Praise the Lord. Now, I thought all of you would have gone home because of the rain. Glad to see all of us together.
Through these days we are very thankful that the Lord, who is really the kingdom sower, has gone out to sow in our midst. I am not sure what kind of ground you are, but surely the Lord wants some of that seed of His kingdom to be rooted in us. He wants to stamp His image into us.
You know that phrase, that the Holy Spirit seals us. Actually, the word—sometimes I do not know what you think about sealing—but what it means is this. When the Holy Spirit comes to us, we are soft, malleable wax, and He stamps His image upon it. That image is there forever. And the more we have meeting with the Lord, and by the Holy Spirit, the more He can stamp His image upon us, so that when people see the church, they will see Jesus only, Jesus ever.
So we have gathered for this time. People have shared various things. Behind the scenes our dear Lord has been going forth, bearing precious seed with weeping, because of His compassion. But He shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him. That, of course, is where we got that song, “Bringing in the Sheaves,” from Psalm 126.
I would like for you to turn to three passages having to do with our charge tonight, because it is imperative that we see the One who sees us, as our dear brother shared this afternoon. In order for us to receive His charge and bear the cross necessary to move into the fulfillment of it, we need to see Him issuing us the charge. And I am going to try to concentrate, as much as possible tonight, on the corporate side of our receiving this kingdom seed.
The first portion of Scripture, if you will turn with me, is the very end of the Gospel of Matthew. You are all very familiar with what is called the Great Commission, but here is a charge within it for us.
In Matthew 28:18 it says:
Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and in earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
What a precious promise.
Then we want to go into the book of Acts, at its very beginning, to see yet another charge. Jesus, now resurrected from the dead, gathers with His disciples just before His ascension. Right at the beginning, in Acts 1:1, it says:
I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day He was taken up, after He had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. After He had suffered, He also presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about the kingdom of God. While He was with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise, which, He said, you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days. So when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.
And then the final charge, from our portion in 2 Timothy 4, reading a few verses beyond the passage that we have as a theme. Second Timothy 4, beginning at verse 1:
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires will multiply teachers for themselves, because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth, and will turn aside even to myths.
And he tells them to go on and do the work of an evangelist, in the midst of that charge.
Now, Lord, we come to You tonight. Only You can charge Your people. Only You can call us into that discipleship that bears the fruit of the kingdom. So we ask that the Holy Spirit be very present upon us, giving us a personal sense of Your charge upon us, and upon the various assemblies in which we meet. We thank You for this opportunity, in this wonderful venue, that we can come and spend this time together. In Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
So, as we look at these verses, we can see the Lord presenting a charge to us. And again, we stand there with Him in Matthew 9 and realize that He gives this charge to His disciples out of that visceral, broken, human compassion that He had. You know, when He looks at the disciples, He is not groaning about them. He loves them very much. And He loves you very much. But yet He would give us a charge, that we might be partners in His work in the kingdom.
And when we look at these three charges, we realize that there is something deeper in each one of them that necessitates our having vision, if we are to understand fully and obey the charge. There are three different perspectives here, from three different points of view, as we look at these different commands.
In Matthew 28 there is that global point of view of the eternal purpose of God: the charge for the disciples, the workers, to build the church throughout all the nations. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. I am in control now. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” What a tremendous charge this is. Now, we need to see that the Lord who sees us—we need to see Him making that charge to us.
The second charge, Acts 1, is a charge to have a vision to understand the unseen source of our kingdom work: namely, that we receive this wonderful Holy Spirit, to be witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection specifically, as we go from place to place under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And then the third charge, in 2 Timothy, is that kingdom charge for the end time. Because in Matthew 28 we see the kingdom building the church, but here in 2 Timothy 4 we see the church bringing in the kingdom, and Jesus’ return, as the bride makes herself ready. That charge for the end times may be the times that we live in now, because there are times of opposition.
You notice, in these three passages, that actually only in Timothy is the word “charge” given. This is a strong word, because there is an earnestness and an urgency upon Paul, who is about ready to be martyred himself. As he lies in jail, waiting for that moment, he is pressing this charge upon Timothy in light of the end times, in light of the opposition of Rome, in light of more opposition spiritually that is all about him. It takes an overcomer. It takes one with real faith in something else, in order to preach the word and exhort in these end days, when people will not listen to sound doctrine anymore.
See, these charges are all charges that we can only obey by denying ourselves, taking up the cross, and following Him. And so we want to look at these in their context a little bit tonight. Now, you are familiar, of course.
Number one, we look at the Matthew 28 global point of view that the King has regarding His kingdom: go into all the world and make disciples. Now, can you imagine these twelve disciples, mostly from Galilee, receiving this vast command to go out into the whole world? They probably could not even tell you where India was, but they went out there. Or China. But they went out.
They were Galilean, and quite colloquial, and they were charged with something that they would have to have a heavenly vision of, in order possibly to fulfill it. And of course, you know, they did.
Now, this commission, of course, we must say, I think, first of all, is specifically given to apostles, missionaries, and evangelists who have been set apart by God to travel the globe and do His gospel work, by preaching the gospel and bringing in the kingdom in all the nations—which we realize from Matthew 24 is necessary as a testimony to Jesus and His return.
