# The charge to soul winning

Category: Evangelism & Soul Winning
Key Passage: Exodus 6:9-13
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: February 8, 2023

Exodus chapter six in God’s word tonight.

Let’s just rehearse a little bit. Let’s go back chapter five, and we won’t read. We’ll kind of point out verse number one there: Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, said, “Let my people go.”

And Pharaoh, oh my goodness, he was pretty quick and adamant. He said, “No way, but no way, Jose.” And he said, “Your Lord, I don’t know, your Jehovah, I don’t know who he is. I’m not letting anybody go.” By the way, remember chapter number five, God didn’t harden his heart. He made his decision first time. And now later on we’ll see God hardens. And God already said he would harden his heart, but chapter five, no hardening of the heart.

Pharaoh just made his decision. And so Moses and Aaron didn’t go so good. They left. And then Pharaoh said, “They’re idle. They got too much time on their hands.” And so he said, “Hey, take the raw materials.” You know, they’re making brick. “Take that straw away. They’ve got to go gather their own straw.”

And so the taskmaster said, “All right, no more straw. You got to go get your straw and plus make the same amount of bricks.” And of course, they couldn’t keep up. And so the foreman, the Israelite foreman’s on the job, they were beaten.

And finally they went to Pharaoh and said, “Hey, it’s not our fault. It’s your people’s fault. They’re not providing the raw materials anymore.” And Pharaoh said, “You’ve been lazy, and I don’t talk about going and worshiping your God and all that. No, you’re not getting any raw material, and we’re not diminishing how many bricks you make either.”

Well, boy, the children of Israel, they knew it wasn’t going so good. Pharaoh’s mad at us, and they left on their way leaving the court, if you will. They see Moses and Aaron. Well, they’re not happy, Moses and Aaron. They said, “The Lord sees what’s going on here, and what you’re doing to us, how you’re making it harder on us, and he’s the judge here.”

And isn’t it amazing, you do right, and sometimes it just turns on you? But that’s not the end of the story. That’s what’s going on now.

And, of course, Moses wisely went to the Lord in prayer and said, “Lord,” in fact, he was focused on the people, “Lord, the people, the people, the people.” Ever since it went, it’s worse for the people. A pretty good leader for sure.

And then chapter six, that’s what we’re at tonight, first five verses. God says, “Look, I’m Jehovah. Hang on, Moses. It’s not over. When I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it.” And then he gives him those seven “I wills” of God. We compared them last week, remember, to Satan’s five “I wills” over there in Isaiah 14. And God’s seven “I wills” here, what all God will do for the people.

And now we’re in verse number nine. We’re in Exodus chapter 6, verse number 9. You all with me tonight? Amen. Good, good. Wow, you’re listening. I’m impressed out there. That’s a good deal. I’m very impressed.

Exodus chapter six, we’re in verse number nine. And the Bible there says, “And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel.” God had said, “I’m going to do it, I’m Jehovah, going to do it,” and seven “I wills,” and so Moses goes to the people.

“Moses spake so under the children of Israel, but they hearkened not under Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.”

“And the Lord spake into Moses saying, ‘Go in, speak unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.’”

“And Moses spake before the Lord saying, ‘Behold, the children of Israel have not hearken unto me. How then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?’”

“And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron and gave them a charge under the children of Israel and under Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.”

Now, we’re going to focus a little bit. We’re going to change gears to touch on this charge. God just emphatically said, “This is what you’re going to do. This is my charge to you.”

And just for a bit, we’re going to really just focus on that tonight for a bit.

When God, when he gives you a charge, there’s really no way out. I mean, you’re stuck. He has directed a charge to you. You have no choice, really. He’s charged you with something, as he charged Moses and Aaron with this.

But a good thing about it, when God charges you, he empowers you, and he enables you to do what he calls you to do. I think of the verse over the first session, only is 524: “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” What a wonderful promise. I love it.

John Wesley said this about verse number 13 that we just read. John Wesley said, “God’s authority is sufficient to answer all objections and bind us to obedience without murmuring or disputing.”

A charge. I’m going to just try to change it here a bit and try to put it in our everyday lives for just a little bit tonight. We don’t have a whole lot of time. But God… If you’re a born-again Christian, God has given every single person here tonight a charge.

We call it typically in the New Testament age, we call it the Great Commission. Jesus said it this way over in Matthew 4:19: “He said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”

Now that’s very clear. There’s not a lot of wiggle room. If I’m following him as I ought, he will make me into a fisher of men. It’s the charge, if you will, that Jesus gave to his church before he ascended. We often think in Matthew 28:19. That’s the most popular time, but actually most would agree that it’s given five times in the New Testament, each gospel, and then over in Acts 1 also. Five times this charge to the New Testament church, to me and you, this commission that God called us to.

So I really have no choice. It’s either obedience—I’m a fisher of men—or disobedience. We’re stuck a little bit if you will, but here’s the good part.

