Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

work"man and pastor alike! Each has his own responsibility before God. Most of us know this; but thequestion we want answered is what to do in order tobecome effective witnesses for Christ.Scriptural Requirements for Winning SoulsFirst of all, there must be the scriptural conceptof "soul-winning." This concept is simply a recognition of the fact that it is God who saves, not I. Itis God who changes man's heart! Salvation is thegift of God (Eph. 2:8,9), not the result of someslick procedure of presentation. Many Christians aresincerely searching for some way to become effective in seeing others turn to Christ as a result oftheir ministry. And so they try this method andthat. They become proteges of one evangelist afteranother. They read books. They get interviews withothers, hoping that they will find the answer. Effective evangelism is to them something like the rightbottle in the medicine cabinet; and they are tryingevery bottle to see which is the secret, magicalformula. The search continues; their life is spent.Precious time slips by, but still they are not seeingothers become Christians through their testimony.The scriptural concept of effective evangelism,whether it be on the individual or the mass basis,indicates that there are two planes of operation : thevertical and the horizontal. The vertical plane is therelationship between the Christian and God ; the horizontal is between the Christian and those whom hedesires to reach. There must be a right relationship on the vertical plane before there can be resultson the horizontal. Paul wrote to the young Timothy,one into whom the apostle had poured his life; andto keep him seeing production, Paul reminded him:"If a man therefore purge himself from these, heshall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meetfor the master's use, and prepared unto every good(II Tim. 2:21). Unless one is walking uprightly before the Lord, keeping his heart right before Christ, he cannot expect to be used of God indrawing sinners to the Saviour! God will not usehim! In writing to the Romans, Paul said: "For Iwill not dare to speak of any of those things whichChrist hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentilesobedient, by word and deed" (Rom. 15:18). It is aprinciple of scripture that it is God who changes theheart of the sinner, and He does it through themedium of men. But only those men who keep themselves right before Him can expect to be used. Weare not to become buckets! We are to be pipes! Weare the channel ; but a clogged channel cannot transmit anything. Therefore, before anything else, onemust recognize that if he is to be effective on thehorizontal plane, it is absolutely imperative that hemake his relationship to the Lord the top item ofpriority in his whole life ! What a change would comeover the Church if this were all that were knownabout winning others and it were applied! Speaking to men about God is very important ; but speaking to God about men is much more basic !The Necessary PreparationNow in addition to this concept, there must be,secondly, the scriptural preparation for effectivesoul-winning. There seems to be little difficulty inrecognizing at least one of the chief reasons that"average Christian" of the twentieth century is not406producing new Christians. He would simply not knowhow to tell a person to become a Christian if theperson were to come to his front door and pose thequery. I remember one night when I was on boardship, and we were bringing home about two thousand Marines. One of those battle-scarred men whomwe had picked up in Japan wanted to become aChristian; and he was talking to a couple of myfriends about it. After talking with him for sometime, they turned to me and said that since I knewthe answers, why didn't I tell him. I could havedropped on the spot! But I was on the spot; so Irattled off some worn cliches and then beat a swiftretreat ! Know the answers ? Why I was shaking inmy shoes ! To my knowledge, that Marine has neverbecome a Christian.One must be prepared if he expects to be effective in his witness! An example of one who did accomplish his mission in reaching another was Philip,the Evangelist. When he knew of a man who wantedhelp, Acts 8 says that he "ran" to meet the man,offered his . . .help "opened his mouth, and beganat the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."A very simple procedure; but Philip was prepared!Now there are two things that must be in one'slife if he expects to be prepared : The Word of Godand Prayer.It has already been said that God is the onewho changes men's hearts ; and that is true. But Hehas also ordained the means to that end, and thatmeans is His own Word. "Faith cometh by hearing,and hearing by the Word of God." (Rom. 10:17)Logically, if we are saved by faith, then if we desireanother person to acquire faith he must come intocontact with God through the scriptures. Now if Idon't know the scriptures well enough to be able totell him about Jesus Christ and what God requiresof him, how can he be expected to repent and believethe gospel?But we can also look at it from another angle.No one's witness can be effective if he defies God'sordained plan of effectiveness. If one does not havethe Holy Spirit in power in his life, if he is boggeddown with sin, if he does not like to talk to othersabout Jesus Christ, if he would rather watch television than give a helping hand to a hell-bent sinner,it does not appear that what that person needs issome scripture to give to someone else. That manis in grave need of the Word of God himself! It isconsidered in most average Christian circles todavthat a thorough knowledge of the Word of God iscommendable, but on the whole is extra-curricular.That is the reason that most of them don't witness,nor feel any compulsion to witness ! The Bible callsthem "carnal." If, however, these persons come under the conviction of their own need for a closer fellowship with God and begin to meditate on HisWord and spend time in prayer, it is amazing tonotice how they begin to experience victory overproblems, their attitudes change, the fruits of theSpirit become evident, and also they begin to be ofsome effect in helping others.Again, it becomes a case of being prepared ; andthe Word of God was given not only to show usthe truth about Christ, but also to show us how tobecome strong and joyful as we follow Him. "Allscripture is given by inspiration ofGod, and isprofitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,THE COVENANTER WITNESS