The Tragedy Of Crowns Without Stars
Years ago a Russian Messianic Jew a worldwide Evangelist serving God for 55 years. Dr. Hyman Appelman was my Mentor (1983). Dr. CS Lovett famous author & Evangelist, now enjoying his 82nd year, also a friend of Hyman's advises we can build Riches, Rewards & Rank in Heaven which are the STARS in our CROWN that Dr. Appelman referred to in this Message. These "Stars" are the "lost" souls we invite to meet Jesus and
make the choice to "Receive" Him as He knocks at their hearts door. Come and learn "How To" receive your Star studded Crown in Heaven.
Healing and Igniting with you
Frank W. Moseley
The Tragedy of Crowns Without Stars
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.”- Proverbs 11:30
"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."- Daniel 12:3
There is a stirring story of a Christian woman who dreamed she died and went to heaven. The pearly gates swung open before her. The angel porter welcomed her, directed her to the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior greeted her, but somewhat coolly. A crown was placed upon her head at His direction. She turned away to walk the golden street to her mansion of eternal bliss. The sights of that wondrous realm of heaven charmed her into raptures of delight. She recognized forms and features she had known upon the earth. As she walked on, she noticed that both saints and angels were discreetly watching her. The farther she walked, the more noticeable this attention became. It confused her. Approaching one of the whitewinged messengers of the Lord, she questioned him.
"Why are all these looking at me so oddly?" "Take off your crown, daughter," said the angel, "and you will see."
The Christian dreamed she removed the crown from her head. It was gold, shining, bright, beautiful, a delight; but there was something missing in it. For long minutes she kept on staring at the coronet, trying to understand what was lacking. She looked at the other crowns on the heads about her. She then realized that her crown was totally devoid of any gemmed stars. It was bare gold. Her heart broke. Quickly she turned about and retraced her steps to the intercessory throne of the Son of God. Falling on her knees before the Redeemer, she sobbed out, "Lord Jesus, give me another chance. Send me back to earth. I'll do much better this time."
The agony of her dream awakened her. Slipping out of bed, she knelt and sobbed out her dedication to the Lord as a witness-bearer. It was different with her from that day forward. Her life became imbued and endued with a passion to win the lost. Her testimony rang true, warm, effective. God blessed her sacrificial endeavors with many precious souls.
It is my deep-seated conviction, as firm as my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that the chief reason, perhaps the only reason, the Lord saves us and lets us live here upon this earth instead of taking us to Himself in heaven is that He wants to use us as witnesses. The chiefest task of every child of God here in this world is to preach the gospel to every creature, to make disciples of all nations.
You tell me you are a child of God. Prove it. You tell me you show it by the fact that you abstain from venial sins, that your life is morally clean, that you pray occasionally, that you read your Bible, that you attend the services of the church, that you give of your means. Good! But both you and I know unsaved folks, Jews and Gentiles, who make no pretense at religion, whose lives are as morally clean as are the lives of most of our so-called church members. Both you and I know unsaved people, men and women, who absolutely deny the Christ of God, yet who pray (at least they claim to pray), who read the Bible (at least parts of it), who give to the church, who are charitable to a fault. Wherein is the difference between them and you?
None of these, however, either engage or have the slightest intention of engaging in preaching the gospel, in harvesting precious souls. No, my friends, if you want your lives really and truly to show forth the praises of God, your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in the pardon of your sins, your experience with the Holy Spirit in the new birth, you must engage yourself as a reaper in the fields of the world. You must lend yourselves into the hands of the Holy Spirit as a grappling hook, to rescue these perishing souls.
May the Spirit of God search your hearts and convict your souls with the message of this hour. How many of you can look up into the face of the Redeemer and say, and tell the truth, "Lord Jesus, I am doing my best to carry out your Holy Commission"? Were Jesus to stand in His pulpit in this hour, would it not be the bitter fact that most of us would have to hang our heads in ungrateful shame, knowing that we are guilty of the Sin Of Silence and have neither sought nor used the opportunities to witness and win the crowds about us to a saving acceptance of the Son of God? Let us consider the matter under discussion, this Tragedy of Crowns Without Stars, carefully. There are definitely three thoughts here:
I. Three Things We Must Know.
II. Three Things We Must Remember.
III. Three Things We Must Do.
I. The Three Things We Must Know involve the three reasons for our failures.
A. Lack of Conviction
Some, too dreadfully many, fail from the lack of conviction - deep-seated, heartfelt, constraining conviction. Some doubt the power of the gospel to save everybody. They give up the hard cases too easily. They look at the difficulties on every hand, the attractions and the distractions of the world, the flesh, the devil. They see the crowds frequenting the haunts of sin, absenting themselves from the house of God, and begin to believe that the gospel has lost its primitive power to draw the attention of men.