But even though this global charge is specifically to the apostles who were there, yet this charge applies to us, does it not? When it comes, in our local assemblies at least, to baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, discipling those who come our way—this is certainly a charge that applies to us.
But the thing that we need to see—because the Lord is asking, in this particular regard, this global viewpoint—this is where we really need prayer. Brothers and sisters, in our prayer meetings we need a global view.
This worldwide harvest is presently going on right now. Do you realize that? There is the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. It is at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, up in the Boston area. And at the present time they have tried to calculate, by what is going on across the world, the success of this Great Commission. Seed is being sown, especially now in the fields of the Middle East and Africa, whereas ten or fifteen years ago the emphasis was still in the Far East and in South America.
But nevertheless, they say that daily, as we have been together this very day, seventy to eighty thousand people have come into the kingdom by the preaching of the gospel. Think about that. Praise God.
You know, brothers and sisters, most of those workers—many of them out in the third world, in developing nations—we do not even know their names. But they are precious to the Lord. We should be praying for them. As many names as we know, we should lay them before the Lord, asking for help for them as they do these things. Seventy to eighty thousand. That means, according to the estimates of this Christian global research center, twenty-five to thirty million Christians are added to the kingdom every year.
Is the Lord faithful in His harvest?
Our times may be tough. Where I live, in New York City, I am hoping the janitor gets saved, and I consider that I would be ready to be raptured into glory, you know? But in other places in the world it is white unto harvest, brothers and sisters. It is white. They do not have a problem saving people. They have a problem of what to do with them once they get saved, as we will see in a minute. The fields are white unto harvest, and there are young churches arising here and there. The fields are ripe.
And of course, the key is always this: sensing where the fields are white at any given time. This is a very important thing, and that is why it needs the Holy Spirit’s direction as they go out into the world. And those ones are so blessed who get to serve in those things.
Now, I remember—let us see, 1964 then. So I had been a Christian nine years. I was a pastor. And as a volunteer I went out in 1973 to the Billy Graham Crusade in Seoul, Korea. I went out with a team of about twenty-five businessmen. I was not really a businessman, but I snuck in, and we went there to witness in the various cities of Korea. I happened to be in a southern city called Busan. They had four crusades going on at the same time, the main one being, of course, our dear brother Billy Graham, up there in Seoul.
You know, I will never forget that experience, because the heavens were open over South Korea. It was tremendous. I cannot tell you how many people. I would share my testimony and give an invitation. I saw some Presbyterian schools where every kid got up and accepted the Lord, and I turned around and the teachers were also accepting the Lord. They wanted to be Christians. They knew the Word, but they never knew they needed to receive Christ, and that is all I shared.
It was out in the marketplace. We stood outside a church building, and this little Baptist pastor was interpreting for me, and we preached the gospel, and these businessmen were stopped in their tracks by the power of the Holy Spirit. But forget about what I did. I just went around and helped out as I could, as these other couple of dozen volunteer workers did. We also took part in the crusade and counseled people who came, and all that kind of thing. But here is what happened.
It turned out that the Billy Graham Crusade in 1973 was the largest crusade Billy Graham ever had. It was overwhelming. A total of 3.2 million people attended that crusade. It was only five days, I believe. And the peak crowd, on the last night up in Seoul, Korea—I will never forget—1,100,000 people heard the gospel, and, boy, they flooded out. I just started crying. They flooded out onto that soccer stadium to receive the Lord. Oh, just to be part of that. It is wonderful.
And of course, while I was there, I found out the secret—as if it is a secret. It turns out that this pastor, Paul Yonggi Cho—it was his large church there in Seoul, Korea—had bought a mountain that they called Prayer Mountain. Any of you who have been there, it is just outside Seoul, Korea, and they prayed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. When we got there, the heavens were open. The enemy was defeated. We would sit down for lunch. We had a badge on for the crusade. People would ask us how to get saved.
It was prayer, you see. That is why Jesus says, “Beseech the Lord of the harvest.” How about beseeching for these dear friends?
Oh, listen, brothers and sisters. We have a calling for our prayer meetings to be larger than just Grandma’s aching toe. Our burden needs to include Grandma, but it needs to get much bigger than that. There is a world out there that the Lord is reaching with seeds of the kingdom, here and there. And especially if we know of places, occasions, or persons, we should be praying. And this is not just missionaries out somewhere. Even a place like this—do you know what a precious work this is? I wonder how many people have been saved here. I have heard some stories about the Chinese group that meets here. Is it Labor Day weekend, every year? And over the last several years, hundreds and hundreds of people have been saved. Is that not wonderful? So we should be praying for these kinds of things.
But what does that take? It takes a broken heart of compassion. It feels connected to people across the world. See, that is not something that comes natural to us. You know, that is why, in our own little prayer meeting in Manhattan, the prayer meeting where we pray for one another, everybody shows up, including Grandma with the aching toe. But when we are going to pray this week about the kingdom of God across the world—“Ah, cannot make it. It is not about me. I am not interested. It is not about Nellie or Charlie, or I am out.”
