Let's bow, shall we, for a moment of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the reality of his presence among us in the person of the Spirit of God. We're thankful for the privilege that we have tonight, just coming in prayer and bringing our burdens before you, and then as well to open your Word and have your Spirit be our teacher. Help us, Lord, to be sensitive to everything that the voice of the Spirit says. Help us to be willing and obedient so that we might eat the good of the land. We'll give you the praise for it in Christ's precious name. Amen. Now, let me just very quickly, without taking too much time doing it, remind you that we are in the second part of a three-part study in the book of Acts. The first part had to do with the, excuse me, a three-part study on the subject of discipleship. The subject of discipleship, first of all, in the Gospels, and we talked considerably about this to kind of get a well-rounded idea of what was entailed, what was involved in the matter of discipleship. And the second part of this study is going to the book of Acts and seeing some particular aspects of discipleship as carried out in the early New Testament church, and just to see how the matter of discipleship from the gospels applied in actual real life situations after Christ has ascended to the Father. And then the third part of this study will be a little bit later after we've completed this portion, and that will be a very practical how-to part in regard to discipleship. That is specific steps that you can take, things that you can actually use in regard to discipling others. And this can be, of course, something that can be used on a large scale or a small scale. One of the most important things to keep in mind in this study is that we never disciple people to follow us. The only thing we can do, the most we can do, is to bring a person, first of all, to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. And that, of course, comes just simply by pointing to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. and showing them the beauty and reality of Christ in our life and our conduct, and sharing with them what the Word of God says, and allowing the Holy Spirit to use His Word to bring these people to a knowledge of Christ. But we do not then disciple them. in order that they might be followers of us. One of the greatest misnomers in regard to discipleship today is exactly that, and we're seeing more and more. There's a real trend where people are making requirements for people in sort of a legalistic way that you're my disciple, you have to obey me, you have to do this. They're asking to do things that are certainly not pleasing to the Lord. And there's a great danger that we get people to look to us. Discipleship is that which is only legitimate as we lead others to follow Jesus Christ. He is the only didaskalos that is really worthwhile. He is the only one who has the right to call men His disciples. And so we need to be very, very careful and very alert that we not have people follow us, but that we teach people how to follow Him. And so that's what we're seeking to do. And that's what we find in the book of Acts. And we have… a number of things that are involved in the matter of discipleship in this book. There are really, we've listed eleven in all. First is the spirit and the disciple. Second was salvation or the doctrine of soteriology and the disciple. Then last week we started talking about soul winning and the disciple. And just to bring you up to date, let me remind you again that there are a number of cases of soul winning, not in the mass evangelism, that's another subject, but in the matter of personal soul winning that we find in the book of Acts. The first thing that we looked at, the first instance, was that of the lame man in Acts chapter 3. And we saw that this lame man was pointed… that he was pointed to Christ by Peter and John, and the circumstances around his salvation was actually his healing, a demonstration of supernatural power. And we saw that the result was that he praised God and that he witnessed, and that as a result Peter had an opportunity to preach. Then came persecution to the church in connection with that as well, and 5,000 were converted. And another great move of God, other than the 3,000 that were saved at Pentecost, there was a great movement of God as a result of this power of God demonstrated in the salvation of this man. And then In chapter 4 and verse 21 it says that God was glorified. And so this again was one of those instances of personal evangelism or soul winning by the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second instance was that of Acts chapter 8 verses 26-40 in the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. This time it was not an apostle. It was a deacon. It was not a clergyman, if you please. It was a layman. But a layman that was being used of God. And we saw that that one was Philip. We saw as well that the place that he used as a launching pad in winning this Ethiopian eunuch to the Lord was the Old Testament truth. taking the man from where he was reading in the Old Testament and then bringing him the Gospel and showing him how the Old Testament related to the New and particularly as it related to Jesus Christ. Using that matter of apperception, taking a person from what he knows to that which he doesn't know in order that he might learn. We saw the result was that he believed, he was baptized and went on his way rejoicing. The third case was in Acts chapter 9 and then repeated by way of testimony several other times in the book of Acts. And we were talking there about Saul of Tarsus. The instrument that God used in the case of Saul of Tarsus, this was a real unusual one, was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christ returned in a vision to Saul and spoke to him directly, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And Saul immediately recognized he was dealing with Almighty God and then the voice said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Made it very clear that it was Jesus Christ himself. Now God doesn't often do that. And as far as we know, in the book of Acts anyway, and