He won a young fellow to the Lord who became the well-known D. L. Moody.
After evangelizing America, D. L. Moody started to evangelize England.
There in England Frederick B. Meyer heard his message. One of the illustrations that Moody used did not at first stir Brother Meyer. Then one of his Sunday school teachers came to him and said, "Brother Meyer, the illustration that that preacher gave in our church the other day stirred my girls so much that there has been a lot of weeping, confession and testimony. We are sure that the Holy Spirit has come among us; and we have had an experience in our class that you won’t believe!"
F. B. Meyer was so affected by the testimony of that teacher his ministry began to open up and spread, and as it did, he was invited to come to America.
In America he went to Furman University to preach.
One young fellow in the student body had decided to quit the ministry and go back to a secular job. But the message by F. B. Meyer was given with such fervor and flame that the young fellow stepped out, came forward and renewed his vow to his calling. He became the great R. G. Lee.
Then F. B. Meyer went on to preach at another location. In that service a young fellow caught fire and began to evangelize. J. Wilbur Chapman, set on fire of God through the preaching of F. B. Meyer, began to stir up the whole northeastern coast.
Then, because of Chapman’s preaching, he was invited to speak at a certain place. His ministry was changing, and he needed someone to move in on those citywide crusades that he was holding. Someone said, "The man you want is the young convert, Billy Sunday."
Billy Sunday, influenced by J. Wilbur Chapman, got into the ministry and went to Charlotte, North Carolina. There a group of laymen got so inspired and so stirred up that they organized a committee to invite other evangelists back. One of the men invited was Mordecai Ham from Louisville, Kentucky.
He preached in a meeting, and Billy Graham got saved. Billy Graham became a renowned evangelist around the world.
Because Edward Kimball, a Sunday school teacher, won another to the Lord.
? Millions were saved in Moody’s ministry,
? Hundreds of thousands in Meyer’s ministry,
? Hundreds of thousands more in Chapman’s ministry,
? Hundreds of thousands more in Lee’s ministry,
? And hundreds of thousands more in Graham’s ministry.
All because one fellow won one soul to Christ!
CAN you imagine the reward this Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball, is going to receive when he stands before the Lord and God reveals to him how literally thousands of people have been won to Christ because of him?
ON THE OTHER HAND, can you imagine how some will feel when they stand before the Lord and they will see the people they could have won to Christ but they did not because they never made any attempt to win anyone to Christ.
We all are going to be held responsible for soul winning.
The Bible teaches in Acts 1:8, "...Ye shall be witnesses unto me..."
Let me share with you THREE things concerning our responsibility of winning the lost to Christ.
Before we can win anyone to the Lord we need to understand-
I. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM KNOWLEDGE.
II Timothy 2:15 says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
That is, before we can tell anyone about the Lord we have to have knowledge of WHO HE IS?
The difference between the cults and us is that we know WHO HE IS!
Now we hear folks talking about all these revelations they have, listen, I could care less about their revelation.
This Bible is the only REVELATION we need!
The only way you can have knowledge of WHO HE IS…. IS THROUGH GOD’S WORD.
This is why God does not want us to just read His Word, but to STUDY His Word!
This is the only way we can know God and know what He would have us do.
We have two kinds of people in God's church today:
(1.) Those who do not know the slightest thing about God's Word, (and)
(2.) Those who do know His Word, but are not practicing what His Word tells them they should be doing.
Illus: Many can intellectually debate God's Word. They can:
• Tell you how they stand dispensationally,
• Argue the distinctives of their doctrine,
• Quote, in chronological order, events of the end time.
• Read the Greek language fluently,
• Tell you what the Hebrew means as well,
• Define correctly all the theological terms,
• Show you their degrees from highly reputable seminaries,
However, they have never won a soul to Christ.
They are SMART, but they are NOT WISE.
Illus: That is they are like a young person going through med school to learn everything there is to learn about medicine and then not using any of that knowledge to help others.
God gives knowledge of His Word for two reasons:
1. In order to WORSHIP Him and GLORIFY Him we have to KNOW HIM.
2. In order TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT HIM WE MUST KNOW WHAT THE WORD OF GOD SAYS ABOUT HIM.
God has never given anyone knowledge for any other reason.
You see; RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S WORD.
Illus: Dr. Lee. R. Scarborough said, "Let us evangelize our education and educationalize our evangelism."
Illus: Every now and then we read of someone who has been charged with a crime who denies his guilt. Perhaps ten years later that man who had been convicted still claims he is not guilty. Later on we hear of a convicted criminal who is about to be executed who does not want to meet God in his condition, knowing he has done this other crime also, and has not confessed. He confesses and the other man, who had claimed innocence all along, is set free. But, for ten years the truth was withheld and an innocent man suffered greatly because the other man suppressed the truth.
Listen. Before you and I point our finger at such a man and criticize, we need to recognize we are as guilty as he is because we have the TRUTH that sets men free for eternity and we suppress it.
