Responsibility of Christians for the Salvation of Sinners

Introduction: The Balanced View of Christian Responsibility

0:03 I do want to speak to you along the very practical line of the responsibility of the individual Christian with reference to the salvation of sinners. Those of you who frequent this place of worship know that we do not believe that the scripture teaches that we have a warrant to rub the consciences of the people of God raw Sunday by Sunday by whipping them into feverish, quote, soul winning activity. There are Christian circles in which soul winning is looked upon as the beginning, middle, end, and everything in between of the Christian life, and certainly this is not the perspective of the word of God. We are redeemed unto a life of full-orbed holiness, which involves carefulness in our legitimate calling in life as parents, as children, husbands, fathers, mothers, workmen, whatever it be. And in the midst of all...

1:01 In the midst of all of these other great duties, we are, of course, to bear witness to our faith in Christ. We are to make conscious efforts to extend the kingdom of Christ. And so I say that again, particularly for the sake of our visitors, who would not be able to put tonight's message in the context of the general thrust of the ministry. I've been around long enough to know that so often people hear one sermon and they judge an entire ministry by that one sermon.

1:28 I don't mean so much how the preacher preaches. That's irrelevant. That's not relevant to me. To his own master, a servant stands or falls there.

1:35 But with reference to content, I am concerned that we have a balanced view of the word of God. And so since this is not a theme that is overworked, yet it is a theme set before us in the word of God, I wish to treat it tonight. Now what I propose to do is, first of all, to treat the fundamental presuppositions or the fundamental substructure of our study tonight. When I treat the theme...

Fundamental Presuppositions for Understanding Salvation

2:01 ...of the responsibility of Christians for the salvation of sinners, I'm assuming three very fundamental principles of the word of God.

2:10 And unless you are assuming them with me, then we'll not really be communicating one with the other. Having dealt with those fundamental presuppositions or the substructure, we'll then consider the things you and I cannot nor are we asked to do with reference to the salvation of sinners. And then we shall close. With a positive note, the things God expects us to do and which we must do for the salvation of sinners.

2:39 Now what are the fundamental presuppositions of our study? Well, the first is this, that all men by nature are lost and under the condemnation of God. When we use the term salvation, we're using it in its biblical setting that it is not primarily salvation. Salvation from mere psychological tensions, internal emotional frustrations from social injustice and economic inequity.

3:12 But we're speaking of salvation from this terrible condition of lostness, estrangement from God and being under the condemnation and the wrath of God. In other words, I'm assuming the backdrop of Romans chapter 3 verses 10. There is none righteous, no not one, none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. And then the apostle gives a description of the state of all men summarized in these words.

3:46 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be brought under the judgment of God. Now I'm assuming that. We're thinking of men in these biblical categories. All men are by nature lost and under the condemnation of God.

4:13 Let this fundamental principle go and all true thinking about our biblical responsibility will change. And then all our activity about meeting the needs of men will change. If we view men fundamentally in any other language, If we view men fundamentally in any other language, then we know right from this that they are lost by nature under divine wrath and condemnation. We cannot long maintain the biblical directives concerning the responsibility of the church to them.

4:46 The second fundamental presupposition is this. And I'm only touching them. I'm not demonstrating them or proving them with any degree of adequacy or comprehensiveness, just as it were touching on them briefly. Second, none are rescued from.

5:01 This lost mess and state of condemnation, except by the saving power of Jesus Christ mediated through the biblical gospel.

5:15 None are rescued from this common state of lostness and condemnation, except by the saving power of Jesus Christ mediated channeled through the biblical gospel. Now, let me give just several specimen text John 14 in verse six, the assertion of our Lord himself. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me.

5:50 That's our Lord's testimony. Our Lord says in a different imagery, I am the door by me. The sheep enter anyone who tries to enter another way as a thief and a robber. What is the apostolic testimony?

6:03 What is the apostolic testimony? What is the apostolic testimony? What is the apostolic testimony? There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

6:12 No other revelation God has made, but the revelation of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Again, the apostolic testimony. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And since he has come to save, there is no other who can say.

6:34 And since he has come to save, there is no other who can say. And since he has come to save, there is no other who can say. None are rescued from their lostness and state of condemnation except by the saving power of Jesus Christ. These three texts are but specimen texts.

6:45 But this power is mediated through the biblical gospel. Romans 1 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. The saving power of Christ touches men through the medium.

7:04 The saving power of Christ touches men through the medium. The saving power of Christ touches men through the medium. The saving power of Christ touches men through the medium. The proclamation of good news in Jesus Christ.

