Inviting Sinners to Christ

Let's turn in our Bible to the
book of Numbers, chapter 10. Now, the Lord Jesus said, You
shall be my witnesses. You shall be my witnesses. He told his disciples to go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And every true believer Every regenerated child of God
wants to be just that. I do. I think most of you do.
A good witness for Christ. An effective witness. But it's
not easy. It is not easy. Finding the opportunity. Finding the words to say. Finding
the time to say them, knowing when not to say anything and
when to say something. Trying to speak in the power
of the Holy Spirit and not to damage and divide and butcher
the souls of men. A skilled surgeon operating on
the heart. You know, we require men to have
some understanding and talent and gifts to operate on our bodies,
but we just turn anybody loose on the souls of our loved ones,
to operate on them, to butcher them, to speak for God, to represent
God, to teach men in the things of the living God. Paul said,
brethren, I came to you in fear and trembling, fear and trembling. Now, I know in this business
of witnessing three vital things. Number one, there must be a genuine
concern, not for the growth of the church, a genuine concern
for the well-being, the spiritual well-being of the person to whom
we're talking. Paul said, My heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that we might have more in
Sunday school than we did last Sunday, or that we might have
more baptisms than all the other churches in our association,
or that we might grow in numbers and increase in strength. No,
sir, listen to me. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. that they might
know God. And that's the first concern
of a true witness. He's concerned not for his success,
but for his Lord's glory. He's concerned not for the growth
of his congregation, he's concerned for the heart of that person
whom he loves. He wants that person to know
God. He's not interested in recognition. He's not interested in human
praise. He's interested in that person, that individual coming
to know the Lord. Sincerity. Real sincerity. Genuine concern. Now watch this, secondly. There
must be that personal concern, personal insincerity. Listen
to Paul. He said, I could wish that myself
were a curse from Christ for my brethren according to the
flesh. I want them to know God so much, so desperately, that
I could almost, almost, wish that God would take my name out
of the book of life and put their name in its place. Now that's
concern, isn't it? That's sincerity. And then thirdly,
there must be a genuine concern, there must be sincerity, and
then thirdly, there's got to be a word given. How shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? How shall they believe
in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? There must be a word spoken.
The gospel is the power of God and the salvation. Sometimes
the word is preached. Sometimes it's preached. God
has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Secondly, sometimes it's a word spoken. Philip joined
himself to the Ethiopian eunuch's chariot, and the eunuch was reading
the Scripture, and Philip said, Do you understand what you're
reading? He said, How can I, unless some man show me? And
Philip began at that same Scripture and taught him Christ. Sometimes
the Word is preached, sometimes it's spoken, sometimes it's written.
John said, these things are written that you might believe on the
name of the Son of God, and believing you might have life. All right,
secondly, let's go to Numbers chapter 10. Now watch this. I'm
sure of this. Effective witnessing, the kind
that God will use and that God will honor, it must be born of
concern, a genuine concern. a concern for the glory of God
and for the good of that person. Now, anything else, God won't
bless. That's the reason you don't see any boards up here
telling how many are present. That's the reason nothing is
counted around here and there are no records kept at all, because
numbers mean nothing. One of the worst beatings that
God ever gave David was when he counted Israel. became concerned
for how many spearmen he had, and how many swordsmen, and how
many men of the shield, and how many of this, that, and the other.
Our concern under God and before God better not be our personal
glory and pride. It must be his glory, and the
good of that individual sitting right there, that person, that
person. It doesn't matter how many you've got in your class
when you're teaching, it is that person coming to know Christ.
Does that person know the Lord? Does that dear, sweet heart that's
facing eternity and sin and guilt and judgment and hell, does that
person know the Lord? There better be a concern, there
better be a sincerity, a deep, godly sincerity. We're not playing
games. You're not playing games. You're
a surgeon. There must be a word given. Somebody's
got to tell the truth. All right, let's look at this.
