Revival (Part 7) – Revival Through Soulwinning
Alright well we’re there in Jonah chapter number three this morning. We’ve been through a series and this is now the seventh sermon in this series on revival. And we are coming close to an end. This is not the end of the series but we’re coming close to the end of the series. And we’ve been talking about revival. I don’t know if you remember but when we started this series, we began with the great passages on revival. Then we started looking at the great revivals in the Bible. And we’ve been kind of going back and forth. And in the first sermon, we talked about “Wilt thou not revive us again”. We learned that revival is two things. It’s knowing God and it’s making God known. It’s individuals getting close to God and knowing God. And then those individuals making God known. Like we’re saying already this morning, that all the earth may know which is a theme of our church. Here now we’ve spent the last several weeks kind of focusing in on this idea of knowing God. We’ve talked about revival through dying to self, revival through the house of God, revival through the Word of God and revival through prayer. Last week we talked about revival through separation. And this all has to do with knowing God. Because the truth is this, we cannot accomplish much for God if you and I are not close to God, if we don’t know God and understand God and understand God’s will for our lives.
Today we’re going to focus on making God known. I’m preaching on the subject of revival through soul winning. And the reason we’re here in Jonah chapter number three is because Jonah actually led one of the greatest soul-winning revivals recorded in Scripture, if not the greatest soul-winning revival recorded in scripture. We find it here in the Book of Jonah, Jonah chapter number three. And I want you to notice several characteristics about a soul-winning revival and what that means and what that looks like. And maybe you’re here this morning and you say, I’ve not never even heard of that or I’m not sure what that is. We’re talking about soul-winning. We’re talking about going out in the community, reaching people with the gospel of Christ. The Bible says that “he that winneth souls is wise”. And we are out there trying to win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I would just say this this morning, my goal for Verity Baptist Church is that we would experience yes revival, personal revival, that we may know God, but that our church would experience a soul-winning revival and that we would make God known. That we would be a church that would make God known in this community and in this world. You say well what does that mean and what does that look like? I want you to notice three things in regards to a soul winning revival here this morning. I would like you to notice first of all, the result of a soul winning revival. You say okay, you want a soul winning revival, well what does that mean? What does that look like when that happens? If that happens, what would that look like? What would be the result? And I want you to notice that the result of a soul winning revival is this, an entire geographical area being saturated with the gospel.
Look at Jonah 3:1 “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh,” Notice there’s a city here. This is the capital of Assyria, a world power at this time. And God tells Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. And I want you to notice that God is telling Jonah a specific location, a place. I want you to go and I want you to own this part of the world for me, for the cause of God, for the cause of Christ. He says “2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”. Notice verse 3 “3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”. And for the ancient world, this was a big city, a big metropolis. And it would take three days to even cross the city by foot. And in our modern standards, we have mega cities that would make a city like Nineveh seem small. But for this time, with their technologies, this is a huge city that Jonah went to.
And notice what Jonah did in verse four “4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”. Jonah walks into the city Nineveh and he decides that he’s going to preach the preaching that God bid him. He’s going to bring the message to this entire city whether they want to hear it or not, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. His goal was to make sure this entire city heard the message of judgment. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”. Keep your place there in Jonah chapter three and go to Acts 1. And please understand this, obviously when we’re looking at Jonah, we’re looking at an Old Testament missions work here. And obviously this was before Jesus had been born and salvation has always been by grace through faith. But it’s different in the sense that they’re calling upon the name of the Lord as opposed to us preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and bringing the name of Jesus and salvation through Jesus Christ. But the principles are the same. God has always wanted the preaching and the mission’s emphasis and the evangelistic outreach to go forth. And here Jonah is really an Old Testament missionary being sent into the city to make sure that the city Nineveh hears the message of God. And look, please understand this, as believers our goal and our plan and our agenda has always been and will always be to reach communities with the gospel of Christ.
