Getting Men Lost

As long as I live, I will always remember the day that I got lost. It was July 6th of a certain year. I was home alone, and I was reading a sermon by Solomon Stoddard, and as I was casually reading it, something occurred which altered my life.

I got lost. You see, friends, up to that time, I was a church member in good standing and had been that way for years. I had taught Sunday school for 15 years.

I'd been a senior trainer in Evangelism Explosion, and I had discipled men in my home and occasionally preached a sermon here and there. I had even graduated from seminary. I will remember sitting at a banquet table at my graduation dinner for my Ph.D., and the conversation was going around the table as to what degrees each man was receiving.

A pastor sitting across from me was getting his Master's in Divinity. He leaned over the table and asked me, Tell us, brother, what degree are you receiving? I told them that I already had a doctorate, and I was there to get my second doctorate, a Ph.D. With sarcasm in his voice, he said, What are they going to call you, Dr. Doctor? And they all got a big kick out of that one. They thought it was so funny.

One man just kept repeating Dr. Doctor while they all laughed. And looking back on that time, I wrote a little poem about it. It goes like this, Dr. Doctor was all the rave, but Dr. Doctor wasn't saved.

I wasn't saved. I had graduated from two different seminaries, but I wasn't saved, friends. I was an unconverted minister, and I've been that way for years, resting on a false foundation of self-righteousness and good works.

And there are a good many men today, friends, who occupy pulpits. They've graduated from seminary, but they aren't saved. We live in a day of an unconverted ministry.

I know I was one of them. But that all changed one hot summer day as I was reading that sermon by Solomon Stoddard, and I got lost that day. You see, friends, before you can get saved, you have to get lost.

Do you believe that? Many of you don't, but it's true. You see, there was a time in my life years ago when I was at work, and a co-worker asked me if I knew if I died, would I go to heaven? I replied, I hope so, and I did hope so. Back then, I believed God had a scale of weights, and that when a person died, God would take the good they had done in life and weight against the bad, and if the good outweighed the bad, then that person would go to heaven.

That's how I thought of myself back then, that I had done a pretty good number of good works, and even though I'd also done some really bad things in my life, that when I died, God would bring out His heavenly scale and weigh it all, and that my good would outweigh my bad, and He would let me into His heaven. Do you know, friends, I was not alone in my thinking on that, for a good many people in this world feel the same way, that their good works will get them into heaven. Even though they did some bad things, it will all weigh out in their favor, and God will finally let them into heaven because the good outweighed the bad.

Then there was a period in my life where I finally joined the church. I heard what I thought was the gospel. It really wasn't the gospel at the time, but I didn't know that, but I did what the preacher said to do.

I walked an aisle and repeated a prayer, and they put my name on their membership roll. I began to serve that church in several capacities, and after a while, I soon had a pretty good opinion of myself. I was a good church member who attended every time the doors were opened, and I served my church and began to have a long track record of service.

And if anyone asked me if I was a Christian, I would proudly say yes and tell them how I served at my church. But the problem was, even though I was a good church member, I was a lost church member, but I didn't know it at the time because I sincerely believed myself to be saved. And when a visiting evangelist would come to our church, I didn't pay much attention because I felt his message was for the other guy.

Because I'd already done that, I'd walked that aisle and said my prayer and joined the church. I recall Vance Havner saying, I could have led a lot more people to the Lord had they not already joined the church and its true friends, but I believe that the greatest mission field in America today is our evangelical churches, which are full of lost people who have merely walked an aisle, made a decision, and joined the church. Well, let me get back to my story.

One day I was reading a sermon by Solomon Stoddard. He was the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards, and I had been up to his grave several times in Northampton, Massachusetts. His grave is nearby the grave of David Brainerd.

Anyway, I was reading his sermon, the way to know sincerity and hypocrisy cleared up, and I was home alone at the time. While I read that sermon, something happened to me, something dramatic happened to me. I became convicted of my sins and awakened to my lost condition, but I wouldn't believe it.

I argued with God and reminded him how I had joined the church, and I reminded him of all the good I had done in his name through the years. I was a good church member with a long track record of service, but I was scared as I sat in my chair with that sermon in my lap. I felt a sense of dread.