historically, this was the only time that this happened in exactly this way. But nevertheless, it was personal evangelism in the book of Acts and brought about great result with this direct confrontation being the method that was used. And the Apostle Paul, or Saul became the Apostle Paul. He believed, he was baptized, and he preached. So those three we have given to you. Now we've got three more and let's move into these. This is really an important one. It's recorded in both Acts chapter 10 and Acts chapter 11. The Holy Spirit gave Luke A lot of room, a lot of writing room on this particular personal work because this was the opening of the door to the Gentile nations as far as the gospel was concerned. Up to this time, the converts have been Jewish or Jewish proselytes. But now soul winning reaches out even to those that are Gentiles. Once again, we find it in Acts chapter 10 and then repeated by Peter as he shared it with others in Acts chapter 11. Let's read a bit of it. There was a certain man in Caesarea. Caesarea was 27 miles up the coast from Joppa, not far from Tel Aviv, where Tel Aviv is today. And there was a certain man there called Cornelius, a centurion, a leader of a hundred, literally, of the band. The band is the word speres, which means six hundreds. And so therefore he was the leader of one group out of six. He was a commander. He was a soldier. They were called the Italian band. He was a devout man. and one that feared God with all his house, and who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. And he saw in a vision, evidently about the ninth hour, about three o'clock in the day, an angel of God coming into him and saying unto him, Cornelius. When he looked on him, he was afraid, and he said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. The reason that Simon the Tanner had his place there in Joppa by the seaside was because they needed water in order to complete the tanning process. And he also was outside the city because a Tanner was almost as bad as a Gentile. Peter had already come down, if you please, if you think of it this way, he'd come down one step. God was already preparing them. He, a Jew, would never go into the house of a tanner. You know why? Of course, because a Jew is never supposed to come in contact in any way, shape, or form with a dead body. And so the very fact that he was with the Tanner is some progress in Peter's maturity as far as his Christian life is concerned. He already has given up a portion of that which is Judaistic law. And so he's there with the Tanner. But not only that, now God is going to ask him to go to a Gentile. And that's even worse. So that's a little background on verse 6. And then in verse 7, It says, And when the angel who spoke unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of those that waited on him continually. And when he had declared or rehearsed all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. On the next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter was up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, or about noontime. Now incidentally, let me just insert something here that has nothing to do with our subject at all, if I can. I think the thing that, and maybe it does have something to do with our subject, I think the thing that is so amazing and neat about this story is that God was working on both ends. Ever thought of that in regard to people that you're trying to reach for Jesus Christ? God works on both ends. And we have the notion sometimes that God is prompting us to witness to this person and say, Him? Oh, Lord, come on now, wait a minute. And yet, God is already working. God's not going to ask you to try to bring someone to a place where they're ready to receive the Savior and try to point them to Christ unless He, first of all, has done something in His heart. He's very, very skillful in the way He works in the lives of people. And He's very anxious to bring this person. He's not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He's most anxious that they come to Him. And so he's already working in their heart, and that you can count on, because God works at both ends. He did here, and he will as far as our lives are concerned as well. All right. He became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance. He's getting ready for supper, about time to eat, or lunch, I should say, dinnertime, about ready to eat. But while he's waiting for it to be prepared, He falls into a trance. God arranged that. And he saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to earth, in which were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. All of these things would be things that would be forbidden for a Jew. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said something that's impossible to say. You can't say this and mean it. There's no way. He said, not so, Lord. You can say not so, and you can say Lord, but you can't say not so, Lord. Not sincerely. He's either Lord, and then you have no right to say not so, or you say not so, and thereby say you're not Lord. But you can't say not so, Lord. Imagine Peter arguing with the Lord this way, not so Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean, keeping with the restrictions of Leviticus chapter 11. He said, no way, I don't touch this sort of thing. And the voice spoke unto him again the second time, what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. Now you see, as so often happens, the issue involved was not eating. The issue involved was not the matter of him eating these unclean animals. In fact, we're never told that he really sat down and ate them. And it's not likely that that was God's intent any more than it was God's intent for Abraham to slay Isaac. The point was that the lesson that he had to learn was that when God says that you're to do something, you're to do it. And when God says, I've cleansed something, then don't argue with him. The point of the whole thing was that there was a Gentile that was going to call for him. And Peter had in his mind that the gospel, that salvation, was not only of the Jew, as the Old Testament says, but that salvation was for the Jew. He understood that Jesus Christ came