Look at Acts 1:8. In the same way that God sends Jonah to Nineveh, God has given you and I geographical areas that he wants us to take ownership of those areas and to take responsibility for those areas to preach the gospel there. Acts 1:8, notice what Jesus said to the disciples before his ascension. He said, “8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,” A geographical area. “and in all Judaea,” A geographical area. “and in Samaria,” A geographical area. And Jerusalem would be the city that they lived in and Samaria would be like a neighboring location or for us like a neighboring state. And he says “and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”. And look, 10 years ago we came to Sacramento, California and started Verity Baptist Church. We are called to reach this city with the gospel of Christ. We came here to bring the message of the judgment of God and of the salvation of God to the city.
But we’ve not only done it here, we’ve started a church in Vancouver, Washington. We’ve started a church in Boise, Idaho. We’ve started a church in Fresno, California. We’ve started a church in Manila, Philippines and Pampanga, Philippines. You say why? Because our goal is a soul-winning revival. Our goal is to plant churches all over this country and all over this world that will take ownership for their geographical area and saturate it with the gospel of Christ. That is the movement of Christianity that Jesus started. Notice Acts 5, you already saw in acts 1:8 where he said “8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”.
Acts 5:28. Here we have the enemies of the local church. Notice what they said. “28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you” These are the enemies of the local church speaking to the leaders of the local church in Jerusalem. And they’re saying “28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold,”. Notice, these are the enemies of the local church in Jerusalem. “ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”. And look, here’s all I’m telling you; you say what’s the goal of Verity Baptist Church? The goal is that we would know God and that we would make God known. That those who hate us, that those who hate the cause of Christ, that those who are the enemies of the cause of Christ would look at a church like this and say “You have filled Sacramento with your doctrine. You have filled this area with your teaching. You are making God known”.
Go to Acts chapter 13:44. You say, I want to be a New Testament Christian. Well let me show you what New Testament Christianity is all about. Because they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. Acts 13:44 “44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.”. Look, these New Testament Christians were not messing around. The Sabbath day, that’s our Saturday. These Christians were not spending their Saturday hiking. They were not spending their Saturday fishing. And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with those things. But I’m just here to tell you that with New Testament Christianity, they went out soul-winning on a Sabbath day. And the Bible says that came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Would to God that it would be said at Verity Baptist Church that the whole city of Sacramento just heard the gospel. That the message of salvation was proclaimed near there.
Acts 13:49 “49 And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.”. The word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. You say why do we have the church services and then we have the livestreams and we have the YouTube channels and we have all those different things? Why do we have the mailers and all the things that we do around here? Because we want the word of Lord to be published throughout all the region. But please understand this, when you go on the offense with the gospel, realize that the devil is going to attack and the devil is going to go on the defense. Notice verse 50 “50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.”. In New Testament Christianity, they would go into a location a geographical location and say we’re going to saturate this area with the gospel. We’re going to fill the city with our doctrine. The whole city is going to come together and hear what we have to say about the Word of God.
Notice Acts 14:1 “And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake,”. Notice, “and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.”. I’m here to tell you, New Testament Christianity, the first century church, did not practice lifestyle evangelism. They did not practice this idea of “Well, just live your Christian life and you just try to have a good marriage and you just try to raise your children right”. And look, I believe in having a good marriage and I believe in raising your children right and I think you need to do good works that they might see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. I think all of that is scriptural. But these people actually went out into their community. I love these words when it says “and so spake”. They spake in such a way that a great multitude both of the Jews and also the Greeks believed.
Acts 14:21 “21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,”. Look, these people were going big. They had preached the gospel to the city and had taught many. Go to Acts 19:10. I want you to understand what a soul-winning revival looks like. It looks like 2 different things. And I’m not necessarily criticizing any church that I will describe. But you can find a whole lot of independent fundamental Baptist churches all over the state and all over this country with you know five or six or twenty or thirty people in the congregation. And they’ve got three to five young people out soul-winning. I remember being a young person and showing up to our soul-winning meeting and there were three people there. Two people there. And we’re just being faithful and going out and knocking doors. They didn’t give us maps because there’s no need to give maps because there was three of us.
