We know that apart from the Lord we can do nothing, but we also know that if we do not go, the Lord does not work. The Lord's word is: "Go and make disciples." The grammatical construction is that you and I ought to make disciples. This, you and I cannot do. It is the work of God. Yet, the Lord used a grammatical construction that seems to suggest that you and I are the operative people in making disciples. In other words, He was trying to tell us: "I will do it in and through you. Go and make disciples; go and preach the gospel to every creature."
We must be channels for the Word of God that Christ may speak through us and Christ may work through us by His Word. This means that we have got to have a knowledge of the Word of God. We must not only read God's Word and study God's Word; we must memorise God's Word. ... I know from my own experience, and the wickedness of my own heart, that some people trust more in their own words of persuasion and their own babbling than the Word of God. That is why some people can talk and talk and talk, they can corner people and hammer people, they can do all kinds of things, but nothing will ever happen. You can discuss, and discuss, and discuss, but it is only the Word of God that can get into a heart.
Having found the people and testified to them, we introduce them to Christ. This is absolutely vital. We must ask the Lord to be doing an ever deeper work in us, so that we have a living, present-day experience of the Lord Jesus, and we are in a position where we are able to introduce someone to Christ. This is the whole point. It is just this that is so vital. To find people and speak to them some words about Christ is wonderful, and it is right; but if we leave it there, and cannot actually introduce them to the living, risen Christ, we have failed. ... You are simply introducing people to Christ. He will do the work, praise God! His is the finished work. He will convict. He will draw. He will save. The great thing is for you to be an open, cleansed channel so that you can be the one who links the risen Christ with a needy, sinful soul.
He findeth, he saith, he bringeth him to Jesus. Here are the three simple essentials in soul winning. First, you must find the people. Secondly, you must testify to them. Thirdly, you must bring them to Jesus. So simple.
You and I are the body of Christ. He wants to express, if I may use it reverently, His personality through us. He wants to express His mind through us. He wants to express His heart through us. He wants somehow or other that other men and women might see through us the Lord Jesus Himself. Therefore, a very solemn responsibility rests upon us. Any church, any company which can only think of its own spiritual growth, its own glorious privileges, its future destiny and has forgotten that we are meant to be the vessel of God's salvation in this poor and dying world, is denying its very vocation. It is a caricature of a church. You cannot have the heart of Christ beating within a body and be altogether different in attitude and approach to Him.
There are dying multitudes all around us. If we do not win them, if we do not reach them, if we do not tell them, no one else will. We are Christ's body. We are His hands, His feet, His means of expressing Himself to the world.
I cannot believe that the Christ who lived for those thirty-three years on the earth and showed us the heart of God, can live happily in the midst of a company which remains absolutely unconcerned about the dying multitudes around it. I cannot believe that that Christ can live in my heart and my heart remain completely indifferent to the needs of dying men and woman around. This is not the Christ of God's word.