Henrich, Stuart: Witnessing 04 ~ A Witness To Others

Chapter. Remember, we're continuing on with our theme of how to witness. And one of the things that is important to us is found in the twenty third verse. It says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as a flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Satan is always active, and we as God's people should be more active. I have 2 things I'd like to read to you here that shows the activity of Satan and the devotion of those to his doctrines and, and work, and of course, we should be much more devoted to the truth. This year, the Mormons will field more missionaries, about thirty thousand in all, than any other church in the United States. Their single purpose is to labor sixteen hours a day, six days a week, spreading the gospel according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now, the discipline of the young men that have to take part in this is this. The discipline imposed on Mormon missionaries is as unique as their message. No movies, television, or popular music. No phone calls to parents or girlfriends. No dates. And no going anywhere alone. Under this quasi-military regime, the Church of the Latter-day Saints missionaries have carried the faith across the United States into six continents. Like that's Satan at work and knows the devotion. That's in religious realm, in the moral realm. Homosexuals now claim more than fifty thousand members, and they're all homosexual churches. The Metropolitan Community Church is one of the many homosexual denominations springing up across the nation. Uh, this is by David Wilkerson, incidentally. He says, I sent an observer to one of their annual Holy Ghost conventions in Dallas, Texas. What unbelievable blasphemy. Each delegate, as they registered, was given a packet which contained, among other things, two boy magazines of all nude men and a list of all the gay bars in Dallas, so that delegates could leave the evening service, go to their selected bar, and connect with a lover for the night. And those delegates called themselves ministers. How they did sing. They praised the Lord with enthusiasm, but their evangelistic, their evangelists corrupted their gospel beyond comparison. He said, sure, Paul condemned men who changed the nature, the natural use, and burned and lost one toward another. But that's not us. We didn't change anything. We were born this way. So come out of your closet, be filled with the Holy Ghost, and enjoy your homosexuality. One can hardly think of more blasphemy, and yet this is what is being carried on in our world today in the United States, and it's horrible to think of it. On the other hand, we have a message of, of truth, of love, of that changes people, changes lives, and can reach even to men such as these and bring them out of this bondage. And we are to do this. We are witnesses. The Lord has called us to be witnesses to the truth. So we must witness to the truth. Now, it's not difficult to give out a tract, you know. If I were, if I were to do something, were evil and wanted to do something evil, I would proceed by starting with a piece of literature, a single piece of literature that would make a point in that into which I wanted to lead people, and I would distribute it, knowing that Satan would take that up, and he would see that that was confirmed by somebody else. Let me recall your re- youth, if it's been like mine. I remember the first time I saw a dirty picture, I was maybe eight years old. The next time, the thing that was offered to me was a dirty book, and I judged to be maybe twelve years old. And then, as I grew older, of course, other things were introduced. Now, Satan doesn't have to work quickly, but he, he works, and the first thing was introduced to me was a picture, right? That starts my mind going, and things I didn't know before I learned. Then a book, and that adds to it, and then other things are added in our lives to evil. Why not we take a tract and give it to someone, and here's something that you would enjoy reading, and so they read it, and instilled in their minds is the truth. Now, there's a greater spirit in our world than that of Satan, and that's the holy. And he's going to see that someone else pursues that individual and gives them another piece of literature, or speaks to them, and he's going to add to them. But it's, it's their line, their line, their precepts, their precepts, the Bible says. And if we give out the word that simply, God's going to use it. And there's no reason we can't. Now, I don't know how many of you gave out a tract this week, but if each one of us had given out a tract this week, what are there, fifty five people here I'm discussing? That would be fifty five messages for God that went out. If we gave twice that money, hundred. And think how that could be multiplied just by giving out a tract. Ours is to propagate the word, and here it says that men are born again by that incorruptible seed, the word of God. And we have to realize that it is the word of God that does it. It's not our words, it's the word of God. We don't have to convince them, we don't have to argue with them, all we have to do is give them the word of God. And because it's incorruptible, it's not going to deteriorate. It will bring forth the