"And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers. And he saith unto
them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets,
and followed him." (Matthew 4:18-20).
THIS is an age of specialization. General practitioners in any line are rare, mostly a thing of the
past. Doctors specialize in dietetics, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics. Lawyers specialize in civil
practice, criminal law, real estate, chancery, Federal procedure. The specialty for the Christian is
soul winning. It is by odds the greatest specialty in all the world. Soul-winning is the work of
GOD, the task of CHRIST, the mission of the HOLY SPIRIT, the undertaking of the church; the
responsibility of the preacher, the obligation of every Christian. It is a divine task, Heavenentrusted,
GOD-directed, SPIRIT-empowered.
Soul-winning requires more energy, calls for more heroism, challenges to greater sacrifices,
insures mightier rewards, than any other occupation in all creation. It starts chains of
consequences, originates spheres of influence, commences circles of effects that will outlive
eternity. It should be the joyous privilege of every born-again child of GOD to subordinate every
other ambition, every other aspiration, every other engagement in life to the task of bringing the
lost to a saving knowledge and acceptance of the Lord JESUS CHRIST.
In these three verses of Scripture, the Master gives us a key to effectiveness in soul-winning. He
tells us three things. First, we are told that He ever calls common folk. Second, there is the
invitation to a common task. Third, we have the introduction of common instructions.
I. HE CALLS COMMON PEOPLE
It has been so throughout the ages. When GOD wished to show His mighty power, He picked out
a shepherd lad, David, to slay the giant Goliath. Then He elevated this humble boy to the throne
of Israel. The prophets, with but few exceptions, were men of very humble mold, of very lowly
birth. It was the SPIRIT of GOD energizing, spiritualizing, magnetizing their lives, their words,
their works, that made them so effective. When the Son of GOD walked upon the earth, He, too,
had a predilection for the humble, the poor, the lowly, the one-talent men. There was a reason for
that. You will find the reason in I Corinthians 1:29-31, "that no flesh should glory in his
presence . . . He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
Had the Master chosen the wise men, the rich men, the mighty men, the chief captains, the
statesmen, the warlords, the priests, the rabbis, to advance the interests of His kingdom, the
world long ago would have said that it was on the strength of the superior minds, abilities,
possessions, leaderships, achievements of these stalwarts that the church of the living GOD has
been built. As it is, considering the poverty in every direction of Peter, James, John, Philip,
Thomas, Matthew, and of the first-century Christians, no intellectually honest person can
truthfully point to these men as the builders of Zion. On the other hand, it is very evident; that
the strength of GOD was manifested in their weakness, His wisdom in their foolishness, His
power in their powerlessness.
It has been that way throughout the ages. Scan the pages of church history. See how "that not
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called:" but GOD has
always chosen and is still choosing "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." Run
through the Valhalla of Christian names. Count them one by one. What were the antecedents,
what was the dry ground, what were the unpromising roots from which sprang such men as
Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Whitfield, Spurgeon, Moody, Booth, Billy Sunday,
Sam Jones, Gipsy Smith, George Truett, Lee Scarborough, and a host of others in every
denomination in every church? All this is but to the glory of GOD.
See if it is not that way in your own church. Here is a man who owns his own business or works
at a job that gives him all sorts of liberty. He does not work to exhaustion. He makes a good
salary. He can come and go as he pleases. He has all kinds of time that he can devote to the Lord.
Here is another man who works for a wage. He is perhaps obliged to punch a time clock. He has
not a moment of time to call his own from the hour he rises in the morning, hurries through his
breakfast, hastens to his daily toil, until, worn and weary, he wends his way home at night. His
salary is a pittance. His work is hard. Yet, and I speak from definite experience repeated over
and over again, if you want a work done for the Lord, get the second man to do it, because the
first man will find every sort of alibi and excuse.
Here are two women in the same church. One of them has a good income and does not have to
do any of her housework. She has no children, or perhaps she has one or two. Her time is mostly
her own. She can come and go as she pleases. The other woman is of limited income. Having a
family of five or six babies, she has to be her own cook, housekeeper, nurse, laundress. Her time
is worse than limited. Yet, if you want a job in the kingdom service done, ask the second woman.
The first woman will usually make excuses that she hasn't the time. It should not be that way. It
is a heartbreaking shame that it is so. Yet facts are facts, and these are true of almost every
church where the dear Lord has used this poor preacher to tell the story of CHRIST, either as
pastor or as evangelist.
But, thank. GOD, the Lord can and does use common, limited, unprepossessing people of
ordinary, everyday, barnyard variety, talents, and abilities. Thank GOD, the HOLY SPIRIT still
has an affinity, not for those of unusual personality, education, wealth, resources, but rather for
those who are on the altar of obedience and surrender. There is a place for every one of us, no
matter how lowly, no matter how humble, no matter how ordinary, no matter how common.
II. HE CALLS COMMON PEOPLE TO A COMMON TASK
Fishing for men, soul-winning, is a common task for all the blood-bought children of GOD.
