Our primary objective as members of the body of Christ is to bring the message of salvation to the rest of the world. We all have different gifts for use in building up and encouraging those already in the church, but we should not allow our zeal for service drown out the cry of the world around us as they sink into hell.
150,000 people die every day. Think for a moment about how many people that is. If we believe what Jesus said, that straight is the gait and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it, then most of those 150,000 people who will die today will be in hell. Do you care? Does your heart have enough compassion to do something about it? You have an incredible treasure in an earthen vessel. The gospel, inside of you, whether in the form of your own testimony or by preaching the words of everlasting life. Will you obey the voice of your Lord and preach the gospel to every creature? He spilled his blood and suffered for the payment of their sins. Will you reach out and pull them from the fire?
He could have used some other way to send the message across the earth, but he has ordained that through the foolishness of preaching he would save them that believe. He could have written it across the sky in big letters, or made it possible for us to see into heaven from earth, so that we wouldn’t have foolish teachings like evolution or re-incarnation or other false religions. He could have written it inside our eyelids so that every time we close our eyes, we read the gospel. He could have used all sorts of other means to reach men and women with the truth, but he has chosen to use us. Are you being a true and faithful servant?
We’ve all seen the commercials on television where they go to some 3rd world country and exploit the suffering there in order to raise money for their organization. We’ve all had a sense of deep compassion as we’ve seen children suffering with hunger and nakedness and the pain on the mother’s faces. These commercials raise millions of dollars. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let me ask you, how much worse a fate is it for one to end up in hell for an eternity? Forever and ever and ever in torment! The sad truth of the matter is that you don’t have to travel to the ends of the earth to find a poor soul in this predicament. They are all around you, every day. Millions upon millions of them are spread out all over the globe and they are all headed moment by moment to the Day of Judgement when they will stand alone and naked before the throne of Almighty God and give an account of every detail of their lives. And if their names are not written in the Book of Life, they will be cast into the lake of fire and suffer the terrible consequences of their sins.
You and I hold the good news of forgiveness in Christ in our hands! We’ve already been told to take it to them. How can we sit idly by, enjoying fellowship and singing songs in the lifeboats while sinners are drowning all around us? Its been well said that the body of Christ is not a pleasure-cruiser sailing towards heaven, but a battleship stationed at the very gates of hell.
Oswald J Smith said, “Oh my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected.”
| Charles Spurgeon said, “If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and un-prayed for.”
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“Save some, O Christians! By all means, save some. From yonder flames and outer darkness, and the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, seek to save some! Let this, as in the case of the apostle, be your great, ruling object in life, that by all means you might save some.” Charles Spurgeon
Here’s another quote from the prince of preachers, “Brethren, do something, do something, do something! While societies and unions make constitiutions, let us win souls. I pray you, be men of action all of you. Get to work and quit yourselves like men. Old Suvarov’s idea of war is mine: ‘Forward and strike! No theory! Attack! Form a column! Charge bayonets! Plunge into the center of the enemy! ‘ Our one aim is to win souls; and this we are not to talk about, but to do in the power of God!”
Brothers and sisters, we are fighting an epic battle, and the objectives of our warfare are the souls of men. Please, for the sake of those around you, don’t get so consumed with your own life that you forget the real reason you’re still here.
It is my aim that you will be struck with the importance and the urgency of getting the gospel out to your friends and neighbors before its too late. Of course it would seem obvious that this should be the great and foremost issue in the mind of every believer. Its been well said that he who knows what he has been saved from will know what he has been saved for. How can we ignore the plight of the world around us? How could we smugly say to the world, ” Go to hell; I’m saved and I don’t care.” In order to say that, one would have to have a heart of stone. Don’t be like the seed that fell among thorns and let the cares of this life or the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and make it unfruitful in your life. Don’t be like the rich man, fairing sumptuously every day on the riches of Bible study and fellowship while Lazarus lies starving at your gate.
Charles Spurgeon said, “She is a traitor to the Master who sent her if she is so beguiled by the beauties of taste and art as to forget that to ‘preach Christ … and Him crucified’ is the only object for which she exists among the sons of men. The business of the Church is the salvation of souls.”
Joseph Arlean, the great Puritan preacher said, “But from whence shall I fetch my argument? And with what shall I win them? I would write to them in tears! I would weep out every argument! I would empty my veins for ink… if only they would be prevailed upon to repent and turn.”
Can you feel the passion in that man’s heart for the lost? Does not your own heart burn within you as you read the emotion in his words? Can you also sense the urgency with which he preached the gospel? May we be as this man was, and have hearts so set ablaze by the Spirit of God, that we, too, would be able to say that we would “empty our veins for ink”. How many of us have emptied a pen of ink to write to a loved one about the everlasting life we’ve found in Jesus Christ?
If we would just be more eternally minded it would really put things in perspective about our time here on this earth. Life is so short, and there is nothing we will be taking out of here, …except people. Imagine you have a bank account that gets credited $86,400 every day. The only catch is that it does not carry over a balance from day to day – every evening it erases any part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? You would withdraw every penny, naturally. Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is “time.” Each morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds and each night it erases whatever part you didn’t invest in good purposes. It carries no balance, and allows no overdrafts. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back, and no drawing against tomorrow. Invest it so you will get the utmost in God’s will. The clock is running. Make the most of today.