The Carpenter's Chapel (8)

Sowing and Reaping

Sowing and Reaping
Galatians 6:7
by J. Wilbur Chapman
Not a very great while ago, on Long Island, not many miles from my home, a young woman turned away from her husband. He was a man of wealth and position. No one ever knew why she left him. She went away with another man very much her social inferior. Her husband's heart was broken. He did everything he could. He wrote and sent messages to her. He sent his father after her. She would not return. There was only one thing to do to protect his name and household, because her sin was so very great, and that was to divorce her. He was forced to do it. She married her companion in sin and all seemed to go well, but one day, the New York papers contained an announcement that she and her companion were dead. They had died in a New York hotel together. She left this letter: "My friends, Fred and I have been young and heedless and cynical, living in this great wicked city of New York. We have often laughed at what the preachers say. We have often sneered at the words: 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,' and 'The wages of sin is death.' People say it is old fogyism. Fred and I know better. We are reaping the
harvest and we cannot stand it."
It seems to me as I stand here this evening, that I am preaching to some person who needs my message. It may be that God has sent you here to listen to what I am saying. The time has come when someone must speak for God to you and say: Be not deceived. God is not mocked. If you sow you will reap. Of course, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you have nothing to do with the "great white throne of judgment." I was a Christian for years before I knew this. I had thought that I should have to stand face to face with God and hear His "depart" or "welcome," but there is nothing like this in the Bible. If I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, I have already appeared in judgment in his person, and I shall never stand in judgment again. But unless I take Him, unless I
yield to Him, and in sincere and honest repentance turn from sin, then judgment is awaiting me.

 

Sowing and Reaping

Sowing and Reaping
Galatians 6:7
by J. Wilbur Chapman
So many young men seem to think that they can sow their wild oats with impunity. I have heard men say that wild oats must be sown, but hear me when I say, if you sow your wild oats you will reap the same harvest, the same harvest! Just so surely as God lives and you do not repent, hear me, one day the reaping time will come. I am greatly concerned about men who do not come to Christ. I have come to feel in these days as if I were preaching to my own people. I have come to know you well. I have been in intimate touch with many
of the students. I have lost all thought of a promiscuous audience. It seems to me as if I were standing here pleading for my own. Hear me then, my friends, as I say: Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. It is written plainly in God's Word. It is proved by experience. We shall reap if we sow. Sow a thought and you reap an act. Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny. It is written in God's Word that we shall reap what we sow.
A well-dressed man came to me in one of the meetings in Ohio and slipped a letter into my hand. It said: "My name is so and so. My telephone number is so and so. You may call me if you wish. I lived a wicked life before my marriage. I was false to everything that stood for manhood. I thought that I was too clever to be trapped. I married. My wife was beautiful. There came to our home a little child. I thought sunshine had come at last. I loved the child devotedly. I used to take her in my arms and fondle her, covering her face with my kisses. One day I noticed something wrong with the child and I took her to a great specialist. He came to my home and called a conference of other doctors. They went over my little baby, studying every part of her body. They came to my library, for I am a
man of position and means, and they said: 'Sir, what was your life before marriage?' My God! I had to tell them that my life before marriage was in open rebellion of God's laws. Then the doctor led me over to the side of the room and put his hand on my shoulder, and
said: 'Sir, this is your harvest. Your baby will go through life, if she lives, with a twisted spine and shut eyes."'
— Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

 

Sowing and Reaping

Sowing and Reaping
Galatians 6:7
by J. Wilbur Chapman
When we were going around the world we stopped one day at Thursday Island, and there I heard a sorrowful tale. There is much leprosy on the other side of the world, especially in the tropics. One day, not far from Thursday Island, it was found that a little boy and girl
belonging to a good home were lepers. The laws are very strict, and while the wealth of the father of the children was great, it was decided that the family should live alone on another island. The mother stole away with the children and was lost in Sidney for two years, until, strange to say, her children were admitted to the schools. Then the law found them again and they were taken back to the vicinity of Thursday Island, and the law began its operation.
The children were separated from the family and sent to the leper island. But how did they become lepers? How? The mother, with her love of social position, thought the cares of motherhood too heavy, so she had a South Sea Island woman to care for her children, and
she was leprous. This was the story, and when I heard it and saw what a harvest had come to that woman for the seeds she had sown, I could not withhold my tears. It is hard to sin when sin hurts yourself and tosses you on your bed so that you cannot sleep, and you say: Will the morning never come? But it is harder still to sin and to hurt one's wife and children, or other dear ones.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap.