fruit that God wants it to. Not only is it incorruptible, but it causes men to be, be born again, and they become incorruptible. You see, natural seed, I have a daughter, someday she'll die. That's natural seed, the result of natural seed. But if we can sow this incorruptible se- seed and person is born again, they live forever. This is the kind of effect that it has on individuals. And so this is why it's so important for us to give it out and let God do with it what he will. We don't have to pursue it. Our job is not to convince them, and it's not to save them. Our job is simply to give it out. Robert Murray M'Cheyne said something. This man died when he was twenty seven years old, as I remember, young man, but God used him tremendously while he died. And he said, it is not our comment on the word of God that saves, but the word itself is saved. It's not what we say about it, it's the word that saves. And if we can get the word out to people and just simply say, this is what God is saying, that is incorruptible seed, and God's going to use it for whatever he will. Now, you see, in view of the fact that God is brooding over all, then he will cause individuals to go to that person whom you've given the word and will pursue it. I'll never forget the way the Lord taught me this. When I was downtown, I tried to talk to everybody that came into my office. I tried to contact every individual for God, and I would try and speak to them. One day, a man from Emmaus Bible Chapel came to me, and he said, you know so and so. And I said, no, I don't. He said, well, he sits behind me, and he was saved this week. The Lord saved him this week. And he said, he said that this was not the first time he heard this message that I gave him. He said that he was downtown, and he was picking up something from an artist down there who wore bow tie all the time and had a crew cut. Right now, all I did was, I don't know what I said, I don't know, but what impressed me was God says, all right, you give him the word. And here, I don't know, three years later, this fellow from the race comes to me and says, you know this fellow, he got tired. And what I see is that when we sow the seed, then God pursues this thing, and he takes up, and he says, I'll take care of the seed you sow. And the result of it was that he was sitting with another man and working with him, who was a draftsman out here at McDonald's, I think it was. Right now, that's incorruptible seed, and we can do what we will with it, sow it, and then leave it with God. And the result, of course, is eternal fruit, because it says, and this is the word which we preach, which by the gospel is preached unto you, and that word of the Lord endures forever. Tremendous. Now, the wonderful thing too about it all is that everyone can come into it. There's no one that is limited. We don't, we can't go up to one person and say, well, you don't qualify or something, because it's to the whosoever. And you think of John three sixteen, what a tremendous verse, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So what a scope we have. We have the whole world to deal with. And if whosoever responds, they will be saved. I remember a story about, uh, a little boy, and it intrigued me so much because it was so natural. This little boy was brought up by Scandinavian parents. They'd come over to America to make their fortunes. You know, America was supposed, is supposed to be the, the country that whose streets are paved with gold, and they kind of believed this and went out west to a homestead out there they took over, and the man worked so very hard, as some of these men will, that he developed a disease and died. And so his wife didn't want to move away from there, and she proceeded to try and keep the farm and the land that they had gained, and in turn she worked herself to death and left this little boy. They sold the farm to pay up the debt, those who were, to whom they were indebted. And when they were finished, there was hardly any money for the little boy, and he was a little boy. And the story doesn't tell how old he was, but he was just a young child. He knew that he had an uncle in Chicago, and he thought if he could go down to the railroad station, maybe he could catch a train, but when he got there, he found out that he didn't have a money, uh, sufficient money to even purchase a ticket. And so, as he was standing there, he heard two men, men conversing, and one was saying that this train is going to Chicago, and he thought, that's just what I want, just what I want, but I have no money. And you can remember, can you remember back this far? I don't know if you can remember back this far, but there used to be a man that was called a conductor, and he had on a black suit and a gold chain that came across his tummy like this, and he had a watch in his pocket, and he'd take it out and he'd look like this. And he was the captain of the train. He's the captain, right? The engineer is not the captain of the train, passenger train, conductor. And so he'd look at his watch, and all of a sudden he'd yell out, all aboard! And everybody go for the train, and this kid thought he said all aboard. And he said, but I don't have a ticket. And the conductor says, all aboard! He said, everybody should get aboard, first