There’s many ways for us to be fishers of men. There’s lots of ways to be involved in winning souls. One is we try to promote it around here just getting an old gospel tract. That’s a great way. And a lot of times people will start out doing it this way, whether you mel it in with your bills—of course we don’t mel in. How many pays at least one bill a month per mail, you mail out of checking? Anybody? We still have that. I thought we did, yeah, it’s a good number, maybe. Yeah, probably two-thirds of the people still do that.

So some do that, that way. Oh, there’s all kind of ways of giving out gospel tracts, whether it be at the gas pump or wherever it may be, just gospel tracts.

Then, of course, just obeying it could be you’re talking to someone you know, whether it be your neighbor or your loved one. Brother Bill just went to his ex-coworker by his leukemia in the hospital, and he knew him. He was burned. He tried when he was working with him. It didn’t work, but praise the Lord, this time God had his heart ready, and he got saved.

A lot of different ways of obeying this great commission. It could be some really—I think I could grow in this area—but some are just really focused on as you’re going through your day, you’re praying, “Lord, lead me to someone.” As you go through your day, you’re just constantly soul-conscious, looking for the one that you could witness to as you just pass through your day. And no coincidence with God, amen. And divine appointments. I love it when God gives divine appointments. Those are always exciting times and wonderful times when just throughout your day you pass by it.

By the way, the more faithful I am to witness, I think the more often God brings them by the path. You know, you all out there tonight, you’re quiet. Are you all a little nervous where we’re going with all this? Where in the world? What pastor doing, you know?

And then there’s just as, you know, the parable going into highways and hedges and compel them to come in. That could be a lot of different ways even in that. The bus ministry should be a great way to do that. And you go out there and you build a rapport with them, and you bring the children, the children get saved, and you go by there and visit them on Saturdays, and they kind of get to know you, and there’s a good, great opportunity often to witness to the adults or the families or whoever be there. It’s a great way to do it.

There’s door-to-door. We’re about three and a half weeks away from starting our spring soul winning. We’ll go out on Saturdays, and we’ll meet here at 9:30, have a good breakfast meal, and then we’ll just go out, cold turkey, and we’ll knock on doors. And we don’t go to argue. We don’t go to be pushy. If somebody don’t want to listen, we’ll just, “Hey, have a good day,” leave my gospel track and go to the next door. If they don’t want to take the gospel track, hold that. We’ll just go to next door, you know. We’re not pushy. We’re not there to argue.

But it’s amazing, we go out and pretty much every Saturday someone says, “You know, I… I never…” Some will say, “I’ve never really heard it like that,” but usually ever sat, if you have a group of people going, or have someone bowed their head and asked Jesus Christ to be the Savior. And it’s just really the heartbeat of God, and he’s charged you and I with this. It’s not like I have a choice in the matter. It’s just, we’re charged, we’re commissioned with this.

Now, for me to really obey in this, there’s a couple of things that’s got to be involved in it. Would you look over in Matthew 28? Matthew 28? Most of you could quote this of Matthew 28:19. And a couple of things that’s got to be included in me obeying the Great Commission or the charge that God has given us.

All right, let’s look at a couple of these sayings. Matthew 28 and verse number 19, this is the typical one people use when you talk about the Great Commission, all right? And verse number 19, you’re there tonight, Matthew 28:19, you there? Amen? Good deal, good deal.

Now, I want you to see it. Would you say the first two words of the verse? What’s the first two words? “Go ye.” That’s pretty clear. Go ye. Then it says, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations,” teaching them the gospel, of course, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Which is over Mark 16. This is the Great Commission according to the Gospel of Mark, Mark 16 and verse number 15, Mark 16 and verse number 15 of the book of Mark, Gospel of Mark. And it says there, “And he said unto them,” what’s the next two words? “Go ye.”

Now, I want you to notice this, and very quickly here, unless we get it confused: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Now, when I hear the word “preach,” I typically think of a guy behind a pulpit yelling at other people, you know. Y’all didn’t say a word on that. Y’all out there tonight? How many are tired out there tonight? You’re tired? Good. How many of you drank a five-hour energy drink before you came in? Nobody, right? Good. I’m glad, you know. Yeah, we don’t do those things. But anyway, I’m trying to figure out if you’re with me. Anybody, a Red Bull? Anything? No, good. Okay, all right. Now, you know, well, we got one shook his head, yes, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. I think your joke would be. But anyway.

Go, that’s part of it, but watch this: “Go ye therefore and preach the gospel to every creature.” It doesn’t necessarily say to every congregation, to every church. I don’t think necessarily there that he’s talking about just alone, singled out of preacher, preaching behind the pulpit. He’s talking about telling the good news. Preach has to do with heralding the good news. I don’t think here he’s talking about necessarily what we typically think, but he’s talking about sharing the gospel. It’s the Great Commission, according to the book of Mark, and there it is again, “go in.”