7:12 And then we saw it so clearly, I trust, in our scripture reading tonight, in which the apostle makes this tremendous statement, quoting from the prophet Joel, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But he says, how do they call on the name of one in whom they have not heard? And how can they hear? except they be sent.

7:35 There must be the sent ones who preach. So the second fundamental presupposition of our study is none are rescued from this lostness and state of condemnation except through the saving power of Jesus Christ mediated through the biblical gospel. Thirdly, to be rescued from this state of lostness through the gospel involves at least three things. So that when I use the word salvation, when the Bible uses the word salvation, at least three things are involved.

8:11 It means to be a regenerated, given new life by the Spirit. John 3, except a man be born again, he cannot perceive the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. So then, to be saved, when we talk about our, our responsibility with reference to the salvation of sinners, we're thinking of sinners, men who are by nature lost and under condemnation, who can only be rescued through Jesus Christ, by the mediation or through the mediation of the gospel, the gospel coming to them, and to be rescued means that new life is imparted by the Spirit. They are born from above. But it involves, secondly, a being cleansed from, the pollution and the defilement of their sins, on the basis of the atoning work of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

9:17 Without the shedding of blood is no remission. To be cleansed from sin, to be pardoned, to be forgiven, is to be forgiven in the way that God has appointed on the basis of the atoning work of Christ. And then, thirdly, to be saved, to be rescued through the gospel by Jesus Christ, means to be made holy by the almighty power of God. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation.

9:49 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Now, this is one reason why a lot of people have been turned off by any emphasis on the word of God. Now, this is one reason why a lot of people have been turned off by any emphasis on the word of God. Because when you see the products of much of the emphasis on soul winning, you have to ask the question, what have they been won from and won to?

10:14 And as Spurgeon says, dealing with this very subject, once more when the apostle wished that he might save some, he meant that being regenerate and being pardoned, they might also be purified and made holy, for a man is not saved while he lives in sin. Let a man say what he will, he cannot be saved from sin whilst he is still the slave of sin. How is a drunkard saved from his drunkenness while he still riots as before? How can you say that the swearer is saved from blasphemy while he is still profane?

10:56 Words must be used in their true meaning, and the great object of the Christian's work should be that some might be saved from their sins, purified and made white and made examples of integrity, chastity, honesty and righteousness as the fruit of the Spirit of God. Now when I use the word saved, when I say what is our task as Christians, what is our responsibility with reference to the salvation of sinners, that's what I mean, because that's what the Bible means. I'm not talking about what is our responsibility to get some people to make a decision so they feel they're off the hook and won't go to hell when they die, I'm talking about our responsibility with reference to that mighty work of God in which lost condemned men through the gospel and by the power of Jesus Christ are made new creatures, their sins are blotted out, they are transformed into new creatures by the power of God and begin that wonderful process of being made more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. Now those are the fundamentals. These are the fundamental presuppositions of our study. Without them, all the words I use will be meaningless.

What Christians Cannot Do for the Salvation of Sinners

12:12 Well then, having looked at the presuppositions, what are some of the things that we cannot do in this matter of seeing men saved? And I'm going to stick with that Bible word. It's a Bible word, it's not sophisticated, and the pseudo-intellectuals and evangelical circles today say, oh, you're going to turn people, they're going to think you're some kind of woolly-headed, unthinking fundamentalist. If you use the word saved, well, you see, it's in our Bible, and the Bible is shot through with the word saved, and the concept of salvation is precious.

12:45 It's one of the names of our Redeemer, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and so we're going to use it without embarrassment, without equivocation. Well, what can we not do for the salvation of men? Well, first of all, and you better know what you can't do. All kinds of confusion exist because people haven't, sat down and said, what does the Bible say I can't do?

13:08 And then, what can I do? First of all, you and I cannot impart spiritual life to dead sinners.

13:17 To be lost means to be alienated from God, and in the biblical terminology, that means to be dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2, 1, You hath He made alive who were dead, dead, cut off from life, no vital spark left, and the tragedy is that when men do not face this fact, as earnest as they may be, all kinds of confusion comes into the work of God. You and I cannot impart spiritual life to dead sinners. How do we know that?

13:53 Well, let's look at two key texts. First, John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13. But to as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on Him, in His name, who were born, not of blood. This spiritual birth does not have anything necessarily to do with natural genes, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.

14:28 Somebody just sat on a log one day and said, I guess I'll get new life. I will to have new life, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. That personal worker who says, Well, I want to see you get saved. I'm so bad, so I'll just impart life to you.

14:44 No. Which were born, not of blood.

14:48 I don't care what family you were born into,

14:52 nor of the will of the flesh, how earnest you may be, nor of the will of man, how earnest the other man may be, but of God. And do you see what John is doing? He's saying that this birth of God is a birth in which the power of God is the exclusive and the sole agent, in the impartation. There's no mixture of the blood, human, line, genes, coming down, somehow having a little bit more grace in them than others.