In Moses, verse 29, numbers 10, Moses said to Hobab, the son
of Ragul, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law. Now listen to
this. This is one of the most beautiful
examples of witnessing. Notice its sincerity. Notice
the compassion. Notice the simplicity. Notice
the straightforwardness of it. Moses said, we're journeying
to the place of which God said, I'll give it to you, come thou
with us, and we'll do thee good, for the Lord hath spoken good
concerning Israel." Isn't that beautiful? Come thou with us,
and we'll do thee good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning
Israel. Now you see, this witnessing
here, it's filled with kindness and love. You don't find Moses
ridiculing this man, Hobab, because he's not an Israelite. You don't
find Moses speaking harshly with him. You don't go with us, you're
going to go to hell. You don't find that at all. You
don't find this harshness and cruelty and this smart-aleck
religiosity that we're faced with in this day. Listen to the
kindness and the love and the tenderness. Come on, go with
us, old man. We're the people of God. We're
going to a land that God's promised us, and God's spoken good. We'll
do thee good. Come on, go with us. And notice
how it's born of a personal faith. Moses is not saying, now there's
a good possibility that if you'll come with us that some good might
come of it. No, he's confident of it. He
had God's promise. He said, here you come. He said,
we're journeying to the place that God said, I'm going to give
it to you. And God has spoken good concerning Israel. I'm certain
of it. I'm certain of it. Don't go to try and talk somebody
else into something you're not certain about yourself, that
you're not confident of. Notice the confidence and the
personal faith and the certainty. Moses says, we're going. God
has spoken. You go with us. And then notice
this, it's full of glory to God. It's full of glory to God. He
says, come thou with us. and will do thee good, for the
Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." God's made some promises. And this witnessing here, this
invitation, is born of compassion and love and kindness, and it's
born of, it's full of confidence and faith, but it's born of truth
and glory to God. Now then, who are we? He says,
Come thou with us. comes out, who are we? Well,
we're the people of God, we're a redeemed people. Israel here
in the wilderness is a picture of the church. Israel was a redeemed
nation. We are a redeemed people. They
had been redeemed by blood and by power. God redeemed them by
the blood on the doorpost. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. They are redeemed, delivered
by blood, by sacrifice, by death. And then they were delivered
by power. God brought them out of Egypt with a powerful hand. He defeated their enemies and
delivered them. And you and I are redeemed people. We're redeemed by the blood of
his Son. Christ Jesus our Lord shed his blood for the remission
of our sins. We're redeemed by blood. And
we're redeemed by power. God hath quickened us. God hath
regenerated us. God hath delivered us from the
Egypt, from the bondage of Egypt. from the slavery of Egypt, from
the fetters of sin. He hath delivered us by blood
and by power. That's who we are. And then we're
passing through a land as pilgrims. This is not our home. Listen
to this. Now listen carefully. The believer
may be the most contented man in the world. You may find that
the believer, and if he is, In real fellowship with God, he
will be content in the world. That's right. Paul said, I have
learned in whatsoever state I am to be content. To be content. Now, you run upon folks sometimes
that act a little pious and say, well, I'm just passing through.
I'm going home. I'm unhappy. I'm discontented.
The believer's content. You'll find he's the most contented
man in the world. He is not contented with the
world, but he's contented in the world. That's right. I spent
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning in the hospital
down in New Orleans, had some tests run and so forth, which
proved to be very satisfactory. But I had a nice room, wall-to-wall
carpet. I had nice meals brought to me
three times a day. I had telephone calls. I had
flowers sent. I had my sister came to see me
and her husband. Cody Gruber came. We had a nice
visit. I was satisfied, but I wasn't
figuring on making that my home by any stretch of the imagination. And I'll have to confess, first
time I've been in the hospital in 40 years, I'll have to confess
that about long Tuesday, you know, I began to get a little
bit depressed. And I went in that little sitting room and
got the Word of God out and started reading. Now listen, Bud. Now
you wait a minute. We're supposed to be content
in whatsoever state God puts us. We're supposed to find rest. He has us there for a purpose.