Now, I say that to say, if I’m going to be obedient to the charge, the Great Commission, there must be the going. Now, it may be like Brother Bill that he, Sunday afternoon, he, “Go ye to the hospital,” and he witnessed to his ex-coworker. It could be “Go ye to the neighbor that you’ve been burdened about.” It could be “Go ye to your relative.” It could be Saturday, you go out on Saturday. But it could be in many ways, but go must be a part of it.

Now, if I’m not living it, I’m not going to be very effective in going. Because when I go, they’re not going to want to listen because they’re like, “Hey, buddy, I know you. I’ve been working with you for five years. I’m not going to listen to you.” But it is more than just living. It’s going.

I remember when we first started our church, we put a sign up. And somebody said, “Well, you’ll put aside about a new church in Rutherford County. People come.” And I thought, “No, this guy’s got a hole in the middle of his head.” I mean, no, no, no, no, no. You’ve got to go get them. That’s God’s plan. Go.

Someone said the first two letters of the gospel is G.O., go. And I must be going. Jesus said it very, very clear: Go. It’s part of it. Have that look in your shoes, but you go, you go to them. I wish the philosophy is nowadays, “You live it good enough and they’ll come to you.” No, no, no, no, no. Every once in a while you’ll have an exception, kind of like the Acts 16:31, you know, “What must I do to be saved?” But can I remind you, the reason why they were in jail because they were going preaching the gospel? That’s why they just got beaten. See? And as you go, God blesses us. But there must be the going. That’s just part of it.

So that’s part of the charge. It’s so very important just to go.

Now, let me say this, something else that must be included in it is the speaking, the talking. Now, that’s hard to do. I’m… You know, not a guy, you know, I can be a man of few words. You say, “Well, I don’t believe that.” No, you’re not. No, you’re not. No, you’re not on Sunday morning and sudden that way’s that, you know. But, uh, boy, I’m in a tough spot right here now. Your brother Frank said, “Yeah, you are,” you know. If I’m not preaching typically, I’m not the most, you know, I don’t just… Some people just, I love people. I like to talk with people, but, but, uh, but I don’t just go on and talk for years about whatever, you know what I’m saying? So it’s not always natural for me to speak either, but that’s part of the Great Commission.

I remember that Matthew 28:19, we just read it. He said, “Go ye therefore and what?” Teach. Now, I understand the sum of teaching is living it. We had a guy years ago, he went to one of his coworkers, and he was smoking, but he was burdened about witnessing. And he went to the person and tried to witness to him. And the person said, “No, you’re not going to talk to me about God while you’re smoking.” Amen. Amen. I agree with that too. Not going to be effective. But, but it is teaching is not just living. It is that, but it’s also, look, if our Sunday school teachers, Ms. Brenda, would you help me out? If you went in Sunday school and you tried to teach them a lesson and you never used your mouth, how do you think that would go? First and second grade, boys and girls. All right. Same room. Ms. Chisgar, they call her, Sarah, you know, in her school days, she teaches the same room. She has those kindergartners first. How do you think you would go? No, we’re not going to mention any names here, you know, but how do you think it would go if you never used your mouth teaching over there? Not very well, I didn’t think. Part of teaching is talking. It’s just part of it.

We read over there, Mark 16:15, he said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” That has to do with heralding the truth. I’ve got to talk. That’s hard for us to do sometimes. I mean, I went to somebody and tried to talk about their salvation. I’ve had to swallow real hard, especially with they’re real big, you know what I’m saying? Well, that’s part of it, part of the commission.

Look, if you will, over in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter number two. By the way, it lines up with Scripture elsewhere: “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” It doesn’t say faith cometh by seed. Now I’m supposed to shine so to see the good works and glorify my Father, which is in heaven. But the Great Commission has to do with speaking, talking, teaching, heralding the good news.

Look over here. First Thessalonians chapter number two, first Thessalonians chapter two, chapter two, look at verse number four, would you please? First Thessalonians chapter two, verse number four. If you’re there tonight, would you say amen? Amen. Good deal, good deal. Man, you’re getting on board. I like it. Amen. Verse number four, first Thessalonians two, verse number four: “But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we what?” Speak. As part of it.

I don’t always like it either. But we’re charged. We’re commissioned. Even so we speak, not as pleasing men. Not everybody’s going to be happy with it. That’s just part of it. Not as pleasing men. Well, I don’t know what I’m going to say. Boy, I’m not trying to please men, but God, which trieth our… God gave us a commission.

By the way, if I go, I obey the commission. He’s promised I’ll have some fruit somewhere along the line. “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” That’s Psalm 126:5. That’s a promise from God. But I’ve got to obey the commission.

