Faithful in Evangelism

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. You take God's Word and find Psalm 126. Psalm 126. We're going to look in verses 5 and 6. Psalm 126, verses 5 and 6. Here's one of the great promises in the Word of God. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Listen to it again. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy, and he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. That is the soul winner's promise. Do you consider yourself a wise person? Now, I didn't ask, are you a smart person? I didn't even ask, do you consider yourself a successful person or a happy person? Do you consider yourself a wise person?

Or let me put it another way. Does God consider you a wise person? I want to tell you something very frankly. If you are not endeavoring to win souls, you sir, you lady, are not wise. The Bible says in Proverbs 11 and verse 30, he that winneth souls is wise. He that winneth souls is wise. Hey, did that get into your heart? May I say it again? He that winneth souls is wise.

Why is this true? First of all, because of the great worth of a soul. It's better to win a soul than to win a Super Bowl.

Listen to me. It doesn't say if you get wealthy, you're wise. It says he that winneth souls is wise. Jesus, when he spoke of the great worth of a soul, the soul said, what should it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul?

What was he saying there? That one soul is worth more than all the world, all the stocks, the bonds, the rubies, the diamonds, the banks, the schools, the sports emporiums put together. One soul. Why is a soul so valuable? Well, what makes anything valuable? First of all, is it desirable? How can someone want it?

Well, you say, how can we tell whether someone wants something? The price they'll pay for it. Any appraiser will tell you that in making an appraisal of a piece of property, the prime question is, what is someone willing to pay for it?

Isn't that true? What is someone willing to pay for it? Is that Jesus willing to pay for you? 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19, for as much as you know, that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Jesus with his blood in agony and blood died upon that cross, because that's how much he valued a soul. A soul is valuable not only because of desirability, but it's desirable, it's valuable because of durability. What is going to last forever?

These buildings are not going to last forever. The clothes you wear are going to disintegrate. Gold and silver will turn to canker. What will last forever? A soul. When God made the human soul, God made it in his own image, and your soul could never cease to exist any more than God could cease to exist. Your soul will go on endless, timeless, dateless, measureless. When the sun, moon, and stars have grown cold, your soul will still be in existence. There was a time when you were not.

There never will be a time when you are not. Your soul will exist forever, either in heaven or in hell. You say, do you believe in everlasting punishment in hell?

Indeed I do. Revelation chapter 20 and verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, who will be tormented day and night forever and ever. The beast and the false prophet are human beings who will be tormented day and night forever and ever. You see, desirability, durability, I'll tell you another thing that makes a soul so valuable, it's possibility, possibility. What your soul can become, occupying the seat that you're pointing at really three persons, you say, well, no wonder it's so crowded.

There are three persons there. There's the person you are now. There's the person you could be and will be if you give your heart to Jesus Christ ultimately.

And there is the person of vileness and wickedness that you will ultimately be if you turn from the Lord Jesus Christ. The person sitting next to you is the most sacred thing you will ever see on this earth apart from the face of Jesus when he comes. The person sitting next to you is the most sacred thing you will ever see. There's nothing more sacred than a soul made in the image and the likeness of God. Think that that person next to you has the potential of being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

The horrible potential of spending an eternity in the very pits of hell. You're wise to win a soul because of the value of a soul. You're wise to win a soul because of the command of Christ. You see, soul winning is a command of our Lord.

It is not a suggestion. It is a command. Matthew 28 verse 18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

The word power literally means authority. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. No one is wise who disobeys his master. No one is wise who is guilty of high treason against heaven's king. I don't care what else you're doing. I don't care how faithfully you attend. I care not how circumspectly you walk. I care not how beautifully you sing.

I care not how liberally you give. If you are not endeavoring to bring souls to Jesus Christ, you are disobedient to him and you are not wise. He that wineth souls is wise. You're not following Jesus if you're not a soul winner, for he said, Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Did you hear that? Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men. If you're not a fisher of men, do not tell me you're a follower of Jesus.

Hello? If you're not a fisher of men, do not tell me that you're a follower of Jesus. Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men.

It cannot be more clear. What right does a man have to call himself a follower of Jesus Christ who willfully disobeys Jesus Christ? He that wineth souls is wise because of the value of a soul, because of the command of Christ, and because of the reward to the soul winner. There is no greater joy, no greater reward in this life and in the world to come than to be a soul winner. In the book of Daniel chapter 12 and verse 3, put this in your margin.