Oh, listen. That is why prayer for the nations takes denying ourselves, taking up that cross. And you would be surprised how much of a burden the Lord could give you for these people that you hardly even know. And even more wonderful, when you get connected to them and some correspondence goes back and forth. Oh, it is a tremendous thing to see these kinds of things. But listen.
We know that evangelistic outreach in these kingdom gatherings is wonderful, but there needs to be more than that. Because the problem that is faced everywhere is where to put these people once they are truly saved.
In 1968 I was still in seminary, and Ernie Heil and I were invited to go to Pittsburgh, to the Billy Graham School of Evangelism, which he held during his crusade there. So we would go to the school during the daytime and then work in the crusades at night. Billy Graham got up and said three things. They have stuck with me even to this day, and my mind is so old now, at eighty-two, that I am amazed I remember. But here are three things that he said to us—some, probably two hundred seminary students and young pastors, who came to this school of evangelism.
Number one, he said this. According to their own study, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: only 25 percent of the responders become committed Christians. Now, think about that.
The second thing Billy Graham told us was that his evangelism is the worst kind of evangelism for effectiveness. And here is how he described himself. He says, “I get up there in the evening with a bucketful of gospel water, and out there in the stadium are fifteen or twenty thousand Coke bottles, narrow-neck Coke bottles. And I chuck that gospel water out over the bottles. A little bit gets in here. A lot gets here. None gets there. It is the worst form of evangelism. It touched this person. This person did not know what the fellow was talking about. This person left untouched.” It is the worst kind. But he said, “It is what God has called me to.”
Now he says, “I want to tell you what God has called you to. God has called you to be a church that preaches the full counsel of God and lives a vital body life, where these people who are saved can be nurtured and helped and discipled and brought into strength and maturity.” That is what Billy Graham said. He said, “Without the local church, my evangelism is of no effect.”
Well, of course, we all know other stories. You know our dear brother Bakht Singh in India. When, after studying in Canada, he went back and started preaching the gospel, he had a tremendous revival in Madras, India, and came back during the war in 1941, a couple of years after his revival. You know what he found? Forty-two thousand people had responded to the gospel there in Madras, under Bakht Singh’s meetings. This was a powerful event. And when he came back in 1941, a few years afterward, he could not find any of them. Those Christians had all fallen back into the woodwork somewhere.
And you know what the reason was? When they got saved, they went into what was called the Church of India in those days. It was the Anglican Church, and that particular one in Madras, anyway, was completely liberal. They did not preach the Word. They did not believe in Jesus’ resurrection. They did not believe in salvation by faith. They believed in religion. And one by one, those hot new Christians went cold and left.
And what did he do? Bakht Singh had to learn how to build the church to house those who were saved. And I think many of you know the story of Watchman Nee. An effective evangelist he was, in the early days in the Far East, but he also fell upon this same problem. Many people come to the Lord, but without a church—a church that is the body of Christ, that can be an incubator for young Christians—so much evangelistic work is hit or miss.
So we see: this is a real concern. When we talk about the charge, and see those who go out and preach the gospel, we also need to pray for the churches in the area, in order for things to continue to be fruitful.
But in the end, we find out in the history of revival and gospel work that the most effective evangelism is the evangelism done by a local church, where people bear the cross, go out and witness, preach the gospel. A few people get saved. A few people get baptized. But they stick. The percentage of those who remain Christians, when little assemblies—not big-shot evangelists—faithfully hold gospel meetings and do gospel work, is far greater. They do not get the accolades that a great evangelist would get. But this is the desire of God. He has always meant that those who were saved would be discipled in His local churches.
So that is the first charge, and I can only ask that the Holy Spirit would help you see that Jesus is giving you that charge, out of that compassionate heart of His, for the whole world.
Now the second charge comes from the book of Acts, Acts 1, as you will recall. And here we see that the Lord has to reveal to them—or they need to have a revelation of—the unseen source of their upcoming kingdom ministry, namely the Holy Spirit.
Now the disciples had been taught, before Jesus’ death, in John 14 through 16, about the work of the Holy Spirit, both upon them and within them. But still, at this time, they had not grasped the secret of their discipleship and of the upcoming charge to go out into the world. And so, as they spoke over forty days, and Jesus showed Himself alive, they were speaking about things concerning what? The kingdom of God.
And yet, after all of that, the question that the disciples asked was, “Now, Jesus, we are waiting here in Jerusalem. Is it at this time that You are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” In other words, their understanding of the kingdom was not universal. It was not all nations as well as the Jews. Their understanding of the kingdom was an earthly kingdom, centered in Jerusalem, where the Messiah would conquer Rome and anybody else who was an enemy.
Jesus said, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons, even regarding My return. I do not want you to wait around Jerusalem until I come back”—which, unfortunately, is what a lot of churches are doing these days, basically doing nothing but waiting for Jesus to come back. He said, “No, no. I will tell you what you need to do. You need to wait in Jerusalem until you receive the power of the Holy Spirit. And then go, as He leads. Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow the Holy Spirit as He leads you, starting in Jerusalem, and then Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. But let the Holy Spirit lead you.”
