KWASIZABANTU MINISTERS' CONFERENCE 2003

5 March 2003, 11:00

"Rescue the perishing" - Rev Joseph Chauke

or

Prov 24:10 - 12

God pleads with the church to hold back those that are perishing. Who are they? Those on the broad road, whose way seems good, but the end thereof is death (Prov 14:12). It has pleased God to send me and you to withhold them from destruction. In John 10:10 we read that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. These people are stolen by Satan, especially the youth today. According to Rom 6:23 they also have the verdict of death upon their heads, for "the wages of sin is death". Oh, that the church of God might see the seriousness of this matter. Then we will forget about our petty plans and strategies and cry to God for the souls and pluck them from destruction.

There are three deaths man can die. Firstly all will die physically, for "it is appointed unto man once to die and thereafter the judgement". The second is the spiritual death. A person who goes to church Sunday after Sunday, holds a position in church, reads the Bible, but all is just a ritual and when God looks at the person, He sees a corpse. They are like the church in Rev 3:1, who had a name to be alive, but was dead. The third death is the everlasting death, when a person who is dead spiritually die physically as well, and will spend eternity in hell fire. We read of them in Dan 12:2 - those that will have everlasting contempt, and again in Mark 9:46 that the "worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched".

God's Word is clear about those that do not pluck them from death when they see the sword coming. Some live in luxury, and do not care for lost souls. They do not realise the debt they have before God, because of their willful ignorance. Paul exclaimed, "woe is me if I preach not the Gospel". Your life will be cursed if you do not obey God. God will require their blood from your hands, as we read in Ez 33. There was a certain Christian man who went to a restaurant to have something to eat. God spoke to him to speak to the waitress about her soul, but he reasoned that he had no time and his next appointment was waiting for him. Just as he drove away from the restaurant, he was greatly burdened in his spirit to return at once. He returned and asked for the waitress, only to hear that she shot herself after serving him.

We must have Jesus' attitude when we work with souls. In Matt 9:36 we read of Jesus' compassion for the multitude who had no shepherd. Others simply see the multitude as a burden, or political votes, or financial gain. Let us have this mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who though He was rich, became poor for our sakes, that we might become rich. Jesus said in John 4:35 that we should "lift up our eyes and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." The time to start work in now, without delay.

What is your response to God's call from Is 6:8, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Will you go, or do you wait for others to go? Young people must devote their whole lives and future to God's service. We read from Lam 3:27, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth". Give your whole life to God as a young person, and take Jesus' yoke upon you.