 

That is so true. A very sad story.

Thank you for posting Charles.

Blessings

following-Him

 

Sowing and Reaping (conclusion)

Sowing and Reaping
Galatians 6:7
by J. Wilbur Chapman
I have come to the close of my appeal. I do not need to preach longer. In the light of my text tonight, I say to all of you that we reap the harvest of what we have sown. The harvest may be an impaired will, a ruined character, injury and sorrow to others. Hear me again, — be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. My heart grieves for any sinner who stays away from the Saviour. I have a mind to give my place on the platform to someone else, so that I might go back through the building to this one and that one, and say: Turn ye! Turn ye! For why will you die? I have a mind to lay hold upon you and compel you to come, for there is only one way in all this world to escape the law of which I am speaking. That way is this: Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Can I say any more than this? God help you! Some of you are sitting there and saying to
yourselves: "I am too timid." Come down when the crowd rises. Some of you are saying: "I can settle it here." It would be worth everything for you to come out in the open and walk down this aisle. Come forward and let me take your hand, and let me hear you say:
"God being my helper, I am going to turn to Christ tonight." Now is the time.

 

Saints

"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:1).
In several of his letters, Paul addresses his readers as "saints" a term essentially the same as "the faithful in Christ Jesus," or "those who are holy." For example, just three verses later Paul speaks thus of believers: "He hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (v.4)).
This raises the question: Since Paul rebukes the "saints" in these churches (especially Corinth!), certainly this would indicate that the lives of many of them were anything but holy! How can sinners be called holy?
The answer to this must be, of course, the fact that Christians are "saints in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:1), not necessarily saintly in behavior. We know that our righteousness is as "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) and without the Lord Jesus we can "do nothing" (John 15:5). It is a wonderful truth that God deals with us, not in our sins, but in Christ. In His sight, we are even seated "together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).
We have surely been "blessed...with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3), and it would surely please Him if we would seek to become as holy in our practice as in our position. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:1-2).

 

Blessed Assurance

"And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever" (Isaiah 32:17).
As expressed in the old gospel hymn, the "blessed assurance, Jesus is mine" is a "foretaste of glory divine." According to our text, this "assurance for ever," together with true peace of soul and quietness of spirit, are products of "the work of righteousness."
The New Testament exposition of genuine righteousness makes it clear that we who have received Christ's work of righteousness by faith have been "made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21). "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5).
Thus, salvation is the priceless possession of those to whom Christ's work of righteousness has been imputed, through faith. On the other hand, the assurance of salvation, accompanied by quietness and peace of heart, is "experienced" only by saved believers who practice the work of righteousness in their daily walk with the Lord. If we truly have salvation, then we ought to manifest the "things that accompany salvation...For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name...And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end" (Hebrews 6:9-11).
We can, indeed, know that we are saved simply through faith in His work and His word (e.g., I John 5:13). Nevertheless, to know that one's faith itself is genuine, God has given us the test of faith. "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments" (I John 2:3).
This is surely blessed assurance of salvation and a foretaste of glory divine!