as the Messiah, that he was rejected, and that he died for the sins of the world. But he did not understand the implications that had as far as reaching Gentiles was concerned. He needed a work of grace in his own heart so that he might recognize the need of the Gentile world and that the gospel is for the whole world. We'll be studying the book of Jonah on Sunday morning. And the interesting thing about the book of Jonah is that this is an Old Testament book that basically says the same thing. That the Lord can save whoever He is pleased to save. and that we don't have any right to withhold the message of salvation from those that are of different race than we, no matter how privileged our race may be. It's a beautiful picture of how God brought a message to a pagan land in spite of the fact that the Jews had neglected their responsibility to be a witness and a testimony. Let's not forget that the major thrust One of the major reasons that God called the Jewish nation was a missionary purpose. Taking Abraham out of the best possible culture of his day, placing him in the worst possible culture of the day. Why? To be a light to the Gentiles. That's why. And there needed to be a blessing brought by Abraham's seed to the whole world. And that blessing would be the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message was intended from the beginning to be a message that would embrace the Gentiles as well as the Jews. And the Jews failed in their missionary responsibility and their lamp was taken from their lampstand. All right, now, verse 16 then says, this was done thrice. thrice, three different times, same vision, and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter was perplexed what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold the men who were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate. Now they wouldn't come in, they wouldn't enter. Jews and Gentiles had no dealings, and particularly in a social sense. And so they stood before the gate and they called out to him, but they did not enter into his house. They wouldn't venture to do that. And called and asked whether Simon, who was surnamed Peter, was lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision, You see God's timing again. The Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing. He had to throw that in because Peter was doubting plenty at this point. For I have sent them. Then Peter went down to the men who were sent unto him from Cornelius, and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause for which ye are come? And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a righteous man and one that feareth God, and of good report among all nations of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee. Then called he them in and lodged them. And on the next day Peter went away from them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the next day after they entered into Caesarea, and Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up, I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. For him to even go in was a very big step. And they said unto them, Ye know that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation. But God hath shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore, came I unto you without objection, as soon as I was sent for. I asked, therefore, for what intent have you sent for me? Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour. In the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing. And he said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send, therefore, to Joppa, and call here Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of one Simon of Tanner by the seaside, who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. Immediately, therefore, I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now, therefore, are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. Now that's an Old Testament truth by the way. Read about that in the book of Job and in 2nd Chronicles and Deuteronomy. God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation He that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree, him God raised up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before by God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead those forty days between the time of his resurrection and his ascension, when he appeared only to a limited number of people. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, to testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him gave all the prophets witness, and through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them who heard the word. and they of the circumcision who believed were astonished. As many as came with Peter, because on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit, they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can a man forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit, as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then asked they him to tarry certain days. Now chapter 11 virtually repeats the same story, only it's Peter reiterating this story to the others that are wondering and doubting about this. Incidentally, let me just say a word in regard to the matter here. And remember that in the book of Acts there are possibly four times where the Holy Spirit was poured out and where they spoke with tongues. The first was the initial outpouring of the Spirit of God in the day of Pentecost. The second was an outpouring of the Spirit of God with now a different ethnic group which were the Samaritans. And then the third outpouring was here in a different ethnic group again, the Gentiles. And the fourth was that time where the disciples of John received the Holy Spirit. A very distinct time thing. It's interesting, isn't it, that in the conversion account, even of the Apostle Paul as an example, there is no record of speaking in tongues. There is a record of the Holy Spirit filling him. There isn't a record of any speaking in tongues or anything of that kind. It's very limited and very specific and that gives us a clue as to the matter of tongue speaking in the book of Acts. That's just by the way as we go along. Now let's