And there was way more that could have been done with more people. And I’m not criticizing that. I’m thankful for any church that has a remnant. You’ve got a church of a hundred people and you’ve got six people that go out soul-winning, I’m thankful for the few and the faithful and the remnant. But that’s not a soul-winning revival. That’s soul-winning and I’m thankful for that. And we got to start there but a soul-winning revival is when a church that knows God, gets on fire for God, and goes out and reaches the city for Christ. When the whole city hears the gospel.
Hey, I’m thankful that yesterday we had 72 soul-winners out on Saturday morning. 72 preachers of the Word of God that went out and preached the gospel on a holiday weekend. And here’s all I’m telling you; you say what’s the goal? The goal is soul winning. But you know what the real goal is? A soul winning revival, that the whole city would hear, that many would be taught. You’re there in Acts 19:10. “10 And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they” Notice these words “which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”. See, Paul and his group would come in and they’d say look, we don’t want to just reach a few people. We want the whole city. We want to reach everyone. We might not be able to win them all and we understand that. Not everybody’s going to get saved. But we can at least warn them all. He said “10 And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”. Look at verse 26. “26 Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus,”. Here again are the enemies of the cause of Christ speaking. They are commenting on what the New Testament church is doing. They said, “ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people,”. Would to God that they would say of Verity Baptist Church, “Hey not alone in Sacramento but almost throughout all the California this Verity Baptist Church has persuaded and turned away much people”. “saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:”.
You say pastor Jimenez, you want a soul-winning revival, what does that look like? Here’s what it looks like, an entire geographical area saturated with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You say how are you going to do that? Well we first have to know God and then we got to make God known. We spent six weeks talking about how to know God. You got to die to self. You got to pray. Spend time in the Word of God and in the house of God. We understand that. But look, it’s not just to know God, it’s to know God and make God known. And you say, well how will we know when we’re experiencing a soul-winning revival? We’ll know when an entire geographical area is saturated with the gospel of Christ. When the enemies of Verity Baptist Church say, “Can you shut up? Can you stop preaching? Can you stop coming here? And we don’t want to hear it and you fill the city with your message, with your doctrine, with your gospel”.
Keep your place there in Jonah 3. I want you to notice the results of a soul winning revival. I’m just telling you; you say well how will you know? You know when we knock on doors and instead of the door saying “No Mormons” or “No Jehovah’s Witness”, but it says “No Verity Baptist Church”. Then we know that we’re doing it. I mean when we have that type of impact. When they say “We’re tired of you coming here and telling us and warning us. We don’t care.”. Look, that is our goal. That an entire geographical area will be saturated with the gospel. But it’s not just that. It’s not just an entire geographical area, that’s just part of a soul-winning revival. There’s a second part to learning about one. It’s this, that many people would be saved and discipled. It’s not just enough to get people saved.
And this is where I lose most soul winners. It’s hard to get people out soul-winning. And once you get them out soulwinning, for soul winners to get this idea where we need to get people saved and disciple them. See, in the story here with Jonah, he didn’t just get people saved. Now he got them saved but notice verse five. And in Jonah 3:5, he goes in and he says I can take over this city for Christ. I can conquer this city for Christ. I can preach the message of God in this place. Notice verse 5, “5 So the people of Nineveh believed God,”. They got saved. What is salvation? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. In the Old Testament, believing God is referencing salvation. The Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. These people got saved. They believed God. But I want you to notice, they didn’t only get saved, they also got right with God. And please understand this, those are two different things. Salvation is not of works. You don’t have to do anything to get saved, just put your faith in Christ, call upon him for salvation in faith. Believe on Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But salvation is just the beginning. Then God wants you to walk with Him. Then God wants you to have a relationship with him. You need to believe to get saved but then God wants you to get right.
