The war was such a strain on the South that they did not have time to train the recruits. They drafted them to serve and placed them on the battle line to fight. This one young man was drafted and never had time to learn how:
• To salute.
• To keep in step as he marched.
• Even, to know what the bugle calls meant.
Because of the seriousness of the circumstances he was called and placed on the front line with his own squirrel gun. One day he was in a very heated battle and he stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the Confederate soldiers courageously charging the enemy.
Since they were outnumbered almost 3 to I the bugle call was given to retreat lest they all be killed. The country boy, who had never had time to learn what the bugle calls meant, continued to charge the enemy being greatly inspired by the bugle. The last thing his fellow soldiers saw was him charging over the hill, full steam ahead, after the enemy.
That evening the men who had retreated sat around nursing their wounds and they began to say, "Poor old Jim. Too bad he did not know that the bugle call meant to retreat. He did not stand a chance.
But, just before dark they saw two men coming over the hill. The one in front looked like a Yankee soldier, while the one behind looked like Jim, and he was holding a gun on the Yankee soldier as his prisoner.
All his fellow shoulders rushed to meet him and expressed how glad they were he was alive. They said, “By the way, where did you get his Yankee prisoner?” Jim, who was already mad because of his buddies deserting him in the heat of the battle, was more than glad to answer that question.
He said very angrily, “Where do you think I got him from? I got him from the woods. The woods are full of them and if you hadn't been so scared you could have gotten some!”
This is the way soul winners often feel. While they are charging into battle they are out there almost all by themselves because the others have retreated.
They have ten thousand excuses as to why they have never won a soul to Christ.
Whatever excuse they use they cannot say the reason they never won anyone to Christ is because they do not know any sinners. The world is full of sinners.
Illus: Those who never win anyone to Christ remind me of the Alaskans who were going to play a trick on a man who had never been to Alaska who wanted to kill a bear. They took him out into the woods because he had wanted them to take him bear hunting and told him when he found a bear he should lead him back to them to catch. They all were in the warm cabin relaxing and enjoying the comfort of the fireplace, laughing about the crazy fellow out in the woods looking for a bear to lead back for them to catch. While they were laughing about him being in the woods trying to lead a bear back for them to catch they heard a voice in the distance, 'Open the Door! Open the door!' They looked out and the man they had been laughing about was coming across the hill with a great big grizzly bear chasing him. As he got closer he still hollered, 'Open the door! Open the Door!' The bear was almost on his heels. He ran to the cabin and as they opened the door for him he stepped aside and the bear had such momentum he shot right through and into the cabin. As a rustling began inside, he yelled to them and said, 'I will be right back with another one, the woods are full of these critters.'
Now the Bible teaches the same thing. The world is full of lost sinners.
Luke 10:2 tells us, "...The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few... "
God did not just say the harvest was great, He said that the harvest is "Truly" great.
We certainly cannot say the reason we never win souls to Christ is because they are so scarce. Jesus said the harvest is "...truly is great..."
Every year, as the population grows, the harvest is getting greater and greater. It is our responsibility to reach every sinner with the gospel message.
With all the technology we have today, radio, television, telephone, printing presses, fax machines, video's, etc., there is no excuse for not being able to reach every soul with the gospel of Christ.
There are two things that keep the church from fulfilling this COMMAND that has been given to us.
(1) DEAD CHURCH SERVICES.
God has never been able to work in dead church services where people "quench" the Spirit of God.
Listen, some church services are so dead that a sinner would feel like he was interrupting the service if he wanted to accept Christ.
On top of that, when a sinner looks around and sees all the frowns on people's faces he does not want what they have.
We will see sinners coming to Christ if:
In the church service the choir is singing with smiles on their faces.
The saints of God look like they are so excited about the Lord it may take seat belts to hold them in their seats.
We must be willing to lay aside dead formalism. We must worship from our hearts if we want to see souls come to the Lord for salvation in our churches.
Illus: This reminds me of the story of the woman walking down the street in Paris dressed in silks and satins. As she walked along she reached into her purse to get a very expensive ring. As she was ready to place it on her finger she dropped it and it fell into some filth and slime on the street. She took her very elegant, expensive umbrella she was carrying and raked it through the slime trying to find her ring. After doing that over and over she realized she was not going to find her very expensive ring that way. She shocked the passers by when they saw her on her knees in her silks and satins with her sleeves rolled up, with her clean manicured hands in the slime as she searched for her ring. When she got her hands into the slime she found her ring.