Now, I won’t do this tonight, and I’m not going to be fancy, if you will. I’m not going to do anything that anybody else here could do. And I’m going to just try to be very practical, and I’m going to try to witness to someone. And we’re going to give you a little soul winning example. Many of you know this. And many of you can do a lot better than I can do it. But we’re going to try to give an example of how to win someone to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And here’s the thing: you’ll do it differently than I do it, and that’s great. I’m not trying to get you to do it exactly this way. In our soul winning class, we’ll train people with this plan, basically. But I always say, “Hey, you’re going to adapt this to fit your personality.” And nobody’s going to do it exactly the same. And that’s fine. Look at your plan. Get some kind of plan. Put the shoes on, shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and be ready to give the gospel.

I wasn’t sure who I was praying about. I thought about Brother Josh that I learned this afternoon. Brother Josh is going to be in the PA booth, and I was praying more. And it felt like the Lord led me to this man. I’m maybe happy to get to know him a little better. He’s new to our church, but we were shaking hands and went back.

And I asked Brother Garrett, I said, “You want to get saved tonight?” And he’s like, you know, “What are you talking about?” you know. He said, “Come on, you want to get saved?” you know. And he said, “I don’t think I understand your question,” you know. It’s kind of like, “I am saved,” you know. But he said he’d do anything to help, and I appreciate that. So, Brother Garrett, if you come up here, and we’re going to try to just give you a little example of winning a soul to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we’re going to bypass—Brother Garrett, if you want to take that one over there, that’d be great—we’re going to bypass knocking on doors. And sometimes, often it’s not knocking on doors in different ways. But we’re going to pretend we’re just sitting in the living room. And the fireplace is back here if you can’t see it. You’ve got to use imagination, you know. Brother Garrett, yeah, there you go. Brother Garrett says, “Where’s the sweet tea at, right? Amen. Or the Dr. Pepper, amen.”

But we’re just going to… Oh, my goodness, my goodness, there are some many hand-outs on that back table there. Brother Patrick, Brother Gregory, if y’all grab those off there and give every one of those. This is the plan we’ll basically follow. Maybe you want to write notes or whatnot. And I’m not trying to get you to do it just like this. I already said that. But get you a plan together. And I want to encourage you on that. But they’re going to pass these out to you.

Pretty much what we’ll follow. And this is what I’d like for you to kind of get out of it: It’s doable. You don’t have to know the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to be able to lead someone to the Lord. It’s very doable. And we’ll use four points, and we’ll try to make it very, very logical.

I say this often when we teach on this. I had a Bible college teacher in Bible college. He’s super knowledgeable. He knew church history like the back of his hand. But in class, he would tell you a story from the 4th century, then the 16th century, then the 20th century. And when it was all said and done, I thought, “Man, that man is smart, but I didn’t learn a thing.” So we try to make it very orderly, four points. And we’ll review those four points many times throughout this. Once you notice all that, we’re just trying to make it clear: teaching is transferring knowledge from one person to the next. That’s all we’re going to do. And I think you’ll see how easy it is.

All right. So, Garrett, thank you so much for letting me come in and talk with you here a minute. I sure appreciate that. You’ve got a nice place here. Man, I like it. I especially like those Dr. Peppers over there. Amen. Amen.

Garrett, we had talked to touch about church at the beginning, and church is a good thing. You said you used to go some. That’s great. But, you know, Garrett, even more important than that, really the most important thing in all the world is knowing for sure you go to heaven. And, you know, Garrett, if today were the day for you, God forbid, but just if you were to pass today, Garrett, are you 100% sure you go to heaven? Have some doubt or maybe 50%? Where are you in that? Where are you out on that, Garrett?

I would hope so. Okay, okay. I think so. Okay. Good, good, good. You’re right in hoping so, you know, if you sure don’t want to go to the other place, you know.

Well, Garrett, could I ask you this: In your opinion, what would someone have to do in order to go to heaven?

“I’m nice to people.” Good, good, good. “I give to charity.” Okay, okay. Good deal, good deal.

Garrett, the Bible—there’s God’s word—it gives just a plan of salvation. It’s just so well given and so clear. Would you mind if I take just a few minutes and show you from the Bible how you can know for sure? Good deal, good deal. I appreciate that.

I’m going to try to slide over here so we can both see it. Garrett, I’m going to show you four things from the Bible. Okay, how to go ahead. We’re leading up to that. Garrett, the first two are the problem. Man, they’re not good, the first two, but the last two is the answer to the problem. Okay, so stick with the bad part, all right? Okay, we’ll get to the good part. Promise you, all right? We won’t just tell the bad without the good.

The first part, we’re going to look at this first over here in Romans, chapter 3, verse 10, right here. It says, as it is written—told me written the Bible—it says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.”

Now that word “righteous” right there, Garrett. That just has to do with always being right, never doing anything wrong, you know. Have you ever met anybody that thinks they’re always right? Absolutely. Do you have it? My brother. Your brother, huh? Maybe he’s watching tonight, you know. He thought that, but do you think he was always right, Garrett? Absolutely not. The Bible says there’s none righteous. There’s nobody that’s always right.