You know, that wonderful word for spirit, of course: in the Greek it is pneuma, and in the Old Testament it is ruach. It means the same thing. It has a double meaning, right? You know that. It means wind and breath.
Now, you need the wind of the Holy Spirit to fill your sails. You need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work through this world, however the Lord leads. But you also need His breath, the still, small voice: “Then go there. Do not go there.”
Oh, there are too many people trying to evangelize, but they are not listening to the Holy Spirit. They are kind of on their own, with a mechanical little thing, and they have got some things they are doing. But to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit is what is so necessary in this thing. And so Jesus is trying to open their eyes to see this inner, unseen source of power that they are to have as witnesses of the resurrection, as the mighty magnet draws people to Himself—namely Jesus.
Listen to this. The other day my wife—she is always asking questions. “So what are you going to share on?” Now she gives me a hard time. So anyway, one day she says, “Well, what are you going to share on?” I kind of shared. She says, “Oh, did you read Spurgeon’s devotional today?” I said, “No, no, I have not.” She reads a lot of devotional stuff, you know what I mean? And here it was. It was called—God, can I read it to you? It is just a short piece. I will give you just a part of it. It is called “God’s Mighty Magnet,” from John 12:32:
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.
The mighty magnet.
Spurgeon says:
Come, ye workers, be encouraged. You fear that you cannot draw a congregation. Try the preaching of a crucified, risen, and ascended Savior, for this is the greatest draw that was ever yet manifested among men. What drew you to Christ but Christ? What draws you to Him now but His own blessed self? Now go with the name of Jesus to those who have hitherto been stubborn, and see if it does not draw them. No sort of man is beyond this drawing power. Old and young, rich and poor, ignorant and learned, depraved and amiable—all men shall feel that attractive force. Jesus is the one magnet. Let us not think of any other. Music will not draw to Jesus, neither will eloquence, logic, ceremonial, or noise. Jesus Himself must draw men to Himself. Be not tempted by the quackeries of the day, but as workers for the Lord, work in His way, and draw with the Lord’s own cords. Draw to Christ. Draw by Christ. And then Christ will draw by you.
How many of you are willing to go out under the power of the Holy Spirit with the magnet, the mighty magnet of Jesus, and talk about Jesus? You want to draw people to yourself? This is the way to do it.
I have got so much to be indebted for in my own life, and one of the people I am indebted to is my father-in-law, who was a wonderful one-on-one evangelist. And he, in the end, had a group of 2,300 men in North Carolina who would go on lay-witness weekends, where they would share testimony. And here is what they did. They would go from house to house in a community, usually taking the visitors’ tickets from the Baptist church—that is the way they did it. And they would go into a house and share how they got saved. And then in the evening we had an evening service, and in the evening service one of the fifteen or twenty brothers and sisters there on that weekend would share how they got saved.
People got saved left and right. All they did was tell them how Jesus saved them. My father-in-law was not the best for theology. He could use the mighty magnet of Jesus. People were drawn. And we saw some mighty revivals, many people saved, in some big churches like First Baptist Church, Nashville, and so forth. But you see, the magnet of Jesus just cannot be beaten.
But now, listen. You have got to have eyes, because this is a charge for you to be a witness now. When the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall be My witnesses. Now, how many of you are witnesses? Well, see, you all should raise your hand. But some of you are lousy witnesses, and some are good witnesses. I wonder if you have ever seen Jesus, who sees you, in this matter of going out and being His witness.
You know, it is interesting. If you turn to a passage in John 4—it has been read several times, but let us look at it again, in John 4:35 and following—regarding the white fields. Let us just see what Jesus says about this matter of being a witness, in His heart.
This is regarding this Samaritan visit and all. He says to His own disciples:
Do you not say, There are still four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are already white unto harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: one sows, and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
You see, you need vision to look at the fields and see that they are already white unto harvest. So now listen, brothers and sisters. Here is what Jesus is challenging you about. Here is a challenge. Your field, where you live and where you work, is white now—if you can only see it.
Now, of course, the disciples never would have thought the Samaritans were a white field of the harvest. At best the disciples, if they were kind, would say, “There are still four months before the harvest is ready here. These are Samaritans—rough people, you know?” Jesus says they are like picking a ripe grape off the vine, so ready to receive the gospel. And that is our problem. You see, the people around us are more ready to receive the gospel than we are to be the witness of it.
We think, “Surely these people where I work cannot be ready. My neighborhood is the most non-gospel neighborhood in the world. The ripe time will come just after Jesus comes.” No. But have our eyes been lifted up?
And then He says that he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice. The saying is true: one sows, another reaps. “I sent you out to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored.”
Do you know you are in a field where somebody else has already done some plowing and some planting, where the Holy Spirit has done some unseen convicting? Do not think, when you witness to somebody by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you are the first person who has ever spoken to them.
I am amazed how often I find myself in a chain of events, by the Holy Spirit and by others, as I speak to somebody about the Lord. I will try to give you a couple of examples, and I am sorry that I use my own personal examples.