analyze this again as we have in this little outline. First of all in Acts 10 and 11 we have the story. The individual was Cornelius and Peter was the instrument. Along with, of course, the messengers and the angel and the whole scene there. And God used a vision. A vision on both ends. A vision both for the personal worker and for the convert himself. And what Peter was to use as far as a method, I like to call picking ripe fruit. Because that's all it was. I mean, everything was accomplished and done. God says, you go and just tie the knot. You go and finish the thing up. You go, the fruit is ripe, and you just go and reach up and pick it. I have this happen sometimes, you know. Not long ago, I had a couple in my office that were just kind of feeling that their relationship wasn't together what it ought to be. And I I was counseling with them, and I explained the plan of salvation, realizing that they probably didn't know the Lord. And then I said, have you ever personally asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior. I turned to the girl first for some reason and she smiled back and she says, yes I have. Oh, I said, could you tell me when? She says, last Sunday morning after you preached. I said, that's great, that's super. I turned to the guy and I said, how about you? He says, no I haven't. I said, would you like to? He says, why not? I thought to myself, wow, who needs me? You know, God's doing it, and you don't even need me. And yet God gave me the privilege of bowing my head with those kids and seeing them, seeing the guy come to know Christ, and seeing them made one in Christ, and seeing them go on from the Lord. And that happens. That happens not just once or twice, but often. And I think if we knew how ripe the fruit is sometimes, we'd be more anxious to get to Caesarea. We'd be more anxious to get to the place where God is calling us. Because the fruit is ready. So, picking ripe fruit is a good expression. And I think we need to learn to pick the fruit when it's ripe so that God can bless in this particular way. And then, of course, we have a sequence of things. The Holy Spirit fell. The Holy Spirit fell. They spoke in tongues. And they magnified God. They were baptized. Don't forget this one, controversy arose. Remember this, that many times when we bring people to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit works in their hearts and they accept Christ as Savior, that they, the very conversion of that person brings controversy. I think that we're seeing a remarkable day these days. where a number of truly controversial characters have come to know Jesus Christ. Charles Coulson is an example. And no one can say that there hasn't been an awful lot of controversy that has caused as a result of Charles Coulson's salvation. And there are people that are believers even today that still won't believe that that's true. And even some of those that knew him best. And Eldridge Cleaver is another case in point. And I think there's always a danger in Christian people and Christian organizations exploiting individuals like this that are famous and then they are saved and then trying to make them famous born-againers after they've made that decision when sometimes laying hands too suddenly on a man can be a bad thing. But in spite of that, I think that we know for a fact that Eldridge Cleaver really and truly came to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. And of course there are the satanic counterfeits along with it. And there are those that profess to know the Savior but show no evidence in their life and show no real fruit. And I think a case in point was, I can't think of his name now, this fellow Flynn that publishes Hustler magazine, supposedly made a decision for Christ. And when the National Religious Broadcasters were back in Washington DC for their annual convention, Eldridge Cleaver was there. And this fellow Flynn was there, I think that's his name, Flynn or Flint or something. Anyway, he was there, and somebody had suggested that he go, and he was trying to get a hearing. And they have a very careful committee that works with that. And they sat down with Eldridge Cleaver and they told him, they said, you're just a new Christian? And not only that, you still have some things, in particular, a manufacturing enterprise that he was involved in that is questionable. And so we feel that we can't allow you to speak and address the conference. And you know what Eldridge Cleaver said? That's fine with me. He says, I'm glad I could come and I'm hoping that I can grow in the Lord as a result. And if you don't use me, that's no problem. But this other guy, they sat down with him and they said, you're still connected with Hustler Magazine and a million other things and there's some serious question here and he got mad. And he went out and he tried to get a block of people to sort of have a power play and try to get the platform. And they didn't let him have it, obviously. But you see the difference? So there's always the satanic counterfeits. So don't think that all controversy is necessarily because there's been a true conversion. But in the case of Cornelius, controversy arose. The Jews couldn't believe what Peter told them. But after Peter related the whole story, then the people accepted this as from the Lord. But controversy arose. And there'll be people that come to Christ and by the very character, by the very fact of who they are and what they've done in the past and a lot of other things. Sometimes they will bring controversy. Don't let that foil you. You continue to disciple them and get them to the place of maturity where they can prove that which is really and truly in their life. Okay, so that's another one of these conversions. Now let's go to another passage. This time in the 16th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 16. Now, in chapter 16, verses 14 through 15, we have a brief account of the conversion of a woman by the name of Lydia. Notice what it says. We first of all should perhaps give you the background that the Apostle Paul has been seeking to go further into Asia. The Holy Spirit said no. And so he continued to move. He didn't stop just because the