Personal Evangelism — Ernest C. Reisinger

I think this is an appropriate subject. It might not be an appropriate carpenter preacher, but it's the appropriate subject at least for this flash closing tape. You know, there are two very important words in the Bible.

There's a lot of those little words that are very important, like but, and therefore, and some of those words. But there are two other words that are very important. And one is come. And I hope you've heard that word from the lips of the Savior, come unto me.

The Christian Who Has Come Must Go

But there's another word from the same holy lips, and that is go. And the same crowd that claimed they've heard him say come, that's the same crowd to which he said go. He didn't say come to some and go to others.

The same ones to whom he said come, and if they've come in a saving way, that's who he says go to. Now, I'm not going to preach for you today, I don't think. I might, you never know. If you've preached once in your life, you always say, Lord, just let me preach one more time.

But so many times we do our best, but we really don't preach. And it's not my intention really today to preach to you. I want to give you some Bible material on the subject that's been assigned to me for this hour.

And then I want to do what I do not recommend normally in sermons. We're not meant to preach ourselves, but I do want to share some experiences in this great work. And my purpose, I think I'm old enough to assure you that it's not for your praise.

I don't need your praise. I'm about to cross the river one of these days, and I don't need your praise anymore. And I'm not after your purse. I need your prayers. But I don't need your praise, and I don't need your purse.

And one of the dangers about giving personal accounts of things is to receive personal praise. I believe I'm past that. But my reason and my intention and my purpose and my motive is to instruct a little bit and guidance and especially to encourage people in this work that never ends.

A Lifetime of Witnessing

It's been my life's work. I don't feel like a preacher, particularly principally. I try to fill in to the, you know, like the National Guard until the real Army gets there. But when the real Army don't come, I just have to keep on going as the National Guard.

That's the real truth about my own appearance. But in 33 years, this, what I'm speaking to you about, has been my life's work. It's been my life's work, and I'm serious about that. Two things. I think that at the bottom of it lies, first of all, of course, is God's command.

But I've ever been conscious of the fact that the greatest service ever rendered to me between eternity past and the world to come, the greatest service that any human being has ever rendered to me in this world has been the man who told me about Jesus.

The practical aspect of that is it changed my life, my home, my marriage, and bless God, my destination. And that's one reason why I'm convinced so much about its importance. And the second thing is, I think it lies somewhere at the bottom, motivation.

Part of motivation is this. The greatest joy, and I've known what the world calls joys, and I thought it was joy too. I've known all about the other life, but I say without any mental reservation, the greatest joy that I've known in this world is to be and feel that you're a link in a chain or a signpost to point somebody to him who changes lives and homes and to see lives and homes changed by the power of the gospel and God magnifying his grace and mercy in the salvation of some souls.

I tell you, I don't know any greater joy. It's wonderful to sit in the church and see those that you've labored with for years sometimes, to see them come in with their family, sit in the church. Well, today that's those two things.

It's been my life's work, and I believe that for those two reasons, partly. I want to say at the outset, likewise, that I'm dealing with the human side of things today. Not that I don't believe and have some measure of understanding of the divine side of things, but the same Bible that tells me who does the saving and the cause tells me how he does it.

And you, my dear reformed brethren, better give some attention to how he does it as well as who does it, because there's an awful lot in this book about how he does it. One of the arguments I get at times is, you don't know the circumstances I am in geographically or the kind of work I do or the people I work with.

You know what I say? I don't say it outside all the time. I say baloney. I've been in all kinds of circumstances. I've tried this as a carpenter on a construction job. I've tried it as a sailor in the Navy for several years, as a businessman dealing with bankers and lawyers and doctors.

There's nobody too high, there's nobody too low. And I've tried it as a preacher, and that's the most difficult. And I'll tell you why. You people who are laypeople, I was on that side of the fence. Still am, for all practical purposes.

In my heart, at least. But when I sit down on a train and talk to somebody, I suppose hundreds of times they'd say, are you a preacher? I'd say, no, I'm a carpenter. Of course, when I was a sailor, they knew I was a sailor, because I had that beautiful uniform on.

