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Mission Trip to College Station, TX
I was blessed with an opportunity to speak to a small Christian group in College Station, TX.
I lectured twice Saturday afternoon.
The first lecture was “Preach Free Will to Convict Sinners and Destroy their Excuses.”
And the second was “‘God Alone Saves’ is not Biblical | Evangelism is Synergism.”
Then Saturday night we headed out to the local bar scene to pick a fight with the devil and win some souls!
Saturday Afternoon Session Lectures
The Apostle Paul said that sinners are “without excuse” before God (Romans 1:20).
The favorite excuses of sinners is, “I couldn’t help it. I can’t obey God. His requirements are too hard for me.”
The Bible says the exact opposite.
The Scripture says God does not require that which is too hard (Deut. 30:11).
And it says that our obligation is always proportionate to the ability that we have (Matt. 22:37; 1 Cor. 10:13).
Charles Finney, the great American Revivalist, said that the first duty of a preacher is to destroy the sinner’s excuses.
When we seek to win souls to Christ, we must start by showing them that it is their sin that is unreasonable, not God’s law.
God’s law was perfectly reasonable and yet we choose by our free will to break it anyways.
God sets before us the choice between good and evil (Deut. 11:26-28; Deut. 30:19; Josh. 24:15; Jer. 21:8), so we alone are to blame for our sins.
That is why we desperately need salvation through Jesus Christ – because we broke God’s law when we didn’t have to.
It is when the sinner is left in a position where he sees that he is “without excuse” for his sins that he gives up trying to justify and excuse them and he begins to seek merciful forgiveness and gracious pardon from God through Jesus Christ.
“IT’S NOT YOUR JOB TO CONVICT ANYONE OF THEIR SINS”
Someone made this comment on Facebook:
“The Holy Spirit is the one that convicts us of righteousness not any preacher”
Actually, it’s both.
THE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTS
Jhn 16:8 – And when he is come, he will reprove [ἐλέγχω – to convict] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
HOLY SPIRIT FILLED PREACHERS CONVICT
Luk 3:19 – But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved [ἐλέγχω – to convict] by him for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done
Eph 5:11 – And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [ἐλέγχω – to convict] them.
1Ti 5:20 – Them that sin rebuke [ἐλέγχω – to convict] before all, that others also may fear.
2Ti 4:2 – Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove [ἐλέγχω – to convict], rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Tit 1:9 – Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince [ἐλέγχω – to convict] the gainsayers.
Tit 1:13 – This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke [ἐλέγχω – to convict] them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
Tit 2:15 – These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke [ἐλέγχω – to convict] with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
Biblically, it is the Holy Spirits job AND the preachers job to convict sinners of their sins.
And the biblical support for the preachers to do it is technically greater, as there are 7 verses that support preachers convicting sinners and only 1 verse for the Holy Spirit…
Just saying…
“I CAN’T SAVE ANYONE. ONLY GOD CAN SAVE.”
The Calvinist cliché, “I can’t save anyone. Only God can save” is not biblically accurate.
The Bible says, “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20); and also “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” (1 Cor. 4:15).
And so the Preacher of the Word can and does save souls – with the help of the Holy Spirit and by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Acts Peter even commanded the crowd to “Save Yourselves…” So not only do preachers save souls, but sinners save themselves! And how did they do it? Well, as Peter said, they must repent and believe. That is how a sinner saves his soul – by turning to Christ. William Booth and the Salvation Army used to fly a banner outside of their meeting house that said, “SAVE YOUR SOULS!”
The salvation of a soul is not a monergistic work of God, where God the Father alone (mono) is active. The Holy Spirit has a role, the Word has a role, the preacher of the Word has a role, and the sinner himself has a role.
Charles Finney said, “Both conversion and regeneration are sometimes in the Bible ascribed to God, sometimes to man, and sometimes to the subject.”