Holy Spirit said they couldn't go that way. He kept trying doors until finally the Macedonian vision came. A man from Macedonia stood and said, come over and help us. And the man from Macedonia turned out to be a woman. Now don't ask me how it works out that way, but the one that really seems to sincerely have wanted the Apostle Paul to come, it turned out to be Lydia. And he couldn't even find any devout men in the town. When he came to the city of Philippi, he found that there wasn't even a synagogue. You had to have at least six men that were Orthodox Jews in order to build a synagogue. Without six men you couldn't do it. There was no synagogue in Philippi. That means if there were any devout Jewish men there, they were less than six in number or at least they had not enough interest to get this accomplished. And so what they did was that for the sake of the oblation and all that was involved in the liturgy of the Jews, They would meet by the riverside. And so that's where the Apostle Paul found Lydia and some of her friends. And not only that, but it says in verse 13, on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was accustomed to be made and we sat down and spoke unto the women. Notice, the women who resorted there. And so you see the closest thing to any true piety in that city was a group of women meeting to worship Jehovah, the one God of the Jews. And it says in verse 14, a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, an upper class woman, A woman who undoubtedly was of some means apparently maintained a business both in Thyatira and in Philippi and had a home in possibly both places. It says she worshipped God and she heard us. Whose heart the Lord opened. Remember now, again, here's a woman, again who was prepared. and it says she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul. And when she was baptized in her household, she besought us, saying, Ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, and that's a first-class condition. In the view of the writer, it's a fulfilled matter. Since you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there, and she constrained us. All right, now, it's fascinating, isn't it? Here is another case and a little different situation. The instrument again is Paul. But the method that was used was simply to follow up on a message that he'd preached. There's the combination of mass evangelism and then the follow-up afterward. His sharing with her was in the way of follow-up. You see, it's very important to realize that people often come to know the Savior just as a result of hearing a message. And often, God will lead a person then to follow up on them. And what happened? She opened her heart. She opened her heart. She attended. She paid close attention. That, of course, is the point of conversion, no doubt. She was baptized. And she opened her home to the Apostle Paul. And so there again, we have a little different sequence, a little different circumstance. And I told you before that we are given only a limited number of personal evangelism contacts in the book of Acts, that is successful ones. But I think that the Holy Spirit allowed Luke to write these words in this way. so that we would have a cross-section, a broad picture of what was involved in personal evangelism. Not so we would get stereotyped. If we had only had one, or if we had all of the conversion experiences all the same, then we get the idea this is the only way it can be done. But it's God's purpose that we understand that there are many, many circumstances under which people come to know the Savior. Now, you remember that Paul continued to preach, and one of the things he did was cast out a demon out of a young girl. And this girl no longer had her magical powers as a result, and so they threw the Apostle Paul and Silas into prison. and told the authorities they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. We're Romans. We can't believe this stuff that they're talking about. That wasn't the real motive. The real motive was they lost the gain, their hope of gain, from this demon-possessed girl. And so they gave them many stripes. They cast them into prison. They charged the jailer to keep them safely. That's as much as to say that if you don't, you're dead. These are important prisoners, they said. And so therefore keep them safely. Roman guard had a very interesting situation because if he let a prisoner escape, remember we had down here in Santa Clara County Jail, they had four men escape the other day. If that was a Roman jail, then the jailer would have to serve the sentences of those men that escaped. That would be no fun. Is it any wonder that the Philippian jailer was going to commit suicide when all the doors were found open after the earthquake? Because he would have been faced with the sentence of all of those men, and some of them would have had death sentences. And it just wasn't a very smart thing to lose a prisoner in that day and age. And so he put them in just for safekeeping, making sure. He thrust them into the inner prison. Now the prison had a vestibule and an outer prison. and the vestibule would be primarily a living quarter for the jailer. And then there would be an outer prison and the outer prison would be minimum security. The inner prison had no windows And no circulation at all. There was no air. There was no light. It was total darkness. Except for perhaps a candle or a lamp, I should say, that would be placed in there at certain times. But this, of course, would be a dungeon. A definite dungeon. And he didn't take any chances. He threw them into that inner prison and in that inner prison made their feet fast in the stocks. Now here's a cautious man, if I ever saw one. He wasn't about to let these fellows escape. And so then it says, at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed. Now you remember, they'd been beaten, probably with 39 stripes, which was common. And they have their feet fast in stocks, and they're in this dungeon in total darkness. And they can't sleep anyway. People that have insomnia, The apostle Paul gives us a pretty good idea of what to do when you have insomnia. You'd have insomnia too under those circumstances. And