Soulwinning: Bearing
Precious Seed
By David J. Stewart
“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” —Psalm 126:6
The Word
of God is precious! Psalm 126:6 is such a wonderful and inspiring Scripture.
There is nothing any more precious in the universe than the Word of God and
Jesus’ physical blood that washes away our sins (1st Peter 1:18,19). I’d
like to examine Psalm 126:6 closely with you and consider some of the
life-changing truths taught here.
He that Goeth Forth
Jesus commissioned His disciples in Matthew 28:19,20… “Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world. Amen.” This is commonly referred to as “The Great Commission.”
The phrase “teach all nations” in the Greek literally means “make disciples
of all men.” Hence, every believer ought to put forth some effort to lead
others to become disciples of Jesus as well.
It is God’s desire for each and every believer to REPRODUCE. This is clearly
evidenced in Luke 8:8 and 15 in Jesus’ parable of the seeds… “And other
fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when
he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear…
But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart,
having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” It
is God’s desire for every Christian to reproduce. A believer with an honest
and good heart, just as Luke 8:15 says, WILL obey the Bible by going forth
with the Gospel, as a soulwinner. No believer can please God without being a
soulwinner who shares the Good News of Christ crucified with lost sinners.
The word “Gospel” means “good news.” Whereas we all deserve to be punished
in hellfire for our sins, Jesus paid the price with His precious blood so we
don’t have to go to Hell. Amen and amen! This is good news!
Some people foolishly believe that Jesus was only commissioning His Apostles
to go Soulwinning in Matthew 28:19 and 20; but this is not the case at all.
Jesus plainly taught His disciples to “teach” others to do the same things
He had taught them to do. Every believer has a responsibility to win souls
to Christ.
We read in Proverb 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;
and he that winneth souls is wise.” A wise believer is a Soulwinning
believer. And conversely, a fool doesn’t go Soulwinning. Of course, it is
God that saves a person, we cannot save anyone. It is our job to preach the
Gospel, to lead the lost to Jesus Christ so they can be forgiven of their
sins and saved. The world is going to Hell (1st John 5:19).
And Weepeth
This is virtually unheard of nowadays. How many believers do you know who
have a broken heart over sin and lost sinners, and are moved to tears? It is
no trifle matter that the Bible mentions “weeping” in Psalm 126:6. Jesus
said in Matthew 24:12 that the love of many would “wax cold” because of
iniquity (i.e., injustice). We are living in a ruthless society today.
America is going to Hell in a wheelbarrow. Tens-of-millions of babies have
been legally murdered by abortion. Pornography is legal. Feminism is legal.
Divorce is legal. Wifely rebellion is legal. Public
nudity is legal in
Brattleboro, Vermont. Drunkenness is legal. Fornication is legal. Booze is
legal. Homosexuality is legal. Where will America’s love for sin lead? We
are headed for the dust!
Jeremiah was known as the "weeping prophet," because he often wept over Israel's rebellion against God and the destruction that they brought upon themselves... "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger" (lamentations 1:12). Jeremiah was sitting in the ruins of Jerusalem when he made this statement, after the king of Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem and carried away God's people into slavery. This is where sin always leads... slavery.
Anyone who has ever served the Lord in an
inner-city ministry, such as in Chicago or New York, knows firsthand what
sin does to destroy families. You see the broken lives—children whose
parents are in prison, children who have no father, drug-addict mothers who
neglect their children, fathers who are drunkards, teenagers attempting
suicide, et cetera. The Devil always shows people the neon lights of
Las Vegas, and the glamour of Hollywood; but he is a lying deceiver who
won't show you the morgue, the mental hospital, the orphans, nor the prisons. As
believers, our hearts should be broken over sin and over the multitude of
families it destroys.
There is a direct correlation between a believer’s love for the Lord, hatred
for sin, and the amount of soulwinning they do. You show me a professed
Christian who doesn’t go soulwinning, and I’ll show you a carnal,
sin-loving, immature believer who doesn’t love the Lord. It is one’s love
for the Savior that determines how much they hate sin and evil (Psalm
97:10). Worldly believers are caught up in so-called “Christian Rock” music,
immodest apparel, ecumenical heresy and other forms of apostasy. Jesus said
that those who possess an “honest and good heart” will hear and obey God’s
Word.
There is something wrong with a professed “Christian” who isn’t
brokenhearted over the wickedness in America today. It is so sad.
Increasingly, we are seeing the Devil target little children with
worldliness, indecent clothing, sexual perversion and Satanic Rock ‘N’ Roll
music. American society is saturated with demonic influences today, which
have become so commonplace that few people realize just how Godless we have
become as a nation.