1. Little Salvation
Others see filled sanctuaries but little salvation. They hear the preachers exhaust themselves in passionate pleading. They see the unsaved, the unchurched, the worldly, the backslidden, the indifferent, come Sunday after Sunday, and remain unmoved and immovable, unchanged and seemingly unchangeable. The enemy of all souls whispers to them the hell-originated suggestion that the blessed gospel has lost its Pentecostal power to convict and convert.
2. Doubt Ability of Holy Spirit
The devil keeps on reminding them of their weaknesses, until they come to the unwarranted decision that they might just as well not try because nothing will come of it anyway.
B. Lack of Courage
There are multitudes of God's folk who fail not so much through lack of conviction as through lack of courage. Preachers, bold as lions in the pulpit, will grow pale with fright at the thought of dealing face to face with these demon-possessed, at least demon controlled, souls.
And you also, my fellow Christian, you of the rank and file of the church. It does not take either much conviction or much courage to regularly attend the services of your church, to give of your means, to abstain from the evil things about you. Try going after those on the high road to hell. Try engaging Satan in battle to the death as you face him out in personal religious conversation with those who show little or no inclination toward the things of God and eternity. That is where Christian courage must assert itself. That is where Christian courage is required. That is where Christian courage pays the very largest dividends. But, oh, my soul, how very many of us argue, debate, alibi, excuse ourselves when our responsibility for these hellbound myriads is pressed upon our minds. Is it not a fact that all of our alibis, all of our defense mechanisms are merely fronts-permit the crude expression-for the lack of either conviction or courage? Most of the time it is lack of courage.
C. Lack of Consecration
Oh, my dear friends, if there be any hesitation in your heart about telling the story of Jesus, look to it-there is some unconfessed, unforgiven sin in your life that you must repent of and confess to the Lord. It will drag you down. It will defile your life. It will rob you of the joy of your salvation. Satan will surely use it as a stumbling block in the paths of others.
II. But, let us hasten on to consider the Three Things We Must Remember.
A. Soul Winning Is Christ's Business
First, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." He is still at it. That is still His business, His only business. The need is just as great. With all of our boasted achievements; with all of our vaunted accomplishments; with all of our cultural, civilizational, mechanical, economic, social, educational, recreational, legislative. technocratic, philanthropic governmental advances, men are still lost in sin, ,Slaves Of ,Satan, ridden by the passions of the flesh, the perversions of the world, standing in the need of Christ and salvation. Spiritually, those outside of the cross of Calvary are in exactly the same place as were Adam and Eve when they were driven out of the Garden of Eden.
The skins of their self-righteous endeavors will not serve to hide any of their nakedness. The seeds of mortality are in their bodies, while the virus of sin's poisonings is running riot in their veins. Satan is leading them to the slaughter. They are dancing the death dance of his piping, forgetting or neglecting the fact that they will eventually pay his price. They are doomed, damned, cursed, condemned. There is only one hope for them, only one medicament, only one Physician. The hope is the gospel. The balm is the blood of Calvary. The Great Physician is the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. We Are His Witnesses
Second, we must always remember, and I press it upon your hearts by the authority of God's Word and the testimony of these wonderful Christian centuries, that the Master will save some souls through you if you will cooperate with Him. That is the story of Scripture. We are to be His witnesses. He was and is the Light of the world. We are His reflected lights. We are the lower lights that are to be kept burning. He has no other plan. He made no other plan. The Great Commission precludes the possibility of there being any other way of reaching a world except through the agency of the children of God.
Search your records. Show me a single incident where the Redeemer won a single soul to Himself after His ascension except through the instrumentality of one already won. Why, even to Paul, Ananias was sent. It has been just that way through the ages of Christian history. Do not ask me why it is so. I do not know. Do not ask me why the Lord of Glory should have limited Himself to our puny efforts. All I know is that He has done so. All I know is that for reasons known to His own omnipotence He has so ordained that we who are saved shall be the instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit to save others, at least to tell them of this wondrous salvation, at least to bring them to this matchless Savior.