what he did was pray and sing praises to God. Find a nice little quiet room off somewhere so you don't wake your husband or wife or the children and You know, you might even have yourself an earthquake as a result. That's what happened with them. I often wondered just how loud they could really sing to cause all this. But it says they prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. Now you see, songs of praise to God under difficult circumstances is a tremendous way to prepare people for the hearing of the gospel. When God gives us a song in the night, even while we have a sore in the night, as David said in one of his Psalms, then there's going to be a real witness and a testimony for the glory of God. I don't think we realize how much a joyous heart in the midst of difficult circumstances can be a testimony to those who would not otherwise hear. The people there in that prison heard them. And the interesting thing is that the word that is used here is a rare verb. long word, I won't give it to you, but it's a rare word and it's used here in the imperfect middle. And what it means literally is that they listened with pleasure. They listened with intent interest. It indicates that the other prisoners not only enjoyed what they were singing, but that they were tremendously interested in that which they heard. And suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken immediately, all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. But you see, they were so interested that they hung around, or something. Anyway, they stayed there. That's the miracle. The miracle wasn't the earthquake. The miracle was that all the prisoners didn't flee. That's the miracle. And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried in a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Now how that came about, it's hard to say, because they couldn't see out of their inner prison. We're not told exactly how he knew. Maybe he just anticipated, or maybe he had stepped out into that vestibule area, and he was standing there when the man saw that the doors were open. But he says, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light. See, you need a light in the inner prison especially. And sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And the apostle Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. And they spoke unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. Now, again, let's just put this on our little chart so that we have this in mind. First of all, the story is Acts 16, verses 23 through 34. It's the Philippian jailer. The Apostle Paul is the instrument, primarily. Of course, Silas involved, too. And it was a crisis. It was a crisis circumstance. Do you know how to use crisis circumstances to bring people to Christ? You ought to really get your skill going. There's a man in the city of Portland, Portland, Oregon, that has a ministry in the hospital of the University of Oregon. And it's his philosophy that the greatest mission field, the most opportune mission field in the world is the hospital. And he goes around with a pocket full of pennies. And again, maybe he's stuck on his method, but that's all right, because he leads a lot of people to Christ this way. And he takes a penny out, and he begins to talk about the gospel of Christ. And then he tells the person. The person will say, well, I'm too sick, or I'm too weak, or I haven't believed for so long. How can I begin to believe now? There are all these excuses. And he uses this method. He says, can you take this penny? And they say, yes, I can take the penny. And he says, well, then take it. Just take it. Now take the penny. He says, if you have strength enough to take that penny, then you have strength enough to take Jesus Christ. Now you hold out his hand. He'll say, take my hand and give Christ your heart. And he leads hundreds and hundreds of dying people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ with that simple little method of presenting the gospel. And people accept Christ and then go off into eternity rejoicing Christians time after time after time. It's his philosophy that that is the greatest mission field in all the world from the standpoint of souls that are ready to be reaped for the Savior. He says, you couldn't persuade me, unless God himself did it, you couldn't persuade me to leave that hospital, to take the pulpit of a church or something like that. He says, this is my mission field. The result is that he has led many people to know Jesus Christ as Savior. My father has much the same privilege in the convalescent home where he ministers and sees many, many of these people. It is a rare thing for an elderly person to make a decision for Christ. Do you realize that 90% of all the people who will accept Jesus Christ as Savior will accept him before he is 20 years old? And as you get older and older and older, the chance is less and less that you'll make a decision for Christ. It's difficult in a very real sense to really get through to a person who has hardened his heart against God for so many years. And yet, in that moment of crisis, they're ready. Now, your neighbors, maybe tomorrow, will have a crisis. Sometime soon, they'll have a crisis. One of them will be ill. One of them will be facing possible death. One of them will have a close call. They'll lose something that's very precious to them. And it'll open doors that you wouldn't believe. Use the crisis moment as an opportunity to say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He believed. Not only that, his house, And not only that, they were all baptized. See how baptism follows salvation in all of these cases. And he cared for them. He ministered to their needs out of the gratitude of his own heart. All right, now, those are neat personal evangelism cases that are given to us in the book of Acts. I said last week, we see many, many cases where there's personal evangelism attempts and where there's failure. That didn't faze the Apostle Paul. He went about winning people to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, let me give you four lessons just to kind of put the thing in perspective and get the thing in mind as we finish this