07. How You Can Help Make Christ's Sacrifice Meaningful

7 -- HOW YOU CAN HELP MAKE CHRIST’S SACRIFICE MEANINGFUL

I have mentioned the fact that we have the God that the world needs to know about. They have many gods that have no power to meet their needs, and they lack the knowledge of the one who can meet their needs. We not only have the God they need to know about, but we also have the Gospel they need to hear. The false gods of heathendom have their message, but it is nothing like the message of the glorious Gospel of Christ. Our Gospel is good news; our message is one of hope and happiness. The heathen gods have no such message. Yes, we have the Gospel that they need to hear, and we have the love that they need to see. They are desperately in need of a demonstration of the kind of love and compassion that flows from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary. O! How we need to share with them the light of the Gospel that they too might enjoy the blessings that you and I enjoy.

I have mentioned to you in a previous chapter that we can render the price paid for our redemption meaningless by failing to share it with others. Now I am turning to the positive side and suggesting to you the fact that we can help to make the sacrifice of Christ meaningful to a lost and perishing world.

I think of the American advertisers who advertise their products from one end of the world to the other. In some instances, their products are mentioned over the air waves and in other instances they are written upon the rocks along the highways or byways. Doubtless their motive is to spread the knowledge of their product just as far and as wide as they are capable of spreading it. They want the world to know that their particular product is in existence; they want everyone to try the product for themselves and thus become acquainted with its merits. Now all of this is done with the profit motive in mind. Companies want to use their product to make a sizable profit for themselves, yet God has no such intention in mind. God is not mercenary in any measure; His concern is not for the accumulation of dollars and cents, but of precious souls that will one day be laid as trophies at Jesus’ pierced feet. God is not writing His message or advertising His product by using rocks along the highway; God is writing His message upon the fleshly tables of our hearts.

Certainly He could have written it among the stars to be illuminated at night, but instead He has chosen to use us. He has decreed that the glorious message of redemption shall spread from pole to pole through lips of converted clay. How well are we performing the task left to us? Can we say our efforts make Christ’s sacrifice meaningful? O! Could I emphasize once again that we have the Gospel they need to hear, and we have the love they need to see. There is no way for them to come to the knowledge of God except as we make Christ known. We know what they need to know; we have experienced what they must experience; and we have the means available to us to get this knowledge to them. If we follow the example of the Master, we will exhibit a love for the unlovable. Think of how unlovable you were, or how unlovable I was. Yet, Jesus Christ had compassion upon us and met the cry of our needy hearts.

I believe we are to love them simply because they are so dear to Jesus Christ. He died for them as well as for us. I think of a tramp who came to a door of a home and was met with something less than a royal welcome. In fact, he was unwanted and undesired by those who occupied the house. If they had had their way, they would have sent him away immediately, but something happened to change their minds considerably. The tramp handed them a note regarding their departed loved one. On that note, it stated that the parents were to love the tramp for the sake of their departed son. It was made known that the tramp had given needed assistance to their dying boy as he departed this life. Immediately their attitude changed, and the tramp was given a royal welcome. They made available to him just about anything he desired all because he had shown kindness to their dying son. There is a poem about that tramp, and a part of it goes something like this, "Then for a moment from my view the stranger turned from his disguise, By the tokens in his hands I knew, It was my Saviour stood before my eyes; He spoke and my poor name He named, ’of me thou hast not been ashamed,’ These deeds shall thy memorial be, fear not, thou did’st it unto me." Yes, the one representing the tramp is Jesus Christ and He indeed has assisted many a traveler as He has passed the line of worlds and entered into eternity. This one who has helped so many others deserves our help as He tries to reach a lost and perishing world with His saving message.

It was Christ who said those thought-provoking words, "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked and ye clothed me not: sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they say when? When saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." Yes, Jesus looks at every lost and needy individual as though it were Himself. Our care for others is considered as care for Jesus Christ. If He were here, He would have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and met the needs of individuals, and now He turns the task over to us. We must do today as He would do if He were actually walking with us in human form. We do it because Jesus Christ wants us to do it. Wherever there is a human need, there is an opportunity to share in the concern of Jesus Christ.

Someone may ask the question, "Brother Glenn, where are the needs you speak about? Where are the people hungry, naked and destitute? Most all that I see are pretty well cared for." Well, I could take you immediately to areas of our world where they do not fare as well as individuals do in our own country. I could take you to areas where the needs are staggering. You would witness just about every situation, in one form or another, that Jesus made mention of in His statements that I have just quoted. In some areas, there is very little for a young girl to be happy about; there are areas where womanhood is degraded and considered to be practically worthless. In other areas, clothing is in short supply and in still others there is the shortage of the needed food supplies. Doubtless, the greatest lack is the lack of the life-giving message of salvation. This in itself :represents the most pressing need of men everywhere. I think of a man who had been seen crawling along the ground in search of something. When he was approached and asked just what he was in search of, he stated that he was looking for the door to peace. How tragic that he was searching for peace where it could not be found. You just do not find it that way.

Jesus said, I am the door. Yes, Jesus Christ is the door, and it is up to you and me to open that door to a lost and perishing world. Passing through that door is like passing through a door that leads from the cold, chilly blast of winter to a warm, comfortable room inside the house. The individual who passes through such a door is ushered:from a place of cold and barrenness to a position of warmth and comfort, and so it is with the door represented by Jesus Christ. The lost are outside that door perishing without hope and without God, and the door will remain closed except you and I open it. I wonder just what you will do about it? Will you accept the challenge and help open the door or must we leave a lost heathen world to perish without the light? How can we do it and keep our conscience from smiting us? We just cannot allow ourselves the slightest measure of failure in this regard. We must get this message to the lost; we must spread the tidings of Good News to as many as possible while still we have time and opportunity.

Yes, we can make the sacrifice of Christ meaningful to others by explaining its meaning to them. Thousands do not even know that there is a Saviour named Jesus; multiplied thousands are yet unreached and unevangelized because of the slowness of the Christian response to the tremendous need. I confess to you today that the needs we face just now are staggering; we need your support now more desperately than ever before, If I knew a more effective way to bring the needs before you, I certainly would seek to implement that way, but I know of no other. If you will not respond to this appeal, I have no other way of getting your response and the many needs will just have to go unmet. I trust that such will not be the case; I trust that God will move upon your heart and that you will respond by praying and then writing telling us just what you will do to help us reach those who perish without the Gospel of Christ.

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