But I remember this one time. We were outside Friendly’s ice cream, and we were handing out tracts and preaching the gospel, and I had a couple of young people. I was still young at that time—well, I had young people. I was not a young person. We were out there handing out tracts. I was actually playing guitar, singing some Jesus songs, and they were handing out tracts.
And if somebody came by—we were in front of a kind of five-and-ten store—somebody went by to go into the liquor store. One of the girls handed him a tract and said, “Here, God bless you.” The fellow says, “I do not want your tract. I do not want your God. I do not want to talk to you.”
Now listen. I am talking about this. Let me make this statement. Most of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we talk about reveal themselves in the midst of witnessing. I mean, think about it. When you read the book of Acts and see a word of knowledge, or a word of wisdom, or some discernment, or discernment of spirits, or anything like that, it is often right in the context of witnessing.
Oh, this fellow threw this down on the ground, and I was playing guitar. I stopped playing guitar because, yeah, this fellow is getting mad. And the girl said—I hate it when people say things without thinking—she said, “Well, what about your family?”
Ooh. I wondered what he was going to do. And he turned around and says, “What do you mean?” “Well, I just wanted to ask about your family. You do not want the Lord, but what about your family?” And the fellow got really serious. And I went over and talked to him. I said, “Why? What is this? Why are you concerned about your family?” He said, finally, after a couple of minutes, “I just left home, and I was going to the liquor store to get drunk and leave my family.”
That girl had a word of knowledge. You see, that is what that is. She was not a charismatic, but God said, “We need this gift. Send it down, Holy Spirit. She needs a word of knowledge.” She just said that one sentence. Well, in the end, we prayed for him. And after we prayed, he said he was going back home.
I remember another time. I went out with some young people again. I like to take young people out, because they are still willing to go and bear the cross. Older people are not willing, you know? So we went out to this park one day, and we were witnessing. I was with a kind of brand-new Christian. He was a guitar player, a very good one, but he used to be a drug addict, and he got saved. I mean, he was a couple of years old as a Christian. I said, “Come on, we will go witness, Charlie.” Charlie says, “Well, I do not know. I have never witnessed. I do not know what people are going to think.” I said, “Well, it will be okay.”
So we are walking through the park. I say, “See that fellow over there? He is hitting some softball with a bat, you know, at the park.” I said, “Give him a tract.” He gave the fellow a tract. The man tore it up and threw it down. Charlie came back. “You see, it does not work. It does not work.” I said, “No, no, no. The Lord has got us here for a reason. We will see.”
And then I looked halfway across the field, probably fifty yards away, and I saw this fellow in a wheelchair and another fellow standing by him. And I said, “Well, why do we not go witness to them? Because the fellow is in a wheelchair. They cannot run away.”
Charlie said, “No, no, no. I tell you what. You go. You go.” I said, “No, no, no. We should both go.” We walked over there. I kid you not. These two people were praying to find a church home, in the very town where we had a fellowship, there on Long Island. And we came by.
Now, when Charlie saw that, it changed his life. Because he saw that when you go out to witness for the Lord, He channels you. He takes the little rudder and gets you going here and there, but eventually you run into something. That is a God moment.
But you see, you need the sensitivity to this invisible Leader inside, to say, “Go there. Speak this word. Say that.” Amazing what the Lord can do. But are you willing to bear the cross and say, “Lord, make me sensitive to Your white harvest around me”?
You may have a work group of six people. Maybe one of those people is ready. And if you will pray for them faithfully, there may come a day when you can say, “Let me pray for you about that,” or, “Did you know this?” You know? It does not have to be the other way.
You do not have to—you know, I think sometimes, now, when we go out witnessing, everybody has different ways. And some people go right out on the street, get up on a soapbox, and preach the gospel straight out. But more times than not, an individual person who is Spirit-filled can be led by the Spirit to say just the right word.
You know when I found this out? I was saved on April Fool’s Day, so that is April 1, in 1964. In May, my mother came down from New York. I lived in North Carolina with my wife at the time. My mother came down from New York to see our graduation from junior college, to find out how I was doing. Now, I lived out in southern territory. She was not sure if I was good, you know? Well, she found out I was a Christian. I had been born again. I already told her. She came down. “I do not know what all that means.”
And among other things I said, “Well, Mom, it is Sunday, and now Julie and I, we sing in the choir. Will you come to the church?” And she said yes. I said, “You know, Mom”—she was an opera singer—“Mom, you have got such a beautiful voice. What the Lord could do with it, if you ever gave your life to God.” That is all I said. What kind of a witness is that, right?
Until I saw my mother come down that aisle and surrender her life to Christ. She was a Christian Science practitioner, stringent to the boot, all that kind of stuff. But something I said—that seemingly foolish word, “The Lord could use you”—He just knows what words to place into somebody’s heart, to make her go home and think about it, you see.
But this is the work of the Holy Spirit: not just blowing our sail full of the Holy Spirit, sometimes doing healing. I have seen tremendous healing work done when we are preaching the gospel, and when there is outreach going on—things you do not usually see in the normal church life. But when the gospel has quickened the situation, the Holy Spirit is also quickened. As Peter says in Acts 5, “I have shared with you the resurrection of Jesus. I am a witness of this thing, and so is the Holy Spirit.”