tonight and then next week go on to the matter of the disciple and service. First of all, it's obvious from these case histories that God uses a variety of methods and a variety of people. Don't ever get in a rut and stereotyped and thinking that there's only one method to point a person to Jesus Christ. And don't think that you cannot do it. All you need, you see, is a basic understanding of what's involved in salvation. What is it? That Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. that he was raised the third day according to the scripture and that men that place their faith in him can be saved. Now that's basically what the message of salvation is all about. The gospel of Jesus Christ is just simply wrapped up in the fact that Jesus Christ died for sinners like you and like me. There are many things you can add. We talk about the ABCs of the gospel, or actually in reverse, CBA. You confess that you're a sinner, believe that Christ died for your sin, and ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior. There are the four spiritual laws with which you're all familiar. There's the seven things God wants you to know that T. Marshall Morsi put out years ago, or four things that God wants you to know, which is a little tract that you can use. the Roman road to Christ, where you take verses out of the book of Romans and just follow through Romans 3.23, Romans 6.23, and Romans 9 and 10, and other passages like that, that is the Roman road to Christ, as it's called by some. There are many, many methods. And you can have as many as you can possibly find in your arsenal. But you're going to find that there's going to be a person who is going to have an argument for all of those things. So develop another one right on the spot. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh concerning the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Know what the issues of salvation are. And another thing that's important is know what the Holy Spirit is going to work on. We talked about that last week. We talked about it earlier. When we were talking about the Spirit of God in the Gospels in regard to disciples, and just remember that He came to convince the world of sin. because they don't believe in Christ. That's the sin that he convinces of. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father. There's only one way to God, through Jesus Christ. And of judgment, because the prince of the world is judged. If you refuse the message that God has given, then there's eternal judgment for you. That's where the Holy Spirit's gonna be setting his guns. So you cooperate with that in any way possible. But realize that you can point people to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings them to Christ. The Holy Spirit brings them to salvation. You can only point them to Christ. And you can give the gospel to people and share a witness with people and all of the rest of it, and it'll point to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And then the Spirit of God will take it from there. So that's the first thing. Second thing. The object. The object. of soul winning is always one thing, to bring a person to a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Now there are many, many social implications in the gospel. But you know, it's like the man in England that that was going down the street, a man who was a liberal, a man who was conservative, and the liberal, of course, was very much interested in social things, and the other man was interested in bringing people to know Jesus Christ. And so, in the midst of their argument, the liberal pointed to a man, and he said, you see that man over there? We put a new suit on that man. Socialism has done that. And the other man walked in silence for a few moments and pondering what had been said and couldn't deny the fact that the fellow sure had a new suit, no question about that. And all of a sudden he saw another man. He says, you see that man over there? Yeah. He says, we put a new man in that suit. And you see, there is a lot to be said about bringing others to Jesus Christ and then helping to meet their needs. We don't just say to them if we really love them, be warmed, be fed. We put some overalls in what we've said and we try to help and meet their needs. There's nothing wrong with that. There are social implications to the gospel. But get this, our primary goal is to put a new man in the suit, not to put a new suit on the man. to bring people to the place that their new creation in Christ Jesus. That is the thing that's really vital and important. And then, of course, with it, or even as a means to bring them to Christ, we use these other things. But that, of course, is the initial goal. The third thing is God is no respecter of persons, rich or poor, sick or well. He's not willing that any should perish. God wants to save blacks and he wants to save Chinese and Japanese and Indians. I remember my father was always, you know, taking every opportunity he could to preach the gospel. He loved to preach. I guess maybe I came by it honestly, but Dad didn't have any preaching responsibility for a little while in Billings, Montana, except his television program, weekly television ministry. And so he started going out to the Indians in Montana there, in central Montana. And believe me, you know, some of those people are in an awful plight. And those people are so tough to touch. so stoic in their manner, and just had no interest in spiritual things. I used to stand up there and sing, and then Dad would preach, and I'd get so discouraged. Oh, you know, it was so tough to stand and have these people give you these blank stares. You couldn't really tell whether they were gonna kill you or whether they liked you or just what it was, you know? And all of them, Indians and all of them, just stricken with poverty. And dad would stand up there and he would preach his heart out and there would be no response. I couldn't understand what in the world ever made him go back. But God loved those people. It's hard sometimes to love people that won't respond to you, that won't give you the time of day. But God loved them and some of them did come to know Christ as Savior