15:28 No, no. This birth comes because God has brought it to pass, and only because He has. The emphasis, to use the theological term, upon divine monergism. God alone acts in the impartation, of divine life.

15:45 Another key text, James chapter 1.

15:48 James chapter 1, and verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. Having mentioned this general principle, that all good gifts come down from above, He then moves to the greatest of those gifts from above, of His own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

16:28 Of His own will, He begat us. Of His own will, we were brought forth.

16:37 It's interesting, and this was one of the things that drove me out of the woolly thinking of my early Christian days in this area, that when you search the New Testament for the analogies, an analogy, you kids, is a likeness. God uses likenesses. This is like that. When you look for the analogies by which God describes the impartation of spiritual life to a dead sinner, He is very careful to use three analogies above all others.

17:07 And you know what they are? Birth,

17:11 resurrection, and creation.

17:15 Except a man be born again of his own will, begat he us, having been begotten again, Peter says, then resurrection. You hath he quickened, made alive, spiritual resurrection, then creation. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Now what do those three analogies have in common?

17:35 In birth, in resurrection, and in creation. See what they have in common? In all three instances, there is a total activity of God in the faithfulness, in the thing begotten, in the thing resurrected, and in the thing created. The life begotten owes its existence to forces outside of itself.

18:06 The dead corpse resurrected owes its present life to a power that intruded outside of itself, and that which is created owes its existence to the exertion of a force outside of itself. Can God make the message any clearer? If men have spiritual life, Almighty God will. If men have spiritual life, Almighty God will.

Inability to Manipulate Faith or Loose from Bondage

18:26 God has imparted it, and I cannot, you and I cannot, impart spiritual life to dead sinners. Second thing we cannot do, and I'm not applying the implications, yet, just stating the facts, we cannot manipulate men to saving faith and repentance.

18:45 Now I did not say we cannot manipulate men to make professions of believing in Christ, that can and is done, thousands and perhaps millions of times over. But what I'm saying is that, We cannot manipulate men to saving faith and repentance. And where do we learn that in the Bible? Well, look at such texts as 2 Timothy chapter 2.

19:10 2 Timothy chapter 2.

19:16 Paul speaking to his younger associate in the ministry,

19:22 giving him instructions as to the principles that should guide him in his work as a minister of God. He says in verse 24 of 2 Timothy 2, And the Lord's servant must not strive, that is, be argumentative. The Lord's servant must never look upon the work of communicating truth as one in which more powerful arguments batter down the weaker arguments of the opponent until he's bullied, as it were, into embracing the Christian faith. The Lord's servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, act to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting them that oppose themselves, if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will. If you'd ever met Timothy anywhere there in Asia Minor after he got this letter from Paul and said, Timothy, tell me. There's one thing you cannot do for a dead sinner. He would tell you, I cannot manipulate him into faith and repentance.

20:40 God must give it. He understood that from the words of the Apostle Paul. Hence the biblical language when describing how men come to faith and repentance is so refreshingly different from the language of decisionism so popular in our day. Look at the language of the book of the Acts for a moment.

21:02 In Acts chapter 11,

21:04 Peter is giving the report of what God did in the household of Cornelius, how he preached and how as he preached, the Holy Ghost fell upon a whole assembly, and that whole household of hearing, believing, penitent sinners is brought into union with Christ. And after Peter gives this report, what is the reaction upon those Jews who are listening to this report? Verse 18, Acts 11, And when they heard these things, they held their peace. In other words, all their arguments about the wrongness of going to Jews and all the other prejudices that they had raised, they held their peace, and they glorified not Peter, nor did it say they stopped and asked Peter, what was your method? What was your gimmick? What was your approach? Add the Cornelian method and get it out to all churches.

22:09 No, no. When they heard this, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto life.

22:26 They saw through Peter's narrative, they saw that if Peter, a fellow human being, is preaching such offensive truth as that salvation is to be found in the crucified imposter, in the eyes of the Jews, out of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth, that the only way men are going to be brought to embrace Him as their God and their Savior and pin all their hopes for eternity upon Him is if God is active, bringing them to spiritual sight and to spiritual birth and hence to faith and repentance. And so, when they hear this report, they look beyond Peter, they look beyond the circumstances of Cornelius' household, and they praise and magnify the God who alone is God. He alone did and can grant repentance. Look at the language of chapter 13, a text that has been a barb in the side and a speck of sand in the eye of men who refuse to face this aspect of truth for centuries.