The Bible says, And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. I played football. I put a lot of expense into football, and I'm not talking about money. I put blood, sweat, and tears, cups of blood, and buckets of sweat on a football field. I got some awards. I played on a championship team, had the privilege of being captain, got a gold football, got a sweater with some letters sewed on it, got a silver cup, got some other things, certificates, and all of those things. Got a football, the game ball.

I can see it right now. There it is, the game ball. They gave it to me. Let me tell you what happened to all that stuff. Somebody broke in the house and got the football. It's gone, the gold football.

I loaned the other football to some guys who wanted to play touch, never seen it again. The moths got the sweater, and where the loving cup is, no idea, no idea, gone. My friend, those who win souls will shine as the brightness of the stars of the firmament forever and ever and ever. You let Congress make the laws, let the president try to run the nation, let the Hollywood stars have the fame, and let those guys play football, and if you are wise, you're going to win souls. You're going to win souls. I am telling you, when you get to the bottom line, why did Jesus come to this earth? The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost, and you can put all of the Bible into two words, come and go, come to Jesus, and then go tell others.

That's what it is. He that winneth souls is wise. Now, go back to the verse that we read, and we're going to look today at the soul winner's promise, and there are four things I want you to see in this passage of Scripture. First of all, I want you to see what I'm going to call the soul winner's program. In verse 6, he that goeth forth. He that goeth forth. You'll never be a soul winner until you get at it, until you go forth.

Nothing will take the place of going. You say, well, I don't necessarily go out to be a soul winner, but I do want to live a good life so people will see my life and come to Jesus. Hey, I've got news for you. They're not saved by your life, but by his death. And if you do not tell them how you live the life that you live, you're taking praise under false pretenses.

You'll never be a soul winner until you start. Here's a verse in the margin, Mark 16, verse 15. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And when he gave the great commission, he said, go and make disciples.

It literally means as you go. Now, he's talking here about a person sowing seed. Soul winning is like sowing seed. Well, where do you sow the seed? In the field. You don't sow the seed in the barn. You sow the seed in the field. We need to get this seed out of the barn into the field. Where's the field?

The field is the world. He's not talking about going to be a missionary to some foreign field. He's talking about just as you go into the everyday sphere of your life, you win souls. You know what's wrong with so many churches? We have too many hugs and hallelujahs and not enough heartaches for those on the outside. And many of our churches have become sacred societies for snubbing sinners. We get together in our holy huddles and we talk about how wonderful it is to have all of this truth. And we somehow think that to be a good Christian, we are to disassociate ourselves from those who are lost. We've somehow gotten the idea that we put the salt in one barrel and the fish in another. But we are to go into all of the world.

We are to go into the highways and the hedges. You say, but those people are so sinful. They're a pastor, they drink, they curse, they tell dirty stories, they gamble, they sleep around.

Of course they do. They're sinners. That's what sinners are supposed to do.

I mean, think about it. They're sinners. What else do you expect them to do?

They don't know what you know. They're trying to find satisfaction. They think maybe drinking will do it. They think maybe gambling will do it.

They think it may be hilarity and funny stories will do it. They think that the things of this world will do it. Pity them. They don't know what you know.

Their problem is not they're lying, they're drinking, and they're carousing. Their problem is they don't know Jesus. They need to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And how are they going to hear of Jesus unless you tell them? We are to be spiritually distinct but not socially segregated.

What we're talking about, friend, is insulation and not isolation. We're to go. Somebody told about a little boy who told his mother who wanted him to go somewhere. He said, I ain't going.

She said, what did you say? He said, I ain't going. He said, Johnnie, listen, I am not going. You are not going. They are not going. We are not going. He said to me, looks to me like ain't nobody going. That's what looks to me like in the average church. Ain't nobody going.

We've got to get up and go. Luke 14 verse 23, and the Lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in. So, we bought and built this place of worship. Let them come. I can't find a shred of scripture in the Bible where the Bible tells the lost to come to church.

Not one. I can find many where the Bible commands the church to go to the lost. I want to ask you a question. Do you find it hard to get to church on Sunday morning? Isn't it harder to get to church on Sunday morning than to work on Monday morning, especially if you have children? We had our children little.

We had to start on Saturday night to get there on Sunday morning. And many times when we got there, we had to get there because we'd lost our religion getting there, amen? I mean, and we want to go. We have a desire to be here.

What about these others who really don't care? We ought to thank God if they do come, and for some reason they come seeking the Lord. That is wonderful because the Holy Spirit has drawn them, and the land is not for them to come. It is for us to go. And so there is the soul winners program.