We may have to do that spiritually. If we are going to reach sinners in the slime of sin, we will have to roll back our dead formalistic church services out of the way so the Holy Spirit can reach them.
People would be saved every Sunday if we would quit worshipping a PROGRAM and start worshipping GOD. Those who are DEAD in sin can only receive the LIFE of Christ when our services are alive and God is free to move to reach the lost.
A dead service will not do anything for the SAINTS, and it certainly will not do anything for the LOST people.
The Bible says in Ephesians 4:30, "And Grieve not the holy Spirit of God..."
God certainly must be grieved when He sees how churches are so dead they cannot respond to the Spirit of God.
The second reason we are not winning souls for Christ is because of the...
(2) WORTHLESS EXCUSES.
The people of God's church are filled with EXCUSES for why they cannot do what God has commanded them to do.
Excuses are not anything new to God's people. Evidently the early church had them too. They knew, like we do, that it is our responsibility to reach the lost,
But notice the challenge of John 4:35, "...Behold, I say unto you, Lift ul2 your eyes, and look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest."
The Lord tried constantly to get across to the disciples the need for them to open their eyes and see that the harvest was ready to be reaped. Evidently they, like us, were full of excuses.
For example: He said in John 4:35, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already unto harvest."
This is one of the oldest excuses in the world, "One day I plan to win souls to Christ, but now is not quite the time.”
Illus: A young man was applying to a mission board to go abroad to be a missionary. The board was excited about talking with this young man. But once he was interviewed, he was rejected. He was shocked and he asked one of the Christian board members, 'Can you tell me why I was rejected by the missionary board?' The man saw that he was sincere and he said, 'Yes, I will tell you.
Do you remember when you told us how excited you were that you were going to the mission field?' The young man said, 'Yes.' The man said,
Do you remember that one of the panel members asked you when was the last time you won a soul to Christ? And you told us that you had never won a soul to Christ yet. And we asked you why, as a Christian, you have never won a soul to Christ and you gave us an excuse THAT YOU HAVE BEEN BUSY THE LAST 5 TO 6 YEARS PREPARING IN SEMINARY TO GO TO THE MISSION FIELD.
We, as the mission board, decided you have neglected the most important thing to be a missionary, you have not trained yourself to be a soul winner.
Today is the day of salvation and what we are going to do, we had better start doing.
But let us look at three of the excuses that have literally sent millions of souls, that could have been saved, to a Christless eternity.
The first we hear so often-
I. I DO NOT HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WITNESS TO ANYONE!
What this person should be saying is, "I do not recognize opportunity when I see it!'
You may not realize it, but every day we all have opportunities to lead others to Christ.
Have you ever wondered why some folks are successful and some are not. The primary reason is because many folks can recognize opportunity when it knocks on their door and they gladly open up and take advantage of it.
Then there are others who, when opportunity knocks on their door, they complain about the noise.
The same principle applies when it comes to soul winning. Some cannot see opportunity when it hits them in the face.
Illus: These remind us of the story of the two shoe salesmen who went to Africa to sell shoes. One got there and immediately sent a message back to the home office, 'Waste of time. These people do not even wear shoes!' The other salesman, seeing the opportunity, sent the message back to his home office, 'Send lots of shoes, no one here has any yet!'
Every day Christians are surrounded by a world of sinners who need Christ, and we should be excited about all the prospects of winning people to Christ.
Illus: Can you imagine a fisherman going to a lake so full of fish that they are bumpmg into each other? Do you think that fisherman would be depressed? Of course not. He would be thrilled at the prospect of catching some of those fish.
In this day, when the population is larger than it has ever been, we cannot say, “I do not ever have a chance to witness to anyone."
All we need to do is recognize the many opportunities we have each day and DO IT! Many today are sitting back and letting a lost world go to a Christless eternity because they have not been able to recognize opportunities.
Everyone you come into contact with each day this week will be an opportunity to share the gospel.
Illus: You cannot use that excuse any longer. That means that we can witness to the paper boy, mail man, milk man, service station man, bank teller, grocery store cashier, etc.