So when you say to somebody now, and they say, are you a preacher? You say, yeah, well, you're doing what you're meant to do. And it kind of cuts a great deal away. So I've tried it in all kinds of situations.

Mark 5 and the Command to Tell What Christ Has Done

Well, I'd better give you a text at this closing time. I only have an hour and a half yet, so... I want you to turn to a good verse to go home on. Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. And I'm only going to read two verses, or three, but I'll give you the context.

This is chapter up to the 18th and 19th verse that I want to use. The context is, there was a maniac who was a recipient of the sovereign and saving touch of our Savior. And after he'd been a recipient of that sovereign and saving touch, he did what all men do, maybe not in practice, but in their heart.

They want to be with him. They want to be with him. And this man made such a request, and when he, verse 18, when he, Jesus, was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil, the maniac of Gadara, asked him or prayed him that he might be with him.

A good request. How be it? Nevertheless, Jesus said, suffered him not, or allowed him not, but said unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

You don't have to take any courses in personal evangelism to do that. You don't have to have ten little simple things to do that. Go home to thy friends. Would you look at the first chapter of Mark, verse 17?

I'm just giving you a few verses at the outset, and I'll be referring to them later. He had had something. He had received something. Mark 1, verse 17. They usually teach this to the little children in the nursery department or somewhere else.

But I would remind you that when Jesus said it, he was talking to men. Men, not little children. Jesus said unto them, Come after me. Follow me. I will make you to become fishers of men. And the key is, follow me.

Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day

Acts chapter 8, verse 4. The first four verses. I want to read those. There's a springboard for them this morning. Acts chapter 8, 1 to 4. Saul was consenting unto his death. That is, the death of Stephen.

At that time, there was great persecution against the Church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the apostles. Now, they may have been having a conference on prophecy or eschatology or something like that.

I don't know. Maybe they were trying to decide whether they were superlapsarians or infolapsarians. I don't know what they may have been doing. They may have been praying. It doesn't tell us. But they weren't out there, anyhow.

They were having a conference in the ivory tower. And devout, you know, somebody thinks that only the generals ought to do this work. Well, the generals, if they get shot, it's bad. They've got to stay back here and do a little study and preparing and strategy so that they can tell the troops what to do.

Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, entering into every house and hauling men and women and committing them to prison.

Therefore, they that were scattered abroad, everybody except the apostles, everybody except the apostles, went everywhere preaching the word of God. I read one book on evangelism years ago where a fellow said you can describe New Testament evangelism, a Christian reformed man.

He said you can describe New Testament evangelism in three words. Everyone, everywhere, every day. Acts 8 .4. I want to ask you two questions. This is going to be a class. I want to ask you two questions.

I want to ask you to raise your hand. How many here have come to know the Lord through a personal witness, basically? Let me see your hands. Somebody invited you to Sunday school or church. Is that all?

How about your mother? Didn't she talk to you personally? Your pastor, your neighbor? I think if you think about it, maybe your idea of witnessing is somebody would run up to you with a little card or something and say, well, nobody witnessed to me that way.

I'm not talking about that. When I'm finished today, I hope you'll know that. How many cases were literature used in bringing you to Christ? Let me see your hands. I wonder if this crowd saved. Or else you're afraid to raise your hand.

Well, anyhow, it's a few. You know, one of the questions that's asked me most of the time in the little evangelistic conferences or privately is this. How do you do it? How do you do evangelism? You know, you're knocking this kind of evangelism and you're knocking that kind of evangelism.

They say, well, how do you do it? Now, what they really mean is give me a formula. Give me a formula so I can do it. And again, I say after 33 years, I still don't know how to do it by formula. But there's some things I know and believe because I believe they're biblical, not by experience.

Can't prove great truths by experience all the time, but I know them because it's in the scripture. And of course, I know it somewhat by experience too. And one thing I know is this. The clearest command in the New Testament is go ye.

At the end of Matthew, Jesus said go ye into all the world. Make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. At the end of Mark, he said go ye into all the world. To every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. But it's clear to go. Luke says in the last chapter, the 24th chapter, verse 48, ye are witnesses, said Jesus. And in John chapter 20, he says, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

It's the clearest, clearest command in the New Testament as far as the will of God for our lives in respect to our task in the earth. And Acts 1 .8 is go ye into all the world. Or Acts 1 .8, ye shall receive power.