one's on board the train. So he gets in, and he sits down, and the conductors would come through, and they'd punch a ticket, you know, his ticket for him, punch it. So he comes to the kid, and he says, uh, give me a ticket. And he says, I don't have a ticket. He says, well, son, you're gonna have to pay for this ride. He says, I don't have any money. He says, you little thief, he said, you're getting off the next stop. And so he put the kid off the next stop. So the kid, he doesn't know what to do. He's standing there, and conductor comes out with a, and he says, all aboard. The kid says, he said, get back on. I wonder if he meant it. And the conductor says, all aboard. Back he gets off. So he sits down, and the conductor walks along. He sees the kid, he says, what are you doing here? He says, I told you to get off. He said, I got off, but you told me to get back on. He said, I did not. He said, yes, I, yes, you did. He said, you said to me, all aboard, and I'm one of you all. And so the conductor thought, that's good. I wonder what's, what's the deal? So he asked him, he said, why are you here? Why don't you have money? Where are your parents? And he told him the story. He said, I'll tell you what I'll do, son. He says, I'll pay your fare. You get it for father. Right now, the principle, of course, is obvious, isn't it? That God says that he would have whosoever to believe, and we say, but is the passage paid? And God says, yes, I paid it. My son paid it, and I can say that whosoever will may have life. Whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life. Well, this is our message, and what a tremendous message. And we're privileged as God's people to speak this message, whether it be by tract, it doesn't matter, whether it be by tract or whatever means we use. Now, I think that the most effective, of course, generally speaking, is to speak to an individual because it's so much more personal, and then if there are any questions or if there is any interest, of course we can respond to that. A tract does not. A tract has value in as much as that people can't talk back to it. They can't argue with it, they have to read what it says, and they say, I believe it or I don't believe it. Well, with us, of course, they could say, well, I don't believe it, and... but then we can answer. Now, I would like to suggest some things to you. In view of the fact that we have incorruptible seed, of course, we want to get across that word to them, that incorruptible word, and use it. Now, the temptation is, for me, I know the Bible, and so my temptation is to say, well, the Bible says, and tell them what it says. But I don't think that that is effective as using the Bible. I'll tell you why. Um, is Lance here? Is he in this class? I don't think he is. All right, doesn't matter. But he asked me to come over and talk to his dad. So we went over to his house, and I explained to him the gospel, and I said the Bible says that we're all sinners and need to be saved, et cetera, et cetera. And when I got done after a half an hour, he said, that's what you say. I said, what do you mean that's what I say? That's what the Bible says. He says, you didn't show it to me in the Bible. So I got out the Bible and I showed him, and he was perfectly Catholic. When I said it, it didn't mean anything. When the Bible said it, he was willing to accept it. And I think that we have to use the word of God if we possibly can. Now, sometimes we can't. Supposing you're talking to somebody and it's night, and then where there is no light, you can't do it. Supposing you don't have a Bible with you, a testament, you can't do it. But I think that the thing that we have to do is, if we possibly can, to say, look it, I'd like you to read this. This is what the Lord says, and tell them, and let them see it. Now, this is effective. I've seen men, when we visit them at night, get so nervous when we'd say, I'd like to read something from the Bible, that you were afraid they were going to jump up and walk out. I'm literally, literally. There's something about this book that troubles men. However, those who want to know, want to know that it does come from the Bible, from God's word, and so I think that that's one of the things that we have to be sure we're doing, letting them know that we're presenting to them the incorrupt- incorruptible seed, the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now, how to start a conversation, and I'd like to talk about that a little bit, because sometimes the most difficult thing is to start a conversation with individuals. Now, one of the easy ways to start it is to give them a fact and say that I would like you to read this. I think you'll enjoy it. I tell them I think they'll enjoy it. They might not, I don't know, but I say I think you'll enjoy it. I tell them it's good. I don't say to them, well, here's something you can read if you want to. I say to them, here's something that I think you'll enjoy reading. It's good. And if they don't move on, I tell them, I said, this tells what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Don't say for you, say for us. I said that to a motorcycle guy, one of these guys with a leather top on one time. I said, here's something for you. He said, what about yourself? I said, me too. So I say