When we witness of the resurrection, the powerful magnet of Jesus, the Holy Spirit witnesses too. See, what are you saying? “That is right.” You say something; the Holy Spirit says, “That is right.” You say something; then they go home at night, lie down on the bed, and the Holy Spirit says, “Right. That is right. That is right. That is right.”
The Holy Spirit is here. Why be filled with the Spirit if you are not going to be a witness? What does Jesus say? “Be filled with the Spirit, and then lie around and get goosebumps”? No, no, no. Being filled with the Spirit has a purpose and an end, and it has to do with your calling.
Have you accepted your call to deny yourself and be a witness for the Lord? If one person in the orbit, over a year, came to the Lord, why, we would be doubled in size.
We do not have to hold big gospel campaigns, although I think, if we are going to do this gospel thing, we need to be backed up by two things. Did I mention that I am moving on to this?
One: I think in every congregation there are certain brothers and sisters who are evangelists. And I think we need to support them, help them. When they say, “We want to go out,” we say, “Well, how can we help you? Can we go out? Can we pray?” I mean, we need to take them seriously.
Do you have evangelists in your fellowship? I am not talking about, you know, a big preacher and the crusade thing. I am talking about somebody who is willing to hand somebody a tract, somebody who is willing to talk to somebody about Jesus. We are just talking about somebody who is willing to connect with somebody, because they have got that compassion there to connect with sinners. And there are some. Some precious sisters. Oh, wonderful sisters, evangelists, like Euodia and Syntyche there in Philippians.
But listen. If the church does not back them up, they feel like they are some kind of a third leg in the body of Christ. Nobody wants to help them. We make them go out all on their own, you know? Not even prayer for them in the prayer meeting. They are just on their own. No, no. It should not be.
Be as creative as you want. Some people are maybe not so good at talking to somebody one on one, but somebody can come up with a great tract. I do not know how many of you heard this, but recently, for 9/11, some dear brothers came from all over. A Memphis fellow kind of led it there. And what he had gotten was this great tract about Mickey Mantle. And they handed out, I do not know, 45,000 of them, or as many as he had. They went over to Yankee Stadium, I think two nights. Is that right, Genor? Two nights, over to Yankee Stadium, and everybody in Yankee Stadium took a Mickey Mantle tract. But you know, Mickey Mantle was saved before he died. That is what the tracts are about.
Some of these great minds we have here—we have got people who are graphic designers, who are, I do not know, computer geniuses, or who can even say, “Hey, ChatGPT, make me up a good tract about Jesus, will you?” Come on. But it is accepting that call as a call for you, and not just for the disciples.
Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit? Then are you following Him as He leads you to Jerusalem? Maybe it is time to go to Judea. Maybe Samaria. And even as He is going to the uttermost parts of the earth—they tried to go down to Bithynia, like Paul, and the Holy Spirit says, “No, no, no. Do not go here.”
Led by the breath, the still, small voice, empowered by the wind. This is the calling upon every Christian to be a witness in this day.
But I would like to come down to this third charge, in 2 Timothy 4, because here I am thinking especially of the church itself. The church has a charge. It is a bit unusual in these last days. The church is to bring in the kingdom, to bring the King back, by making herself ready.
Paul, as I said, was in jail, and soon to be martyred, and times had gotten quite hard, even since 1 Timothy was written. Back in 1 Timothy, the church was the house of God, the house of the living God, a pillar and foundation of truth. But by the time 2 Timothy was written, some Christians do not want to hear sound teaching anymore. Some Christians are good vessels, and some Christians are lousy vessels, and the churches have become a large house, where you are not exactly sure who is on what side, who is really a Christian, who is unsanctified, and who is really loving the Lord. And it is a letter that makes you grieve, if you have got the compassion of Jesus in your heart.
I cannot help but think that this Scripture here in 2 Timothy 4 brings me back, anyway, to seeing Jesus looking out on that hillside and seeing all those people. And what does He see, anyway? Let us make a distinction, just for the purpose of making this clear.
First of all, He sees lost sheep. Now, just bear with me. I am going to say that the lost sheep represent Christians who have just gone astray. They are just lost. They have just gone off. I do not mean they have lost their salvation. I mean they are not abiding in Christ. They are not fellowshipping anywhere.
You know, my story is, I lived on Long Island, and then when 9/11 happened in 2001, the Lord began working in my heart. And so in 2002, Julia and I moved into the city, into this little apartment, for the first time living in New York City. Already sixty years old, something like that. But the Lord put a word on my heart that came from the Scriptures, in the Psalms. It says, “Gather unto Me all of My children who have offered sacrifice.” And I felt like the Lord was telling me, “I want you to gather My Christians that are wandering the streets of Manhattan.”
A lost sheep is a sheep that has lost the shepherd’s voice. They are just out there somewhere. The harassed sheep is more like it—the Greek word is actually quite a strong word—and that implies that now the sheep is loose, and you know what I mean. They hear the wolves. “Woo, woo,” coming. And they are being preyed upon, and they are even attacked. And then they get caught in the brambles, and they just get beaten up.
