In This Issue:
Why Don’t They Understand?
We Just Deliver It!
Marching Orders
If I Don’t, Who Will?
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Volume: 812 May 31, 2021
Theme: Sharing God’s Word
Why Don’t They Understand?
Bill Brinkworth
“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” II Cor. 4:4
After sharing the Gospel for over 40 years, I still wish there was something I could say or do that would instantly get everyone saved and on the way to Heaven. Unfortunately, there is no such way!
One can give the clearest Bible verses one knows to show another the way to Heaven, but the unsaved listener sometimes politely stares back at the soul-winner and does not appear to be stirred. The best stories of how the Lord has changed the soul-winner’s life also often result in empty stares. Even sharing the Bible’s scariest verses about the eternal home for the lost in a tormenting Hell often does not raise an eyebrow. Scripture about standing before the final judgment for the lost at the Great White Throne Judgment does not even seem to concern them. They just do not seem to understand.
Soul winners may have to deal with hardened hearts, not-ready-yet souls, and those ignorant of God’s truths. Often, without knowing the reason, it seems the Holy Spirit is not involved, and He is the only one who wins a soul to Christ.
There is another very serious obstacle that keeps many from being saved. That reason may be the root cause of previously mentioned excuses for one’s not getting saved. It is that they are spiritually blinded.
Spiritual blindness has always been a stumbling block for one to get saved, and it is especially a barrier these days. Perhaps a person has heard so much negativity about being saved that they have not sought it out honestly for themselves. They heard that “salvation is forced down one’s throat” without experiencing someone aggressively showing them the way to Heaven. Others may be turned off to being born-again as they fear they will not have a mind or will of their own and will have to do things they dislike or do not believe. Some fear their freedoms will be stripped from them. Many have been so entrenched and addicted to sin that they have no interest or concern for anything that would change their lifestyles.
Talking to so many spiritually blinded people can frustrate a soul-winner. The Holy Spirit and we seem to do everything we can to alter their eternal destination from Hell with seemingly no results. Then, when we least expect it, we have the honor to lead one “easily” to salvation. What is the difference?
When somebody readily accepts Christ as Saviour, we do not know all the work, trials, and tribulations the Holy Spirit had done previously in their lives. It is His work that prepares them for when a soul-winner can talk to them. When their heart is ready, it is only the Holy Spirit that can remove their spiritual blinders.
With this in mind, we should see the importance of “sowing the seeds” of the Gospel. One day, those thoughts, verses, and biblical principles Christians planted may grow. On that day, the Holy Spirit may open the eyes of the sinner, and he will no longer be blind to the things of God. It may be the day he gets saved. It may be the beginning when He understands more of the things of God. That is why we must keep on sowing God’s truth, because one day the “seeds” may sprout.
“Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” Isa. 6:10
“Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.” John 12:39
We Just Deliver It!
Bill Brinkworth
I do not know if there are newspaper delivery boys or girls anymore. However, when I was younger, many my age would get bundles of the daily paper delivered to them, fold them, put them in their newspaper bag, and deliver them to their customers.
Every day, often first thing in the morning or after school, a bundle of local newspapers would be retrieved by the delivery person. They would do their best, no matter the weather or time, to get the paper to people to read.
If the customer did not open and read it, his ignorance of what was happening in the world around him was not the delivery person’s fault. The paper was made available to him by the diligence of the newspaper boy.
Likewise, it is usually not a preacher’s or person delivering God’s message fault people do not heed the biblical warnings given to them. The spreader of the Good News obeyed what he was commanded to do from the Word of God. He did his part. They were the delivery “boys.” Their efforts made sure God’s Word was put in the hands and ears of those needing to know His message.
If the listener did not heed God’s call to change his life, it is on him, not the one that pointed him to “thus saith the Lord.” If one did not get saved after hearing God’s plan of salvation, it is on the person and is not the delivery ”boy’s” fault. All the delivery person can do is get God’s Truths to others. No one can make anyone saved or obedient to His commandments.
What are you doing with God’s message that was faithfully delivered to you? Did you listen intently? Were you convicted about something that was said? Did you go to the Lord, beg for His mercy, forgiveness, and intend to do as the Holy Spirit’s heartfelt “whisper” urged you to do? Or did the message go in one ear, and no obedience to the Holy Spirit’s calling ever followed? If so, you have been delivered God’s good news. What will you do with His message?
“If people shared the Gospel like they do gossip, we’d have a major revival throughout the world.”
Marching Orders
Author Unknown
The Duke of Wellington was once confronted by a preacher who was unfriendly to foreign missions because of their expense, unproductiveness, and the work that needed to be done at home.
Fastening his eyes on the preacher, Wellington quoted the words of the Master, “… Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” He added, “There, sir, are your marching orders!”’ The statesman and soldier had learned the lesson that it was not the duty of a soldier to question the orders of his superior.
It should not be our business to argue the Lord’s orders but simply to receive the orders and obey them. Go and tell others what the Bible teaches, and do not question what you are told to do!
If I Don’t, Who Will?
Bill Brinkworth
“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;” Ephesians 6:14
- I am a Christian. If I don’t tell the unsaved how to keep from spending an eternity in Hell, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that sin is wicked and destroys our lives and those around us, who will?
- If I don’t tell them what God says is sin, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that abortion is against God’s commandments, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that homosexuality is a chosen sin-style that angers God, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that God’s way is right and all other ways are wrong, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that God planned for man to have one wife and that both should be faithful to each other until death, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that God has preserved His will and way in the King James Bible, so we will know exactly what He wants us to know, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that everything that names itself “Christian” is not necessarily of God, who will?
- If I don’t tell them that a real devil doesn’t want them to do what God wants them to, who will?
- If I don’t tell them, it is the same devil that tempts, confuses, and deceives them so they won’t know God’s way or want to obey it, who will?
- If I don’t show the world a proper, rewarding, God-desired lifestyle, who will?
- If the unsaved world cannot see that I am different from them, who will show them a difference between those bound for Heaven and those bound for Hell?
- If my life is not an example of how good God is and that He is alive and still working in His children’s lives, whose will?
- If I don’t have the “guts” to stand up for what I believe and what God’s Word commands, who will?
As Christians, WE have many responsibilities. Instead of sitting around and not being the Christians WE should be, WE need to be a light in this sin-darkened world. WE need to start showing and telling them — now!