There is no alibi, no exception, no excuse, no escape from this assignment. Every Christian is
obligated to CHRIST first, to a lost world next, with an unassignable, inescapable, irremovable
responsibility for the bearing of a victorious, SPIRIT-filled testimony to the saving, keeping
power of the Lord JESUS. It cannot be obviated by the living of a clean, Christian life. It cannot
be balanced by the giving of large sums of money, tithes, and more. It cannot be met by the
sending of some one else either into a home field or to some far-flung missionary frontier. It
cannot be transferred to the preacher, relegated to the deacon, assumed by the Sunday-school
teacher, handed over to some other godly church member. Preacher, deacon, Sunday-school
teacher, lay church member - each of us, every single one of us, is faced with this task. Our part
of it cannot be delegated. It is a personal responsibility. Some day at the judgment seat of
CHRIST we shall given an accounting, fair, impartial, of our stewardship of the souls of men.
The same blood that saved us from our sins signed our lifelong commission to be evangels of the
grace of GOD. The same SPIRIT who sealed us unto the day of redemption separated us unto the
task of ambassadorship for CHRIST. The same hour that witnessed our salvation wrote our
names in the muster of witnessbearers. The same CHRIST who by His fearful agony on
Calvary's cruel cross lifted us from the depths of hell to the heights of Heaven now looks to us to
devote our lives to the reconciling of men to GOD by the way of the cross.
It is our work, the work of every soul among us, young, old, and in between. We may as well get
at it. The field is white. The laborers are few. The harvest is upon us. We are racing against time,
against death, against sin, against Satan. It is now or never with many of these precious souls lost
in sin. The day is far advanced. For many the harvest is perilously close to the end. For many the
summer is waning, and they still are unsaved. From every city, from every country place, from
every hamlet and roadside, from every teeming center of population, comes the cry for
harvesters.
Those who are in the field now are not even remotely able to cope with the situation. Unless we
rush to their sides, the harvest will be pitifully barren, and many precious sheaves will be
destroyed by the blighting frosts of Satan and sin. Men have described the breath-taking horror
of a battlefield when the smoke has cleared away. Many have made our hearts miss their even
beats at the fearsome description of the cries of the wounded and dying, writhing and moaning
with the feverish thirst and the nameless pains of the hours of dissolution.
Oh, beloved, this whole wide world is a battlefield. From every corner of it, wafted on every
breeze, come the piteous cries of the wounded by Satan: pleading for the water of life that is ours
to give them. They are dying in sin, sinking into hell, hopelessly, helplessly enmeshed in the toils
of the devil. There is but one thing that can help them, one power that can rescue them, one
Person who can save them from death and destruction. That thing is the Gospel. That power is
the HOLY SPIRIT. That person is the Son of GOD.
Our responsibility is to take this Gospel, this HOLY SPIRIT, this Son of GOD to them. They
will never come of their own free will.
- They are dead in their trespasses and sins.
- They are blinded by the god of this world.
- They are bound down by the things of this earth.
- They are in the paralysis of sin.
- They know not their condition.
- They realize not their plight.
- They understand not their awful helplessness.
- They are adrift on the sea of iniquity, in leaky vessels that are shipping water with every foot of
distance covered.
- They have no compass, no rudder, no oars, no pilot, no provisions.
Every maddened, whitecapped, storm-driven wave threatens to engulf them and their pitiful
crafts in the yawning maelstrom of the bottomless, burning sea named Hell, Tophet, or the pit of
torment. See them drifting on and on, heedless, careless, indifferent to the cataclysm they are
approaching.
Watch them with trembling soul and burning heart as they speed on and on, their pace getting
faster and faster, their actions wilder and wilder, as Satan increases the tempo of his maddening
beat. See them dying, dying, dying, sinking down, down, down, into the flames of the lake of
fire.
See them, old, young, middle-aged; men, women, children; rich, poor, weak, strong; friends,
neighbors, business associates, schoolmates; fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives,
merrily stepping off the measure of the danse macabre of Beelzebub.
See the demons of hell howling their glee at the numberless multitudes that are treading the
broad highway of destruction. Hear the Old Serpent urging on his minions to stoke high the fires
of hell for the reception of the doomed and the damned.
See, oh, see, beloved, one more thing. See the CHRIST, bleeding, torn, thorn-crowned, bent low
beneath the load, not only of His own terrible cross, but of the crosses that we Christians have
dropped by the wayside in our cruel, careless, callous indifference and bitter unconcern.
Oh, brethren and sisters in CHRIST, they have built up Golgothas all over the earth. CHRIST is
being crucified afresh, not once, outside the gates of Jerusalem, but again and again wherever
men gather to sell the Son of GOD, no longer for a beggarly thirty pieces of silver but for the
even more beggarly sins of the day. This should be changed. CHRIST has suffered enough.
