An Invitation Of Love

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Everything goin’ alright at your house? Oh, I trust so, bless your heart. So glad to be back with you to share from God’s word. We’re in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, and we’re talking about what happens when someone wins a soul. How does soul winning work? First thing we said to each other the last time we got together was that it involves a quest. And that’s based upon the repetition of the verb ‘find.’ Andrew found his brother Simon. Jesus found Philip. Philip found Nathaniel. Jesus looked up the blind man whom he had healed after the people threw him out of the temple, and it said He found him and talked with him about believing upon the Son of God.

The Father seeketh those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth, we read in John 4. It involves a quest. Barnabas heard that Saul of Tarsus had gone back to his home city and he’d said he went to seek him and found him and brought him back to Antioch and put him to work for the Lord. Soul winning and Christian nurture involves a quest, looking for people. You never drifted a soul winning, you have to work at it, and that means caring enough about people to go looking for them. Alright? It’s first thing we said. And then we said it involves sharing a person. We have found Him, we have found the Messiah. And over in verse 45, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write.” Sharing a person, not just a doctrine. It’s not a process of proselytizing and winning converts. Our Lord Jesus spoke scathingly to the Pharisees about their activities. He said to them, “Ye compass land and sea to make one proselyte, and when you have made him he is twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” Oh, what terrible denunciation that was.

Proselyting can be a deadly process. Sharing the Lord Jesus is always a dynamic process. So he said, we found Him. Now, know what you’re talking about. This is by way maybe of a detour but it’s very important. Uninformed witnessing oftentimes is ineffective. Know what you’re talking about. The average person hesitates to speak of the Lord Jesus and to invite people to Him in our day largely because that person is uninformed about what the Bible says. One of the best ways to launch into this whole matter of winning souls is to learn thoroughly some passages of scripture which help you explain the gospel.

Many years ago I began to learn such strings of verses, and it has been of great help to me. From time to time I have shared one such string of verses about the gospel. Let me do it again for those of you who have not heard. Get a pencil if you can and write down this sequence of verses, which will help you share your Lord with someone. Here it is: Romans 3:23, then put a dash after that and write the words, “The fact of sin.” The fact of sin, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The second passage, Romans 6:23, and then a dash and write the words, “The penalty for sin. The wages of sin is death.” The third passage is Hebrews 9:27, and then a dash and write the words, “The penalty must be paid. And as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgment.”

At this point, I sometimes stop and look at a person with whom I’m speaking and say, “Now you do your best but you fail, don’t you?” That’s why the Bible says all have sinned. We all fail, don’t we? Yes, yes, yes. So if you do your best but you fail and you keep on doing your best and failing, coming short of God’s standards, you’re gonna die, the Bible says. And what do you have to face after that? The judgment. With all your sins on you. That’s the dark side, I often say. That’s the black side of the picture.

Now, come look at the other side. The fourth passage is found in Romans 5:8, then put a dash after that and the words, “Christ paid the penalty. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The next passage is Ephesians 2:8-9, and then the words, “Salvation, a free gift.” Salvation, a free gift. “For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” The final verse in this string of verses is John 1:12, and then the words, “A gift must be received.” The gift must be received. “But as many has received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” To be saved, you receive a wonderful person into your life, the Lord Jesus Christ. You do it by faith, by trusting Him, by opening the doors of your heart house to this wonderful person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He does the saving when you do the receiving and believing.

Well now, if you’ll memorize those six verses so you know them backwards and forwards, you can lead anybody who is willing to listen into an understanding of how to become a Christian. Oftentimes when I’m dealing with someone, I use the approach, “I imagine you expect someday to become a Christian but you just never have gotten around to it.” Oftentimes there’s an immediate ascent, “Yeah, that’s right. I intend to become a Christian someday.” Very few people deliberately intend to be lost. Most people figure that they’ll straighten things out with God sometimes, isn’t that true? So I use that approach, “I suppose that you intend to become a Christian someday, but you have never gotten around to it.” Then I ask this question, “If you did want to become a Christian, would you know how?” And oftentimes the individual look at me thoughtfully and say, “No, I don’t think I do.” And at that point I’ll say, “Well, let me show you in the next few seconds how you can become a Christian. You want me to do that?” Yes, they do.