Illus: Suppose a man is about to face the electric chair. Many come to the governor to beg for his life and ask the governor to pardon him. The governor agrees and he calls you to be the one to deliver the pardon to set the man free. The governor asks you, "Do you understand what you are to do?" You assure him that you understand fully. You take the pardon and place it in your pocket. Soon you find yourself busy doing a number of things and you forget to take the pardon to the man who is about to be executed. The next morning you pick up the newspaper and you read that that man was executed. How would you feel? You would feel terrible because you would be the blame for that man's death!
This is what many professing Christians are doing.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger said every time he sees a person he knew listed in the obituary column the first thing that crosses his mind - he asks himself, “DID I TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPORTUNITIES I HAD TO WITNESS TO THAT ONE BEFORE HE DIED!”
OUR KNOWLEDGE MAKES US RESPONSIBLE.
We are going to be without excuse as we stand before the Lord if we do not share this gospel.
We also find in the Word of God that...
II. RESPONSIBLITY COMES FROM OUR BLESSINGS.
Psalm 107:2 says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord SAY SO, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy."
Illus: Today we live in a country where there is a widespread fear of the disease called AIDS. But, just suppose someone had discovered a cure for this disease but they withheld the cure until they were offered enough money to release it.
That person would be regarded as the most despicable person on this earth. We would all rise up and say, "How could anyone only think of money when so many are dying?"
Now we could announce from the pulpit, to those Christians who will not freely share the gospel, "Everyone of you Christians who show up next Saturday for visitation, and share the gospel with those who are perishing, we will write you out a check for one thousand dollars."
How many do you suppose would show up?
Let me ask you something, those who would show up for money, are they any better than the man who discovered the cure for AIDS and withheld it until he was offered money to release it. I DO NOT THINK SO!!!
The fact is, Christians who would witness for money, but would not do it freely even though God has so richly blessed their lives, are far worse. Why? Because when Christians with hold their discovery of this great Savior they sentence sinners to eternal sufferings!
Illus: The naturalists tell us that when the honey bee finds a field from which he can harvest what he needs to make honey he immediately finds his buddies and they all return to share the discovery and take advantage of it together. Should not we, as Christians, at least have the courtesy of the honeybees?
Illus: We find a good story about sharing in II Kings 7.
We are told of four lepers who were outside of the camp of the Israelites. The Lord caused a great noise in the camp of the Syrian army and the Syrians fled. The lepers were about to starve to death. Yet they knew to enter the camp of the enemy would be certain death. They decided they had nothing to lose so they went into the camp, not knowing what God had done. As they were eating and enjoying all that had provided for them, verses 9-10 tell us, "Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we HOLD OUR PEACE: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household. So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were."
We need to be like those four lepers. They recognized they had discovered food and were willing to share it. Christians have discovered spiritual food and should want to share it with others who are starving spiritually.
In Romans 1:14, Paul said, "I am debtor…." Every Christian is a debtor.
We have too many dead-beat Christians who are not paying their spiritual debt.
We who have experienced the BLESSINGS OF GOD need to recognize BLESSINGS BRING RESPONSIBILITY.
The Bible says, taste of the Lord and see that He is good.
HOW CAN THE LOST WORLD TASTE OF THE LORD?
We should be “bearing” the “fruit of the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-26) God Word says we are to bear MUCH FRUIT. We are the fruit that they taste, and when they see us:
? Faithfully attending the house of God we are bearing fruit for them to taste.
? Faithfully serve Him daily; making time for God’s Word and prayer, we are bearing fruit they can taste.
? Faithfully reach out in Christian love to help others; we are bearing fruit they can taste.
We could go on and on. We have a responsibility to witness to the lost. Our:
I. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR KNOWLEDGE
II. RESPONSIBLITY COMES FROM OUR BLESSINGS.
Also our-
III. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR COMMISSION.
Matthew 28:18-20 says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
God has commanded every Christian to be a soul winner.
Illus: Listen, most of us grew up with brothers and sisters and when they told us to do something we would say, “I DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU,” and we didn’t.
But when our parents told us to do something we knew we had better do what we have been asked to do or pay the consequences.
But even more so when God speaks we must listen.
Let me ask you something: "Do you really think Christ means it when He says, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..."
These are our marching orders.
Christ did not give us a CHOICE. He gave us a COMMAND. To refuse to go is high treason and that is inexcusable!
It is the responsibility of Christians to share this gospel. He has commanded us to go.
Illus: A 20-year-old girl was hired to take care of two little girls. Rather than carry out her responsibility, the young lady locked the two little girls up in the house while she went shopping.
While she was gone the house caught fire and both of the little girls were burned to death. When she returned she saw the ashes and realized what a serious thing she had done. She had not taken her responsibility seriously.
What a terrible thing she did. How costly the price of her neglecting her responsibility! God has commanded us to GO and our COMMISSION MAKES US RESPONSIBLE.
Conclusion:
The fact is, our-
I. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR
KNOWLEDGE.
II. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR
BLESSINGS.
III. RESPONSIBILITY COMES FROM OUR
COMMISSION.
