Was anyone here saved listening to a radio broadcast? Raise your hand. How many were saved listening to a TV preacher? How many prayed to receive the Lord Jesus as a direct result of a message? How many were saved when you saw "Jesus Saves" on a big rock, a sign, or a bumper sticker? How many of you were saved, when some preacher or some other person led you to Christ, and their face comes to your mind? Raise you hand. Now I don’t want you to raise your hands or audibly answer to the next series of questions, but.... How many souls have you brought to Christ? How many have led a person to Christ in the past 6 months... the past year... the last five years... ever? It is a sad statistic that less than ten percent of all Southern Baptists will share their faith with someone this year. If we are going to be a caring church, one of the very first things we must do is to care about those who are without Jesus Christ, those who are lost. We need to develop a heart for the lost like Paul’s heart. He had...
I. A Broken Heart for the Lost
A. Romans 9:2-3 "That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:"
B. The depth of Paul’s concern is expressed in his words " great heaviness and continual sorrow" or "bitter grief and continual anguish" for Israel.
C. The source of this agony was
1. An awareness of the lostness of his kinsman.
a. Romans 10:2 "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." -
b. He realized that though they were religious they were lost!
c. The Jew believed because he was a Jew that he automatically had an in with God but Paul concluded in Romans 3:9-10, 22b-23 "What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
d. There is no man, woman or child that does not fit this description.
2. An awareness of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ
a. John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
b. Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD."
c. There are only three kinds of persons. There are those who know Christ, having established a relationship Him as Savior. There are others who are blindly seeking but have not found Him; and lastly, the rest who go through life without seeking Him oblivious to their ultimate destiny
d. I Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
e. Bailey Smith (1982 SBC Convention) - You cannot turn your back on Jesus and your face toward God, because they stand together!
f. The magnificent Niagara Falls have been spoken of in every part of the world. Many years ago, two men were in a boat on the river leading to the falls and found themselves being carried so swiftly down the current that they both faced inevitable doom. However, one man was saved by a rope that was floated out to him, which he grasped. Another rope was floated to the other man, but at the same instant the rope came into his hand, a log floated near him. The thoughtless and confused man, instead of seizing the rope, laid hold on the log. It was a fatal mistake. Both men were in imminent peril. The one was drawn to shore because he had a connection with the people on the shore, while the other, clinging to the loose, floating log, was borne swiftly along, and was never heard of afterward. Faith has a saving connection with Christ. Christ is on the shore, so to speak, holding the rope, and as we lay hold of it with the hand of our confidence in Him, He pulls us to shore. But religion, good works, and virtue are merely logs that offer a feeling of buoyancy while allowing one to drift along to an eternal fate that is far worse than perishing on the rocks at the bottom of Niagara Falls. Grasp our virtues as tightly as we may, even with hooks of steel, they cannot benefit us in the least degree. They are the disconnected logs that have no hold on the heavenly shore. Christ is the only way.
g. John 1:11 "He came unto his own, & his own received him not."
3. An awareness of the destiny of the lost
a. John 3:36 "He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him."
b. Revelation 20:15 "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
c. The Scripture makes it clear that man apart from Christ is condemned eternally. A. A. Hodge in his theology says there is no word more emphatic for eternal than the one used of hell in the New Testament. Leon Morris says the word was applied to an age that was never to end. Ajith Fernando in his outstanding book, A Universal Homecoming, reminds us that sixty-four times the same word is used to remind us of heaven’s eternality. "Is it not be logical to conclude that in the each of the occurrences of ’eternal’ to describe the antithesis of heaven’s blessings - eternal punishment, the idea is that of duration without end?" Hell’s eternality is an unending, physical, real separation from God and unending torment in the flames of hell’s fire.
D. Are we aware of the lostness of those around us?
1. It is easy for us to think of the heathen in dark and remote corners of the world or in undeveloped third world nations as being lost. But how often are we aware of the lost condition of neighbors, fellow workers, relatives - aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, parents, children, spouses? Are we aware of what they really believe? Are we area of where they will spend eternity?
2. People from all walks of life were asked the questions: What do you think about the church? Is Jesus the only way to heaven? Who is Jesus to you? The answers may possibly surprise you! (ESSENTIALS VIDEO - WORD ON THE STREET)
3. These individuals are no different from the people you come in contact with every day. All of these individuals have one thing in common. They all have a basic need - a need to meet and know Jesus Christ as Savior, without which they are hopelessly lost!
II. A Burdened Heart to win the Lost
A. Romans 9:3 "I would be willing to be forever cursed - cut off from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen, if that would save them." Romans 10:1 "Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved."
B. Our calling and purpose as followers of Christ is to love God completely, to love self correctly, and to love others compassionately and have a burden to see them come to Christ.
C. Romans 1:14-16 "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
D. The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. (George Bernard Shaw)
E. Love will find a way--indifference will find an excuse.
F. An aged farmer visited his son, a popular senator in Washington, DC. The father was a zealous Christian. When introduced to the ambassador from Belgium, the father earnestly asked, "Sir, are you a Christian?" The son was greatly embarrassed by the question. Before the ambassador could reply, the son changed the conversation. Shortly thereafter, the father became ill. He died. Hearing of his death, the ambassador sent flowers. A note attached to them brought tears to the eyes of the senator. The note read, "He was the only man in America who asked me if I was a Christian."
G. Matthew 4:19 "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
H. Too many Christians are no longer fishers of men but keepers of the aquarium.
Conclusion: In Matthew 25:6, 10 we read, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go ye out to meet him. And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut." I believe that we are living on the threshold of that midnight cry. For many, the door will soon be shut. Now is the time - the time for those without Christ to come to Christ! Now is the time - the time for those who know the Savior to proclaim Christ! Now is the time - the time to go to a lost world with the love of Christ! Will you have a heart like Paul? Broken and burdened for the lost? Do you care? Will you go?