It is this understanding that gives evangelism its urgency and elevates its work to extreme and eternal importance. There are souls right now that might be saved by your labors who also might be damned by your neglect! What we do now affects and determines the future – even the eternal destiny of souls.
In light of the biblical doctrines of synergism and the openness of the future, we can see the vitalness of us fulfilling the Great Commission and feel the heavy weight of responsibility to seek and save those who are lost!
So get out there Christian! Preach the Word and save some souls!
Saturday Night Outreach
We started the nighttime outreach in the bar and club district using my new speaker system.
I used to use speakers all the time when I first started street preaching 17 years ago.
I always enjoyed using a microphone for the preacher and a microphone for the audience to use to ask questions and engage in dialog.
The first question that was asked was, “If Jesus died for everyone, everyone is already saved, so why are you out evangelizing.”
I explained how the atonement automatically and unconditionally saves nobody.
The sacrifice of Christ makes salvation available to everyone but they must meet the conditions of gracious pardon by repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ.
I urge sinners to repent of their sins and believe the gospel because these are the conditions of receiving forgiveness through the atonement of Christ.
The Bible says in Hebrews 10:26-31 that if you continue in sin after receiving the knowledge of the atonement, you are trampling the blood of Christ underfoot and will receive “sorer punishment” than those who merely sinned against the law.
Evidently, the atonement did not make your punishment impossible. To the contrary, it made forgiveness possible but you must not continue in sin.
I think one of the bars called the Police. When the Police arrived, they were very nice and friendly but said that we needed a permit for the speaker.
I had heard that the clubs and bars were able to play music outside without a permit so long as they kept their volume under a certain decibel level. The Police said that was true but that that was for the clubs.
I didn’t believe that the clubs were subjected to a different set of laws than the rest of the public, so while I put the speaker system away for the night, I did email the City Hall to inquire about their noise ordinance.
Sure enough, I was told, “He has to keep his amplified sound below 63 decibels.”
In the future, I will just keep my decibel level below the requirement and I should be fine. I’ll even buy a decibel reading online to make sure I meet this requirement.
Without the speaker system, we moved closer to the bars and clubs and engaged with many people.
Conviction was in the air and we had some great conversations on the sidelines while we all took turns open air preaching.
Good crowds gathered throughout the night.
WITNESSING TO A CRAIGSLIST SCAMMER
I wanted to buy something on the Texas craigslist and was emailing back and forth with this guy, not suspecting anything at first, until there were a few subtle red flags and then the request for “bank transfer of funds.”
Once I realized it was a scam I emailed him and said, “This is a scam. You need to repent of your sins because judgment day is coming.”
He never responded.
About an hour later, still thinking about it, I wanted to email him again just to hammer the point. I said, “Have you ever thought that you will have to stand before God to answer for all of the sins you’ve ever committed in your life?”
My daughter was playing on my phone and when it rang, she thought it was her mom. But it turned out to be the scammer! It said he was calling from Long Island. When I asked where he was from, I said, “What are you from the Philippines or something? (because when I face booked his name a bunch of Filipinos came up)” He said, “No, I’m from Long Island.” (Probably one of those temporary prepaid phones).
He called me to ask that I stop “texting him.” He had a foreign accent. I said, “It’s actually called email, not texting. But you need to repent of your sins. God is going to judge your life. You’re scamming people. You’re hurting people. You could have a legitimate business.”
He said, “Oh yeah?” He seemed interested in hearing more about how to have a legitimate business. I said, “Yeah. You could have a legitimate business, doing the exact opposite of what you are doing. See you’re hurting people. If you would help people, you could have a business. Business is all about helping people.”
He said, “You’re right. You’re right.” I went on, “Then you’d have peace with God, peace with your conscience, you could sleep well at night. So you need to repent of your sins and get right with God.”
Something happened where I couldn’t hear him anymore so I hung up. I gave my phone back to my daughter and then he started calling back again. But I decided not to answer it. Pray that he does repent.
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