C. Christ Furnishes Equipment
The third thing I bid you remember is that the Lord Jesus Christ will furnish all the equipment you need. You need wisdom, extraordinary wisdom, more than human wisdom, the wisdom that cannot be obtained in the classroom, in the library, in the technical laboratory. Listen to God's promise made to one of His servants. "And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say" (Exod. 4:10-12). You say, "But, preacher, that was a promise made to Moses, not to me. Listen then again, and let this objection be dissipated by the assurance of faith. Here is God's promise to you, in your day and time. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James 1:5). That is clear enough, comprehensive enough.
1. Courage Needed
"Have not I commanded thee. Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Josh. 1 :9).
2. Power Needed
"But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
3. Faith Needed
You need faith, irresistible, unquenchable, refusing to take No for an answer, mountain-moving, promise-claiming, victory-achieving faith. Here is the provision of the Holy Ghost. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10: 17). "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
III. Last of all, not only are there three things we must know, not only are there three things we must remember, but there are Three Things We Must Do.
A. Set Soul-winning As Your Goal in Life
An aimless life is a useless life. No one has ever achieved even a modicum of success in any line of endeavor, material, mental - least of all spiritual without a well-defined goal. There can be no greater ambition than to be a soul winner. There can be no greater desire than to lead the lost to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a task that the angels envy.
B. Cultivate a Passion for Souls
It was Brainerd who said, "I care not where I go, nor what hardships I endure, if I can only see souls saved. All I think of by day and dream of by night is the conversion of men." What impact does the Great Commission, the burning appeal of the bloodstained Son of God make on your heart?
1. Study Your Bible
2. Consider Your Experience
3. Have Daily Devotion
4. Go and Witness
Now go out into the world, into the highways and hedges of the workaday life. Stop there bemused souls, these bemired creatures. Speak to them about Christ. Tell them that a Savior has died for their sins. Tell them that there is balm in Gilead for the disease ravages of their iniquities. Let them disregard you. Just keep on pleading. Let them break your hearts with their indifference. Keep on beseeching. Let them revile you, ridicule you, even curse you. They crucified your Savior, and all He could find to say was, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Are you perhaps better than He is? Do you perhaps feel that you deserve more than He did? Was His cross by any chance lighter than yours? Let me see your hands.
C. Undertake All with Prayer
We must begin and continue all our work in this gravest of all undertakings, in this greatest of all businesses, with and in prayer. One can perhaps run a bank without prayer, although he would do a better job with prayer. One can perhaps carry on some mundane activity without calling on the name of the Lord, although there, also, prayer would be a mighty benediction. It is utterly impossible to make any impact upon the souls of men without constant, ceaseless, careful, concentrated communion with God, supplication, intercession.
Prayer will get us right and keep us right. Prayer will continue us enheartened and encouraged. Prayer will make. the Word fresh and fruitful within us. Prayer will lead us to surrender into the hands of the Holy Spirit. Prayer will give us the words to speak in season and out of season. Prayer will surround the people for whom we are pleading with the very aura of heaven. Prayer will lead the Holy Spirit to work with them in ways we do not understand. Prayer is the most mysterious, yet the most potent weapon in the armory of the Christian warrior. Prayer will prevent the fires of compassion from dying down within us. Prayer will keep us from becoming so engrossed with the world that we shall forget our first duty, that of witness bearing. Prayer will lead us definitely to those to whom the Lord wants us to bear a testimony. Prayer will give freedom to our stammering tongues. Prayer will sharpen our dull minds. Prayer will do more than all else to convict the lost of their plight, to convince them of their need of the Savior.
So, if your heart has been moved, if the Holy Spirit has spoken to you, if you have determined in your souls that, by God's grace, you also will take your place in the line of attack, remember these things. Do not let the enemy of our souls snatch them from you, use them against you. There are three things you must know, the three causes of failure: lack of conviction, lack of courage, lack of consecration. There are three things you must remember: the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost; the Lord Jesus will save some souls through you; the Christ of God will furnish all the equipment you may need. There are three things you must do: set the winning of souls as your life's aim; cultivate a passion for souls; begin and continue all your work with prayer.
God bless you and thrust you out into the ripe harvest fields all about you. God use you and make you abundantly fruitful. God lead you to earn the soul winner's crown, bedecked with many glorious stars. For Jesus' sake. Amen.