Bearing Precious Seed
The Word of God is the answer. We read in 1st Peter 1:23, “Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever.” It is by the precious Seed of God’s
Word that one is born-again. Amen! The Bible is God’s inspired, infallible,
preserved Word. I unalterably believe that to be the King James Bible in the
English language. All modern bibles are corrupt. There is no bigger battle
today than over the Word of God. God only wrote One Book!
The soulwinner’s weapon is the Word of God… “And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”
(Ephesians 6:17). We read in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick
[alive], and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Now that’s
power! Even the best neurosurgeon in the world cannot pierce between a man’s
soul and spirit; but the Word of God can! The Bible can do what every
psychologist and psychiatrist in this world cannot do—discern the thoughts
and intents of the human heart! What a Book! As Hebrews 4:12 states, the
Bible is “alive” and “powerful.” It is precious!
The Bible is the “Precious Seed” that a soulwinner bears to lost sinners,
praying and hoping for their salvation. There can be no salvation apart from
the incorruptible Word of God.
A Corrupted Seed
Many people today are being misled by a false gospel, based upon a corrupted
bible like the New International Version [NIV], which requires a person to
forsake their sins to be saved. This heresy is called “Lordship Salvation”
and it is of the Devil. The NIV has produced an generation of Lordship
Salvationists who foolishly believe that a person cannot be saved without
making Jesus “Lord.” Here's Romans 10:9 from the King James Bible…
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." —King James Bible
Now here's Romans 10:9 from the perverted NIV...
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." —New International Version
The Bible never requires us to make Jesus our
"Lord" to be saved, only trust Him as our Savior (John 14:6). Peter shows
clear evidence of this when he professed, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God" in Matthew 16:16. Peter never confessed "Jesus is Lord."
Rather, Peter received Jesus as the Messiah. Genesis 15:6 simply states that
Abraham, "...believed in the LORD; and he (God) counted it to him
for righteousness." Romans 4:5 plainly states, "But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness." It is our faith upon Jesus as our Savior,
because of the blood that He shed for our sins, that saves us (1st Peter
1:18,19). Making Christ the Lord of our life is a matter of Christian
obedience; NOT Salvation. If one had to make Jesus the Lord of their life to
be saved, then Lot, Samson, and Solomon would all be in Hell today. What
about Ananias and Sapphira? What about the carnal Believers at Corinth? What
about 1st Corinthians 3:15?
Shall Doubtless Come Again with Rejoicing
There is no greater joy in the world, next to being saved, than to
personally win someone else to Jesus Christ. It is a wonderful feeling that
cannot be expressed in words. We read in Daniel 12:3… “And they that be
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many
to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” Soulwinners will shine
in Heaven throughout eternity. It will be precious in Heaven, to meet people
who will thank us for telling them about Jesus and how to have their sins
forgiven. All the money in the world cannot buy that. No wonder the Bible
says in Romans 10:15, “…How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” Soulwinners
are beautiful to God. Sadly, most believers today have ugly feet, instead of
beautiful feet, because they never go soulwinning.
God rewards the soulwinner for time spent getting the Gospel out, and not
for the amount of people who get saved. We read in 1st Corinthians 3:6-9… “I
have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is
he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth
the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every
man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are
labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.”
God will reward each believer ACCORDING TO HIS OWN LABOUR. God will reward a
believer for every single Gospel tract passed out, for every person they
shared the Gospel with, for every night they stayed up late studying the
Bible, for everything they did in Jesus’ name. No good deed will go
unnoticed or unrewarded (2nd Corinthians 5:10). Mark 9:41 states, “For
whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye
belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.”
Bringing His Sheaves with Him
Rewards won’t make anyone happy in Heaven who never won a soul to Christ. I
knew a very hard-working pastor, who spent all his time repairing his church
building. He just enjoyed working. Unfortunately, he never went soulwinning,
never passed out any Gospel tracts, never tried to reach out to the local
community with the Gospel. His priorities were backwards. I believe he will
receive some rewards in Heaven, because he did what he did in Jesus’ name;
however, he will hardly see any converts in Heaven (if any). What will all
those rewards matter if there’s no converts to share them with? In my
opinion, our goal shouldn’t be to receive rewards in Heaven; but rather, to
one day be able to cherish the company of those whom we led to Christ on
earth. What a day that will be!
For the present, we sorrow and weep in this sinful world, preaching the
Gospel to as many people as we can. We really don’t know if many people are
hearing our message; but we know some are. In eternity, we will find out how
successful our soulwinning efforts were. God has promised that His Word will
not return void… “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:
it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah
55:11). The preaching of the Word of God is never in vain. Souls will come
to Christ. Lives will be changed. Our duty is to give the Good News of
Christ crucified to this lost and sinful world, so that they may come to the
knowledge of Jesus Christ and have their sins washed away by Jesus’ precious
blood.
“To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” — Acts 10:43
