Getting Men Lost Preaching Institute

Well, hello friends. We are in the second section of the International Preaching Institute on the message and today our topic is getting men lost. This is critically important in our day of easy believism where we fill our churches with the unconverted who merely make an intellectual assent to Jesus.

They claim to be saved but they've never been lost. Jesus told his hearers for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's Luke 19 10.

The gospel friends must be preached in its purity and proper order and we will further discuss today what that proper order entails. Men must be held up to the strictness and severity of God's unbending law for the day will come at the final judgment when God will drop his plumb line of his holy law alongside man who will fail that test for Romans 3 23 declares. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Our faulty modern evangelism fails to preach the law before grace as both John Wesley and George Whitfield preached it. They preached the law before grace to shut sinners up to God for salvation. Oh, we should do the same.

We should preach searching sermons that bring conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit for sin is the transgression of the law as we see in 1 John 3 4. Whosoever commit a sin transgresses also the law for sin is the transgression of the law. And we see friends that God must carry out the sentencing of the law upon every guilty lawbreaker. Listen friend I know I am a sinner and I need a substitute for sin and so do you friend so do you.

Well our goal as preachers of the gospel of the son of God is to preach doctrinally sound sermons on the full counsel of God preaching the four r's of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration. We must preach searching sermons and doctrine that probe the conscience of man and confront them with the disturbing presence of Christ so they can be saved. We must use the word of God to clearly preach that man is born with a sin and his only hope is the remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus.

Oh we must warn men and women and boys and girls of their duty of repentance and their utter need of regeneration. But our problem today is many in our pulpits teach nice little messages that don't offend anyone. The problem is they don't save anyone either.

Getting men lost should be our first objective in preaching the gospel. We must learn to preach sound doctrine that awakens man to their lost condition where they recognize their perilous position outside Christ Jesus. A sinner must feel his need of a savior from sin.

We read in the book of Jeremiah God's declaration about his written word. He is not my word like as a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. Oh we must ask ourselves what does a fire do? It awakens in alarms in a hammer busts up every false foundation.

Jonathan Edwards preached alarming sermons that awakened the lost. We see regarding his famous sermon sinners in the hands of an angry God that he preached at Anfield Connecticut July 8th 1741. I want to share with you now friend a very rare diary entry from an eyewitness to that evening.