And we're to be content. And the believer's supposed to
be contented wherever God puts him in the world, but we're not
contented with the world. We're passing through. That's
what Israel was passing through. They were redeemed people, bought
by blood, bought by blood, redeemed by power, and they were passing
through a wilderness. This was not their home. We find
some joys and happiness. I'm happy this morning. I love
you. I look forward to this. I thought driving to church this
morning, how refreshing it is to look forward to going to the
house of God and meet with the people of God. how refreshing
it is, how wonderful it is. But now, I'm not figuring on
making this my home. Are you? We look for a better
country. We look for a city whose builder
and maker is God. All right? Notice this. And we're
living by faith. Israel, God met their needs.
They were a special people. He says, You are a special people
unto the Lord your God. You are special people. He supplied
their water, and he supplied the bread from heaven, and he
supplied the quail, and he supplied the pillar of fire to guide them
at night, and the cloud by day. He supplied their leaders, their
under-shepherds. He just met every need because
he had a special love for them. And God has a special love for
us. He said he loved the Church and gave himself for it. And
he has special protection for us in his providence, and he
has special guidance for us in our difficulty, and he's going
to send us special trials for our good. Special trials. We are special to him. That's
who we are. When Moses said, Hobab, come
with us, he was talking about a redeemed people. He was talking
about a people passing through a land as pilgrims. He was talking
about a people who lived by faith. And he was talking about a people
who were going to a future glory and a future rest. They had never
seen Canaan. Moses had never seen the land
of Canaan. But Moses had God's promise. And that's better than having
seen the land. God's promise. Now you asked
me this morning, Preacher, how do you know there's a heaven? Well, you know what I want to
answer? I'm going to answer the only answer that any man can
give. I believe it on the basis of
God's Word. That's the only answer you can
give. I have no other warrant for it. Nobody's ever brought
me a special message God hasn't sent a special person down to
talk to me and tell me there's a heaven. It's in this word right
here, I believe. And that's what Moses stood there
talking to Hobab. He said, Hobab, come with us. Come, we're redeemed people.
We're special people to the Lord. Bought by the blood, redeemed
by power, a people of faith, going through a land that's There
out yonder is a beautiful place that God has promised us, a land
of joy and happiness and rest and glory. Come on! Go with us. Go with us. Oh, I noticed a second thing.
Moses didn't threaten Hobart. He didn't command him. He didn't
ridicule him. What did he do? He invited him. He invited him. He lovingly invited
him with strong, reasonable words. Listen to him. Hobab, come with
us. We'll do thee good. For God is
with us, and God has promised good things for Israel. And whatever
God does for us, he'll do for you. Come on, go with us. Now,
someone may say this, Preacher, why do you Why do you persuade
people to come to Christ and to believe on Christ when salvation
is wholly and completely of the Lord? Salvation is a gift, that's
right. Salvation is the work of the
Holy Spirit, that's right. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power, that's right. No man can come to me
except my Father which sent me, draw him. That's right. All that
my Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh out
of no wise cast out. That's right. For by grace are
ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God, not of work, lest any man should boast. We are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good work, which God
hath before ordained, that we should walk in him. That's right.
He that hath begun a good work in you shall perfect it, or perform
it. That's right. But all saving acts must be performed
by the man himself. There must be in every man a
personal knowledge of sin, a personal repentance, and a personal faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot be the act of anybody
else. Now you listen to the text I
read a moment ago. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth if thou shalt confess." He doesn't say, if you wait on
the Holy Spirit to confess for you. He said, if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth, Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart, God
has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth. Who believes? The Holy Spirit
doesn't repent. He doesn't have anything to repent
of. You repent. The Holy Spirit does not believe,
you believe. The Holy Spirit does not cry
out for mercy, you cry out for mercy. The Holy Spirit does not
lay hold on Christ, you lay hold on Christ. That's what it says.