23:34 We read of the ministry of Paul at Antioch of Pisidia, and this is the result of his preaching. Verse 48 of Acts 13, And as the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and they glorified the word of God, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

23:57 And here the faith of these people is traced not to the manipulations of Paul, not to the cleverness of Paul, but to the sovereign decree of the God who had ordained them to life, hence who alone could bring them to faith and to repentance. You find the same language in Acts 16, and I think it's all the more powerful when it comes out in just off-the-cuff narrative rather than even what we'd call formal theological statement. In the 16th chapter of Acts, Luke is recording what happened when Paul preached by a riverside at a ladies' prayer meeting. And so he tells us in verse 14, And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, one that worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord, the Lord opened to give heed to the things that were spoken by Paul. There it is. Now you see how simply, sort of off-the-cuff the description is by Luke? He doesn't talk like this is some big deal or that the church would rise up in arms and want to throw him out as a heretic if he dared to circulate a narrative that said, Faith is the result of God's decree.

25:11 Faith is the result of God moving upon the heart of a woman. Faith. Faith and repentance are the result of God's gift. Now he assumes that that would strike a note of response in the hearts of the people of God.

25:25 We cannot impart spiritual life to sinners. Secondly, we cannot manipulate men to saving faith and repentance. Thirdly, we cannot loose men from the bondage and the blindness of sin.

25:41 Now you see, they're dead and they need life and we can't give it to them. They need to repent and believe and we can't. We can't manipulate them into it. They're bound and they need to be loosed to become servants of God and servants of holiness, but we have no power to loose them from that bondage and from their blindness.

25:59 Two passages set together. John chapter 8, verses 34 and 36. Jesus answered them saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Everyone that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. Sin is the master.

26:25 The sinner is the slave. Verse 36, If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Implication being, anyone else tries to do it, it can't be done. Any other apparent freedom that does not come from the Son is but a transference of the bondage in its external manifestations.

26:53 That's all. So the person who's able to quit one sinful habit only trades it for another more subtle habit. The alcoholic who's delivered from his alcoholism without the regenerating grace of God and the saving power of Christ then becomes a slave to his own thoughts of his great willpower in conquering his evil. Or he becomes slave to his religious pride saying, I give all the credit to God, but the God he mentions is not the God of the Bible, for he thinks, he's had his help apart from Jesus Christ.

27:28 No, no. Men are in bondage and only Christ can liberate them. 2 Corinthians 4, 4 and 6, men are in total spiritual blindness and only Christ can illuminate them. 2 Corinthians 4, 4, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should not dawn upon them.

27:59 There's an evangelistic movement in our day that would rewrite this verse and say that men are, as it were, staring out with 20-20 spiritual vision and if only Jesus Christ will be put in their line of vision, they're ready to accept him by the millions.

28:18 I'm not talking off the top of my head. I've read in one article alone by an outstanding evangelical leader. He said, it's my convictions that tens of thousands, if not millions, are ready to accept him. Ready and prepared to receive Jesus Christ if only they can hear about him and have him presented attractively.

28:37 What he's saying is, the devil hasn't blinded their minds. No, no, there's 20-20 vision and just bring Jesus on the stage and the moment they see him, they'll embrace him.

28:49 No, no. Men are blind. Blind to what? Blind to the glory of it shines out in the face of Jesus Christ.

28:58 Ality of the life of the church. And I say it's the responsibility and privilege of everybody Now, follow me closely.

29:07 If you are this night a member of a church, a visible community, then you belong with those to whom God has joined you involved up to here in the activities insofar as they are biblical. How about you say that? Well, my friend, listen. It shines out in the face of Jesus Christ.

29:31 Now, who can dispel that blindness? Verse 6. Seeing it is God who says, Dead light shall shine out of darkness who shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He says, The only reason that I now see the very glory of the Godhead in the face of Christ is that the same God who spoke into the darkness of that situation at creation's dawn spoke into this heart.

30:04 There was no light to work with. There was nothing but darkness. But His creative word brought light. We cannot loose men from the bondage or the blindness of their sin.

30:15 Remember how Jesus taught His disciples this? He did personal work with a young man who was blind and who was bound. And when he was all done, you read about it in Matthew 19. What happened?

30:27 The disciples stood back and said, Who then can be saved? When Jesus got done dealing with that young man and showing what He was doing, what it meant to become an heir of eternal life, to have the dearest idol torn from one's breast, to take on a totally new sphere of life upon new principles with new goals and new ambitions. And this young man turned away because he didn't like those turns. Jesus said, How hardly shall they who have riches enter the kingdom of heaven.

31:01 Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples say then, Oh Lord, who then can be saved? And our Lord's answer was, With men it is impossible.