I use these verses ordinarily because I know them so well. I’ll open the Bible to the passage and I’ll turn it to the person sitting with me, so that it’s upside down to me but right side up to them. And I’ll say, “Now read that verse. Romans 3:23; ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ What does that say about you and me? We’re sinners, all have sinned. Yes, that’s the fact of sin.” And I’ll go through that series of passages one by one with this individual and when you come down to the final verse, John 1:12, “As many has received Him… “, you’re able to say, “Now you know what it’s all about. Do you wanna receive this wonderful person into your life?” And so often, thank God, so often through the years people have said, “Yes, I do.” And we would pray together and the Lord Jesus Christ would come into that life.

Now I’ve shown you, takin’ a few minutes here, how this works. You have to know what you’re talking about. You don’t have to know everything but you have to know something. In this case, they said, “We’ve found the Messiah.” And Philip said, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write.” He knew his Old Testament scriptures and he immediately began to think of all those different messianic prophecies that were given. Moses said, “A prophet like unto me shall the Lord your God raise up. Him shall ye hear.” A prophecy of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the different prophets, his manner of birth, his lineage, his birthplace. All of these things were foretold by the prophets.

And so Philip says, “Here is somebody that fulfills the prophecies.” He knew what he was talking about. Let me emphasize that with you, beloved. Get a solid biblical base, so that you know the gospel and you’re able to present it. Go over those verses until they are not only in your memory but in your subconscious mind, the computer portion of your mind, so that they’re there and the Holy Spirit can use them. And then share this wonderful person, the Lord Jesus, with your friends.

Now, a word of caution. You’re not to manipulate people. We live in an age when psychology is now come of age, it was a baby science only a few decades ago. But now it’s come of age and it is a powerful influence in our society, and oftentimes people end up manipulating others simply by using some psychological principles. You always get in trouble when you try to do that in the things of eternity. You and I are not to manipulate folk, we are to invite them to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have found him, he brought him to Jesus. Philip said to Nathaniel, “We have found him.” Nathaniel of course was skeptical, he said, “Nazareth, that’s a dump. Nothing good comes out of Nazareth.” But Philip, instead of arguing, said, “Come and see. Come and see.” To invite, to invite, not to manipulate. To invite, not to argue. To invite, not to lecture. To invite, not to strike a pose and seem to be more holy than somebody else. Just invite somebody to Jesus. Come and see.

Wanna remember that as your basic approach, sharing your blessed Lord, sharing with the excitement of, “We’ve found him. We found him.” Here’s the excitement of a boy with a new jalopy, “Oh, Dad! I found a bargain, it only cost $120 and it runs like a clock.” He’s so excited he can hardly stand still. Excitement of something new that has entered your life, this wonderful person, the Lord Jesus. Stop here long enough to realize that the Savior knows all about you. He’ll not make any discoveries about you. He knows it all. “Before Philip called you, when you were still sitting under the fig tree, I saw you.” Well, that was too much for Nathaniel, he said, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.” Jesus said, “That’s nothing. Just because I know all about you, did you believe? You’ll see greater things than these.” Greater things than these. Oh, what wonderful things our Lord has for people who believe Him.

I wonder if we could end this broadcast with that note. God has some greater things for you, beloved. I’m talking to somebody who feels as though he or she had come to a dead end passage on the road of life and there doesn’t seem to be any way to turn right or left, no way to go straight ahead. Thou shalt see greater things than these. God has something greater for you. Trust Him for it. Commit yourself to Him even now and let the Lord Jesus show you His greater things. He will.

Father God today, may we share Jesus effectively with others. In His name I pray. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio. Walk with the King today, and be a blessing.