I know his enabling power, and I know he makes us willing, and
I know it's a work of grace to bring the sinner to that place,
but I'm telling you this, that sinner believes. Let me give
you an illustration. Over in the square of St. Mark in Venice, there's a giant
clock. It's a huge clock. It's old,
old, old, old. I don't know how old it is and
whether it still works or not. But on the hour, two bronze mechanical
men come out of two doors. They have large hammers. And
they come out on the hour, and they strike a bell. And then they go back through
their doors. Now, nobody ever thanks them
for striking those bells, does he? Nobody ever stands and says,
hey, bronze men, good job, fellas. Sure glad you struck that. They're
mechanical men. They have no, it's not an act
of will, it's not an act of heart, it's not an act of motive, it's
a mechanical thing. They do it because they are made
to do it. That's the reason they do it.
They are mechanical men. Grace has not reduced men to
that. We're not mechanical men. We're
not robots. All right. One time there was
a workman working up there, and he forgot about those men. Totally
forgot. He was busy working on that clock,
and when the hour came for the men to come out, they came out,
and he didn't see them. He totally forgot them. And went
out and drew back and hit him with the hammer. and he fell
to his death down below. Nobody said, those mechanical
men should be hanged for killing that fellow. Nobody took them down and put
them on trial because it was not an act of mind, it was not
an act of will, it was not an act of the heart, there was no
heart involved. Some people would have us to
believe that sin and grace is this way, that we just, the will
of God's done, and if it's done, it's the will of God through
no fault of our own. No, sir. I'm accountable for
my sins. I'm accountable for my rebellion.
Because my sin is an act of heart. My sin is an act of mind. My
sin is an act of will. My sin is against God. And also,
my repentance and my faith is an act of mind and heart and
will enabled by the Holy Spirit. That's the reason that we say
to sinners, come thou with us and we'll do thee good. You come. You come. You come with us in
recognizing our sins. Oh God, against thee have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. I recognize that. My heart is
broken. My heart, not the Holy Spirit's
heart, he's never sinned. My heart weeps over my sins. My tears cry over my sins. My heart is broken and my spirit
is contrite over my sins. That's an act of the sinner.
You see what I'm saying? Come thou with us in receiving
Christ as Lord. I bow. My knee bows. My tongue confesses. My heart
believes. My soul receives. My mind enthrones
Christ to be King. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall, not
let them be forced down by the hand of God. Any man will bow
if somebody puts his hand on his neck and forces him down. God didn't force me to bow to
Christ. I bowed to him. God didn't force me to own Christ
as Lord. I owned him. You see what I'm
saying? I receive him, my heart receives him. Come thou with
us, with us in recognizing our sins, with us in repenting, with
us in receiving Christ, with us in love and fellowship. Our
love, not the Holy Spirit, our love. You love. I hate you hate. I'm a responsible,
accountable creature. And don't you hide behind the
fatalistic notion that God Almighty will not charge you with hatred
if you hate. God will charge you. God will
not hold you guiltless, that taketh his name in vain. And
if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive yours. I love, or I hate. That's right. By this shall all men know you,
my disciples, if you love one another." I pray. That's right. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Who calls? You
call. Who prays? You pray. Who seeks
mercy? You seek mercy. Come thou with
us, we'll do thee good. With us. Now watch this. He didn't ask, Hobab, he didn't
say, come and be a Jew. He didn't say, Hobab, if you
don't become a Baptist, you're not going to quite make it. No.
He didn't say, Hobab, now come and keep the Sabbath day with
us. We worship on this day, or that day, or that day. You come
and keep that with us, or you can't make it. Come, Hobab. We've
got some ceremonies, you see. There's a ceremony of this, that,
and the other. Now, you come to these ceremonies and do them,
and it'll be all right. No, sir. Come with us. With us. Become a part of us. Become a part of us in your soul
and in your mind and in your heart. God blesses us, his people. The fellowship, that's it. It's
a fellowship. Be identified with us in this
repentance, with us in this faith, with us in this fellowship. Turn
to 1 John a minute. Let me show you a scripture over
here. I wish I could make clear what I'm trying to say here.