for us. This is for us, all right? Now, you may be able to develop more along this line, I don't know, if they stop and read. I had one fellow, he, he was in my office, he's a window washer, and he just doesn't take the r- track, he sits down and he reads the whole thing, which is unusual. Most of them want to get out when they give you something, you get something like this, but he read the whole thing, and then we had a conversation, and he introduced it. He said to me, I need this, and so we talked about it, but that's one way to do it with a track. Another way you can do it is to say to a person, are you interested in spiritual things, and see what they say. Some people will say to you, yes. I've had one fellow says, no. And about two years later, he said to, came to me and he said, would you pray for me? I said, what happened? He says, I got hit in the head. And he says, I'm not too well. He says, I think I need God. Okay, he knew who to come to. But he wasn't interested at that time, so I don't pressure people if they don't want to hear. That's their. But this is a good approach. Are you interested in spiritual things? The one that I use most of all is, are you going to heaven when you die? Because people understand that. You say, are you going to heaven when you die? They, most of them believe in heaven, most people do. And if they don't believe it, they sure hope they go there if there's such a place. And it's a good conversation starter because what they'll do is answer you by saying things like, well, that's my hope. And then you can say to them, you can have more than just simply a hope. You can know. Or they'll say, I don't think I'm good enough. Well, then you can say to them, well, Christ died for people that weren't good enough. No matter what they say, you got an angle there to work, and you can take it from there. But that's a good question to ask. You can ask some people, what do you think about the Lord Jesus Christ? If you have a fellow that's kind of philosophical, he might like to talk about that. What do you think about the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you think about him? Or you can say, do you understand the term being born again? Because so many people hear it, but they don't know what it means. And you can say to them, do you know what it means to be born again? Now, when I'm in a shopping center, if I give out trash sometimes there and talk to people sometimes, I usually sit next down next to the person and kind of size them up, you know, I think, uh, what is this guy taking? And I look at him, and if he looks at me, I smile, you know, he smiles back, and then I say to him, I guess your wife's shopping. He said, yeah, I guess she's feeling goods, and I hate the smell of goods, I tell him. I hate the smell of goods, and feeling stuff like that doesn't interest me. Yeah, that's the way I am, that's the way I am, you know. And so then I ask him about his business, and then pretty soon I say to him, here's something I think you might enjoy reading. And he says, what's this? And I tell him. And it's a good way to start a conversation. It's easy because the fellow's sitting there, and if you can move in naturally, he'll listen to it. And you can take it as far as you'll like. If some don't want to try it, they'll say, oh yeah, what is this? Yeah, okay, thank you. And that's the end of it, you know. While others will want to talk about it. But nevertheless, this is one approach that I've found to be very effective. Now, the things that we need to point up are, are very simple things, and I'm going to say some things to you that you know very well, but would you turn to Romans three, please? And I think that there, in a sense, is a pattern without a pattern, if you, if I can say it that way. I don't think that there's a formula, except in a very general sense, because you can get people, if you follow through with the formula, you can get people to say they'll receive Christ. But the, the danger there is that they don't know what they're doing. They think they know what they're doing, but they don't know what they're doing. And the better thing is just to present the truth and let the Lord work with them. Romans three twenty three, the, the verse that is so well known here. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now you can talk about any way you want, but if you can get the idea across that all have sinned, whether they're big sinners or little sinners, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether a man has little cancer or much cancer, he's got cancer, and the thing's going to kill him eventually. And of course, we have to get this idea across that all have sinned. And if they, if they are interested, you just move up to verse twenty— twenty- nineteen: Now we know that what things soever the law sets, it sets for them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And let them read that, and just explain it to them, that the law of God shows it's for sinners, and the conclusion of the matter is all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now, if you have someone who's really interested, you can say that the first chapter teaches that the heathen has sinned and the Jew has sinned, and that's why Paul says all have sinned, whether they're Jew