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
In our study of the various forms of Christian activity, we begin with "Personal Work," that
hand-to-hand dealing with men, women and children. We begin with it because it is the simplest form of Christian work, the kind that every one can do. It is also the most effective method of winning lost souls. The Apostle Peter was brought to Jesus by the hand-to-hand work of his brother Andrew. Andrew first found Christ himself, then he went to Peter quietly and told him of his great find, and thus he led Peter to the Savior he himself had found. I do not know that Andrew ever preached a sermon; if he did it is not recorded; but he did a great day's work when he led his brother Peter to Jesus. Peter preached a sermon that led to the conversion of 3,000 people, but where would Peter's great sermon have been if Andrew had not first led him to Christ by quiet personal work?
Mr. Edward Kimball, a Boston business man, led D. L. Moody, the young Boston shoe clerk, to the Savior. Where would all Mr. Moody's wonderful work for Christ have been if he himself had not been led to the Savior by the faithful personal work of his Sunday school teacher? I believe in preaching. It is a great privilege to preach the Gospel, but
this world can be reached and evangelized far more quickly and thoroughly by personal work than by public preaching. Indeed, it can be reached and evangelized only by personal work. When the whole church of Jesus Christ shall rouse to its responsibility and privilege in this matter, and every individual Christian become a personal worker, the evangelization of the world will be close at hand. When the membership of any local
church shall rouse to its responsibility and privilege in this matter, and each member become a personal worker in the power of the Holy Spirit, a great revival will be close at hand for the community in which that church is located. Personal work is a work that wins but little applause from men, but it accomplishes great things for God.

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
There are many who think personal work beneath their dignity and their gifts. A blind woman once came to me and said, "Do you think that my blindness will hinder me from working for the Master?" "Not at all; it may be a great help to you, for others seeing your blindness will come and speak to you, and then you will have an opportunity of giving your testimony for Christ, and of leading them to the Savior." "Oh, that is not what I want," she replied. "It seems to me a waste of time when one might be speaking to five or six hundred at once, just to be speaking to an individual." I answered that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was able to speak to more than five thousand at once, and yet He never thought
personal work beneath His dignity or His gifts. Indeed, it was the work the Savior loved to do. We have more instances of our Savior's personal work recorded in the Gospels that of His preaching. The one who is above personal work is above his Master.
ITS ADVANTAGES.
Let us look at the advantages of personal work.
1. ALL CAN DO IT. In an average congregation there are not more than four or five who can preach to edification. It would be a great pity, too, should all attempt to become preachers; it would be a great blessing if all would become personal workers. Any child of God can do personal work, and all can learn to do effective personal work.
The mother who is confined at home by multiplicity of home duties can still do personal work, first of all with her own children, and then with the servants in the home, with the butcher, the grocer, the tramp who calls at the door, in fact, with everybody who comes within reach. I once knew a mother very gifted in the matter of bringing her own children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, who lamented that she could not do some
work for Christ. I watched this woman carefully, and found that almost every one who came to the house in any capacity was spoken to about the Savior, and she was, in point of fact, doing {11} more for Christ in the way of direct evangelistic work than most pastors.
Even the one shut up at home by sickness can do personal work. As friends come to the sick bed, a word of testimony can be given for Christ, or even an extended conversation can be held. A little girl of twelve, the child of very poor parents, lay dying in the city of Minneapolis. She let her light shine for the Master, and spoke among others to a godless physician, to whom, perhaps, no one else had ever spoken about Christ. A poor girl in
New York City, who was rescued from the slums and died a year or two afterwards, was used of God to lead about one hundred men and women to Christ, while lying upon her dying bed.

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
ITS ADVANTAGES.
Even the servant girl can do effective personal work. Lord Shaftesbury, the great English
philanthropist, was won to Christ in a godless home by the effective work of a nurse girl.
Traveling men have unusually good opportunities for doing personal work, as they travel on the trains from town to town, as they stop in one hotel after another and go from store to store. A professional nurse once came into my Bible class in Chicago, and at the close of the meeting approached me and said: "I was led to Christ by Mr.--- [a traveling man connected with a large wholesale house]. I was in a hotel parlor, and this gentleman saw me and walked across the parlor and asked me if I was a Christian, and when I told
him I was not, he proceeded at once to show me the way of life. I was so startled and impressed to find a traveling man leading others to Christ that I accepted Him as my Savior then and there. He told me if I ever came to Chicago to come to your Bible class." I have watched this woman for years since, and she herself is a most devoted Christian and effective worker.
How enormous and wonderful and glorious would be the results if all Christians should begin to be active personal workers to the extent of their ability! Nothing else would do so much to promote a revival in any community, and in the land at large. Every Pastor should urge this duty upon his people, train them for it, and see that they do it.