31:16 With God, all things.

31:21 So you see, the first half of our study has focused upon the first part of that verse. With men it is impossible. That we might be shut up to feel the hopelessness and the despair facing honestly what we cannot do. We cannot impart life.

What Christians Can and Must Do: God-Given Concern

31:38 We cannot manipulate to true saving faith and repentance. We cannot break the bondage of sin. But the same Bible does teach us what we can and we must do. And in order to limit the materials, I want to take the Apostle Paul particularly as an example, not as a perfect man, not as an apostle, but simply as a Christian man who himself said, I have not yet attained, but I press after.

32:05 And I want us to see in the Apostle Paul an example of what we can and must do for the salvation of sinners. Number one, we can and must have a God-given concern and desire for their salvation. I turn you to the passage I read earlier tonight, Romans chapter 9.

32:31 Romans chapter 9. The Apostle's confession of the state of his heart. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not.

32:44 My conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit. That I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I were myself were anathema or a curse from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

33:06 Paul knew he could not impart spiritual life to any man, let alone one of his fellow Jewish unbelievers. Men who like himself looked upon Jesus as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as an imposter, as a pseudo Messiah. He knew that he could not manipulate them to faith and repentance. He knew that he had no power to break the bondage or to pierce the blindness of their sin.

33:33 But he did know and he carried with him that he had a responsibility to share a concern for their salvation. And so he speaks of that concern in terms that I can only read. I don't know what they mean. I'm sure I haven't experienced that kind of insatiable desire.

33:54 And so we're not setting the measure of the desire as the example, but just the presence of that desire. If you've been rescued from your sins by the hand of a sovereign God, then there is some measure of desire in your heart for the salvation of others. If you and I had the ability to read what is in the heart of every true Christian, we could read somewhere, we might have to ransack the heart to a small corner, but somewhere we'd find the beatings of genuine compassion for the lost.

34:31 No man who sees that he himself was part of that total mass of humanity, lost under condemnation, but now knows himself rescued by pure sovereign grace, I say no man who knows that can ever look with... with indifference and say, oh, that's the rest of the world, let them go to hell.

34:54 He can neither say it with his lips, nor can he reflect that attitude in his heart.

35:01 There is in the heart of every true person, because the Holy Spirit dwells there and produces his fruit of love. I ask you as you sit there tonight, not, quote, have you won two souls to Christ in the past year? I can't say who God would have as spiritualists, spiritual midwives. Paul said, I have begotten you through the gospel.

35:26 And these people that say, unless you can point to someone who has actually been saved through your witness, your carnal arrest, I've challenged him to find chapter and verse for me and it's never been done. I'm not asking you, have you actually pointed someone whom you know came to faith, who you know actually came to faith in Christ. I'm not asking that at all, but I'm asking this.

35:48 When you drive down your town, when you go out to do your shopping, when you sit at your door, when you go out to do your shopping, when you go out to do your shopping, when you sit at your door, when you go out to do your shopping, when you go down into the streets of Newark, when you walk through the streets of New York, when you see people, is there that sense of a tug? Oh God, so few know you. Oh God, that I could somehow reach somebody with the message of salvation. You know what that is?

36:17 My friend, if you don't, you better search your heart to find out if you've ever really been rescued yourself. We would accuse a man of the worst, kind of things, who had just recently been rescued from a burning building. Rescued simply because from the human standpoint, the fireman had to make a choice. What window should we break through first?

36:46 And they said, that one. And he happened to be there. If he knows he's been rescued, simply by the choice and the free exercise of the will of those firemen, how can he stand outside rescued? Not even turn around to see if any others, are getting out.

37:06 Impossible. We'd accuse him of the most fiendish kind of motives and attitudes, and well we might. And so the person who has no concern, and yet claims to be a Christian, is self-deceived. But oh my fellow believers, do we not all need to pray that that concern will be fanned and deepened by the Spirit of God until it at least approaches in one-tenth of a degree what the Apostle Paul said, Apostle Paul talked about here, great sorrow, unceasing pain in my heart.

37:42 When's the last time you felt some pain for a lost person? Felt some pain. You know what it's like to have a pain in your heart.

What Christians Can and Must Do: Prayer for Salvation

37:55 We can, we must, have this God-given concern. Secondly, we see it in chapter 10.

38:04 And the one follows on the other. We must cry to God for the salvation of those for whom we are concerned. No. Notice the connection of these two things now in chapter 10, verse 1 of Romans.

38:17 Brethren, my heart's desire, that's the first principle, and my supplication to God,

38:29 that they may be saved. Whatever is a true spiritual desire will always give birth to prayer, because the Christian knows that prayer is part of the appointed means of obtaining God-given desires.