And I want you to notice the reason that this story of Jonah and Nineveh, the reason that it was a soul-winning revival is because an entire city, an entire city heard the message of God. Many people got saved and got right with God. They got saved. And we would use this New Testament term “disciple”. Notice verse five, “5 So the people of Nineveh believed God,”. They got saved but that wasn’t it. “and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. “6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed”. Notice, doesn’t this sound like the Book of Acts. “And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man”. Look, this is how serious they got. They got so right with God that they even made their pets get right with God. “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:”. They said we got to get right with God. They said we’re going to fast and our animals are going to fast.
Verse 8 “8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”. Look, you’re getting right with God when you’re making your dog get right with God. When you get right with God and you make your animals get right, you know you’re being serious. And these people got right with the Lord. These people made things right through salvation and then they got right in their actions.
Go to Matthew 28. You know it’s a holiday week and a 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately, you have many conservative Christians today who have their eyes on the wrong place. Unfortunately, this week or last weekend you’re going to hear a lot of sermons if you pay attention from a lot of conservative Christians talking about pray for Trump and Trump this and Trump that. Let me tell you something, Trump is not the hope for this country. And you say, are you a Democrat? Let me let you in on a secret. If you’re a politician, you’re a wicked person, alright. So how do you know when a politician’s lying? When they’re talking. They’re lying alright.
Do you understand that the Bible says that there are rulers and principalities and that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the rulers of the darkness of this world? They are the ones that are controlling the politics. The Bible says that the devil is the god of this world, lowercase g. And look, we understand that we need to be involved and pay attention and understand what’s going on around us politically. But please get this, no politician is the hope of any country. They that put their trust in Princes, the Bible says it’s a foolish thing to put your trust in man. We got a governor that banned singing in church. That’s where we’re at in this country, alright. You say, oh I noticed you guys were singing. Yeah, we don’t need to ask permission from anybody to sing praises to God. But I’m here to tell you, you say well what’s the hope for America? The hope for America is we get people saved and we teach them to walk with God. We get people saved then we disciple them. We help them grow. And by the way, this is what Jesus left us on this planet to do.
Matthew 28:19, famous passage talking about the Great Commission. Have you ever wondered why God didn’t just rapture you up to heaven right after you got saved? I mean you got saved, you called upon Christ for salvation. Why did he leave you here? Matthew 28:19 “19 Go ye therefore,” Notice, he’s going to say 3 things. “and teach all nations,”. Now that’s talking about going out into our communities and preaching the gospel. The Bible talks about preaching the gospel to every creature. But that’s not enough. That’s not it. Look, that’s not it. Look, that’s where most soul winners stop. You say, well I want to get somebody saved. That’s just step one.
Then he says this “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”. Why do we have a Baptistery that we fill every week with water and have it ready to baptize? Just in case somebody wants to get baptized. Why do we do that? Here’s why. We do that because God wants new believers to be baptized. Not to just get saved but because they’re saved, to identify themselves with Christ as a believer in Christ.
But I want you to notice a third step. Verse 20 “20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:”. You know that discipleship is part of the Great Commission? We’re supposed to teach them about Jesus and salvation. Then we’re supposed to baptize them so that they can publicly identify themselves with Christ. But they were supposed to come alongside and teach them to observe all things. Teach them what God wants for their lives. Teach them how God wants them to live their life. Look at Verity Baptist Church, if you don’t know this or have never heard me say this, please understand everything we do. Everything we do at Verity Baptist Church falls under these two headings. We’re either reaching people or we’re teaching people. We’re either reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ or we are teaching people to observe all things.
Yesterday we went out to reach people. This morning we are teaching people how to observe all things. Because a soul-winning revival is not just a geographical blitz of an entire area. Saturating an entire city with the gospel, that’s a big part of it, that’s a big task of it. But there’s also this aspect that we go out and get people saved and then we develop relationships with them. We pray for them. We call them. We write them notes. We try to get them to come to church and we talk to them about getting baptized and we talk to them about coming to church and learning. Maybe we give them a Bible and teach them how to read the Bible and help them. Look, it’s not just enough to preach the gospel. Many a soul-winner gets excited and says oh, I’m so excited. I got somebody saved. Oh, praise the Lord. You ask them, what’s their name. They say, I don’t know. Well how do you pray for them if you don’t know their name?