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
2. IT CAN BE DONE ANYWHERE. There are but few places where one can preach. There is no place where one cannot do personal work. How often, as we pass factories, engine houses, lodging houses and other places where crowds are gathered, do we wish that we might get into them and preach the Gospel, but generally this is impossible, but it is altogether possible to go in and do personal work. Furthermore, we can do personal work on the street, whether street meetings are allowed or not. We can do personal work in the homes of the poor and in the homes of the rich, in hospitals, workhouses, jails, station houses, and all sorts of institutions -- in a word, everywhere.
3. IT CAN BE DONE AT ANY TIME. The times when we can have preaching services and Sunday schools are quite limited. As a rule, in most communities, we cannot have services more than two or three days in the week, and only three or four hours in the day, but personal work can be done seven days in the week, and any time of day or night. Some of
the best personal work done in this country in the last twenty years has been done on the streets at midnight and after midnight. Those who love souls have walked the streets looking for wanderers, and have gone into dens of vice seeking the lost sheep, and hundreds upon hundreds of them have thus been found.
4. IT REACHES ALL CLASSES. There are large classes of men that no other method will reach. There are the shut-ins who cannot get out to church, the street-car men, the policemen, railroad conductors, sleeping-car men, firemen, the very poor and the very rich. Some cannot and others will not attend church or cottage meeting or mission meeting, but personal work can reach them all.

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
5. IT HITS THE MARK. Preaching is necessarily general; personal work is direct and personal. There is no mistaking who is meant, there is no dodging the arrow, there is no possibility of giving what is said away to some one else. Many whom even so expert a Gospel preacher as Mr. Moody has missed have been afterwards reached by personal work.
6. IT MEETS THE DEFINITE NEED, AND EVERY NEED OF THE PERSON DEALT WITH. Even when men are aroused and convicted, and perhaps converted, by a sermon, personal work is necessary to bring out into clear light and into a satisfactory experience one whom the sermon has thus aroused, convicted and converted.
7. IT AVAILS WHERE OTHER METHODS FAIL. One of my best workers told me a few weeks ago that she had attended church for years, and had wanted to become a Christian. She had listened to some of the best-known preachers, and still was unsaved, but the very first inquiry meeting she went into she was saved because some one came and dealt with
her personally.
8. IT PRODUCES VERY LARGE RESULTS. There is no comparison whatever between what will be effected by good preaching and what will be effected by constant personal work. Take a church of one hundred members; such a church under an excellent pastor would be considered as doing an exceptionally good work if on an average fifty were added annually to this membership. But suppose that that church was trained to do personal work, and that fifty of the one hundred members actually went at it. Certainly one a month won to Christ by each one would not be a large average. That would be six hundred a year instead of the fifty mentioned above. A church of many members, with the most powerful preaching possible, that depends upon the minister alone to win men to Christ by his preaching, would not accomplish anything like what would be accomplished by a church with a comparatively poor preacher, where the membership generally were personal workers.

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
THE CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS
I. PERSONAL EXPERIMENTAL KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST
AS SAVIOR.
The first condition of success in personal work, and in all soul-saving work, is a personal
experimental knowledge of Jesus Christ as Savior. It was because the Apostle Paul could say:
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; OF WHOM I AM CHIEF." 1_Timothy1:15.
that he had power in bringing other men to that Savior. It is the man who knows Jesus as his own Savior, who will have a longing to bring others to this wonderful Savior whom he has himself found; and it is the man who knows Jesus as his Savior who will understand how to bring others to the Savior whom he has found. There are many today who are trying to save others, who are not saved themselves. There are others, who, while they are probably saved men, have such a vague knowledge of Christ as their own Savior, that they cannot hope to make the way of salvation clear to others.
A personal, experimental knowledge of Jesus Christ as a Savior includes three things:
1. A knowledge that our own sins have been forgiven because Jesus bore them in His own body on the Cross;
2. A knowledge that the risen Christ is delivering us daily from the power of sin;
3. An absolute surrender of our wills to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master.