38:45 Is salvation? Is salvation God's work? Yes. Well, if it is His work, it's bound up with the power and operations of His Spirit.

38:55 Yes. And the prayers of God's people are linked in with the operations of the Spirit of God. Philippians 1, verse 19. Your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

39:10 So you and I must cry to God for the salvation of men. I know. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry to God unless I'm concerned.

39:19 I know that. So why preach to me, you say, the duty of crying to God, when if I have the concern, I will cry, and if I don't, I won't? It's because the very presence of duty unperformed is the thing that drives you to God for grace that you might perform it. I know that merely preaching on the duty of praying for the salvation of men will not of itself produce the burden to pray, but if you see that it is your duty, you'll go home and say, God, I know...

39:50 You'll get desperate that God begin to point out the reasons why.

39:55 God doesn't make the measure of our ability the measure of His demands upon us.

40:02 Never.

40:04 If that were true, the law could never bring conviction upon the unconverted. You could say, God tells me to love with the whole heart. I can't, so I won't try, and I'll be excused. No, no.

What Christians Can and Must Do: Using Legitimate Means (Preaching)

40:15 No, no. You and I must share in this God-given concern that gives birth to prayer for their salvation, but then that prayer is mockery to God and delusive to our own hearts if it doesn't follow with the third thing that we can and must do. We can and must use every legitimate means to get the gospel to those for whom we are praying and for whom we are concerned.

40:48 You see,

40:50 efforts to reach men with the gospel that are not preceded and followed with prayer are an indication of a terrible, terrible spirit of self-confidence.

41:04 But prayers for people to be saved that are not followed with efforts to get the gospel to them are presumptuous prayers.

41:15 You see? And so the same apostle says, my heart's desire and my prayer is, is the one who in the very next chapter, though he's speaking to a group of Christians, says the very things I'm saying to you in so doing I'm trying to win these Jews. Verse 2, verse 14 of chapter 11. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy some that are of my flesh and may save some of them.

41:43 And over in 1 Corinthians 9 he says, to the Jew I become as a Jew that I might gain the Jew. To the weak I become as weak. To gain the weak I become all things. To all men that I may by all means save some.

41:57 So when he'd go into a town, he'd find the synagogue and there the scrolls of the Old Testament scriptures were available. And Paul would take his place, and the scriptures would be read, and he'd expound them and prove that Jesus was the Christ. Then the meetings broke up there. He'd go out and find a few people in the marketplace.

42:14 He'd begin to preach. And when the philosophers say, come on, we'll want to hear you, you babbler. He swallows the insight and says, all right, you'll hear me, but not as a babbler. You'll hear me as a preacher of a message that may just explode you and blow your mind and bring you up the other side, new creatures in Christ.

42:29 Sure, I'll go talk to you. They didn't know what they were getting in for, you see. They thought, well, we'll just expose ourselves to his ideas. But Paul went forth with his confidence.

42:40 If I open my mouth, God may cause that miracle of grace to occur. See? And so all of his concern that gave birth to prayer also gave birth to the use of every legitimate means to take the gospel to men. Now that means you've got to obtain a hearing.

43:00 And so Paul would accommodate himself. He'd be willing to subject himself to the strict regulations, dietary and the rest of the Jews that he might not unnecessarily raise any prejudice and gain a hearing. That's what you and I are going to have to do. We're going to have to learn the self-denying accommodation of trying to get close to people that we might obtain a hearing for the gospel.

43:28 And the point that I want to underscore tonight from Romans 10 is that not only are we responsible and privileged, to convey the gospel to them personally by word of mouth when possible, by literature, but will you notice the emphasis of this 10th chapter upon preaching? Verse 13 of Romans, chapter 10. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

43:57 Now notice the reading as I read it from the American Standard, which is the right rendering. How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? The preposition in is not there in the original. How shall they believe him, in him whom they have not heard?

44:18 You see, the same one who is the object of their faith is the one who speaks to them in the gospel. They believe in the very one whom they've heard. And how do they hear the voice of Christ? How shall they hear without a preacher?

44:35 And who is the preacher? How shall they preach? Except they be sent is the sent one. And in that word sent is bound up the concept of authority.

44:47 Every Christian in this sense is not a sent one. The sent one is the one whose gifts have been recognized by the church and who has felt the constraint of God and is commissioned to go forth sent by the Lord, sent by His church, sent by the Spirit. And the Scripture, the Scriptures reveal that the primary means, I did not say exclusive, the primary means God uses to bring the sheep to hear the voice of the shepherd is the authoritative preaching of the sent ones.

