This was interesting because the man only received help when he received the strong dosages. In these sermons on soul winning we hope you are getting a "strong dosage" effect. It is the prayer of this pastor that by giving these "strong dosages" week after week that many of you will be cured of the silence that is causing those around us to continue down that wide road straight to eternal destruction.
Just think, all over this nation many thousands would have been saved this past week had the church been cured of its spiritual lockjaw!
It is time for Christians to wake up and smell the coffee. If we are going to be effective soul winners there are some things that MUST happen to us. The Bible tells us there must be...
I. THE CRUCIFIXION OF A SOUL-WINNER.
One of the MAIN REASONS so many are without Christ today is because of UN-CRUCIFIED CHRISTIANS. If a survey was taken of average church members who profess to be saved in America it would register excuse after excuse, enough to bring tears to your eyes, as to why they are not winning souls to Christ Jesus.
Did you know that you can tell a lie so many times and for so long that you will soon start believing it yourself.
How do we know that those who claim they cannot win souls are lying? Because God would never tell us to do something we could not do! He doesn't just tell us that He will make us "fishers of men," He commands us to be "fishers of men."
The reason those who are not winning souls are not doing this is because they are UN-CRUCIFIED CHRISTIANS. They have their plans, and God has His, but they couldn't care less about God's plans! Their whole life is built around SELF.
It costs you something to be a soul winner!
Illus: The Lord's disciples were soul winners, but it cost them something.
In Matthew 19:27 We read, "...Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee..."
And they had! They gave up their CAREERS, PLANS, FRIENDS, and some even gave up their FAMILIES! What a tremendous price they paid to be soul winners.
How do we know it is worth it when we have to sacrifice? Because we know they would not have done it had they not known the glory of the Lord and His blessings.
• They were willing to speak out for Christ when it was unpopular.
• They were willing to give their bodies, a LIVING SACRIFICE unto the Lord! Each one said, "God use me," and He did!
• They were willing to die to self - they became crucified Christians.
Illus: When George Mueller was asked why he was such an effective witness for Christ, he said, "There was a time when George Mueller died."
Illus: Martin Luther said of himself, "If somebody should knock at my heart's door and ask who lives here, I must not say, 'Martin Luther lives here.' I would say, 'Martin Luther is dead - Jesus Christ lives here!"
The effective soul winner has completely abandoned self. He does not care:
• What others think of him.
• What is popular or unpopular.
He has not taken a detour around Calvary. He has become crucified with Christ.
Illus: D. L. Moody was so sold out to the Lord he was considered to be a fanatic for the Lord Jesus Christ. The world does not think anything about it when a person is a fanatic about BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, or BASKETBALL. We find that the word "fans" comes from the word fanatic. There are people all over who are fanatics about many things. Everywhere they go they talk about their gods of sports, money, hobbies, etc. In fact, some are so fanatic about football they will pay anywhere from $30 to $100 for a seat at a game, and sometimes it is in freezing, rainy, snowy weather. People who do that are more than fanatic, they are lunatic. No one accuses them of that, but just let a person dedicate his life to sharing the gospel with everyone he meets, winning souls to Christ; he is looked down upon as being fanatic. D.L. Moody had died to self. No matter where he was he was always trying to lead someone to Christ. He earned the mane, "Crazy Moody." Why? Because he was a crucified Christian. He had completely abandoned self and let Christ take up residence within, and control him.
This is exactly what the Bible tells us should take place.
In Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
If we are going to be effective soul winners for Christ we have to die to self!
Illus: Dr. R. A. Torrey tells us a prize fighter who was gloriously saved was witnessing to a man he had known in his past days of prize fighting. The man, instead of receiving his witness, became angry, cursed him, and literally spit in his face. The converted prize fighter wanted to roll his sleeves up and use that man for a mop and mop the floor with him, and he could easily have done it, but Bro. Torrey, who had let the Lord show him how to DIE TO SELF, instead took his handkerchief and wiped the spittle from his face and said to that man in a loving manner, "The blood of Jesus Christ could wipe away all your sins as easily as I have wipped all the spittle from my face." That angry man was SO TOUCHED BY A LIFE TOTALLY SURRENDERED TO THE LORD that he later was led to the Lord because of this man who had been gloriously saved and had died to self.
Illus: In Acts 7, we read of a deacon by the name of Stephen who had DIED TO SELF. Everywhere he went he went preaching the gospel. One day some evil men decided they were going to stone him, and as they began to stone him he DEMONSTRATED A SURRENDERED LIFE.
In Verse 59-60, We read, "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
He had died to self. He was so much like Christ that his prayer was almost identical to the prayer Jesus prayed on Calvary that God might forgive those who were killing Him for what they were doing. He was so Christlike in this most trying time that after he died he influenced people to turn to Christ.
In Acts 7:58 We read, "And...laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul."
You all know that young man became the legendary Apostle Paul. One of the things that probably played a big part in his becoming a Christian was his witnessing Stephen, a man who had completely died to self, remain loving toward his enemies even as they were stoning him to death. Had Stephen died cursing, fighting, and angry, Saul probably would never have become the great man of God that he became. But Stephen let Christ live from within him.
Are you still wondering why many are not leading the lost to the Lord? When lost people SEE THE WORLD in our lives it blocks their vision and they cannot SEE CHRIST. Let Christ be seen!
