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March 15 - March 19, 2019
How can a man be a disciple of Christ when he openly lives in disobedience to Him?
Mistakes as to what the Lord’s will may be are to be tenderly corrected, but anything like willful disobedience is serious and to tolerate it would be betrayal to Him who sent us.
A soul winner can do nothing without God. He must throw himself on the Invisible or be a laughing-stock to the devil. For the devil regards all who think they can subdue human nature with mere words and arguments with complete disdain.
Dependence upon God is our strength and our joy. In that dependence, let’s go forth and seek to win souls for Him.
If the grace of God doesn’t take possession of the empty space, they very soon go back into the world.
These clever sorts are also able to use the language of God’s people as well as the best of His saints. They even talk about their doubts and fears and can stir up a deep emotional experience in five minutes. However, they are a little too clever and likely to do much harm when they get into the church. So be diligent and keep them out if you possibly can.
John Fairspeech. Oh, how craftily he could act the hypocrite. He’d get among our young men and lead them into all manner of sin and iniquity, and yet he would come to see me and hold half-an-hour’s spiritual conversation. A detestable rogue living in open sin at the very time he sought to come to the Lord’s table, join our societies, and was anxious to take a leading role in every good work.
Keep your eyes open for changes. This crafty sort will come to you with money in their hands, like Peter’s fish with the silver in its mouth, and they will appear to be so helpful in the work. They speak softly and are such perfect gentlemen. Yes, I believe Judas was a man exactly of this kind, very clever at deceiving those around him.
Don’t number your fish before they are broiled, nor count your converts before you have tested and tried them.
Do your work steadily and well, so those who come after you won’t have to say it was far more trouble to them to clear the church of those who ought never to have been admitted than it was for you to admit them.
Let all your building for God be like that of the apostle Paul, According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation,
(1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
Your main business is to win souls.
which qualifications would God naturally look for in His servants? What qualifications would He be likely to approve and most likely to use?
every workman, if he is wise, uses a tool to accomplish the purpose he has in mind.
God, the mightiest of all workers, in His great artistic work of soul winning, loves to have His own special tools. In the original creation, He used only His own instruments, For he spoke, and it was done
In the new creation, the effectual agent is still His powerful Word. He speaks through the ministry of His servants. Therefore, they must be fit trumpets for Him to speak through and fit instruments for Him to use to convey His Word to the ears and hearts of men.
Based on this, judge whether God ...
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a man who is to be a soul winner must have holiness of character.
the Eternal would never use dirty tools,
God will not work with instruments who compromise His own character.
If we teach one thing by our lips and another by our lives, those who listen to us will say, “Physician, heal yourself. You say, ‘Repent.’ Where is your repentance? You say, ‘Serve God and be obedient to His will.’ Do you serve Him? Are you obedient to His will?”
I beg you to place the highest importance on your own personal holiness. Live for God.
You may preach fine sermons, but if you yourself are not holy, souls will not be saved.
I know men of considerable ability and diligence who go on year after year without any increase in their churches. The reason is that they aren’t living before God as they ought to live. Sometimes, the evil is in the family of the minister.
Bad language is allowed even among his own children, and his reprimands are simply like Eli’s placid question to his wicked sons, “Why do ye do such things?” (1 Samuel 2:23).
This holiness ought to show itself in fellowship with God. If a man delivers his own message, it will have as much power as his own character gives to it. However, if he delivers his Master’s message, having heard it from his Master’s lips, that will be quite another thing.
The greatest strength of the sermon lies in what has gone before the sermon. You must get ready for the whole service through private fellowship with God and real holiness of character.
You will agree that, if a man is to be used as a winner of souls, he must have spiritual life to a high degree.
The prophet’s staff wasn’t sufficient, because it had no life in it (2 Kings 4:29).
Remember the words of Christ,
(John 7:38). That living water is the Holy Spirit. Once He dwells within a living child of God, living water rises out of the very midst of him as a fountain, or river, so others may come and participate in the Spirit’s gracious influences.
He must have living men – men who are wholly alive, As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eats me, he shall also live by me (John 6:57). While many are alive, they are not completely alive.
He loathes the proud, and whenever He sees those who think they are more important than others, He passes them by.
But whenever He finds the lowly in heart, He takes pleasure in exalting them, because He delights in humility among His ministers.
We have two sorts of proud people, and it’s difficult to say which of the two is worse. First, we have the sort of people who are filled with that pride which talks about itself and invites other people to talk about it, too, and to pat it on the back, and stroke it the right way.
The other kind of pride is too inflated for that sort of thing. It doesn’t care for it. In fact, it despises people so much that it doesn’t lower itself to wish for their praises. It is so extremely satisfied with itself that it doesn’t stoop to consider what others think of it at all.
Brothers, get rid of both kinds of pride.
Humility doesn’t mean you must think yourself destitute of honor. If a man has a low opinion of himself, it is very possible he is correct in his estimate.
True humility leads you to think rightly and truthfully about yourselves.
In the matter of soul winning, humility makes you feel that you are nothing and nobody. Therefore, if God gives you success in the work, you will be driven to assign all the glory to Him, because none of the credit can really belong to you.
If you don’t have success, humility will lead you to blame your own foolishness and weakn...
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If you are ever tempted to say,
(Daniel 4:30)
just remember Nebuchadnezzar, when he was driven from among men and
Daniel 4:33).
God has many ways of bringing proud Nebuchadnezzar-like people down, and He can easily humble you, too, if you are ever lifted up with conceit.
The next essential qualification for success in the work of the Lord is a vital one: a living faith.
If you will not believe, neither shall you be used of God. According to your faith be it unto you, is one of the unalterable laws of His kingdom (Matthew 9:29).
You must have faith about your call to the ministry. You must believe without question that you are really chosen of God to be a minister of the gospel of Christ. If you firmly believe God has called you to preach the gospel, you will preach it with courage and confidence. You will go to work because you have a right to do it.