There is not one of us who would willingly add a jot or a tittle to the already too heavy burden of
the SAVIOUR. This can be changed. This will be changed when the people of GOD respond to
the appeal of the CHRIST when He cries, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
This will be changed when the church, as one man, like an army with terrible, conquering
banners, goes out to rescue the pawns of Satan, the slaves of sin, by a fearless assault on the very
gates of hell. Soul-winners crown, instead of crucifying, JESUS. Souls won add stars to His
glorious diadem instead of driving nails into His hands and feet, and thorns, dreadful thorns, into
His throbbing head. Brethren and sisters, by the agony of Golgotha, by the blood of the holy
cross, let us to the task of winning souls for CHRIST.
III. HE CALLS COMMON PEOPLE TO A COMMON TASK UPON COMMON
INSTRUCTIONS
His word is still, as it always has been, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Christian schools are good. Seminaries are excellent. Bible schools are an advantage. Study
courses are a necessity. Training for Christian work is a requirement. Books help greatly. But,
greater than all these, superior to all these, ahead of all these, is the clear requirement of the Son
of GOD, "Follow me." All these other things are valuable, but this qualification is essential.
Understand the implications of following CHRIST; live up to the plan proposed; and although
you may be the meekest of the meek, the lowliest of the lowly, the humblest of the humble, your
success is guaranteed by the unchanging, unchangeable Word of GOD.
What does it mean to follow CHRIST? Some one has well said that it means to give up, to take
up, to keep up. Yes, it does mean all that, and more. It means to lay aside every weight and the
sin that doth so easily beset us, to put away every evil thing, every evil thought, every evil
motive, every evil ambition that might put a barrier between us and the CHRIST. It means to
take up our duties, our responsibilities, our crosses, our burdens, our tasks, all that devolves upon
us as children of the Most High. It means to keep up in effort, in toil, in sacrifice, in travail with
the Son of GOD, Who set the pace and the example to us. In soul-winning, however, it means all
these things, and some other things that are more definite. What did JESUS do to win souls when
He was here upon the earth? What was His mode of procedure? Surely He was a master at the art
of fishing for men.
To bring men to GOD; to win men to Himself, JESUS did two things. First, He prayed for them.
Second, He went after them. He prayed for them untiringly and unceasingly. By day and by
night, His strong pleas, His earnest cries went up to the Father for the salvation of the souls of
men. His prayers were the most characteristic expressions of His life. They were the courage of
His soul, the comfort of His heart, the confidence of His life. He prayed for the glory of His
Father to be manifested. He prayed for the living. He prayed for the dying. He prayed for the
sick. He prayed for the well. His prayers moved the heavens, melted the earth, molded men,
militated against Satan. He prayed when He was baptized. He prayed before He chose His
disciples. He prayed at Lazarus' tomb. Undoubtedly He was engaged in prayer when Nicodemus
came to Him. He prayed in the Garden. He prayed on the Cross. He prayed when He broke bread
for the disciples after His resurrection. He prayed when He ascended into Heaven. He is even
now interceding for the souls of men.
His example is our guide. His practice is our command. Victory in the service of the kingdom
depends solely upon how closely we follow the precepts and the programs of Him Who is over
all victorious. He prayed. We must pray. He gave Himself to ceaseless intercession. We, too,
must travail in the agony of secret prayer for the souls of our fellows. He depended on prayer for
wisdom, for guidance, for inspiration, for power, for purity, for peace. That must be the way we
tread also. He overcame Satan by the power of prayer. That is our weapon also. He obtained the
SPIRIT in answer to prayer. The promise is to us also. For us also the mighty omnipotence of
GOD will move on the appeal, aye, may we not say, the command of prayer. You draw back
before the harsh word, "command," as directed to GOD.
Turn to Isaiah 45:11. How read ye? Here is what my Bible (blessed Book) says: "Thus saith the
LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my
sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." GOD's Word, GOD's honor,
GOD's promise, all are involved in GOD's answering our prayers to save the unsaved. Turn to
the Book again. Read with me I John 5:16: "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not
unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death."
Pray, brethren, pray until our own hearts are melted; pray until the SPIRIT of GOD is poured out
upon us; pray until our houses of worship are filled with seeking throngs; pray until backslidden
Christians are reclaimed; pray until sinners are brought to their knees in broken-hearted, tornsouled
repentance of their sins; pray until hosts of harvesters are called out, equipped,
empowered, sent out by the Lord of the harvest into the fields of toil and endeavor; pray until
Pentecosts are repeated in every city, village, and countryside over the land; pray until blazing
revival fires burn in every church over all America, over all the world.
Second, JESUS went after sinners. He did not wait for them to come to Him. True, some of them
did so come; but in the great majority of recorded cases the Master went to them. That is our
plan also. The Word does not say, "Build a church." The Book does not say, "Hire a preacher."
The Bible does not say, "Obtain the services of an evangelist." The plan of the SAVIOUR is not
for the children of GOD to sit down and wait for the unsaved to flock to the services. It is
anything but that. The word of command is not "WAIT," but "GO." The word of direction is not
"SEND," but "GO." The word of instruction is not "GIVE," but "GO." The commission is, "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
Waiting is necessary.
Sending is essential.
Giving is imperative.
Going is the standard.
Going is the criterion.
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