You say, what does a soul winning revival look? It is different than soul winning. Now we need soul winning but a soulwinning revival is when we have a group of soul winners who say, I want to go get somebody saved but I want to get those people that I got saved baptized and in church and growing. I want to pray for them. I want to invest in them. I want to develop a relationship with them. You say, why don’t we do that? Because that’s work. It takes work. But that’s the result of a soul winning revival. What does the soulwinning revival look like? It looks like an entire geographical area being saturated with the gospel. It looks like many people getting saved and discipled as a result.
But I’d like you to notice secondly this morning, not only the result of a soulwinning revival but I’d like you to notice the requirement for a soulwinning revival. Go to the Book of Jonah if you would. Keep your place there in Matthew. We’re going to come back to it. Jonah chapter one. You say, well Pastor, this all sounds nice. I hope you do it. I hope you get it done. Here’s the thing, I believe if we took a survey of everyone in this room, every single person in this room would say they agree. If we asked, do you agree with what was just preached about, if we ask all the soulwinners, I think all of you would say that sounds awesome, that sounds great, I hope that happens. Well here’s the thing, there’s a reason why it’s not happening in most places. There’s a reason why it happens from time to time here and sometimes it doesn’t. And we have to always be working at motivating and getting that momentum going in that direction.
Because it’s not just enough to understand the result of a soul winning revival, there’s a requirement. There’s a requirement to having a soul winning revival. Most churches are not experiencing a soul winning revival. There’s one big reason. You say, what do you need? There’s a requirement for a soulwinning revival and God needs a soul winner. God will not do the work of reaching people with the gospel without you.
I mean look at the Book of Jonah Chapter 1 verse 1. “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”. Why is it that God went to Jonah and said “Jonah, I need you to go.”? Why didn’t he just do it himself? Here’s why. Because God will not do it without a soul winner. I mean look at Jonah 3:1. “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah” Don’t miss this “the second time,”. I mean God already told Jonah to go in Chapter 1. You know the story. He didn’t go. He didn’t want. God says to go fishing. You say “God I got other things to do”. I’m not preaching about Jonah but just so you know this, you can run from God but you can’t outrun God. You spend your time running from God young person, you can’t outrun God. You say, well I’ll go out to the sea. God will meet you there with his whale.
The Bible says in Jonah 3:2 “2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”. God needs a soul-winner. You know what we learned from the story of Jonah? Go back to Jonah chapter 1. We learned from the story of Jonah that God is so desperate to save people. I mean think about the fact God sends his son to die on the cross, to bring salvation to all mankind. And God is so desperate to get that message out there that he’ll use just about anyone. I mean look at this guy, Jonah is a piece of work. I mean this guy does not want to go. Jonah 1:1 “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”. Look, he’s running from God. You can run from God but you can’t outrun God. He doesn’t go. You know the story, he doesn’t go. God sends a whale and he finally gets right with God. The whale vomits him.
Chapter 3, Jonah preaches the gospel but look, even after Jonah went, this guy had a bad attitude. Go to Jonah chapter 4:1. “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.”. In chapter 3 he preaches the judgment of God. The entire city believes on God, gets right with God, makes their animals get right with God. How does Jonah respond in Jonah 4:1? “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.”. He leads the greatest revival documented in the Bible and he is upset about it. He has a bad attitude about it. And he prayed unto the Lord and said “2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew” Notice what Jonah is mad about. “for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”. He’s saying God, I knew that if I went and preached to them that you would forgive them.
“3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”. You know what we call this? He’s being a drama queen. “4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?”. You know you read the story; you think what in the world? I mean Jonah, is this even real? Why was somebody so upset? If you went soul-winning, there’s lots of Jonah’s out there. I’ve been soulwinning with a lot of people where you wonder why they are here. It seems like they’re just out soul winning to pick a fight. There’s many a soul winner out there who’s more excited about telling somebody to go to hell than trying to keep them from going to hell. There’s many a soulwinner who just seem like they are trying to fight somebody or they’re mad and angry out there trying to pick a fight.