Illus: A baseball team in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was known for the large attendance they always had at their home games. The team generally finished last in the Carolina League. The manager asked how it was that they has such good attendance since they had such a poor winning record. He explained the success by stating that he designed a system that mvolved having the local barbers sign a pledge - in exchange for which they could get into the ball park for fifty cents instead of the usual price. They pledged to mention 'baseball' at least three times daily to their customers.
Surely if God's people would mention Christ to a lost world at least three times a day we would see phenomenal growth in God's work. If we just had Christians who could recognize the many opportunities that God gives them to witness every day of their lives.
Illus- We see that many time in the Scripture. They took advantage of every opportunity that came their way:
In I Kings 5 we see that a little slave girl told Naaman, the leper, 'Would God My Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.' If she had not taken advantage of her opportunity to witness, Naaman would have died in his lost condition.
John 4 tells us of the woman at the well that Jesus led to Himself for salvation. After the Lord did what he did for her, she did not know anything about doctrine, all she knew was what everyone else knew about her, she was lost. She left the Lord and told everyone, 'Come, see a man, which told me all the thin2s that ever I did: is not this the Christ?' Those who knew her and her sinful lifestyle said, 'If anyone can help you, there is hope for me.'
Another excuse that is often used today is:
II. PEOPLE ARE TOO HARD TODAY TO BE REACHED FOR CHRIST.
Just as today's Christians are like Christians of other generations, so are sinners like sinners of other generations.
Ephesians 2:1 tells us that sinners are "dead" in sin. There is no such thing as degrees of being dead. The sinner today is just as much "dead" in sin than sinners of the past.
Some say this generation has heard the gospel so many times they have become gospel hardened. That may be true for some folks, but the majority out there are not gospel hardened, they are lost because: Like the Bible says, "No man careth for my soul…”
They see people who claim the name of Christ who are unconcerned about whether they are saved or not.
They can not see Christ in the lives of those who profess to be believers.
Illus: Dr. P. E. Buffoughs tells us in his book, 'Winning to Christ,' tells of an evangelistic pastor who asked a young man who was leaving church one day if he was a Christian? The young man said, 'No sir, I have heard you preach every Sunday for seven years, but I am not a Christian yet.' The pastor asked him if he would step into his office, and there he asked him if he would surrender his life to Christ. The.young man was more than willing.
This pastor, after he had led this young man to the Lord observed something, that is, seven years of preaching had not won that young man to the Lord. It may have played a part in his decision, but it had not led him to the Lord. It one only when the pastor, one on one, took about 5-10 minutes with him that he was led to the lord.
This generation is no harder than any generation, but this generation has Christians talking to them about sports, politics, hobbies, jobs, etc., but this generation does not have Christians talking to them about how they can be saved. We Christians seem to forget that one of the reasons the lost people come to church is because they are looking for a peace they do not have.
We cannot use this excuse. God will not accept it because it is not true.
Another very popular exucuse is-
III. I DO NOT KNOW HOW.
This seems to be one of the most popular excuses these days. People to say, “I can't" but what really should say is, "I won't!"
Illus: Remember how much Moody did for the Lord? One day after he had preached, a young man told him that he had made many mistakes in grammar in his message. Moody replied, 'Young man, I am using all the grammar that I know for the lord. What are you doing with your good grammar?'
Illus: This is the same excuse that Moses tried to use. In Exodus 4:10 he said, '...0 my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue."
Moses was not telling God a thing He did not already know, but God knew Moses could do what he asked him to do. If Moses could not, then God would not have asked this of him.
Illus: Jeremiah used this excuse, he said, “Then said I, Ah, Lord god! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send and whatsoever I command thee thou speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.”
Notice, Jeremiah was so seared that he could not speak, but the Bible tells us that God touched him and the rest is history as this prophet went across the land preaching as God touched him to say the right things.
No matter how inadequate you may feel today, God can touch your life and make you into a soul winner for Christ.
Conclusion/Summary:
Of excuses that are used for not winning souls to Christ, three of the most used are:
I. I DO NOT HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WITNESS TO ANYONE .
II. PEOPLE ARE TOO HARD TODAY TO BE REACHED FOR CHRIST.
III. DO NOT KNOW HOW.