Here's his words. We went over to Anfield where we met dear Mr. Edwards of North Hampton who preached the most awakening sermon from these words in Deuteronomy 32 35. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste and before sermon was done there was a great moaning and a crying out through ye whole house oh what shall I do to be saved oh I am going to hell oh what shall I do for Christ to where the minister was obliged to desist from preaching he shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing I will stop there friends I have traveled to that very location in Anfield Connecticut where that meeting house once stood it's just an empty field now but there is a memorial stone standing there relating the details of Edward's sermon that night the point as preachers is we need to get men lost before they can be saved I love the following story about D.L. Moody which so vividly illustrates his truth I'm bringing before you let me share it with you now friends D.L. Moody was preaching in Britain to the students at Cambridge and the first time they heard the American preacher they gave him a pretty rough time they mocked his New England accent and his lack of education Moody was speaking out of the book of Daniel and he kept pronouncing Daniel in one syllable saying Danel and the students were having a big time of it they interrupted Moody by tapping their walking canes on the wooden floor and mocking him calling out in unison Danel Danel until they drowned out his voice and forced him to stop preaching to them but his resolve to reach the students with the gospel was not stopped nor diminished he called a farewell meeting for them knowing if he could bruise the reputation as gentlemen he may win their hearts with another opportunity to present the gospel to them Moody began the second meeting by saying I apologize to you friends I had always heard that true Englishmen were gentlemen I came here to speak to you as a visitor from America to your fine country but you treated me and Mr. Sankey with rude and crude behavior a gentleman would have at least given us an honest hearing so I must bid you good luck and goodbye while Moody's words pierced their pride and the students openly apologized they plead with him and begged him to give them another chance to prove themselves as gentlemen they agreed to meet again later that evening and Moody preached to them that evening and heaven came down to earth the students sat in silence on the edge of their seats the entire message while God dealt with their hearts Moody closed the meeting by saying now we will pray please close your eyes and Moody prayed he prayed that if there were any there who were desiring to become Christians to stand to their feet the sound of 200 men's heels made the wooden floor rumble as they stood together Moody thought they misunderstood him so he asked them to sit back down he repeated what he said that he would pray once more but this time only those who truly desired to become Christians would stand again 200 young men stood making the old wooden floor rumble as they stood in unison Moody peeked out from under his eyes to look at the hundreds of men gazing at them he muttered under his breath my God that's enough to live for brother preacher when you get to preaching the old gospel that has power to save you will witness it transform men's lives for eternity and you too will say with Moody my God that's enough to live for listen friends I've seen God move in churches in revival where God did supernatural things and people were brought to the very verge of the judgment and lives were touched with the reality of God and Christ in eternity and I can tell you sincerely from my heart that that's enough to live for well these preaching institutes are for your benefit and this institute is entitled getting men lost for I believe one has to be lost before they can be saved let me share a story with you friends that illustrates this point and it's about a young man's life who was changed by the preaching of the gospel here now is that story two college boys were roommates oh one was a Christian the other was not one night the Christian asked his friend if he would join him in attending a tent revival meeting being held just off campus within walking distance of their dormitory the roommate who wasn't a Christian only agreed to go because it would be an excuse not to study his economics book so they walked across campus to this outdoor meeting as they drew closer they could hear the preacher who had already begun preaching he had a thick southern accent and this appealed to the non-christian who was from the south himself he had forgotten what a southerner sounded like among so many midwestern folk the evangelist was an old man and his voice trembled when he spoke as he told of the love of a savior as he spoke of a bleeding savior having a black hanging on a bloodstained cross for the sins of men the preacher described a roman crucifixion in great detail he spoke in terrible terms of all the physically painful ramifications of dying on a cross he went into graphic description but the suffering the dehydration the loss of blood the weakness in the legs to support the battered body that had been whipped viciously by a cruel roman soldier holding a scourge a short whip of leather straps with sharp pieces of broken glass and nails attached to it the old preacher went into gory detail of how the back of jesus was so cut and lacerated and mangled it looked and smelled like 10 pounds of rancid raw hamburger meat that was laying out in the hot sun with flies on it well the thought of it made the unsaved boy squeamish in his stomach but the preacher kept on with his graphic and unsettling narrative then the old preacher went on and on about the two thieves who hung on opposite sides of jesus how one criminal mocked jesus and didn't repent and how the other man eventually defended him saying that they deserved their punishment for their crimes but this man was innocent he did nothing to deserve such unfair treatment and how jesus saved that man who was as guilty as his criminal friend the old preacher said in a frail tired voice jesus saved him and jesus can save even you the evangelist repeated that phrase jesus can save even you and as he said it he seemed to look in the direction of the college student who was unsaved but then the evangelist pointed out that the condemned thief had to own up to being a lost sinner in need of a savior the old preacher seemed to get a surge of new energy as he went on to describe the savior in glowing terms he said jesus was like a pearl of great price worth selling all for and losing all for so to be gained the old preacher rocked back and forth on his heels as he grew excited talking about the merits of christ jesus and what it meant to be saved and have everlasting life then the old preacher paused to say but but you must feel your need of him to be saved that only a sin-sick individual needs a savior from sin and no matter your crime or your past jesus can save even you and the evangelist seemed to glance in the direction of that college boy again and it made