45:26 I was speaking with someone recently about this and I challenged this individual. I said, in my last reading through the book of the Acts, I noticed something.

45:35 That in every single instance where it is recorded that someone was actually brought to the Christian faith. Now, we can't argue from silence. There may be other instances and probably were many. But every one that the Holy Ghost has recorded, it's interesting that God used a sent one to bring that person to the faith.

45:58 Every single instance. The hundred and twenty, we might say the lay witness on the day of Pentecost, what was the use of that? It stirred up people to interest. We see these people speaking the mighty works of God.

46:12 What is all of this? Peter stood in the midst, and explained it. And it says, they that received his word were baptized.

46:22 God used the lay witness to attract attention, to transform lives. But the peculiar instrument used to bring them out of darkness into light, that pivotal influence was the message of the sent one.

46:38 Then it goes on to say, great power was given to the apostles as they bore witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Way out in the wilderness, there were many people who've been saved in the revival in Samaria, but who does God take? He takes Philip, a deacon with peculiar preaching gifts who's been the leader of the revival in Samaria, and he sends him all the way out into the wilderness.

47:04 Acts 16. Philippian jailer, Paul, Silas, sent ones. Householder Cornelius, there were many other Christians. Why does he choose Peter?

47:12 Many reasons. But will you trace this through? Now, don't throw it out as saying, oh, that's an untenable position. Search it out.

47:18 And all I'm saying is this. I am not erecting a false clericalism and saying the preacher has some niche upon the power of God. No, all I'm saying is that God in His wisdom has ordained that the sheep shall hear the voice of the shepherd peculiarly through the authoritative preaching of the Word of God by the sent ones. And if I could start here tonight on the front row with every one of you who professes to be saved and said, what was, what was the strategic instrument by which you were actually finally brought to repentance and faith?

47:56 I'd be willing to bet if betting were proper and I had money thus to bet that in nine cases out of ten it was the preached Word of God by a duly authorized, duly sent servant of Jesus Christ.

48:15 Now, is that to say that a person who's not, in that sense, a recognized minister of the Gospel cannot preach the Gospel to his wife? His loved ones and neighbors? No, no, don't construe it that way. You can never communicate the Gospel too much.

48:33 I doubt anyone will be held accountable in the Day of Judgment for preaching the Gospel too much.

48:40 Now, some of us may get a slap or two on the hand from the Lord from being a little unwise in some things we did and say it. No, no, don't anyone go out. It's amazing how people are twisting. That preacher said that nobody gets saved unless you could say to a preacher, I did not say that.

48:55 No, no. No, no. The Bible doesn't teach that. All I am saying is that God, for reasons known only to Him, has bound up in authoritative preaching His primary means of bringing people to the faith.

49:10 God is ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe. Now, do you relate all of this to the meetings that are beginning next week? Do you see the importance of it? God, in His grace, has privileged me to come across a dear black brother in whose heart the truth of the gospel burns like fire, to whom He's given gifts to proclaim the saving message of Christ.

49:38 And those gifts have been recognized and owned and sealed of God. And what is our concern in having Him come? Do we think that He carries the power of God in His back pocket? No, no.

49:51 But my vision and the vision of your elders and I trust the vision of all of us is this. If God is ordained, and this means above all others, not at the exclusion of all others, what a privilege to get all we can under the sound of that word, which is the primary means of bringing salvation to them.

Practical Application of Legitimate Means and Correcting Extremes

50:14 And nothing will increase your confidence in the power of that word more than to see God make it effectual in some soul for whom you've shared concern, some soul for whom you've prayed, someone whom you have brought, and as that word is preached, God is pleased to give life. Now that means you've got to invest some time. You may have to invest some of your money. I'll speak here and if my fellow elders disagree with me, rebuke me after and I'll retract it when it's too late.

50:50 If you want to, take some of your tithe money invested in taking those neighbors out to eat and saying, you'll pay for the babysitter next Sunday night or Tuesday night or Monday night. Bring them to the meetings. Would you contradict me on that? No sir.

51:07 They will be found. That's what it may mean. Is there concern enough to be enterprising? Is it a legitimate thing to use the natural appetite that people have for food as a means to get people within the orbit of the gospel?

51:23 No. Matthew used it and Jesus entered right into his scheme. No sooner had he been converted when he made a banquet for the Lord Jesus back at his own house and many publicans and sinners were there. So much so that they were in fact got the Pharisees all uptight.

51:37 He eats and drinks the bad crowd. Well, you get the principle, don't you? The Lord approved of this and he'll approve of it in us. And I trust that we'll take every single advantage and do what we can and must do in using every legitimate means to get the gospel to men and get men under the sound of the gospel.