After that, the Holy Ghost is come unto you, and ye shall be. Not you ought to be, be nice if you were. You shall be witnesses of the beast, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.

And do you know what? That the rest of the book of Acts is all about Acts 1 .8 and how they carried it out. What they said, what they did, how they preached, their whole purpose was carrying out that Acts 1 .8.

And do you know further that we this very moment in our feeble and weak way are doing nothing more than carrying out Acts 1 .8. And all this instructions and so on needed for that in the local church and all, but that part, why do we discipline, why do we have compassion, why underneath it is to obey Christ in his clearest command in an honorable way.

You know, you hear a lot of people talk about home missions and foreign missions. Now, I think that's all right, and I know how they mean it, that's all right. But I don't find it in the Bible. It's all missions.

When you get, I got an idea about home missions. When you get somebody between the front door and the back door and you start telling them about Jesus, that's home missions. And everything else is foreign.

Some of it's just farther away than others, that's all. It's in the world. And so I know this morning that it's the clearest command in all the scriptures. A new testimony from the lips of our Savior.

And thank God still people are doing it. Don't be discouraged. There's more people doing it now than ever before. Just think. Stop. Close your eyes. Think. All over the world there's men and women out in the bush.

And do you know why they're there? They're trying in their weak and simple way to obey Christ. And they may not do it perfectly. They make crooked steps and stumble in their efforts. We cool off in our efforts, and we do it half-heartedly sometimes.

But that's what it's all about. So the one thing I know that it's the clearest command in the New Testament. Another thing I know is this. I know that evangelism at its best and its purest is nothing more than the overflow of a devotional life to Christ.

And when you have that you do care for God and His commandments and you care for men. It's an overflow of Christ. You know, we always start off with mission when we want to preach on evangelism or missions or something.

Worship Before Witness

We always start off with the great commission. Would you turn to it again this morning? Matthew chapter 28. I'm not going to refer you to it just now. I already quoted it. But I want to show you what preceded it.

What preceded it. Matthew 28. It's in verse 19 and 20 where it says go ye. But in verse 17 which preceded verses 18, 19 and 20 we have these words. And when they saw Him they worshipped Him. What's the principle?

The principle is something else I know about true evangelism. You've got to be before you can do. You've got to be before you can do. Then what comes out of us in our evil effort if it's preceded by worship and devotion, what comes out of us will be done in a loving manner.

It will be done in a compassionate manner because it's nothing more or less than Christ's love that we receive from that devotional time with Him. It's nothing more than that flowing out around us, oozing out of us.

So I know that it's the clearest commandment of the New Testament. And I know that at it's best and purest it's the result of spending time with Christ. And then I know something else that I've learned about it from the New Testament.

We have a blessed example. More than one, but our most blessed example is the one who is our example in compassion. The one who's our example in prayer. No less than 17 references to our Lord praying in the New Testament.

From the we get our example of sacrifice. We get it, our example of His contempt from the world, should be our contempt from the world. His obedience to the Father's will, I've come to do thy will. And as He is an example in all these areas in every phase of life, I think He's our best example, our purest example in personal evangelism.

Jesus' One-to-One Evangelism

We find Him dealing with one woman in John chapter 4. He didn't say to that woman go sell all that you had, give to the poor. Her problem was not money, it was men. And He dealt with her, and if you read the end of the chapter you'll find in verse 39 of that chapter that many of the men in that city believed on Him because of the sayings of the woman.

He dealt with one woman, as a result many came to know the Lord. We find Him dealing with that adulteress in John 8, one woman. He dismissed the crowd so He could talk with her. And He didn't ask her for a drink or tell her to go sell all that she had and give to the poor.

That wasn't her problem. He dealt with a blind man, one man in John 9. He dealt with one man, a different kind of a man, Nicodemus. He didn't say to the blind man or to the women, you must be born again.

But He said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Not because they didn't have to be born again. I'm talking about His method. You find Him dealing with one lawyer. You find Him dealing with a rich young ruler.

And that principle of Him being our example is followed through in Acts. There's a couple references to what we think is a large revival. That's the exception, not the rule. The rule was dealing with one, the unit, Cornelius, Lydia.

These are valid examples of personal evangelism and New Testament evangelism. And of course you have the often referred to section in John chapter 1, those ten verses from verse 41 to 51. We find that Peter was dealt with by one, his brother.

We find that Philip was dealt with by one. Nathanael was dealt with as one man. It's very important. So I don't know a formula. I know we have a biblical basis, clear command. I know it's pure. It's from the devotional life of Christ.

These are things I know. And I know that the New Testament's full of examples. And I know it's a binding duty upon everyone who names the name of Christ. I know that. And I know something else. I know it has some broad advantages.

Some broad advantages. One of which is this. Every person here that's come to Christ, you came as an individual. You came not wholesale. You came one at a time. Everybody must come for himself. That's individual.

That's personal evangelism. Another thing I know it can be done anywhere. It can be done by anyone. It can be done by all ages. I know a young mother here brought to the church through a girl in high school.

That's a long while ago. She's still serving Christ today. Born on the wrong side of tracks. Maybe a girl in high school. So you see, all ages can be done by everyone. I wonder how many adults their little children have been the means of getting them into a Sunday school or a church where they heard the gospel and were converted.

It can be done anywhere by anyone. It can be done by all classes. Rich and poor, educated or illiterate. I know this. And I know that when you deal with one man or one woman or one boy, it hits the mark.

And I'm talking to you today and you say, oh that's good for John Smith, that's good for Betty Jones or somebody like that and you just keep pushing on back. When you've got one preacher and one audience it's pretty hard to pass it off.

You kind of know who you're talking to and they kind of know who they're being spoken to. Always. How do you do it? That's what they say. How do you do it? Well let me tell you something. You sometimes just for your own information go over your own experience.

Just go back and think of what were the circumstances? Who was involved? All the circumstances. And then take a couple more people in your church and try to do it in your mind with them. And you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

A True Witness: Holy Life, Compassion, Prayer, and Patience

I did that once. The fact is I've preached on it a lot of times since. I'm not going to do it this morning. But one day when it was winter time in my soul as a Christian. You know anything about that?

You haven't been a Christian very long. You know sometimes it's winter time in your soul. You can't even find any leaves on a tree. The heavens are brass the psalmist said. Well it was one of those periods and in that particular year I was trying to take one day a month off the business to read and pray.

Not to get sermons or Sunday school lessons but to be alone with God. And I tried to take as close to the first of the month as I could. And this day was one of those days. And I remember I took my Bible I took Horatius Bonar's little pamphlet, Words to Winners of Souls I took a legal pad and I went to a mountain.

And I had a very short prayer on my heart that day and in my lips and this was it, verbatim Lord what did Elmer have on the human side that caused me to want to know you? That's all. That was a very long prayer wasn't it?

And on top of that mountain I reviewed the best I know how, the things I thought, what he said things I thought about him the things and circumstances that led up to my conversion. And I turned to Proverbs chapter 14 where it says the true witness delivers souls the false witness speaks lies.

And I thought I believe today I believe today I gained some of the principles by reflecting on him the man that pointed me to Christ. By reflecting on all that I believe I gained some very basic principles to true evangelism to true witnessing because I believe he was a true witness.

Now of course I'm aware that there's only one true, true witness. And there's only one that can deliver souls and there's only one that can set the prisoner free but I'm talking about us in him and through him we're witnesses too.

And I put four things on that summary sheet. Now I'm not going to talk about it today. I have some sermons on this because I never did it to share it with anybody. I said what did Elmer have on the human side and when I finished all my scrawling that day, ten hours later I came off of the mountain and I had four little simple things that I believe composed the essence of a true witness.

And the first thing I put on that sheet was the power of his holy life. Nobody on that construction job could gainsay his life. They could joke with him and ask him all the crazy questions, where Cain got his wife and a thousand more.