Jonah gets out there and doesn’t want to go. He has a bad attitude about it even after he goes. And you know, here’s a lesson for us. God will work with a soulwinning and sometimes God will work in spite of a soul-winner. But God is so desperate to get people saved that he’ll use any soul winner. Some of you use this excuse, well I’m not a very good Christian, that’s why I can’t go soul-winning. That’s a shame. Become a very good Christian. Know God and then make God known. You say I’m not a good Christian but are you a better Christian than this guy? Because it seems like this guy’s pretty lousy. Seems like this guy is pretty bad. I mean he has a bad attitude. He’s not right with God. He’s backslidden after the he leads the greatest revival. If this was me, I’d write a book and sell it or something. He’s all mad and angry. “I can’t believe you forget. I knew you were going to forgive them”. I mean if God can use this guy, God can use you. If God can use this guy, God can use anyone.
Yesterday morning Brother Oliver preached a soulwinning challenge about Apollos. And he was just out there just trying and God helped him and God brought people alongside to help him learn and teach him how to preach the gospel properly. Here’s all I’m telling you; God needs you. You say, I’ll come but I don’t know what to do. God says just come. We’ll figure that out. Sometimes God uses soul-winners and he works with soulwinners and then sometimes God works in spite of soul winners. But you know the big problem is this, why is this church not accomplishing what he could accomplish for God? Why are many churches not accomplishing what they could accomplish for God? It comes down to this, the laborers are few. See there’s a requirement for a soul and it is soul-winners.
Matthew 9:36 “36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;”. Jesus says the problem isn’t the harvest, the harvest is plenteous. He says that if someone would go, people would get saved. There’s not a week when our church goes out and doesn’t get somebody saved. You say, “I went out and I didn’t get anybody saved”. But between the 70 soul-winners that went out yesterday, somebody got saved. The problem is not with the harvest. The harvest truly is plenteous. Why are they not getting saved? Because the laborers are few, we need more laborers.
Notice verse 38, “38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”. I always thought this was really interesting. I mean if we just got a prayer request from the Lord Jesus Christ himself…and look, I believe in prayer. We’ve been talking a lot about prayer lately. I believe in prayer. I think God’s working amongst us and God’s answering prayers. If Jesus had a prayer request, he says “38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”. Realize that Jesus was praying that you and I will get involved in the work that he left us to do. And I’ll just say this, I’d be really careful about praying in the name of Jesus to God your father, through the blood of his Son Jesus, and proclaiming the power and the presence of Christ for your prayer. I’d be really careful about praying to God through Jesus which is how we pray, in the name of Jesus which is the authority we’ve been given. I’d be really careful about going to God in prayer through Jesus when Jesus has a prayer request for you and you refuse to fulfill it. I mean the Bible says that we should treat people the way we’d like to be treated. I wonder how many prayers you’re sending up to Jesus. Maybe he says that I’ll answer your prayer when you answer mine. “38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers”. How about you answer my prayer and then I’ll answer your prayer. I wonder if a lot of our prayers aren’t being answered because we’re not answering the call, the prayer he says. “38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”.
See the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few. There is a requirement for a soul-winning revival. What does God need? God needs you and me. God is not going to do it without us. It’s not that he can’t do it without us but that he refuses to do without us. I don’t know why God set it up that way but that’s how he did it. Study the book of Acts. I mean have you thought about this? God sends the Lord Jesus Christ after his ascension in his glorified body to meet Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. He blinds him, scares him, and then says go to Damascus and I’m going to send the soul-winner to get you saved. He goes to a soul-winner named Ananias who has to preach the gospel to Saul.
You wonder why Jesus didn’t just preach the gospel to him. Have you ever thought about that? You ever thought about Cornelius the Italian. He is praying and seeking the face of God. God sends an angel down to Cornelius and the angel appears before and he says “Go find Peter and he’ll tell you how to get saved”. And I think about the angels, don’t they have a lunch break coming up? Why don’t they just preach the gospel? You know why? Because God has chosen to do his work in this world through the local New Testament church. God could send a thousand angels preaching the gospel. God has chosen not to. God has chosen you and the requirement for a soul-winning revival is a soul winner. And here’s all I’m telling you; we need your help. You say, “Well you had 70 soul winners yesterday. Sounds like you’re doing all right. No that’s not enough.