51:53 You see, we're victims of extremes and there was a time when men had this idea, Lord, we pay the price of our sins and we pay the price of our sins and we pay the price of our sins and we pay the price of our sins and Lord, we paid the preacher. Help him. Get him any souls for his hire. Help him to go out, bang on doors and scratch on doors and get people out and get them saved.

52:16 The whole idea of this trash clericalism that the preacher was some kind of a sacred man who stood in the sacred building through whom sacred influences came that could not be found anywhere else. Now, in our reaction against that clericalism, you know what we've come into in our day in evangelical circles? A tyranny of the layer team. The idea that this idea, to get them saved.

52:37 You go out and get them saved in the living room. And here's how you do it. And then they give you a cute little scheme, you see, whereby in 20 minutes you can get them saved. Now you bring them in the church to get them built up.

52:47 You see, there's been a complete reversal. Whereas the biblical truth is, it's your life lived before those people in the neighborhood and on the job and in school and wherever you may be, it's your life lived in obedience to the total spectrum of New Testament duty and biblical duty, old and new as well. It is that witness of life that, as it were, confirms the reality of the gospel. And then it's the witness you give when they see you bow your head there in the cafeteria and thank God for your food.

53:20 And when, perhaps on occasion, you've passed a piece of literature, you've steered the conversation into holy things, you naturally speak of how good the Lord has been to you and to your family. And then you seek to communicate the gospel with literature and by word of mouth, but in conjunction, with all your efforts, you're always scheming to try to get them out in a place where the Word is formally, authoritatively preached by a sent one. You see? So it's not the lay witness or the preaching, the preaching or the lay witness, but we are labors together with Him.

53:56 That's it. And you see the specimen example on the day of Pentecost. The 120 became the instrument to get things stirred up. And Peter became the instrument to get them stirred up.

54:06 And Peter became the instrument to get them stirred up. Settle down again into the truth of God. And oh, how I long to see greater measures of this. Thank God for the measures of it we have seen here in our own assembly.

Duty, Expectation, and God's Glory

54:18 But I long to see more of it to God's glory as well as to the blessing of His people. Well, I'm done. Let me just answer a question that may be in the minds of some of you.

54:33 Are you saying to us, Pastor, that if we do these things,

54:38 have some genuine concern, pray and put forth efforts that God is bound to honor those efforts with the conversion and salvation of sinners next week? I'd have to be omniscient to say that. I'd have to have God's mind. I'd have to be a fanatic claiming direct revelation to say that.

54:59 I can't say that. But listen, your duty is not affected by whether or not God blesses your duty with success.

55:11 Your duty is your duty. Period. And you don't say, well, if God would just let me know if He'll bless my efforts, then, no, no. You do what God tells you to do.

55:22 Period.

55:24 Ours is to obey.

55:28 But on the other hand, God generally, being a God of economy, where He puts means, He does so because He's ordained certain ends. And where God puts clear, powerful preaching, bathed in the loving, tender, sympathetic prayer of His people, generally, God intends great blessing. So as I look forward to this week, though I'd be a fanatic to say, I know God is going to save so many, I would also be less than true if I did not say, I expect that God is going to own these days with grace and blessing. And I won't be surprised if He saves some sinners. See?

56:17 Is that the perspective that you have as we look forward to these days? Are we crying to a God who's deaf to us? Are we crying to a God who does not see that the motives in our hearts He has placed there? We long to see sinners saved by His power, not just decisions made for our success image, but sinners saved, laid hold of by God, without all the trappings of modern evangelism.

56:45 Just let the word preach do its work.

56:50 And I believe we can plead before God, Lord, You've placed these motives in our hearts. You've kindled these desires. Now, for the honor of Your Son, bring them to pass. Let me close with Ashiel's own words.

57:03 For those of you who were not here this morning, in writing his most recent letter, he says, I am so thrilled last Lord's Day. A dear woman seemed to be pierced by the word as it was preached. Years earlier, when her young daughter professed a good profession of faith, this woman turned, turned her own daughter out of doors. Today, the King has brought her to see His glorious face.

57:28 What a God whom we serve. Surely, He will never leave us. But, my dear brother, I long for more. He is too great a King to have these little things, large things, for our God.

57:44 That's the motive. Not I'm too great a preacher just to see one person saved. We're too big a church to...

57:51 No, no, no. You see the motive? You see the motive?

57:54 Did we not say to King? Did we not sing from the 72nd Psalm that nations shall acknowledge Him? Kings shall bow. That should be our vision.

58:06 That should be our perspective. That should be our concern. Lord Jesus, give to your dear Son who is worthy of large things. Give Him to see of the travail of His soul.

58:21 Let us pray.