Got it? He that goeth forth. Now here's the second thing I want you to see. It is the soul winners passion.

Look at it again. He that goeth forth, and what is that next word? And weepeth. Back up to verse five. He that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

Do you know what is wrong today? We have lost our passion. We have lost our tears. It is amazing how many tears are shed today when we have so much to weep over. Are we afraid of our tears? Are we afraid that somebody will think we're too emotional?

Are we afraid that somebody will think that we're fanatics? I wonder if Jesus was afraid of that when he wept over Jerusalem. I see Jesus as he comes over the brow of the Mount of Olives, and he sees the city Jerusalem, and the Bible says, when he saw the city, he wept, and the word for weeping there is great convulsive tears. Our Lord sobbed from down deep as great tears coursed down his cheeks as he looked at Jerusalem and said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you, that man does her chicks under her wings, but she would not. I think of the great apostle Paul. Was he too intellectual, too high and mighty to weep?

A man with a triple PhD, the equivalency of it. He said in Acts chapter 20 and verse 31, therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears, with tears. When's the last time you ever shed a tear over some soul to give a mortgage to the devil? Jeremiah in the Old Testament was known as the weeping prophet. He said in Jeremiah chapter nine and verse one, oh, that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughters of my people. Tears touch the heart of God. King Hezekiah was told he was going to die and he prayed, and he raised to the wall and prayed.

And in Isaiah chapter 38 verse five, God told Isaiah, go say to Hezekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, I have heard thy prayer. I have seen thy tears. I wonder, has God seen your tears? If you don't have a broken heart for the lost, I suggest that you go to God and confess it to God as a sin and ask God to give you the eyes of the Lord Jesus, who when he saw the multitudes, the Bible says was moved with compassion. And if you do not have tears for the lost, it is because you do not have the spirit of Jesus Christ in you. There's the soul in his program, he that goeth forth.

There's the soul in his passion, he that goeth forth and weepeth. The tragedy today is a dry-eyed church and a hell-bent world. Turn on the television and see the debauchery.

Pick up the newspaper, see the tragedy. Look around you and see the confusion, the heartache, the despair, the marching, and the multitudes who do not know. Your heart will be moved with compassion.

Third thing I want you to see. Not only the soul in his program and the soul in his passion, but the soul in his power. Where is the power? Look in verse 6. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed. What is that seed? The seed is the word of God. In the parable of the sower, Jesus plainly said, the seed is the word.

And there's power in that seed. Hebrews 4 verse 12 says, the word of God is quick and powerful. The word quick is the word zoan. The word powerful is the word inergis.

Zoan is the word we get our word zoo from or life or zoology. There's life in a seed and because there's life in a seed, there is incredible power. The word of God is quick and powerful and there is the power that the soul winner has. There is power in the word of God.

I have preached it long enough to know that if you keep scattering the seed, it will sprout and give life and sometimes the hardest heart will crack. I read about a countess, a very wealthy woman who knew she was going to die and she was afraid that somehow her grave might be disturbed. She had the money to have a sarcophagus built around her casket and she had it encased in heavy slabs of stone. And then once the stone was put together, she had great steel bands put around those slabs of stone with that casket encasing her body on the inside. And then she had inscribed on that sarcophagus this grave sealed for eternity. But there was a hairline crack and a small little seed fell in the hairline crack of that great monolithic stone encasement and a little seed found enough moisture to begin to sprout and put its little tendrils down and began to grow and expand until the roots of a mighty tree just broke asunder that encasement and a great tree grew up and that grave was split apart by the power of a little seed. You know, I've seen that happen.

I've seen people come in here with hearts like concrete with steel bands around them. And then the Word of God get in, just a little seed, just a seed. Oh, the soul winner's power. There's power in the Word of God.

But now listen. What good is a seed if you don't sow it? It is not what you know. It is what you sow that counts.

It is not what you know. It is what you sow that counts. You are to know it in the head, stow it in the heart, and sow it in the world. That is the soul winner's power. You only reap if you sow. Galatians chapter 6 verse 7. The man soweth, that shall he also reap.

If you want people to believe, you've got to give them something to believe. The power is in the seed. The power is in the seed. There's the soul winner's program, he that goeth forth. There's the soul winner's passion and weepeth. There's the soul winner's power and beareth, precious seed. I want you to see the soul winner's promise. What is the soul winner's promise? Look again in verse 6. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed. Here's the promise. Are you ready for it? Shall doubtless, underscore the word doubtless, doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. And you shall and doubtless have results. Now, that doesn't mean that everybody you witness to is going to get saved.