as a result of that ministry. You see, there are people all around us. Some are more desirable as friends and so on than others, but they're all in need of the Savior. And somehow we have to bring ourselves to the place where we realize that Christ died for these people and that God loved the world and there's a world of people just like this. I remember Billy Sunday was walking down the street one day with a friend. Billy Sundy was, of course, saved from a drunkard's grave. He was a rough, tough, cussin' drinkin' ball player. Christ saved him, made a flaming evangelist out of him. Quite a man. You ought to read the biography of Billy Sundy. Walking down the street with this man who happened to be a preacher, I'm not very proud of that, and the man saw a drunk layin' in the gutter, and he says, isn't that disgusting? Then he looked over at Billy Sunday, and great big tears were coming down his face. The man says, well, Billy, what's wrong? Billy Sunday said, oh, my friend, I was thinking, except for the grace of God, that would be me. Can you see? It's not easy. I remember so many times in Chicago and Pacific Garden Mission, the opportunities we've had to minister there, and skid row situations in places like Seattle and in Spokane. I can recall so vividly those opportunities to go and to minister to these fellows. It takes a special breed of person to commit his life to minister to those people, but they're needy people. I remember our hearts just breaking for them in their drunken condition. So often they turn away, but God loves them. Who's going to reach them? Where is your mission field? all around you are people that you can't stand in the natural, but God loves. He wants to save them through your ministry. That's the third thing. God is no respecter of persons. Then the fourth thing is this. Not all who are witnessed to were converted. Some were convicted, some were impressed, some were almost convinced, but there were many who were not converted. but the responsibility of the soul winner is to be faithful in sowing the seed. Not faithful in how many notches you have in your Bible. Not faithful so that you can say, I won five people to Christ today. D.L. Moody purposed in his heart to witness to at least one person every day. One night he went to bed, couldn't sleep. He thought, I haven't witnessed to someone today. Oh, it wouldn't matter if I skipped just once. It got late at night. He still hadn't slept a wink. Finally, he thought, I can't do it. He went out. First man he met, he accosted on the street, said, sir, do you know that God loves you? And the man was stunned by a man coming out and saying that in the middle of the night. He said, well, I know. But he said, I've been walking this street trying to get up the nerve to jump off the bridge and commit suicide. Maybe if God loves me, maybe he would save me, and D.L. Moody led him to Christ. And after that, it's said that D.L. Moody never missed another day and another opportunity to witness for Jesus Christ. There's nothing wrong with setting a goal like that. But you don't set carnal goals like I'm gonna lead 10 people to Christ this week or something like that, because you don't know how many people are gonna come to Christ. You only can know how faithful you're going to be, and you can trust the Holy Spirit to be faithful. But if you'll witness to one a day, you can be sure that some will come to the Savior as a result of your witness. Remember that the Apostle Paul made clear that one plants the seed, another waters, but it's God who gives the increase. And that could be said to be the theme of the soul winning in the book of Acts. God giving the increase because faithful men planted and watered the seed. Let's pray, shall we? I think it's good for us from time to time to evaluate our lives and examine ourselves. I don't think one of us could say that we have been as faithful as we could be in our witness for Jesus Christ. Sometimes we've quit because we've been discouraged. We've been turned down. What kind of a salesman would you be just because somebody said no to your product? You'd never sell anything. We have the greatest product in the world in the salvation offered in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it doesn't cost to receive it. It's free. It's a free salvation, not cheap, but free. We have the privilege of offering this free gift of salvation to all men everywhere. Sure, there'll be turndowns, but don't let that discourage you. Some of you have witnessed in the past, but your priorities have been wrong. You've been so busy doing other things, you haven't had time to reach out to that neighbor and befriend him Maybe mow his lawn and let him know that you care, watching for the opportunity to share Christ with him. Some of you just don't want to get involved. You're afraid of the involvement with other people, what it might lead to. It might lead to a greater commitment of time than you're prepared to pay. There are many reasons why people don't witness for Christ. But they're all just excuses. Because God has called us all to be witnesses. We all have a responsibility to be winning souls, and he that winneth souls is wise. We are to point many to righteousness. We are to be involved in sharing the good news with as many people as possible, to be a witness for Jesus Christ wherever we might be, letting our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify the Father which is in heaven. Won't you right now just make a new commitment to the Lord that as a disciple of Jesus Christ, that you'll follow his lead, even as he talked with the woman at the well, with Zacchaeus, and gave personal time to others to bring them to himself. Won't you ask the Lord to give you opportunities tomorrow to be a witness for his glory? Father, we pray that this time next month, that our number will have doubled because each of these have had the privilege of seeing at least one come to know the Savior, at least partially because of their witness. Lord, you are preparing our hearts on this end. Prepare the hearts of others on the other end, and we give you the praise and the glory. In Christ's precious name, amen. Lord bless you. Go and witness.