Illus: We need more Christians who will be like one missionary who had completely surrendered his life to Christ and faithfully served God in a foreign land. When he died he was buried among those he so greatly loved. Later, another missionary came to that territory and told the people about Jesus. They told him that Jesus had already been there. The missionary was confused. They led him to the grave and told him, "This is Jesus!" That man had so lived that when the second missionary came along and described Jesus, the tribespeople thought he was describing the first missionary.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Christians around the world would die to self so completely and be so Christlike that when people would see us they would think they were seeing Jesus! If we are going to be effective soul winners, we are going to have to BE CRUCIFIED, and allow Christ to live through us.
II. THE COMPASSION OF A SOUL WINNER.
What a joy and inspiration it is to read of great men and women of God who have great compassion for souls abroad.
Illus: Dr. Alexander Duff, when he returned from India to Edinburgh, spoke for two-and-one-half hours pleading for volunteers to go to India and reach the lost. At the end of his plea, he fainted. He gained consciousness and he said, "Where am I? What am I doing?" They told him he needed to be still or he could die. He said, "Die! How willingly would I die for India!" He begged to be placed before the large mass of people and he said, "Fathers of Scotland! Have you any more sons for India? I have spent my life there, and life is going; but if there be no more young men to go, I will go back and lay my bones there that people may know that there is one man in Christian Britain ready to die for India's deliverance."
We read of these great men and women who had a compassion for those abroad, but let me ask you something, how many Christians do you know in America who have a BURDEN FOR AMERICA?
Look at the compassion that PAUL had FOR HIS AGE as we read in Acts 20:31, "Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears."
Look at the compassion of JEREMIAH FOR THE PEOPLE OF HIS DAY.
We read in Jeremiah 9:1, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.!
Look at the compassion of JESUS. We read in Matthew 9:36, "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."
Illus: A man in the Salvation Army wrote General William Booth one day complaining that the spiritual field he was called to work in was too hard and he could not see any results. Mr. Booth sent him a two-word telegraph that said, "TRY TEARS!"
There is nothing that softens a hard heart like tears. Tears, to a hard heart, are like rain to dry ground.
Illus: Dr. R. A. Torrey tells the story of Colonel Clarke who had compassion for lost souls. He said of him, "He would work at his business six days every week that he might keep his mission open seven nights every week. And every night in the year around five or six hundred men would gather in that mission hall. It was a motley crowd; drunkards, thieves, pick-pockets, gamblers and everything that was hopeless. I used to go and hear Colonel Clarke talk and he seemed to me to be one of the dullest talkers I ever heard in my life. He would ramble along and yet these five or six hundred men would lean over and listen spellbound while Col. Clarke talked in his prosy way. Some of the greatest preachers in Chicago used to go down to help Col. Clarke, but the men would not listen to them as they did to Col. Clarke. When he was speaking, they would lean over and listen and be converted by the score. I could not understand it. I studied it and wondered what the secret of it was. Why did these men listen with such interest, and why were they so greatly moved by such prosy talking? I found the secret, It was because they knew Col. Clarke loved them, and nothing conquers like love. The tears were always very near the surface with Col. Clarke.
Once, in the early days of the mission when he had been weeping a great deal over these men, he got ashamed of his tears. He steeled his heart and tried to stop crying, and succeeded, but he lost his power. He saw that his power was gone and he went to God and prayed, "Oh God, give me back my tears," and God gave him back his tears, and gave him wonderful power, miraculous power over those men."
Isn't this what the Bible teaches? Psalm 126:6, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the gifts of the Spirit and told them they were to seek after LOVE (Charity). Why? Because, "Charity never faileth..." You can fool people about a lot of things, but you cannot fool a lost person very long. He knows if you love him or not.
Illus: Have you ever wondered why some Sunday School teachers are successful and some are not? It does not take the students but a few weeks to determine whether their teacher loves them or if he is just teaching because:
• Someone asked him to teach.
• He just enjoys talking.
• No one else would take the class.
Illus: One very dedicated, compassionate woman by the name of Louise Lawrence taught a Sunday school class. She was in that class because she loved those precious boys and girls. She not only taught on Sunday morning, but she visited, called, and prayed for those boys and girls during the week. They knew they had a teacher who loved them. One day her doorbell rang and one of her little girls was standing at her door weeping. She looked at her and fell on her knees and embraced her and said, "Honey, what is the problem?" The little girl said, "Last night my little brother died, and I wanted to tell you and have you cry with me."
Illus: R. A. Torrey tells the story of a lost man who went to church, but was very skeptical about Christians. He would actually take notes of what people said as they testified in church to see if their lives really matched up to what they said in church.
Then he became very sick and finally was at the point of death. A local minister went to see him and asked if he might have a word of prayer on his behalf. The man told him that would be fine, and later he said, "After the minister knelt to pray, I kept tabs on him too. I thought I was dying, but I lay there with my eyes open watching the preacher to see if he was real, thinking nothing about my own soul, but about him. As I watched, I saw a tear streaming down his face, and I said, 'This man is real. He loves me, though I am nothing to him,' and that broke my heart." That man did not die. He recovered and gave his heart to Christ because of those compassionate tears.
Conclusion/Summary: Do you desire to rescue souls from hell? Do you desire it enough to be willing to crucify self and display sincere compassion? Jesus went out and told people everywhere how to be saved.
In Verse 36, We read "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them..."
His challenge to us is, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few."
Won't you be one of His "labourers"? He has set the example before us...
I. THE CRUCIFIXION OF A SOUL WINNER.
II. THE COMPASSION OF A SOUL WINNER.
