This Great Salvation

Illus: One of the greatest soul winners of all time was a man known as Uncle John Vassar. In a railroad station one day he saw a lady with a serious look on her face sitting by herself. He sat down and talked to her and led her to the Lord.

Just as he left, her husband came up and, seeing the tears, demanded to know what was going on.

She told him that a man had just been telling her of her need to be saved. "Why didn't you tell him to go about his business?" said the indignant husband.

She answered, "Husband, if you had only been here you would have seen that he was about his business." ("Choice Illus." W.W. Clay pg. 48)

The business of every Child of God is to lead men to Christ. But sometimes some Christians do not use a lot of wisdom in how they do this.

Illus: Such is the case with the Christian barber that loved the Lord but was not the smartest when it came to witnessing for the Lord.

He had a lost man in his chair and he was preparing to shave him. The man was in the chair with shaving leather all over his face and the Christian barber wanted to witness to him about the Lord. With razor in hand, he said, “ARE YOU READY TO DIE AND MEET THE LORD?” He scared the man almost to death thinking he was going to get his throat cut.

Sometimes the things we say are not clear. For example:

Illus: A preacher was trying to make a point of how many babies die in Africa. He started clapping his hands into the microphone and said, "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies."

A voice from near the front pierces the silence, "Well, stop clapping your hands you idiot!"

Christians need to be careful what we say in our witnessing to people that HAVE BEEN BLINDED BY SIN!

Illus: Reminds me of when Stevie Wonder and Tiger Woods were together talking.

• Woods turns to Wonder and says: "How is the singing career going?"

• Stevie Wonder replies: "Not too bad! How's the golf?"

• Woods replies: "Not too bad, I've had some problems with my swing, but I think I've got that right now."

• Stevie Wonder says: "I always find that when my swing goes wrong, I need to stop playing for a while and not think about it. Then, the next time I play, it seems to be all right."

• Tiger Woods says: "You play golf?"

• Stevie Wonder says: "Oh, yes, I've been playing for years."

• Woods says: "But, you're blind. How can you play golf if you're blind?"

• Wonder replies: "I get my caddy to stand in the middle of the fairway and call to me STEVIE and I play the ball towards him. Then, when I get to where the ball lands, the caddy moves to the green or farther down the fairway and again I play the ball towards his voice."

• "But, being blind how do you putt?” asks Woods.

• "Well," says Stevie, "I get my caddy to lean down in front of the hole and call to me Stevie with his voice with his head on the ground and I just play the ball towards his voice."

• Woods, incredulous, says to Stevie: "We've got to play a round some time."

• Wonder replies: "Well, being a blind man people do not take me seriously, so I only play for money, and never play for less than $10,000 a hole."

• Woods thinks about it and says, "OK, I'm game for that, when would you like to play?"

• Stevie says, "Pick a night."

People listen to what we say and we have to be careful what we say.

Another problem we have with our witnessing is that we live in a society that promotes neo-evangelism.

WHAT IS NEO-EVANGELISM?

Illus: Have you ever heard a person say in witnessing, "DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE EXISTENCE OF THE LORD JESUS?"

• The Lost person say, “Yes, of course!”

• The other person says, "Good you are now a child of God.”

WAIT A MINUTE! There is more to being saved spiritually than acknowledging that the Lord Jesus once existed on this earth.

It is because of this Neo-evangelism that we have people all over this nation that are in our churches and they:

• Think they are saved and they are not

• Think they are born again and they are not

• Think they are going to heaven and they are not

Listen, the Bible clearly teaches that we are not to judge anyone, but we can tell by the fruit that many bear that they do not know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. THEY ARE STILL THE SAME OLD SINFUL CREATURES THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN!