Getting Men Lost — E.A. Johnston

Christ Came to Seek and Save the Lost

Jesus came down here so we can go up there. Jesus came down here with a divine purpose as seen in Luke 19 .10. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. The title of my message this evening, friends, is Getting Men Lost.

The Hard Work of Soul-Winning

For I believe that's the hardest work in the world. Some may think being a ditch digger is hard work or any manual labor is hard work. And I agree it is. I used to have a job in high school where a pickup truck would show up at my house at 5 a .m. on a Saturday morning.

And I wouldn't get back home until 10 o 'clock that night. I'd be brought to truck depots where long rows of semi-trucks were parked. And me and a few other teenage boys would wear goggles and gloves.

And for 12 to 13 hours at a time, we'd hose down those semi-trucks with acid to clean them. And our skin would be burnt pink on any exposed part of our arm or neck as the wind blew back that acid spray onto us as we worked hard to clean those big trucks.

They paid us in cash at the end of the day and they paid us well. And that's why we did it because we could make a lot of money hosing down those big trucks. But I'd be so exhausted at the end of that 15-hour day, I'd fall into bed like a sack of sand.

Convicting Sinners Before Offering Salvation

But hard manual labor is nothing compared to the hard work of being an evangelist who has a burden for souls. Because an evangelist who has a burden for souls would do all he can to get men lost. Because he knows that before God can save a man, that man has to get lost.

And that's the trouble with much of modern evangelism today, friends. That's just looking for numerical converts. They offer people a Jesus before the people ever see or feel their need of Him. But a true evangelist will get men lost so God can save them.

And this is the hardest work in the world. Why so few persons are saved because you induced so few to believe they are lost. It's such a hard thing to find men who are lost. Let me illustrate this, friends, with a story about D .L. Moody that he gave in one of his sermons entitled, Few Will Admit Guilt.

D.L. Moody's Prison Story and the Denial of Guilt

Here now are the words of D .L. Moody. Please pay close attention to them, friends. We can learn a lot from this story. If we could only get the confession of a man that he is lost, it wouldn't be long before he would be saved.

If a man ain't lost, what does he need of a Savior? But oh, how refreshing it is to find one who will admit he is lost. If you will admit that you are a lost sinner, I can tell you there's one mighty to save.

One who came to save sinners. I was invited one day some years ago to visit and preach in the tomb's prison, New York. I had supposed that I should address the prisoners face to face as they used to talk to the prisoners in the chapels of most of our jails.

But when I got there, I found I had to stand on a little iron railing running from one tier of cells to another. There was a tier above and one below and one on the same level with me. There I talked to a great long narrow passageway to gates to bars and to brick walls.

It was pretty hard preaching. I had never attempted to preach in that way before. I did not know when I got through with it how they had received me. And so I thought I would go and see them. I went to the first cell door and looked in.

I found the men playing cards. I suppose they'd been playing cards all the time that I was preaching and took no interest in the sermon. I looked into the window and said, How is it with you here? Oh, chaplain, we do not want you to have a bad idea of us.

I said to myself, There is no one here to be saved, for there is no one lost. And I got away as quick as I could. I went to another cell. There were three or four men in there and I said, How is it with you here?

Well, stranger, we will tell you. We got into bad company and the men that did the deed got clear and we got caught. I said to myself, There is no one here for Christ to save, for there is no one lost.

And I went along to the next cell and said, Well, my friends, how is it with you? One of them said, A false witness went to court and swore a lie upon me. He was perfectly innocent and ought not to be there.

I went on to the next cell and looked in and said, Well, my friends, how is it with you? They were innocent, thank God. But the men that did the deed looked very much like them. They were perfectly innocent.

I went along to the next cell, but no sooner did I ask the same question. They said they hadn't been on trial yet, but they would be next week and be out next Sunday and be scot-free. So on I went and I never found so many innocent men.

They were all innocent. I found a great many innocent men under lock and key, and they were all trying to justify themselves. There was no one guilty, but the constables, they were the guilty ones. They had arrested the wrong men.

The Broken Sinner Who Admits His Guilt

I got discouraged. I thought I would give it up. But I kept on, and I found one man in a cell alone. He had his elbows on his knees and he had his head buried in his hands. As I looked in, I could see the streams of tears running down upon his cheeks.

