Matthew Suggi here from Verity Baptist Church, Philippines, and I want to make a quick video
responding to this post that is going around social media about why to use gospel tracts
in 2021. Why do you use gospel tracts in 2021? Now let me just say right off the bat that I am
not against using invitations or tracts. In fact, here's the invitation to our church in Pampanga,
Verity Baptist Church, Pampanga. And what we have on this invitation is a picture of our family.
We have a map of the church. We have online links. We have our service times.
We have information about being family integrated and King James only and soul winning and some
basic stuff such as that. And then on the back, we have a quick gospel presentation.
We have four complete verses listed, both in English and Tagalog. So I'm not against using
these, but the problem I have is when people are claiming that this is an adequate way in order
to win people to the Lord and that you don't have to go preach in the gospel, you can just hand
these out and for every 10 you hand out, one person's going to get saved. That's just a lie.
It's just simply not true. And so this post on Facebook has been a way to justify not going
soul winning and pretend like someone's doing a big work for God when in reality they're not.
So I want to go through these 10 reasons listed really quickly and show you what the Bible says
about this. Number one, they say that these are simple and effective, that these are simple and
effective. Now, later on in this video, I'll talk about whether or not someone could even get saved
from just reading an invitation. But here's the thing, let's say that they could get saved from
reading an invitation. This is an extremely short gospel presentation. It's only four complete
verses. Anyone who's a soul winner knows that you need to spend more than just four verses and spend
more time than that explaining the Word of God. You're going to use a lot more verses than that
to end up getting somebody saved. It's not just going to be four verses gets the job done. So even
if they could get saved by just simply reading, this is just not enough information. It's just
quite simply too simple. Is it simple? I agree this is very simple. Is it effective? No, it's
not effective because it's too simple. First John 5 verses 10 through 13 give us a template on how
to know that you have eternal life. And the Bible says it is by faith, it's by believing, but there's
certain things you must believe. And you must understand that it is a free gift, that it's
eternal life and that it's in the sun. And look, that takes more than just four verses. So point
number one of them saying it's simple and effective. Why agree? It's simple. It's not
effective though. It's too simple. Point number two, they say, well, tracts can get inside homes
and stay, but you can't. Now let me just say this, that technically a person could actually live in
somebody else's house and just kind of hide there and not be seen. In fact, homeless people have
done that before and then it's caught that they were living there for several months. But all
joking aside, my goal is not to live inside somebody's house. And the goal is to actually
get inside somebody's heart. And to do that, you have to actually preach the word of God and sow a
seed. Because the goal is not just simply to have some sort of material inside somebody's house,
but to actually have a seed planted inside their heart. So even if they don't get saved,
that could be built on by future people and they could end up getting saved. Point number three,
they say that these can be included in letters and cards and bills. And that is true that you
can put these in letters, cards and bills. Here's the thing though. If this is somebody that you
actually know personally, you should try to personally give them the gospel or personally
invite them to church rather than just giving an invitation. If it's not someone you know
personally, I can just tell you that this is probably going in the trash. That is just reality.
Now point number four is this. That tracts never lose their temper and never get discouraged.
And so here's the thing. When I go soul winning and I'm preaching the gospel for 15 minutes
and someone's actually receptive to the word of God, I don't lose my temper and I don't
get discouraged either. Now if somebody's not interested in hearing the word of God,
well then maybe you have a disagreement. Maybe you would lose your temper. That person's not
going to get saved anyway. Now obviously we shouldn't lose their temper out soul winning,
but my point is this. If someone's receptive to the word of God, you're going to have no reason
to get into an argument with them. They're just listening. They hear the word of God
and there's not going to be any problems. And so you know this idea, well you know,
it's like you know you might lose your temper or get discouraged. Well when we're going out
soul winning, we're excited. We're not discouraged. And when someone's receptive to the word of God,
we don't lose our temper. Point number five is this. That tracts work 24-7 and you don't work
24-7. Well how does this work 24-7 when people aren't reading it? The reality is these are very
rarely actually read. You hand them to people and you know as a soul winner that you often see those
same invitations on the ground a minute later. Why? People aren't reading them. And when you
drop this in somebody's home, unless they're reading it 24-7, how is this working 24-7?
It doesn't make any sense. Okay point number six is this. That tracts can go anywhere with you.
And you know we have that the tracts can go anywhere with you. Now this is true and I don't
think it's a bad idea to bring tracts with you. And you know it's going to make sense a little
bit later on in this video. These can go anywhere with you and it's a good idea to try to bring some
tracts when you're going out in public. Maybe have some in your pocket or in the car and stuff like
that. However I want you to realize when we go soul winning we don't have just a tract with us.