I do not know how many born-again Christians have now completely lost their way in the city of New York. All I know is, it broke my heart. The Lord said—I am not much of an evangelist or anything like that—but He said, “Try to gather them. When you find out that they are there, try to get them, to bring them to a Bible study.” We started out. This was the Bible study for two years, and then we started meeting, breaking bread, and such things. But, you know, there are so many out there.
And the Lord looks down in that valley. He sees His sheep in a terrible condition. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, I hope you have more maturity than just to make a glib comment like, “Hey, the church is okay.” I am talking about the church as a whole, of course. I hope your fellowship is vibrant and living. And there are many, some denominational, some not denominational, who are vibrant, who really love the Lord.
But the church as a whole, you see—when those sheep go wandering around, they look at a church building and they have no incentive to find their way in, because churches have lost their way. They are fighting each other, walling up, keeping to themselves. They are not giving away their lives. They are not being that ground upon which these sheep can be brought back.
I think the Shepherd is brokenhearted about that, brothers and sisters. And I think every time you go to the workplace, and you are working among some Christians, whatever church they go to—here is what I say. Have a Bible study with them, and bring them into the fullness of Christ. Just show them how wonderful Christ is. You do not have to tell them, “Listen, you have got to come to my church.” They may come. But for now, show them the fullness of Christ. Show them the beauty of the Lord. Show them the preciousness of the word of God.
You know, you have Christians there. Now do not just assume, because they were Christians, that they are okay. There are a lot of Christians just living by the flesh, flying by the seat of their pants, especially in places like New York City. I mean, you know, people out there. Gather them. Gather them around the Lord. Maybe as they grow in the Lord, maybe they will come fellowship with you. Or if not, they will bring some life back into the church where they go.
Do you think we have a call to do that? Is there a call and a burden in our lives to help people who are already Christians become Spirit-filled Christians? Christ-loving Christians? Christians who have said, “Jesus is all, and in all, and everything,” like we sang tonight?
Oh, listen. I know the Lord Jesus, who says:
Father, I pray that they may be one, that the world may know that You have sent Me.
That is the prayer of Jesus’ heart, still unfulfilled in this divisive age. I do not care any longer what brand name a church has. I have seen some marvelous churches with all kinds of interesting names. And I have seen some totally, quote, “orthodox” churches with the right names, and they are just dead as a doornail.
Ladies and gentlemen, if the Lord does not have a new wineskin in which to put the new creation, these people get saved, and then they go out wandering. If your assembly and my assembly cannot sincerely welcome anybody who comes in and help them, then I do not know—maybe we are on the wrong track.
So there is Timothy. He sees not only the Jewish sheep being lost, but now he sees, out among the Gentiles, people who have been saved and yet now do not want to follow the word of God, do not want to bear the cross, do not want to be holy in the day, but are vessels of dishonor. And they are in what they call the church, and they call themselves Christians.
And I hope you see that this groaning comes from Calvary. When Paul says to his dear younger coworker, “Listen. You have got to be tough.” In the last days, brothers and sisters, things can get tough. Jesus does not pull the wool over our eyes on that one. We need to be willing to bear the cross, and sometimes at quite a price, right?
Some of the dear brothers in CBM, and our fellowship in Flushing, New York, have gotten connected with a pastor in Ukraine. And at various times we pray for them quite regularly in the prayer meeting. I am very thankful to say we have that connection. But we also send some money and help to the brother. He sends us recent reports, saying that now the Russians have stopped bombing their plants and factories and the power plants, and they have started bombing housing and people.
And he says they are bombing all around them, but in their little church they are having a young people’s weekend, and he sends a picture. It is about seventy-five or eighty totally lost-looking sheep, who found shelter in this house that has been made a church, and they are having a weekend meeting where they touch the Lord and preach Jesus to them.
You know, it is not easy in a lot of places, even though for us here things are much simpler. But the Lord wants us, wherever we are, in the church in which we live, to be those who overcome.
Listen. Listen to the urgency behind this. “Now I charge you, Timothy, before God, before the Lord Jesus Christ: recover the church. Perfect the bride.” Here is the way he puts it. Preach the word. Oh, brother Timothy, forget it if somebody thinks you are too young. Forget it. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Always have your heart set toward the Lord. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. Now this here is harvesting.
So, what does the church do in these last days? Well, we have two responsibilities, if I could use Matthew 9 one more time. One is to gather those sheep that are the Lord’s, but they are lost. But the second is to go into the harvest and preach the gospel to those who are lost. We have to do both.
And in doing both, that is part of what makes us a precious, living church. Because when people come in who have just recently come to the Lord—I do not know about you—but it adds a whole new level of life to the church meeting. They are there. Have you ever heard brand-new Christians? They do not know any of the language of Zion. They pray prayers from left field. But their hearts really love the Lord. It just brings life into our meetings.
Oh, there are blessings for those willing to go out. But there is a cross involved, is there not? And especially in the last days, there are many churches that might think, “Let us hide. Things are getting too rough, you know. They are passing laws against us preaching out in public and handing out tracts. I do not know. Let us pray against the government.” Well, that is not exactly what Paul says. And how about if we find ways of witnessing to people when it is difficult?