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
II. LIFE IS CLEAN WITHIN AND WITHOUT.
The second condition of success in personal work is really involved in the first, and is a life
clean within and without. {15} In 2_Timothy 2:21 we read, "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work."
If a man is to be used of God, his life must be clean -- not only his outward life as the world
sees it, but his inward secret life as it is known only to God and to himself. One who holds on to any sin of act or thought or affection cannot expect to have power with a holy God, and consequently cannot expect to have power for God.
Many a man and woman of great natural gifts, and unusual knowledge of the Bible, are trying to do work for God and meet with little or no success. People wonder why it is that their work is so devoid of results, but if we knew their secret life as God knows it, we would understand their failure; there is sin before God. It has often been said, and well said, that "God does not demand a beautiful vessel for His work, but He does demand a clean one." Many are working on in disappointment and failure, working hard but accomplishing nothing, because God sees sin in their inner life which they will not give up.

 

Amen. Thank you Charles.

Blessings

following-Him

 

Thank you for these writings.
Gwyneth

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
III. PERSONAL WORK IS A SURRENDERED LIFE, A LIFE
WHOLLY GIVEN UP TO GOD.
The third condition of success in personal work is a surrendered life, a life wholly given up to God. Paul was mighty as a worker for Christ because he could say,
"For me to live is Christ."
The miracle of the five loaves and two fishes (Matthew 14:17-20), is deeply significant. The disciples said unto Jesus, "We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me." We are told with a good deal of emphasis upon the definite article, He "took THE five loaves and THE two fishes," that is, He took all that they had. It was not much, but they brought it all. Then He blessed it and broke it and there was an abundance for all. But if one of these insignificant barley loaves had been kept back, or one of these little fishes, there would not have been enough to go around. We, too, may not have much, it may be only five barley crackers and two little fishes, but if we will bring them all, absolutely all, to Christ, He will take them, bless them and multiply them; but if we
hold back one cracker or one fish, He will not bless and multiply. Here lies the secret of failure in many a one who would work for Christ; there is one cracker kept back, or one little fish. We talk very lightly of absolute surrender to God, but it means more than most people who profess it seem to realize. I would ask each reader of these pages, have you brought all to Christ -- absolutely all -- absolutely ALL?
IV. MEN OUT OF CHRIST ARE LOST.
The one who would have success in personal work must have a deep realization that men out of Christ are lost. Jesus had this. He said, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was LOST." Luke 19:10. When He looked upon men living in sin. He knew and realized the utter ruin of their condition. The same thing was true of Paul. We read in Acts 20:31 that he "ceased not to warn every one night and day WITH TEARS." He knew that if one had not a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ he was eternally lost. This overwhelming conviction that men and women out of Christ are eternally lost, seems to be very rare in our day, and this is one great reason why so few have real power in soul-winning. How can we get this realization?
1. First of all, by studying what the Bible has to say about the present standing and condition and future destiny of those who are out of Christ.
2. By believing what the Bible says upon these points without trying to tone it down, and make it fit in with the popular notions of the day.
3. By dwelling upon these truths about the lost condition of men out of Christ until they take hold upon our hearts and we realize their meaning. These things are not pleasant to think about, but they are true, and we ought to think about them until our souls are on fire to save men from the awful condition of utter ruin in which they now are, and from the destiny of eternal shame and despair to which they are hurrying.