or Gentile. And he comes to this conclusion, God comes to this conclusion, and then they've come short of the glory of God. Now, you can say it this way if you want to, which is true, they've come short of heaven, glory in that sense. I think that the meaning is not quite that. The meaning is short of the standard that God has set. He has said, this is for my glory, this is what I expect, and then come short of that standard is what it's saying. Now, there are two things you might point out here too. All have sinned as to the past, you see? Everyone has sinned as to the past, but as to the present, they are coming short of the glory of God. That's the tense here that he used in the grace, and come short, they are coming short of the glory of God. No matter how they strive, they are still coming short of what God expects of them. And that's an excellent verse to start with and to, to point up to them. Now, I had a boy come up to me, and I used this, someone else suggested this, but I passed along to you at camp, and he was a tough little kid. He was one of those kids you look at and you know he's a toughy. And he was walking around saying to the other kids in his cabin, I'll beat you up. I mean, that's the way he was walking around. He's a little toughy. And, um, so I got him to one s- side one day, and I asked him if he was saved, and he said, yeah, he thought he was. And I said, why do you think you were? He says, I know, I said, when do you get saved? He said, about two years ago up here. And I said, why do you think you're saved? He said, well, I let Jesus into my heart. I said, the Bible doesn't say to let Jesus in your heart, just to receive Christ and let him save you. Because God never says let Jesus into your heart in the Bible. So I pointed out this to him, I said, well, how do you know that you did? He says, well, I said a prayer after somebody. They said, you say this prayer after me, and so he says, I got saved. It was his attitude like this, you know. I said, well, first of all, it doesn't say to say a prayer in the Bible, and what's more, what did you say in your prayer? He said, I don't know what I said. I said, well, maybe you didn't ask for the right thing. I don't know. So I want to impress him with his sin, so I used that old illustration that if one commits three sins a day, that's over a thousand years. So I gave him a piece of paper and pencil. I said, now you figure it out. Three sins a day times three hundred and sixty five. So he did it. And I said, now how old are you? And he told me, I said, now multiply that. He came up with the wrong answer, so I said, multiply it again. And he came up with the right one, and it was pretty many sins. You know, you multiply it by his age, over a thousand a year, and he was quite impressed with this, that he was that big a sinner, that he was that bad. And we, of course, now that's purely intellectual. I understand that this is intellectual, that he's impressed intellectually that he's a sinner, but God has to take that up and make him to sense he's a sinner, right? Now, our job in, in speaking the gospel is to make it as simple as we can. The only reason that Satan can snatch away seed is if they don't understand. The Lord said that. He said the seed, when it falls on the stony ground, the birds of the air come down and they sweep down, they pick up the seed and they snatch it. And he says the reason that it never gets in is because the birds take it away. That's natural. Then in his explanation, he says the birds are Satan. Satan comes in and he snatches away that seed, and he says the reason that he can do it is because they do not understand. So our job is to make them understand as best we can. I mean, intellectually, they got to understand. Now, if they understand the word of God, that incorruptible seed then becomes a part of their thinking that they can never escape. They can never escape it. This is why when people are old sometimes and they decide finally, my life has been blown, and I can remember my mother made me learn this verse, and that's the verse comes to them. Because it's incorruptible seed. They will remember. They might not remember word for word, but they remember the idea of the thing because it's incorruptible. Now, if we can get it across to a person that way, to make them understand, then Satan can't get away from them. So that's our job then, to give them the word, and as best we can to make them understand. Now use that, and then Isaiah fifty three, if you'll turn there. These, these are, are verses that God really uses. I remember one time, um, a missionary from Africa, he's an older man, he's a doctor that practiced after out there, Dr. Maury, maybe some of you will remember him. But he said to me, Stuart, he says, you remember what David did? David went down to the brook, and when he got down to the brook, it says that he chose five smooth stones, and he put the smooth stones in a sling, and he slung it out, and he hit that giant in the forehead, and that man died. He says, now what you want to do is get verses that are smooth stones that have been used again and again, and you can handle them well. And he says, use those. Don't get verses that are way out someplace and use them, but use simple verses that are clear to yourself, and then use much and use them, and they'll be effective. So I thought, that's a good idea. So that next week I was speaking on John three sixteen, I thought I'll choose the smoothest one I know. And sure enough, a man got saved that weekend, and he went on for God. The Lord really saved him, but he used a smooth stone. Now this is a smooth stone, Isaiah fifty three six. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and it couldn't be any simpler. Now, you see, he's saying that all we human beings, like sheep, have gone astray. And then he forces the issue by saying we have turned everyone, the individual, in his own way. Now, the first part is easy for people to accept. When you say everybody sinned, they say, well, yeah, everybody sinned. But then when I say to them, well, but you have sinned, then that's getting pretty home, pretty close to home, and we cease preaching and we start meddling, right? That's what they say. You're, you're not preaching any longer, you're meddling, okay? Because it's getting in. But this is what we want, you see? Because all we, like sheep, have gone astray. True. There's no human being who hasn't. And they know this by experience. They say, well, yeah, everybody sinned. And then he says, we have turned everyone to his own way. We have sinned individually before God. Now, what I think is a, a, an advisable thing to do is point out that this sin is rebellion, it's open rebellion before God. You see, actually, God has said, don't do this, and I say, I will do it. And I'm in, I'm in active rebellion, it's an active rebellion. It's not simply being born in Adam and as a man and a sinner in this sense, but it's that personal rebellion against God. And you can, if you want, go so far as to say that's exactly the sa- sin that Satan had, open rebellion to God. Because, you see, Satan was commissioned as that covering cherub, what the highest position in heaven, and his sin was rebellion against God. God wanted him to keep his place. He said, I don't want to keep my place. I want to be like God, rebellion. And when you think about it, every sin is rebellion. Doesn't matter what it is. If it's lying, if it's stealing, whatever it is, God said, don't do it, and I say, I will do it. Rebellion. And if we can point up that thing, there's, there's a real sense in which that brings conviction to the human heart, so that all have sinned. Now, a good idea, and particularly if you think the persons don't understand, is to show them the verse and say, um, do you think that you have gone astray with other men in our world? And, uh, do you think that you have personally turned to your own way? Would you say that is true? And see what they say. And then, of course, you can read the last part of the verse, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And that is a tremendous verse, because if your margin, if you have a margin in your Bible, you'll say, you'll see that it says there, made the iniquity of us all to meet on him. And the idea is that it's funnelled down, as it were, for on him. I use it in the illustration, if we go this far. I draw a timeline, and I put Adam on one end here, and then I put the thief on the cross with the cross in the front like this, with the thief of the cross here, and then I put me over here, or the person. And what God is saying is that he took Adam's sin, and he took the thief of the cross sin, and he took all the sins in the future, and he made them to meet on Jesus Christ, because that's what it's saying. Everyone is sin, he says, we turn everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, or made to meet on him, the iniquities of us all, the sins of the past of Adams and all from him on down, the sins of all those in the future were made to meet on Jesus Christ, and he paid for them all, so that the iniquity of us all was laid on him. I'll leave it there because my time is up, but then you can say to them, you understand, the Lord has laid on him the sins of us all. Where are our sins? On him. Let us pray. Father, we just thank you now for thy word, and we thank you that it's incorruptible seed and that it has worked in our hearts, and we've experienced that great salvation, uh, and that being born again into thy family. We sense the truth of it and experience the, the very revolution of it in our lives, so that we are different, we have been changed. Sin becomes abhorrent to us, and thy will becomes the wisest for us to do. We thank you for that. And we thank you for the glorious future that is ours. That we worry not about death. We not worry not about hell or the lake of fire or the penalty of our sins, but rather we anticipate an eternity of glory with thyself and with thy son, because he's our savior. And we do pray that thou wilt lay upon our hearts those individuals that we know are unsaved, to the end that we might reach them as best we can. Help us to be sensitive to the leading of thy spirit. Help us to be sensitive to men's needs, that we might point them to Jesus Christ. And we ask you that thou wilt use us. Guide us to those with whom thou art working. Enable us to add perhaps just a link in the chain, whatever is thy plan. But we do ask that souls will be saved as we point them to the Lord Jesus Christ. We just speak this in his precious name. Amen.