him uncomfortable he seemed like he'd been found out then the old man stopped speaking he closed his bible wiped a tear from his eye then in a trembling pleading voice full of emotion he called out listen friend no matter what you've done jesus can forgive you and jesus can save even you then the old man stepped down from the platform and immediately sunk down exhausted but his last words jesus can save even you kept ringing in the lost boy's ears the old man waved his arm over his head motioning for someone to help him back up on the platform a big man volunteered and he got the preacher back on his feet and behind the microphone he motioned the crowd with his hands and in pleading gentler tones he said everyone there was a sinner and he read romans 3 23 to them for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god and he said listen friends i know i'm a sinner i needed a substitute for sin in the person of christ jesus and you do too friends you do too i want you to all promise me one thing this evening if you will promise this old preacher just this one thing it will make my time with you well worth it for me coming here to speak to you tonight jesus said the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost promise me this that tonight when you arrive back home you will get out a piece of paper or an index card and write one word on it just one word that describes your condition right now write the word saved or write the word lost will you do it promise me you won't go to sleep tonight until you write one of those words on that piece of paper will you do it to satisfy an old preacher who cares about your soul the people there nodded they agreed to the bargain including the two college roommates then the old man closed the meeting with a prayer in which he prayed lord let those here who are saved to go home and write saved on that piece of paper knowing if they died tonight they'd wake up in the arms of jesus and lord in your mercy visit those who write the word lost to get a real sense where they'll end up as well then the old man slipped away into the crowd and he was gone the two roommates walked back to their dorm in the night in complete silence each afraid to speak to the other back at the dorm room they each climbed into their own beds the christian read his bible a while and before turning out his light he wrote on a piece of paper the word saved then he turned out his light and went to sleep oh the other boy couldn't sleep for a million dollars he was so torn up inside he knew he couldn't write the word saved on his piece of paper and he would not bring himself to write the word lost he tossed and turned in bed as his memory raced back to when he was a boy on a farm for he had done something terrible nobody ever knew about except him and it bothered him all his life he lived next door on his parents farm to an old widow woman whom he hated she had squealed to his parents about one time how he stole a box of cookies out of her grocery bag that had been delivered to her front porch and he'd gotten such a beating from his father for it he never forgot the old woman the old woman was bent over with a back condition she liked to sit out on her porch petting her big fat cat which was always in her lap uh the boy's resentment grew every time he saw her petting that fat cat well one evening the woman's cat had gotten out and the boy's resentment and in the boy's resentment he caught it and he took it to the barn where he strangled it to death with a rope then he buried the cat in back of the barn nobody knew about it one night after night the old woman would come out looking for her cat calling its name but it was gone for good he kept that secret to himself all these years and he was full of guilt because of it but tonight the old preacher's words to him jesus can save even you had troubled him they haunted him now until at 2 a.m he climbed out of bed got down on his knees to pray to pray to this jesus and ask him to forgive him for his dirty rotten sins for strangling that cat for being such a sinner and he got his pen out and he wrote on that piece of paper the word lost and he kept the praying again and he prayed for god to forgive him he prayed to jesus to forgive him for his sins and to save him then with a new determination he rose to his feet rose to his feet he grabbed his pen he crossed out the word lost and in capital letters he wrote the word saved he wrote the word saved well i love that story friend don't you and i hope this international preaching institute has been a help to your friend as you reach your nation and your generation with the gospel of the of god i put a lot of prayer and care into making these preaching institutes available to you my own life was transformed by attending an expository preaching institute in memphis tennessee where god used the preaching of dr stephen olford to transform my life and reroute my entire life from that point forward for god and the gospel i went to that institute as a successful businessman whose sole object at the time was just making money and under the anointed preaching of stephen olford god flipped my life upside down and inside out and changed me and gave me a large platform ministry of preaching and a prodigious pen ministry calling me to ministry to the glory of god and pastors from all over the world would travel to memphis to sit at the feet of stephen olford to learn to be better preachers well he has since gone to glory and the world has changed now you don't physically have to go somewhere for a meeting you can do it over the internet it's always been a burden of mine to pass on what i've learned from others but now with these international preaching institutes you don't have to travel to florida to hear me preach you can be in south america you can be in australia you can be in africa or india or china or singapore or europe you can be in england or scotland or wales you can be anywhere in the world and listen to this training for free without leaving home i will give you the apostle paul's exhortation to his disciple timothy found in 1 timothy 4 13 until i come devote yourself to the public reading of scripture to preaching and to teaching the king james translation says give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine then over in 2nd timothy 4 2 the apostle paul gives timothy a charge to preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebrook rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine and that's my charge to you brethren that you'll faithfully take what you've learned here and go proclaim it to the world but these institutes are in three sections with five messages in each section we began with the man we are now in the message we will finish the last message in this series next time and then press on to the man and revival i've carefully chosen the stories and the incidents presented here friends and related them to you to encourage you to challenge you and to strengthen you as a preacher oh may the lord grant you much grace and encourage you friend we will cover the fifth message in this section next time until then preach the word