By the way, I'll never forget what he said when people asked him where did Cain get his wife. He had a sense of humor. He says I'm a Christian, I don't bother about other men's wives. He says and he went on about his business.

I say they could not gainsay his life and I could not work beside that man. And I know a preacher in this audience today and I know a fellow who's not here today and I talked to that fellow and they were in college together and he said I couldn't live in that room any longer.

He said I had to get out of there and become a Christian. He watched the life of a preacher. He wasn't a preacher then. And there's others here who observed the life of a godly mother, a godly father, godly neighbor, a godly friend.

And I say the first thing I put on my sheet, the power of a holy life. And the second thing I put on, he had a passion for my soul. I wasn't saved in a nice box. Somebody cared for me. I thought about it as Roger gave us those wonderful things and thoughts and principles of compassion.

Somebody cared for me. I read about where Paul had tears when he left those elders at Ephesus. He talks about his tears. They don't necessarily have to be those kind that roll down your cheeks literally.

There's other kind of tears. Some of us know a lot about them too. And they drop down here where nobody can see them but they're dropping all the time. I'll never forget the second time I ever went to his Sunday school.

I shook his hand and as I held that hard, rough carpenter's hand I looked in his face and there was tears rolling down his cheeks and I thought, there's nothing emotional about shaking hands. And I never understood those tears until I started to read this book.

And I read in Mark chapter 1 verse 41 about him being moved with compassion. The passage I read, go home to your friends tell them how great things the Lord has done for me and had compassion on me. In Mark chapter 6 verse 2, Mark chapter 8 and all will see when I see the life of our Lord.

And today I didn't understand those tears. But today I believe I do and I believe I'm safe in saying to you that he walked in such a relationship to Jesus Christ that he had a little measure of the compassion of Christ for me.

Somebody cared for me. First time I ever met his wife, the third thing I put on that summary sheet, what is a true witness? The first time I ever met his wife she said, I didn't know who this Ernie Riesdinger was, but she said, I hope he would soon move or get converted.

I said, Mrs. Albright, that deserves a little explanation. And she explained it. And this is what she said. Many nights before he would eat his warm meal, he'd go back to the bedroom and she didn't understand that.

And she said, I used to go back to the bedroom. And that's a door. And she said, outside that bedroom door, she said, I'd hear him crying out to God for somebody called Ernie Riesdinger. Ah, somebody prayed for me.

I don't know the relationship between a sovereign relationship, because I see those examples in the Old Testament. Men of God prayed. In the New Testament they prayed. Our Lord prayed. Paul requested prayer.

In church history we've seen the Queen feared noxious prayers. I don't understand it, but it's true. If people are making any marks on the ice for Christ today, preachers or churches, there's somebody in there praying.

He prayed for me. And another thing, he had patience with me. You know how long I was invited to Sunday school before I ever darkened the door? For a whole year. A whole year. I told him more lies than Grant had soldiers.

Well, I suggest to you to go back over your experience. Then pick out a couple more people. Say, how was John brought to Christ? How was Mary brought to Christ? You'll see there's a whole series of things.

It's not always the big soul winner that run up with a little sheet and gave you four little things or five little things or six little things. That's not been my experience. And I want to share with you a couple experiences.

Conversion Stories and the Patience of Personal Evangelism

Not to tell you how to do it, because I don't know how to do it. I can't tell you how to do it. I wish I could. I can give you some principles. No two alike. In my own family, I was the first Christian.

No other Christians. And I thought, sure, that when I got home I was away. I'd wreck my car. For various reasons. I didn't have a car. I had to get home after I was converted. I got home to my mother and I thought, sure, I'll get them all in the living room.

The whole family. I'll tell them about Jesus and they all get saved. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I got some of them in the living room and I got them told all I knew. It didn't take very long. I knew something happened.

And they didn't say it. But they said a few bricks less than a full load. My one brother is an elder in a Presbyterian church now. He said to me, after one day, he said, Ernie, I've had enough religion today to last me the rest of my life.

Don't talk to me about this again. That's when one of those tears went down there. They didn't come down here. But a couple fell down here. He's an elder in a Bible-believing church now. My brother John, who's the preacher in the family, he left the business over Christ.