We actually have the Holy Spirit of God. And the Bible says at the end of Mark 16 that when we're
preaching the gospel it says the Lord working with them. So he commands us to go out and work
and then the Lord is actually working with us. And he does that when we're going forth and preaching
the gospel as it says in Matthew 16 verses 15 through 20. So the Lord is working with us when
we're going soul winning. Now is it a good idea to bring tracts with you? Of course it's a good
idea to bring these out. You can invite people to church. It's a good icebreaker to preach the
gospel to someone. But you know what? We have the Holy Spirit of God inside of us and we're actually
going out soul winning. The Lord is working with us. Point number seven is this that these can be
read many times by multiple people. Well I mean they can but I can pretty much guarantee you that
most of these never get read by anybody. That's just reality. Very few people actually read these
invitations. And so of course you know we hand them when we go out soul winning to people.
You know it's a good icebreaker. We invite them to church. But the reality is most people are not
going to read this and they're just going to go in the trash. And it is what it is. You know
invitations are actually pretty expensive here in the Philippines. Probably even a little bit more
than in the U.S. But we still use these and we probably hand them out as well as the other soul
winning bonafide soul winning churches in the Philippines. Probably more than any of these
other Baptist churches that are talking about how great these are. We probably hand them out
more because we're doing a lot of soul winning. But we don't believe this is an excuse or
replacement for actually preaching the gospel. Point number eight is this. Tracks are a great
way to fulfill the Great Commission. I mean a great way to fulfill the Great Commission.
The Great Commission is getting baptized and joining church as well as the gospel being
preached and somebody getting saved. I mean is this going to baptize somebody?
Is this going to preach a sermon to them? You know they get saved then they hear a sermon about
clothing standards or a sermon about worldliness or a sermon you know about the King James Bible.
I mean how does this fulfill the Great Commission? So they're kind of just restating they believe
this can get people saved. They don't even understand what the Great Commission is because
that actually includes baptism. And that can only be done at the local church. Point number nine
they have is this. That this is an easy way to open a conversation or to give your testimony
or a gospel witness. And as I said I do believe this is a great icebreaker and I like to take
these with me because it will give you more confidence and boldness when you're out preaching
the gospel. We take these when we go out soul winning and in your personal life. Take these
with you and it's an easy way to open up a conversation. And when you hand these to people
sometimes you can tell that they're interested and then all of a sudden you can proceed to ask them
about you know if they know for sure they're going to heaven. So I don't think this is a bad
idea bad way to break the ice and things like that. I will say though that they said this is
a good way you give this to someone and it's an easy way to give your testimony. Well the Bible
says it's the testimony of the Lord that saves in John chapter 3. Your testimony has nothing to do
with salvation. Praise the Lord if you quit drinking. Praise the Lord if you quit smoking.
Praise the Lord if you quit quit listening to rock music. That's not salvation. Salvation is
not changing your life or reforming your life or repenting of your sins. Salvation is believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing on the testimony of the Lord and what he did for you the death
burial and resurrection. Point number 10 is this that these contain verses that can explain
salvation. And so I really think they want to just come up with 10 different points because
they're really kind of restating a lot of the same stuff. But let me just leave you with this.
The Bible says in Romans 10 verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Right you can't call on
the Lord if you haven't believed. You have to actually understand you know what you're believing
or what you need to believe. How then should they call on him in whom they have not believed? And
how should they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? The Bible says we need a preacher of the Word of God. In Acts chapter 8 you know the
Ethiopian eunuch said, how can I except some man guide me? He says I can't understand the Word of
God. And you have to understand that you know when somebody reads the Bible, yes it's a preacher of
the Word of God that wrote these words down, but that's not an explanation of the Word of God. And
the explanation on these invitations is so incredibly small okay. But the reality is people
get saved when somebody actually opens their mouth and preaches the Gospel. So look I'm not against
using Bible tracts as a supplement to our soul winning in terms of inviting people to church
from time to time or as an icebreaker or you give the Gospel to someone and you leave it with them.
I'll be honest with you though the two main reasons why we like invitations are because of
the fact it's a good icebreaker when we're out soul winning or in our personal lives preaching
the Gospel. And you know also when somebody gets saved you know we leave them with this and then
there's a small little Gospel presentation on the back. And so some false teacher comes along to
them and tries to bewitch them you know they're going to be reminded well this is why I believe
what I believe. And they're going to have verses in their head and maybe they can share a few
things with some friends and family and plan to see themselves and things such as that. Or maybe
we preach the Gospel to someone and they don't get saved but they're kind of on the fence about it.
When I heard the Gospel I did not get saved immediately but I got saved later that night
as the word was sown in my heart and I thought about it and I believed and I called on Jesus
Christ to save me. Now here's the thing about this we preach the Gospel and some people they're not
denying it they're just not sure. And maybe with these verses on the back since they already have
the word sown in their heart they can read it they can read the short explanation and they can
be reminded and maybe they will decide I do believe this. But to suggest that handing this
to someone who has never heard the Gospel and they're going to read it by themselves and they're
going to end up getting saved that just does not happen. That is not the method that God gave us in
the Bible. So by all means use invitations in 2021 but don't use this as a replacement
for soul winning. Merely use this as a supplement to your soul winning. Thank you and God bless.