They were the first tears I had seen. It did me good to look at them. I said, My friend, how is it with you here? He looked up. It was a look of remorse and despair. He said, Oh, sir, my sins are more than I can bear.

Thank God for that, said I. Thank God for that? Ain't you the man that's been preaching to us? Yes, sir, I told him. And yet, I thought you said you was a friend to the prisoner, and you were glad that my sins are more than I can bear?

Why? I answered him, I am glad they are more than you can bear. For if they are more than you can bear, you can cast them on the Lord Jesus. The man shook his head. He will not bear my sins. Why, I am the worst man living today.

And he began enumerating his sins, and what a load it was for him to bear. It was refreshing to stand there and hear him tell me it was the Lord Jesus that had gotten into that cell and into that man's heart, and I told him so.

The Blood of Christ and the Call to Prayer

Then I told him to pray to God to forgive him and to take away his sin. He thought God would never forgive such a sinner as he was. I told him, you can get all those sins multiplied by 10 ,000 forgiven because you've committed probably 10 ,000 more sins than you've thought of.

You can sum them all up, and right underneath the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses from all sin. And I stood there and preached the gospel to that thirsty soul. Well, let me pause here, friends, in the story to make the distinction between the evangelism of Moody's day and our day.

False Conversions and Superficial Evangelism

We would have just asked the man to accept Jesus as his personal Savior and then inform him he was now saved. That's how we ruin people today with false conversions. But Moody knew better. Moody was smarter.

Moody was wiser. Look at the time and care Moody spends on this man as we continue his story. He seemed to drink it in, I said. Let us get down here and pray. And we did, he inside and I outside. And after I got through prayer, I said, my friend, now you pray, I pray.

It would be blasphemy for me to pray for a wretch like me to call upon God. I said to him, call upon God. Ask Him for mercy. That's what you want. Ask Him to have mercy upon you. Well, the poor wretch could not lift his eyes towards heaven.

He knelt down on the pavement and all he could say was, God, be merciful to me, you foul wretch. And after his prayer, I put my hand through the window in the door. He got hold of it and shook it. And a hot tear fell on my hand.

Prayer, Mercy, and the Prisoner's Conversion

That tear seemed to burn into my very soul, I said. I'm going to the hotel between nine and twelve o 'clock. I want you to join me in prayer and make up your mind that you will not sleep tonight till you know.

Well, that night I got very much interested in prayer for that man. My heart was so overborne that I could not go back to Chicago without going down to the prison to see him. I went down and I got the governor of the tombs to let me in.

And I went to his cell. And when I got there, I saw him, that the remorse and despair had all disappeared. It was all gone. His face was lit up with a heavenly glow. He seized my hand and tears of joy began to flow.

He pressed my hand and shook it and said, I believe I am the happiest man in the whole city of New York. I thought when they brought me here to this prison, I should never go out again. I thought I could never walk down Broadway again.

I thought I could never see my godly mother again. Now, I thank God that they brought me here. For if they had not, I would never have known Christ. He said when he prayed, the Lord Jesus heard his prayer.

I asked him what time of the night he thought it was. And he said he thought it was about midnight that the Lord Jesus came into that cell and saved his soul. My dear friends, can you tell me why it was that God came into that prison and passed by cell after cell and set one captive free?

It was because he took his place as a poor lost sinner and asked for mercy. The moment sinners do that and cry for mercy, they will get it. Well, that's the end of Moody's story, friends. I hope you can see the difference between the evangelism of Moody's day and our meager evangelism today.

The Cost of Cheapening the Gospel

How we cheapen the gospel and hand it out like sticks of chewing gum to folks who see no need of Jesus. They take our gum and chew it for a while until the flavor goes out of their profession. But Moody knew better.

He knew a man had to get lost before he could get saved. Getting men lost is hard work, but it's the most rewarding work in the world. Let me pray. Oh, great God, let me learn how to witness to men to get them lost and then point them to a bloodstained Christ so you can save them.

A Prayer for Souls

Oh, dear Father in heaven, don't let me come up there empty-handed. Give me some souls. Give me some souls, I pray in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.