We used to have a little office on top of a barn. Two chairs. I used to get there in the morning before John did. That wasn't very hard. But I'd get there before John did. And God is my witness. And I'd say with Job, my record's on high.

Every morning, not part of the morning, but I'd kneel down in his chair. And I'd cry out to God to save him. The Lord touched John. And I tell you, the more I prayed, the farther he got away. The farther away.

Finally, one morning he came. He said, Ernie, he said, I don't think I'm cut out for business just now. He said, I went from school to the South Pacific for 27 months. And he said, 27 months? He said, I want to live a while.

And he said, all you want to do is work and go to church. And he said, all right, be honest. No fight. We didn't have a fight. And he said, I'm just not ready for that. Married a Roman Catholic girl. One time or another, he took some instructions to go into a Roman Catholic church.

And that day, he said he was leaving. And you know what? Worse than that, he was going a thousand miles away, and I wouldn't be there. And I said, surely he couldn't get saved now. I'm not there. He went away.

Went to St. Louis, on top of a big old Catholic high school where they were shooting one of those circular roofs. A carpenter started to talk to him about Jesus. He said, there's only two nuts in the world, you and my brother.

The Lord saved him. My mother was 15 years after we were converted. My mother was converted. Let me tell you one of the reasons, I think. It was so long. She saw her boys get religion, and she saw them change from drunken gamblers to Christians.

And her neighbor got her to go to church. And she was not religious before. A good mother. She scrubbed floors to put clothes on my back, because we were so poor, the poor people called us poor. Good mother.

Loving mother, but she didn't know Jesus. And that neighbor, she thought, I'll get some religion too, and she went to a church of our neighbor's. Unfortunately, she went to a great big ecclesiastical morgue and joined it, and she was worse off than she was before.

That's why it took so long. But I'll never forget, I was in Florida when I got the first letter. And she told me, she'd read the Bible through that year, and she says, I have what you boys have. Any two alike?

No. No two alike. There's no two alike, it's not that way. And in my, I could be here for half a day just giving you experiences. But I want to give you a couple more to show you they're not alike. I had a friend ask me to give his boys, this is to encourage you.

I said, I don't need your praise or your purse. This is to encourage you about this thing that we're talking about, obeying Christ. One of my friends wanted a job for his boys. Okay, I gave his boys a job.

I talked to them, one of them at least, about the Lord. There's some humiliating experiences with it. One fellow heard it, he'd heard that I was alright in business. I only had one problem. I'm a fanatic in religion.

I'm just a religious fanatic. But other than that, I'm a pretty normal guy. So the first day of the job he wants to engage me in religious conversation. And you know, one of the things he said to me that day, he said, oh, he was so sorry for me.

He was sorry that I hadn't studied Darwin and all that. He said, that would knock about half of that stuff out of you. I said, really? I said, have you ever read anything on apologetics? Good Christian apologetics.

He said, no. I said, well, let me knock something out of you. I said, would you do it? Oh, yes, he's a great reader. So I gave him some books. Lawyer examines the Bible. There's a couple other books. I gave him some books.

This was in the summer. He was in school. Christmas time, I'm hoping he'd talk to me about some of the content. That's how you witness. Because you give him the book, then he'd talk to you what's in there.

Then you've got a discussion going. You're right. That's it. But he didn't say anything about the books. Christmas time, he came. He brought the books back. There was, I think, about four of them. I said, oh, boy.

I thought he was going to tell me all. I said, well, what do you think? He said, I didn't have time to read them. He said, my wife's tired of dusting these books, and I brought them back. A couple of those tears dropped down there then, you know.

That's Christmas. Next year he wants a job again. I said, okay. I said, I'm busy on this construction job. I said, I'm speaking at nights and weekends trying to go to these men's retreats and so on. I said, I need some material.

I said, how about you read? I'll put you in the office to answer the phone. Somebody has to answer the phone. And I said, you read these books and take notes of the things that you think will be helpful to me.

You see, that's why I can't give you a little card and say how to do it. I never did that before or since. I never pay anybody to get saved before. So one day, actually, he's reading these books. He's a great reader.