Over here it says about the same thing. It says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” You ever heard of that word “sin” before, Gary? I heard my grandma talk about it once. Good deal, good deal. Sin, just putting it clearly, is just doing wrong, doing bad. It could be a bad thought. It could be looking at something we should not look at. It could be saying something we shouldn’t say. It could be even in your heart, your faults, you have ill feelings towards someone. And the Bible says, “All have sinned.” That’s everybody. The best man in the world, whoever that is, he’s sinned.

Now here’s kind of where we get sometimes. “Well, I’m not as bad as so-and-so.” You know, we can think, “Well, I, you know, I mess up here, but I’m not as bad as my brother,” you know. And that’s probably true with your brother. I’ve never met him, but I believe that, Garrett, all right, you know.

But here’s it. Let’s just pretend. Let’s pretend that we got a target out there, and we’re going to say we’re shooting for the bullseye. Okay. Me and you, we’ll say this guy from our church, Bill Johanin. All right. He’s with us. He’s shooting. He’s a pretty good shot. Some of our men had a competition and whatnot, and he won. He beat everybody out of it. So we’ll say he’s there.

And we’ll say we’re shooting, and it’s an off day for us. I mean, usually we could beat this guy named Bill, no problem at all, you know, but it’s a bad day for us, you know. And we’ll say he gets real close to the bull’s eye, but he misses the bull’s eye. But me and you, man, we’re off. I mean, we barely even hit the whole target. We’re like, way, you know, we’re not even on the outside ring. We’re just barely hit the target.

Well, this guy, Bill, Bill Johan, he would be giving us a lot for it. I mean, he’d be making fun of us. He’d be laughing at us. He’s kind of like that sometimes, you know. And, but here’s, you know what we’re going to say to Bill? We’re going to say, “Hey, bud, you didn’t hit the bull’s eye either.” Okay.

Now, that’s the way it is with sin. We may think, “Well, I’m not as bad as so-and-so,” and “I don’t go clubbing,” and “I don’t do this. I’ve never killed anybody.” But we all missed the mark. We all got some sin. Okay. And that first point, man, we’re all sinners. Everybody, I don’t care who they are, we’ve all got some sin. Okay, that’s the first one. And I sound like you’re on board with that one. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Good deal, good deal.

Well, here’s the second one. Now, this second one’s the tough one, okay? It’s a little tougher, but it’s true, and I’m going to show you from God’s word about this second one right here, okay? He says over here, he says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Okay, wages. All right. And I see that word, I think about going to work, and you earn your wages. Now, you said you worked at IBM, was it? Yeah. And what would you make, what, $50 an hour there? I do, yeah. Wow, that’s good. You need to come to our church and start tithing, all right? Now you know.

So, but you earn that by what you do. Okay. Well, the Bible here, he’s talking about what we earn. For sin, we’ve already learned we’ll all have sin. And so what we earn by our sin is death. Okay.

Well, when I hear the word “death,” first thing I think of is physical death, okay? But the Bible here really is talking about an eternal death, a second death. Let me show you a good verse about that, kind of explain what the Bible means when it says this death here, or the second death I was just mentioning. It’s kind of like once Garrett passes or when I pass, Paul passes. What about the real Paul? What happens to it? Good verse about that over here. It says, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

Now, Garrett, that lake of fire. Have you ever been over here on Percy Priest Lake? You ever been on that lake? You don’t know what I’m talking about? Yes. Good, good. Have you ever been on the boat over there? Yes. Good, good. Did you go fishing? Of course. Good, good. Did you catch fish? No. I’m not a good fisherman. I’ll tell you. Well, those two ladies are better fishermen than I am. That’s the honest truth. They’ll stay all day. I won’t. Anyway, the big lake of water. A little dirty water over there, but it’s water, you know. Well, the Bible here is talking about a big lake of fire.

Can you just imagine someone in this lake maybe drowning in a lake of fire? That’s awful. That’s just tragic thinking about that. But that’s where the Bible describes the lake of fire. It’s typically what you hear, hell. It’s a real literal place. The Bible talks about it often. Jesus mentioned it a lot. Okay, and the Bible says the wages of this sin is this death in hell. Well, man, that’s scary. He says over here, this lake of fire, this is the second death. Or when he says over there, the wages, it’s sin, it’s death. That’s talking about that death.

Boy, I tell you what, from those two things there, Garrett, that’s a sad thing. Because God loves us. God’s got to keep his word, his law, and his law says for sin, the punishment is death and hell. From those two things there, Gary, we’re all sinners. It’s me, it’s you, all of us. From those two things there, Garrett means I go to hell. It means this guy here with me. We would all, Garrett, it means you too. That’s a sad thing. But if we’re sinners and we are, and the punishment is death and hell from those two things there, that’s a sad thing.

Now, I told you, the first two is bad. That’s awful news, all right? I’d be a creep to come to tell you that and not tell you the good news, okay? That’s the bad news, all right. Let’s get to the good news, all right.

