It's sad that churches around the world are doing hardly any soul winning, but God is
for that work.
Each and every single week, every house, God wants us to knock those doors and get people
saved.
That is a war that's of God.
You see, when we go soul winning, that is a war that is of God, but it doesn't guarantee
that we're going to get a lot of people saved.
Man has a responsibility if we're going to get a lot of people saved.
That is the way God operates in war.
You know, when we're starting churches across the world, hey, that's a war that's of God,
but it doesn't mean it's automatically going to happen.
God wants it to happen all across the world, but we have to do our part.
We've got to make sure that we just don't say, well, the war's of God, so it's automatically
going to happen.
We have to do our part.
A lot of people say, if you believe in eternal security, you're a Calvinist, but I'm a zero
point Calvinist.
I don't believe in any of the points, because they do not believe in eternal security.
See, Calvinism teaches the perseverance of the saints, the perseverance.
The implication is that if you're really saved, you're going to live a good life and do good
deeds all the way until you die.
Now, we don't believe that, because there's plenty of people in the Bible that were saved
that just chose to walk in the flesh.
There's a spirit, and there's a flesh, and we've got to make that choice every day.
Are we going to walk in the spirit, or are we going to walk in the flesh?
We don't keep ourselves saved.
God's the one that keeps us saved.
We're preserved in Jesus Christ.
We don't necessarily persevere under the end by doing good actions.
A lot of people, they get saved, and they choose to do nothing for God their entire
lives.
The Bible says that if you believe the record God gave His Son, then you know you're on
your way to heaven.
It says, these things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of
God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.
If you're in this room today, and you don't know if you're going to heaven, it's because
you're not saved.
That's the bottom line, because if you believe the record God gave His Son, you will know
that you're on your way to heaven.
See, it's the people that actually went out to battle.
You see, soul winning is something that's of God, but God is not going to come down
from heaven and preach the gospel to the people around here.
God's not going to come down from heaven, and angels are not going to come down and
preach the gospel.
We have to actually make war.
We have to make the decision to go door to door and preach the gospel.
We've got to make the decision to preach hard against sin, and for men that want to be pastors,
to know your Bibles, to have read your Bibles, so you can be worthy of being sent out to
the start of church.
We have to make the choice to make war, but it's not going to happen.
We've got to make the decision to go out and make war, otherwise it's not going to happen.
The Bible says to the weak became I is weak that I might gain the weak.
I made all things to all men that I might by all means save some.
We get people saved.
There's nothing wrong with that terminology.
Now praise the Lord that when we go soul winning, that is a battle that God is always in, and
God is going to help you out in that battle.
And I love how it says the Hagarites were delivered into their hand.
I mean, isn't it great when you go soul winning and you can just tell that God just set up
the conversation, that person's ready.
They say, man, I was just praying for guidance from God like five minutes ago, and it's obvious
the Hagarite was delivered into your hand.
It wasn't you that got them saved by yourself.
God helped you out.
He set up the appointment.
You know, if God didn't set up the appointments, we could go door to door for hours and get
nobody saved.
But God is involved in this battle.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world.
See, this is a spiritual battle, and God is on our side when we go soul winning.
Now this is not the biggest independent Baptist church in the nation.
There are churches that are bigger than this one.
I don't know how many people there are, but at First Baptist Church in Hanover, Indiana,
they probably have like a thousand people or something like that.
There are probably a lot of people.
Now I want you to notice how God numbers people in First Chronicles 5, 18.
Because you know, I've heard of a lot of Baptist pastors say, well, you know, we have more
people than you.
You know, you only have a few hundred people.
You only have 150 people or whatever like that.
And that means you're not really, you know, a great church or whatever.
But notice in First Chronicles 5, 18, when he actually numbers them, he's numbering people
that are valiant, that have skill, and actually go off to battle.
I wonder if we number the people at First Baptist Church this morning, not based on
how many people are there, but people that actually have skill and are valiant and have
actually read their Bible a few times cover to cover and actually go soul winning.
I wonder how many people that they would have.
Because I'm pretty sure at this church there would be more people than that church.
And I don't, and you know, honestly, it would be embarrassing to be a pastor of a church
where 98% of people had no skill, that didn't read their Bibles, that didn't go soul winning.
I would much rather be a pastor of a church that had 10 people that loved the Lord than
just this mega church where no one reads their Bible and no one really cares about the things
of God.
you