In 1 John chapter 1, He says in verse 3, that which we've
seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ. There's the fellowship. Some
man said to me not long ago, a very dear friend, that He'd
been in church somewhere for a long time, and then he came
here. And he found here a fellowship that he'd never found before,
that he'd never known before. You know the difference? It's
a person, Christ, that's the difference. If you're in Christ and I'm in
Christ, we're going to be one with one another. If you love
Christ and I love Christ, I'm going to love you. It's not a
program. It's not an organization. It's
not a religious denomination. It's not people that have certain
rules and regulations, you know, that all must abide by or be
cut off from the fellowship. It's a fellowship. It's a family. It's people who are one in Christ.
Come thou with us! And you don't become with us
by just putting your body in a pew either. You don't become
with us by writing your name on the roll either. You don't
become one with us in fellowship by just adopting the doctrines. You know how you become one with
us? It's to become a member and a part of the body of Christ
who is the head. with us in him. Come thou with
us. Now watch this and I'll close.
Back to Numbers. And he said, verse 30, I will
not go. I will not go. I will not go. I will depart
to my own land, to my own people. I preach to folks. I preach here. A lot of people, they listen
for a little while and And they refused, they don't immediately
right off receive the gospel and embrace it, fall at the feet
of Christ and love him. But I'm not going to quit preaching
it to them. Moses didn't quit either, listen. And Moses, verse
31, said, Leave us not, I pray thee. Don't leave us. You know what, Moses knew there
was nothing out there. Moses knew that God was with
them. Moses knew they were special
people under the Lord God. Moses had confidence and faith
in where he was going, and who he was, and whom he loved, in
whom he trusted. And he couldn't, he couldn't
just say, well, okay, if you want to leave, go ahead. No,
he said, don't leave us, Hobart. Don't leave us. And he kept entreating
him, kept patiently, patiently. And let me say this. Continue
in prayer. If I am persuaded that Christ
is with us, that this gospel we preach is the gospel of God's
redeeming glory and grace, I'm not going to let anybody go in
my heart. I'm not going to aggravate them
and nag them and pressure them and keep insisting. I'm going
to try to do it like Moses did here. Come with us. We'll do thee good. God's with
us. And you know, they tell me, it's
believed by many, that Hobab did finally go with them, because
they read about his people, the Canaanites dwelling in the land
of Canaan afterwards. And it may be, it may be, in
the case of some of our friends and loved ones, that God will
yet honor his word. He will yet. I believe that.
If I preach, and you witness, and talk to folks, let's ask
God to give us the words to say. Give us the concern, and the
compassion, and the sincerity, and the confidence, and the faith.
And let's, rather than, it's not, it's not come to an ordinance,
or come to a congregation, or come to a doctrine, it's come
to a person. With us, in our fellowship with
him. And ask God to enable us to have some wisdom in this thing. Come with us, we'll do thee good. Our Father in Heaven, we want
so much to speak a good word in season. We want so much to
be delivered from empty, vain, idle words and arguments. that
gender strife and discord and division that only drive men
away from the true knowledge of Christ. Grant us the patience
and concern and sincerity of genuine witnesses for Christ
who love men. who seek only thy glory and the
good of those to whom we speak. Open a door, a factual door,
a door of opportunity through which we might take the blessed
good news of Christ. And like Moses of old, that we
might with compassion and love speak to those about us. Come
with us. The Lord is with us. He's spoken
good things concerning us. We'll do thee good. And though
they say so often I will not go, I'm going to return to my
home and my family and my way. I'm going to do it my way. Give
us the patience to wait upon thee, to lean upon thee. Give us the patience, O Lord,
to be long-suffering to them as thou hast been to us, and
to pray for them. Make us intercessors for Christ's
sake. Amen. Don, you come in. This next song, please. Turn to number 204. Same thing.
Oh, soul, are you weary and troubled? The light in the darkness, you
see, There's light for a look at the Savior, And light for
abundant and free. Oh, in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strength in Him. In the light of His

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