Here’s the third thing. That same verse, then he says over here, he says, “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Okay, a couple things about that. This isn’t second death. This is eternal life. It’s going to be with Jesus one day. He is life. It’s what we typically call heaven. You go to heaven.

Now, the good thing about this eternal life here, but the gift of God is it’s a gift. About a month ago, we had Christmas. What was your favorite Christmas gift you got this year? A sweater. A sweater? Okay, okay. Was it a nice sweater? Not really, no. Okay, okay. Was it one of those sweaters for the ugly sweater contest? Yes, it was. It was. Okay. Oh, I understand. I understand. Well.

Well, it was a good thing. It was a gift, even though it’s ugly. You didn’t have to pay for it, did you? No. Now, it was a gift. Okay, the same thing with this eternal life, heaven, it’s a gift. God loves you so much, Gary. He knows you couldn’t earn it because you have to be perfect to earn it. So God says, “I’m going to give it to you.” Wow.

It’s kind of hard to comprehend we go to heaven by a gift because pretty much everything down here we have to work for. But you’re telling me I go to heaven as a gift because it’s hard to comprehend the love of God. He loves you so much. He gives it to you. Wow.

You ever seen those semis where it’s got that Marine on there? He’s got the sword. He looks good. I mean, there’s dress blues and all that. He’s showing off for his girlfriend what it is. They got that semi, you know, and it says this on it. It says, “Never given, always earned.” Heaven’s the opposite of that. We’ll never earn it because we’re sinners. Never earned, always given. He gives it to you.

Now, here’s the last thing. First thing: we’re all sinners. Penalty on sin is death and hell. But God loves you and he offers you forgiveness. He offers you heaven as a gift. Okay, here’s the last thing: How do I receive this gift? Okay, this is kind of where the rubber meets the road. Okay, because if I leave this world without the gift, I’m not going to make it in the center.

Okay, so I want to make sure I have this gift. Here’s how you receive the gift. Last thing, right here. Fourth thing. Good verses about that over here in Romans 10. Let’s see. Here’s a good verse about it right here. It says over here, it says, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” Remember that first verse? It said, “None righteous, no not one.” Well, how can I be righteous for a God that knows everything? I’m a sinner.

He tells me right there, he says, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” Then he goes on, he says, “And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” So I believe with my heart, I confess with my mouth. Okay, well, he said, “What do I believe?” You know, “Do I believe in Santa Claus or what? What do I believe?”

He tells me that too. He says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Now the Bible here is using this word “believe.” Both those verses just read. The Bible uses that a lot. A lot of times the Bible will talk about “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved.” There’s this one book of the Bible, the book of John. It’s 21 chapters. It’s 67 times in 21 chapters, it’ll say “believe” or “believe it,” just over and over again. Now, not every one of those, but the vast majority of them will talk about believing in him or believe on him. Okay, it’s a little bit stronger than “believe about” or “believe there was a Jesus.” Okay, let me, let me use this illustration, okay?

I believe that’s a chair. That’s believing about it, okay? I even believe it looks like a chair. Actually, I believe it’s a chair. I even believe it is strong enough to hold me up, okay? I’m a little bit fat, but not too bad, you know? It looks like strong legs. I think it’s pretty heavy, in fact, for a chair, you know. So I believe it would—I trust it would hold me up. I believe about it. I believe it would hold me up.

But I’m not really believing on it or in it until I come over here and I sit down on it. Now I’m believing in this chair. Actually, if I’m kind of like this, I’m like, you know, I can’t do that very long because I’m old. My legs won’t hold me up, you know. But I’m like 50-50, believing in the chair, you know, believe in my last chair. That won’t save anybody. I have to put all my belief on Jesus.

Some people, they’re holding on to believing in them being good enough. Some people are holding on to maybe a prophet they claim or religion or a church. But it’s going to take all my belief as far as to get into heaven, and I place it on Jesus. It’s kind of like this. When I do like this right here, man, if this chair falls, Garrett, I’m going to look like a crazy man in front of everybody. I’m going to fall and break my neck right in front of all these people. I mean, I’m believing on the chair.

And when you or I, when I went to Jesus and I said, you know, “I’m a sinner, I’m not going to believe in me. I’m going to believe in Jesus,” and I put all my belief on Jesus. That’s when I received the gift. That’s when I got saved. It’s a decision in your heart. That’s why it says, “believe in your heart.”

But in that mouth, confess with your mouth. This verse over here is a good verse about that. It says over here, it says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Now the next verse on down, it shows that calling shows you belief in your heart. It’s when you go to him and you say, “Jesus, I’m calling on you. I’m believing, I’m trusting on you.” It’s kind of like you take all your belief and you transfer it from whatever you’re trusting in and you put it all on Jesus to get you to heaven. And he’ll save you. He’ll be glad to save you.