 

Personal Work

PERSONAL WORK
R. A. Torrey
V. LOVE.
The fifth condition of success in personal work is love. Nothing wins like love. In the first place it leads to untiring effort for the salvation of others. If I really love men, I cannot bear the thought that they should be lost forever, and I will be willing to work day andmnight to save them from such an awful destiny. In the second place, love attracts others to us.
There is nothing so irresistible as love. It is Jesus Christ lifted up on the Cross, a revelation
of God's love and of His own love to man, that draws all men unto Him (John 12:32). Men will not put you off if they really believe that you love them, but they will never believe that you love them unless you really do. We need not only to have love to men, but love to Christ. It was the love of Christ that constrained Paul to his untiring efforts to bring men to a knowledge of Christ. The great men and women of Christian history have been the men and women who have had a great love to Christ, men and women whose hearts were all aglow with love to the glorious Son of God.
But how can we get love? First of all, by dwelling upon Christ's love to us.n"We love him, because he first loved us." IJohn 4:19.
We shall never appreciate Christ's love to us until we see it against the black background of
our own sin. It is the one who is forgiven much who loves much (Luke 7:47). The one who has never been brought to a deep realization of his own sinfulness before God will have no warmth of love to that Savior who, by His own atoning death on the Cross, redeemed him from the awful depth to which he had sunk. The Apostle Paul realized that he was the chief of sinners, and that Jesus loved him and gave Himself for him, so he was full of love to Jesus Christ.
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners OF WHOM I AM CHIEF." IITimothy 1:15.
"I am crucified with Christ, nonetheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who LOVED ME, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME." Galatians 2:20.
If we are to have love to Christ and love to men, the Holy Ghost must impart it. The first fruit of the Spirit is love:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith."
Galatians 5:22.
If we will look to the Holy Spirit to do His whole work in our hearts, He will soon fill them with love to Christ and love to our fellow men.

 

Personal Work

VI. PERSEVERANCE.
The sixth condition of success in personal work is perseverance. No work requires so much patience and perseverance as soul-winning. Men are not usually won to Christ in a day. You must hold on to men day after day, week after week, month after month, and if need be, year after year. You must not give up even though you seem to make
absolutely no headway at first, and even though you seem to do more harm than good. When you start out to lead a man to Christ, keep after that man until he is saved, no matter how long it takes. Study how to get at men who are unreachable. Men
who cannot be reached in one way can in another. There are very few men in the world to whose hearts there is not an open door somewhere, if only we will search diligently until we find it. If we cannot get in at the door, perhaps we can break up the roof and get in that way. Any one who wishes to win souls at the rate of one every fifteen minutes had better go into some other business. Take time; never give up; and do thorough work. I waited and watched fifteen long years to get my chance with one man. Never a day passed for all those fifteen years that I did not speak to God about that man. At last my chance
came, and it was my privilege to lead him to Christ. He afterwards became a preacher of the Gospel, and is now in heaven. I was with him the day before he died, and shall never forget that day as long as I live. When you undertake to bring a man to Christ, never give up.

 

Personal Work

VII. PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE.
The seventh condition of success in personal work is a practical knowledge of the Bible.
"Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction with is in righteousness: that the man of God may be
complete, FURNISHED COMPLETELY UNTO EVERY GOOD WORK." 2_Timothy 3:16-17 RV.
In the Bible is all the truth we need in dealing with men. The Word of God is the only instrument that God has appointed for the salvation of men, and the only instrument He honors is the Word. It is the Word that produces conviction of sin. It is the Word that regenerates. It is the Word that produces faith:
"Now when they heard this, they were PRICKED IN THEIR HEART, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Acts 2:37.
"Being BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by THE WORD OF GOD, which liveth and abideth for ever." 1_Peter 1:23.
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by THE WORD OF GOD." Romans 10:17.
If then we are to be used in soul-winning, we must know the Bible. There are five texts that ought to sink deep into the heart of every personal worker.
They are:
1. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by THE WORD OF GOD." Romans 10:17.
2. "The seed is THE WORD OF GOD." Luke 8:11.
3. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by THE WORD OF GOD, which liveth and abideth for ever." 1_Peter 1:23.
4. "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD." EPHESIANS 6:17.
5. "Is not MY WORD LIKE AS A FIRE? said the Lord: and LIKE A HAMMER that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Jeremiah 23:29.