I was gripped with the stark reality of my lost condition, and it was so terrifying that I dropped down to my knees. I was seized with terror and alarm to my condition, for I heard the voice of God inform me that I not only was on my way to hell, but that I deserved to go there. That afternoon, I wrestled with God in prayer for several hours on my face and on my knees.

I kept pounding the floor with my fist, crying out, it can't be true. It can't be true. But it was true.

I was lost. God got me lost. He showed me I was a lost individual, and I needed to be saved.

I needed a savior, and I didn't have one. The false foundation of my self-righteousness was broken up, and all my props were kicked out from beneath me. God showed me that.

I had transgressed his holy law time and time again. I was a guilty lawbreaker. I was a guilty rebel who deserved punishment for my sins, and the sentencing of the law had to be carried out because I was standing in my own merits of self-righteousness and good works.

I saw that day that God did not have a balance of weights to weigh my good deeds against my bad, but that he demanded perfection to get into his heaven, and I wasn't perfect. I was a sinner, and my sins were stacked up against me, and they indicted me, and I was guilty as charged. That day, friends, I found out I was a lost church member.

I was a lost seminary graduate. I was a lost sinner who needed to be saved from my sins. I became a seeker that day.

I began to see God in earnest and in desperation, and I wrestled with God as hard as a human man can wrestle with the infinite creator. Three hours later, a sweat-stained sinner arose to his feet, a safe man. God showed me mercy, and he saved me that day, but first I had to get lost, friends.

I had to get lost. But he showed me mercy. He gave me the grace of repentance and saving faith, and I saw that my sins were now washed into blood, and I was born from above, and a proud, self-righteous church member who had graduated from seminary was brought to the place of getting lost so he could be found, so he could be saved, and that's the main trouble in our churches today, friends.

I fear there are a good many people like I was. They responded to a gospel invitation and walked an aisle and repeated a prayer and joined the church. They gave their money and their time, and they sincerely believed themselves to be true Christians, but in reality, if they died, they dropped straight into hell because they died in their sins, even though they were on the roll of the church.

They were not in the Lamb's book of life because they'd never been awakened to their lost condition. They sat on a false bottom all their lives and had a carnal security of self-righteousness and good works. They were never truly convicted of sin, never exercised repentance toward God, and never truly been converted through saving faith in Jesus Christ.

They just mentally agreed with some texts. They believed the fact of the death of Christ, but they never believed on the Christ who died. There are many like that today.

They are good church members, they are deacons, they are elders, they sing in the choir, they serve on committees, and some even stand in our pulpits, some in pulpits of some of our biggest churches in the land, but they've never been lost, they've never been found, and they've never been saved, they've never been born again. Jesus said, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. We have the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, and they each share a common denominator.

They each were lost, then they were found. If you will, friends, please turn in your Bibles to Luke's Gospel in chapter 15, and I want to emphasize what is stated clearly in our passage today regarding how the lost was found. First, let us see the lost sheep.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing, and when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it, and when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Now listen, friends, to the story about the prodigal son, who takes his inheritance and wastes it with righteous living. He ends up in a pig pen, filling his belly with the husk that the pigs ate, and the text says, And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough, and to spare, and I perish with hunger, I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.

Now you see, friends, there is a man who got lost. He feels his need. He is conscious of his lostness, and we'll see how the story plays out.

The boy returns to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Now look at how the father responds to the elder son, who is angry with the reception of his wayward brother. This is how the father responds to his complaints.

And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meat that we should make merry, and be glad for. This thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found.

Like I said, you must get lost before you can be found. Our job as workers of the gospel is to get men lost, get men lost, friends. We must get them to the place where they see their need of a Savior.

Oh, friends, the gospel's not for the self-righteous, but for those who believe they are sick in sin. It's for the hungry. It's for the weary.

It's for the thirsty. But before a man can come savingly to Christ, he must be conscious of his need. He must be awakened to his lost condition.

He must recognize his need of a Savior for sin. Only a sick individual will take the remedy for sin in the person of Jesus Christ and apply it savingly. Jesus declared, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick, but go ye and learn what that meaneth.

I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Let me ask you, friend. Have you ever seen yourself as a lost sinner who needed repentance and a Savior from sin? Have you ever applied the remedy for sin? Be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you have ever truly been lost.

A person who is lost is conscious of his need, conscious that he has a need to be saved. Jesus spoke of the ones whom he came to save. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

And I will leave you with this solemn warning, friend, and listen carefully to it. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.