This sometimes makes it real for me. Let’s just say, let’s just say I’m riding down Seminary Road here, okay? And I’m in a hurry and I’m going faster than I should. I’m trying to get to church on time because Steve Page, if he sees me late one time, he’ll never forget, he’ll give me a hard time. So I’m driving, you know, 30 miles, I’m driving 45 miles an hour down the road. It’s not as fast as Brother Frank. Sometimes he drives about 50 down here, 55, you know. But anyway, and I’m driving down Seminary Road, and sure enough, there’s a deputy right in the parking lot. And I kind of slide in here, and he’s been clocking me. And I pull up to my regular spot, but he’s embarrassing me right in front of everybody, and he turns his lights on. He comes over there, and he says, “Sir, you were speeding,” you know, and I clock you. And I have to go to court, and I go to court, and I just heard of a guy that’s sitting in this room that got a $400-something ticket not too long ago. And we’ll say that mine is, whew, it’s like $400. So, man, I don’t have $400. We’re just pretending here. And I’m in court. I don’t have 400 bucks. The judge says you owe that, you know.

And we’ll see here. Let’s see. I’m trying to think. We’ll say Brother Glenn over there. Brother Glenn walks in the room. Man in our church, Brother Glenn, he pulls his wallet out, and he pulls $400 out. And he goes to the judge, and he says, “Judge, I want to pay Paul’s debt.” And he pays my debt. That’s what Jesus was doing when he died on the cross. He was paying your debt, my debt. Okay. When I go to him, I put my belief on him. He transfers all my sins over to him. He pays it. And actually, Garrett, he puts his righteousness on that account for a good deal. But I receive it by believing on Jesus. Most important thing in all the world.

Now, Garrett, here’s the thing. For me, I was raised in church. For every time I was little, you know, I had to go. It’s raised on drugs. You probably heard that. I was drugged to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, you know. So I knew all that. I knew about Jesus and about heaven, knew about hell, and I believed all that was true. When I got older, I had to believe on Jesus. And that’s when I went to Jesus. And I called on him. “Jesus, man, I’m not going to trust myself. I’m believing it—would you pay for my sins when you saved me?”

Garrett, best thing ever did. Garrett, he loves you. He died for you on the cross. He wants to give you that gift. Would you want to take that gift? I believe I do. Okay, okay. Garrett, let’s just make sure. So you understand we’re all sinners. Okay? You understand there’s a penalty on sins, death and hell? Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for you? I do. Okay, good, good, good. So you want to put all your belief on Jesus? You want to receive that gift? Yes, I do. Good, good God.

We’re going to bow our heads. We’re going to pray here. Either you can say a prayer in your own words or you can repeat a prayer after me. But I want you to know this, Gary, it’s not like these magical words you say. It’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, you know, you’re preaching your word you say it. It’s not that. It’s in your heart. You’re believing on Jesus. You’re trusting on Him and Him alone.

Would you want to say it in your own words or would you want to repeat a prayer after me? Can I follow it after you? Sure, sure. Be glad to do it, Gary. That’d be great. Let’s give him a hand. Amen. Thank you, Garrett. I appreciate it. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Thank you, Garrett. He played along so well. He could have probably made it a lot harder for me, but he didn’t do that.

Now, here’s the thing I like for you to get out of it. It’s not hard. We had a lady years ago, she was trying to learn to win souls, and we used, I think, maybe this very thing. And she changed it, adapted it to fit her. But every day on her way to work up in Nashville, she would lead her invisible friend to the Lord in the seat beside her. But she got her feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

We’ve had some people practice in front of the mirror. And here’s the thing: you say, “Well, as the Holy Spirit, he will lead you.” But it’s probably a whole lot easier for him to lead you somewhere if you got a plan. You’re a little bit more secure. And then he can lead you to kind of go here or there. I’m just nervous. It’s hard for him to lead me, you know. And knowledge breeds confidence. If I’m working at it, I’m prepared. The Holy Spirit can lead me a little bit better.

Now, oh, I was going to read a couple of verses. I don’t think we have time for it, but I like to be done on time because you’re all busy, and I’m respectful of that. But the Holy Spirit gives you power when you witness. What’s the Acts 1:8? We’ve mentioned a couple times: “And ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses.”

Anybody out there ever heard someone say, “Well, if you got the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit, the sign of that is speaking in tongues”? Anybody ever heard that? No, the Bible says, if you’re full of the Holy Ghost, you’ve got his power, you’ll be a witness. You shall be a witness. There’s power. I start witnessing, the Holy Spirit—man, he loves that. It really just empowers you. Why not just witness?

Look over. We’re going to get one verse, one verse, one story, and we’ll be done. John 15:16. This is what some will say, the Great Commission according to the book of John. John 15:16. It really goes well with the charge, Moses’ charge we’re talking about.

