible, then you don’t have life. It’s like jesus said right you you study the scriptures for in them you think you have life but you won’t come to me. And so Ray speak to that the blindness today of people thinking and we encounter that all the time. Well I do this, I do that and I read this and I but but they’re not coming to christ how how important is it to hold up the person of jesus? He’s the beginning and ending of of our message. You know I believe the bible because I’ve met the author, it was God that opened the eyes of my understanding the night of my conversion and suddenly the scriptures came alive. And so when someone reads the bible, it’s important to tell them. Don’t read it looking for mistakes because you will you’ll make big mistakes. Every page you turn. You know if you wanna nitpick, you’ll find nits to pick. But jesus said, search the scriptures and everything valuable in this life has to be searched for. You know, don’t find diamonds on the road, you don’t find gold on the sidewalk, You don’t find pearls just lying around. You’ve got to die for the pearls dig for the gold dig for the diamonds, anything of value have to search for. And there are gems and scripts that we need to open those scriptures and seek for and we’ve got to tell the ungodly to do that. When you read God’s word, seek the humble heart seeking for truth. Amen mark! For those of the of our friends who are watching right now, who don’t know christ are watching this program. Why don’t you speak to them about the Gospel? Listen, Salvation is a free gift and it’s a free gift only because the father bore the cost in himself in totality. He commands all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. Today is the day of salvation. The bible says, today is the day to prepare for your last day when jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself not just the wrath that you deserved, but the full punishment that was going to come your way. So when he died on that cross, you must realize that when he died, he didn’t die for his own sins. But for your sins, it is a free gift. We are saved by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast. So as you consider the claims of christ, as you think through the things that you’ve done, you must repent. You must place your trust where the father placed his wrath and if you do that, you will be given that free gift. And jesus proved that he was the king of kings by risen again from the dead. Well there you have it. Friends. We hope that you have been inspired today by the program, especially in realizing that, look, we can’t do it, but God can do it through us. You heard Ray comfort’s testimony and really it’s a testimony to the power of God working in broken vessels. He does it for his glory and for his honor. And when we submit and surrender ourselves to him, we’re going to see wonders. We hope that you do that. And we hope that you have been encouraged today. Come back again next time to weigh the Master and be encouraged again. We hope this episode of Wave the Master has inspired you to share the message of eternal life. You can watch our award winning movies such as the Atheist Delusion freely on our website, where you’ll also find articles, videos, and audio messages, as well as books, dvds, gospel tracks and other resources to help you share your faith Biblically and effectively make sure to visit living Waters dot com today