They are not. Not everyone that our Lord witnessed to got saved. The rich young ruler went away sorrowful. He could never have had a better witness than the Lord Jesus gave to him. Our Lord, in the gospel of Mark, was the parable of a sower who went forth to sow. And as he scattered the seed out of his basket, some fell by the wayside, that is, the soil was hard and it couldn't get in. Others fell on stony ground. It got in, but it couldn't get down because beneath the soil in the subsurface was a rocky ledge. Some fell among thorns and it sprouted, but then the weeds and the briars came and choked it out. But some fell on good ground and it brought forth fruit.

In that parable, the sower was Jesus Christ himself. And he didn't say, well, that's bad soil. I won't put any seed on it. Or that's rocky soil or the thorn. He just sowed the seed. Folks, you don't know. Many times the person you think is ready to come to Christ, that soil looks so warm and moist and fertile underneath is a rock ledge.

You can't see it, but they're so hard. But sometimes the soil that you don't think is going to sprout will just bring forth and blossom and bloom and bud and bear fruit. Just sow the seed, just sow the seed. Everywhere you go, just sow the seed.

Ask God to give you an open door. It is God that gives the increase. You can't make a seed grow, but you can sow a seed. The apostle Paul said, I've sowed a pollus water, but it is God that gives the increase. We are dependent upon him, but there is this promise.

If you keep sowing beyond the shadow of any doubt, you will have a harvest. What a joy it will be. What a joy it will be when you win your first soul to Jesus Christ, if you've never done that. When somebody puts a bear hug on you and says, thank you for telling me about Jesus.

There's nothing like that. I preach to big crowds sometimes. I speak to as many as 500,000 people at one time. I'm going to tell you the truth before God. The greatest joy that I get is hand-picked fruit when I speak to one person, face to face, heart to heart, and tell that person about Jesus Christ. I've had some thrills.

I've had some honors, but nothing is sweeter, more joyful than introducing somebody to Jesus Christ. They that sow in tears will reap in joy. Did you know that you get more joy out of leaving a person to Christ than you got when you got saved?

That's true. You get more joy out of leaving a person to Jesus Christ than you got when you got saved, and why is that? Because you know more about what is happening to him than what was happening to you at that time.

Isn't that true? You know more now about what is happening to him than you knew what was happening to you when you gave your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know that later on he will discover what he received in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says we're going to come with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us. What is a sheaf? It's a bundle of wheat. You're harvesting wheat, and you bundle it up and light, and you harvest another, and you bundle it up and light there.

And why do they do that? They're waiting for the Lord of the harvest to come, and when the Lord of the harvest comes and all those bundles are caught up to meet the Lord of the harvest, what a day that will be. What a day that will be. I mean, when the battle's over, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves and to lay the golden grain at Jesus' feet and hear those people say, thank you for giving to the Lord. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. What a day if your joy is gone and you're discontented and you feel that you've never really yet found the purpose of life, you're successful in business, you're envied by your neighbors, and yet your heart is empty. Give yourself to soul winning.

You cannot be a faithful Christian unless you give your heart and your living souls to Jesus Christ. There's an old song that haunts me, and I hope it'll haunt you. One line in that song says this, must I go and empty handed? Must I meet my Savior so without one soul with which to greet him?

May empty handed go. I was by the bedside of a dying man who loved God with all of his heart, but he wasn't a soul winner. And in the strange dichotomy, he had been saved, but he never won souls.

He said to me, and if I were to call his name, many of you would know him. He said to me, Pastor, I'm not afraid to die, but he said, I'm ashamed to die because I haven't been a soul winner. I'm not afraid to die. I know I'm saved, but I am ashamed to die because I haven't been a soul winner. Must I die and empty handed? Must I meet my Savior so without one soul with which to greet him?

Must I empty handed go? Please don't ask God to help you to win 10 people. Please ask him to help you to win one, just one.

And when we get that done, we'll start on another. Amen. He will go forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. If you personally have never yet received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, and you want to be saved, he will save you today. He died for your sin. He paid your sin debt with his blood on the cross. And if you pray a prayer like this, oh God, I need to be saved and I want to be saved. And right now, like a little child, I open my heart and I receive you, Lord, into my life as my Savior, my friend, my Lord, and my Master. Begin now, Lord, to make me what you want me to be. And oh Lord, today, help me to make it public. And I pray. Amen.