By the way, often I ask them, you know, “Have you done this before?” And we’re not just trying to get them to say a prayer so we get another notch, another number, all that. We want to be honest about it. You know, a lot of times we’ll ask, “Have you done this before?” And if they’ve done it before, we ask, “Did you mean it? Did you understand?” I’ll go through all that. We want to make sure this thing is real the best we can tell.

But John 15, once you look at verse number 16, John 15:16. Notice what he says there. He says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” The Calvinists liked to use this verse. They had one try to use it on me in the lobby one time, one Sunday after church. I said, “Wait a sec. What’s the rest of it? Finish that out.”

“You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should what?” Go. There it is, Great Commission. “And bring forth fruit.” God, I actually don’t care about fruit inside of you. You go and bring forth fruit. It’s talking about winning souls. “That you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” Yeah. By the way, if they truly get saved, even if they don’t join our church, they got saved, they’re still saved, they’re going to remain in heaven one day. That your fruit should remain.

Now watch this: “That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” When you go on the charge, God says, “Man, I’ll answer your prayers.” I mean, we’re going to send Brother Josh to North Carolina, praise the Lord, he’s willing to go. And I worked on it first thing this morning and made sure we’re going to give him a church card. Should we trust him, folks? What are you thinking about that? Maybe I’d vote on that. You know, I’ll tell you what, but we’re not going to send him out just without—we’re going to send him giving him the means he needs to take care of business.

And when I go on the charge, God says, “You know what? I’ll give you what you need to get the job done.” And it’s not that anybody’s a great soul winner; you just go tell them. Everybody’s got their little techniques. And that’s fine. That’s going to be God.

I often tell this story in a soul winning class. And some of you can tell it better than me. You probably heard it so many times. Brother Frank’s heard it about 450 times, I promise, you know. But when I was maybe a junior or senior in Bible college, a freshman would come along and they would say, “Well, send him with Paul. Paul’s been soul-winning with his dad before college and now, now,” you know, and they were making my head get big, and they’re saying all these things. “He knows all the right illustrations. He knows how to do it all.” My head would get, you know, boom, out there, you know, “Hey, look at me,” you know.

And we’d go out there trying to win souls. And I would do just right. I had the right thing in heart sometimes. You know, everybody’s got their thing. I try all the different things. And I would say just the right illustration. “Do you know how to get to heaven from Tennessee?” All these, you know, whatever. There’s all kinds of things, and they’re not bad. Everybody’s got their thing. And I do all that, and I wouldn’t have anybody. And this little freshman go over there, he wouldn’t… I was like, “Ain’t nobody heard that.”

And people come to the door. And he was so nervous, he would mumble and, you know, kind of stumble over everything. I thought, “I don’t even know what you’re saying,” you know. And he’d leave three people to the Lord. And I wouldn’t have anybody. And God would show him over and over again, it’s not me, it’s the Lord. You just try to go on the charge, do the best you can. Tell him what happened to you. God brings the increase, but we’ve got to go on the charge.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes tonight? With our heads bowed and eyes closed, I’m going to ask you to do this. I’m going to ask, “Would you pray, Lord, would you let me see or have a part in at least one getting saved this year? 2023, Lord, would you let me have a part in at least one?”

I’m going to do my best. I’m going to be a part of this charge. I’m going to try to go, and I’m going to try to talk, speak to them. Lord, would you let me say at least one? Just one. I’m going to do my best to put feet to the prayer. Lord, would you let me see at least one this year? Would you give me at least one, Lord? And I’ll do my best to try to be faithful and obey you. Would you let me see at least one? Preacher, I’ll pray and I’ll work towards that end. Would you give me one? If that’s you tonight, you slip your hand up. I’m going to pray and work towards that end. Would you give me one?

That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. That’s so great. God will use you. He doesn’t use the talented, if you will. He uses the ones that are available. I’m going to ask you, would you stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. If you stand there and pray, that’s fine. If you want to come to an old-fashioned altar, you do that. But let’s just pray it: “Lord, give me one.” Would you do that? We’re going to pray as our instruments will play. Let’s just spend just a few minutes. “Lord, give me one.”

Father, thank you for giving us the privilege of having a part in people getting saved. It’s amazing that you trust us with that commission. Help us to follow you. Lord, give these people—all of us here—give us one, at least one by the end of the year. Father, would you do so, please? Bless our people in these few minutes. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Would you spend some time? “Lord, would you give me one?” as our accompaniments play. “Give me one.”

We had a gentleman that left, went out back Sunday. And I don’t know. I think it happened after church, but someone along there—it did after church—but Brother Chip went back there and just started talking to him. And he bowed his head and asked Christ to be his Savior. Let somebody go to him. I mean, it wasn’t far, but I had to go to him and just talk to him about his soul. It works. It works. And God uses just, folks, just kind of open your mouth, and God uses it. Glad you’re in church tonight, 8:15. Man, we’re going to be done on time. What about that?

And I do try to honor that for your sake and your schedule’s sake. Glad you’re here tonight.

Original File: Soul Winning - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Wednesday PM 020823