Listen. Our dear friend Bob Emory is a worldwide missions organizer, and he has brought back some reports, not just from him, but from all over the place, that, you know, in the last two years more than ten thousand Iranians have gotten saved, and are on the internet receiving Bible study as a help, from certain organizations that use Farsi, the language of Persia, and preach the gospel to them. It is tough work, because it is underground. These people cannot show up and say, “Hey, I am a Christian now.”
But the church is growing where the field is the toughest, you would think. But is that not strange? The field is white unto harvest in the most difficult place to navigate.
I do not know where you live, but I will put New York City up for nomination as a tough place. But I believe that the fields are white unto harvest. And again, could I mention those dear brothers who came up during 9/11? They came up to share the gospel, and everything was wonderful. But here is what they came back with in their report. They had been to New York City before, distributing gospel tracts and so forth. They say, in these recent days, New Yorkers are much more open to the gospel, and to talking to people, than they have been in the past.
I wonder who is planting those seeds. Who is cultivating that hunger, for us perhaps to reap where we did not even sow? But who is willing to try? Where is the assembly that is willing to open its doors, or at least to go out in some way?
Now, listen. I want you to be faithful in your gospel meeting, to have a gospel meeting as part of the church’s life. But even more so, for you to be, personally, a Spirit-filled witness in this day.
Now, all of this—I am through. I am too tired to keep talking. But I want to say this.
So when Jesus calls us, charges us, on a global line, to follow this unseen Spirit as His witness, or to serve the Lord, bringing in the sheep and harvesting in the field where the times are tough, as in Timothy’s case—in all of those venues, we have to deny ourselves and take up the cross to do it.
But once we do, and as we get involved, the Lord breaks our alabaster vial. And then it is no longer, “I have to do it against myself.” You do it, like Paul says, because now I am a debtor. There is something that I am connected to, regarding the sheep that are lost, regarding lost people out there to harvest. I am connected with them by this compassion. There are bowels of compassion that strike me deep, in a visceral way, when I look at the situation.
For me, because I have been around for a while and everything, you know, I will tell you what gets my visceral gut punch: seeing churches that need to be recovered. Ministries all askew, people all at odds and divided and fighting, and just every kind of thing. Because I think, this is the church that Christ died for. And look at the condition. How is He going to come back for His bride, when half of His bride is in this horrendous condition?
It is not just going to take a few scattered assemblies in the Northeast and say, “Okay, I am ready to come back.” We do not know all that is involved, but we know that part of this bearing of our cross, in sincerity, out of love, and even borne by this compulsion within, is part of the perfecting of the bride. The bride should have the same heart as her Master. Do you not think?
So we recognize, in the last days, there is not only an anointing that Timothy has. You remember, at the beginning of 2 Timothy, what Paul has to say? Second Timothy 1: Do not be afraid. Stir up those gifts that are within you. Stop hiding those gifts. You have got gifts of the Spirit. No—you, stop hiding them. Or your grandma Eunice is going to get mad at you? No, that is not what Paul said.
Paul says, be willing to bear the gospel according to the eternal purpose of God. Be not ashamed of the gospel. Brothers and sisters, be not ashamed of the gospel. But be willing to stir up the gifts. You are led by the Spirit. So there is Timothy, preaching, exhorting. He is doing all this kind of thing.
Let me tell you about us. He has a second witness. Not only is he empowered by the Holy Spirit, and by the gifts that he has been given within, but something else has broken forth in the depths of his life, in his compassion. You know what it is? When the Lord, as an earthen vessel, can break us, then not only is there the anointing of the Holy Spirit, but there is His life that comes out as well.
John says, “I am in prison for the testimony of Jesus.” What does that mean? There were a lot of preachers around in John’s day, when he wrote Revelation. A lot of good preachers, a lot of anointed preachers, a lot of evangelists. But John had this unique experience. And he was almost a walking word of God. He says it was because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Because when I walk around, the reason people get upset is that when I speak, something of His life speaks through me.
And this is more than just an anointing of the Spirit. As I have often told you, when I was a young Christian the Lord anointed me with the Holy Spirit, but I did not know anything about His life welling up and making a deeper connection with what I was saying. See, it is His life within us. That can only happen when we are broken, so that that life can come out.
We are living in these last days. The bride is to be perfected with a compassion that comes from the Lord Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, to overcome in these difficult days. Are we willing to do that?
So my prayer is this. We have a threefold charge before us. I hope that you see the Lord charging you to have a global burden, to make disciples of all nations; that you will have an inward burden to discover that unseen presence, and His gifts and resources, as you are willing to witness in your world; and, as a church, to be willing, despite the present situation all around you, to be faithful to preach, to exhort, with longsuffering, with bowels of compassion.
May that be the testimony of the assembly that you and I meet in.
O Lord, sow these seeds with weeping into our hearts, and may You bear the sheaves, rejoicing, bringing these dear brothers and sisters along with You, as those who are called, chosen, and faithful. We pray in Jesus’ precious name.