When we started Verity Baptist Church, for years we had a small amount of soul winners. And I would pray, God would you give us 12 soul winners? I thought that Jesus had 12 disciples, so maybe the Lord will give us 12 soul winners to go out. Eventually God gave us 12. What’d you do after you had 12? Then I realized that Jesus had 70 that he sent out two by two. Well we have 70 and somebody yesterday, okay so are we done? No, because in acts 3 he had 120 in the upper room that went out and preached the gospel. So, guess what, we’re praying for 120. We need your help. We need you to get involved. God requires soul winners for a soul winning revival.
Let me give you a third reason and we’ll finish up. Go to Jonah chapter 4. We talked about the result of a soulwinning revival. What is it? It’s an entire geographical area saturated with the gospel. It is many people getting saved and discipled as a result of the work of the soul winner. Then there is a requirement for soul-winning. What is it? It is that God needs a soul winner. When it comes to soul-winning, God will use just about anyone, even Jonah. Number three, I’d like to give you the reason for a soulwinning revival. You say “Why should I give up my Saturday? Why should I give up my Thursday afternoon? Why should I give up my Sunday afternoon? Why should I go and preach the gospel to anyone?”.
Well there’s a reason, remember our hero Jonah? “take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”. Remember that guy? Look at verse 11. Here is God’s response and don’t miss this. “11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”. What is he referring to? I think he’s referring to children. Yeah there’s little kids out there. I think he might be referring to slaves. There are some slaves in that city Nineveh. They didn’t ask to be in that city or that wicked environment. They were brought there and they’ve not been educated. And then here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying they are innocent people. He says there are people in that city who are going to die and suffer the judgment of God if you don’t go Jonah. This is why God was putting up with Jonah. That’s why he’s using him, not working with him but in spite of him. Because there are many innocent people who would face judgment in that city if someone didn’t go.
Go to 2 Corinthians 4. And let me just say this, if you don’t go and if I don’t go, there are many ignorant people. And I’m not saying that in a rude way. I’m talking about people all over the city who spiritually speaking could not discern between their right hand and their left hand. They don’t know. They’re innocent. They’re ignorant. All are sinners and we understand that. And we’ve all broken the laws of God and deserve the judgment of God. But do you know that there are people all over who would get saved if someone preached the gospel to them. 2nd Corinthians 4:3, the Bible says this, “3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:”. Here’s the thing about soul-winning, when we decide to not preach the gospel, we are actually hurting the people who need it the most. I mean there’s so much talk about this coronavirus and whatever. But it’d be like if there was a disease out there that was killing thousands of people and you had the anecdote for it and you’re just like “I’m just going to hide it”. Look, whatever you think about Covid and all that, there is a disease out there called sin and it is sending people to hell. And if you’re saved you have the anecdote. You have the solution. Look, if you’re saved, someone took the time, someone cared enough, someone took the time to bring the gospel to you. And then the Bible says “3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:”. It is hid to them who need it the most.
If you would, go to the book of Jude verse 22. The Bible says “22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”. You say Pastor, it seems like this whole soulwinning revival thing is going to require a lot of work, a lot of organization, maps need to be printed, and things need to be organized. We need soulwinning Captains and we need this and we need resources and materials to go out to publish. And all of it seems like a lot of work is going into this. Why would we do that? Here’s why, because if we do not go, many innocent and ignorant people will face the judgement of God who would have gotten saved, would have gotten saved if somebody would have cared enough to go. “22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:”. So, here’s the question for you and it’s really basic, will you go? Will you help us? Because the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few. I’m not speaking generically like as a church will we go. I’m saying you; will you go and help us reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because God left us on this earth to know God and to make gone known.
Let’s pray.