THE FIVE “R’s” OF A WINNING WITNESS

#509                             THE FIVE “R’s”  OF A WINNING WITNESS

Scripture  Acts 1:8, NIV                                                                              Orig. 6/30/1968 (12/1976)

                                                                                                                                 Rewr. 1/11/1987

Passage: 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Purpose: To observe Witness Commitment Day, and to call my people to a deeper understanding of their need to express their faith in regular witness.

Keywords:        Conversion      Repentance     Salvation         Sin       Witness            Revival

Introduction

            We are beginning to receive information from the Internal Revenue Service.  We are getting tax booklets that define our responsibility.  We may be getting reminders that there is additional material that we may order to assist with everything but paying our taxes.  This material is a witness to us that tax-time is here again.  Once a year we are affirmed as dues-paying citizens of a free republic, the greatest country of all.  None of us want to be anywhere else.

            When we fill out that tax form in a few weeks, the form itself will be a witness.  It will witness our material well-being, or lack of it.  It will also be a witness to the level of our faith.  Do we take God’s Word seriously?  Do we give earnest consideration to the blessings that  have come to us from God?  It also may witness whether we are honest persons or not.

            An IRS deputy tells of an occasion which he was witness to in pursuit of his job.

            “Some guy with an income less than $5,000 claimed he gave $624 to some church.  It was within the 20% limit, but it looked mighty suspicious.  I dropped in on the guy and asked about his return.  I thought he’d become nervous like most of them do, but not this guy.  He came back at me about the $624 without batting an eyelash.

            “‘Have you a receipt from the church?’ I asked, figuring that would make him squirm. ‘Sure,’ he said, and he went off and brought the receipt.

            “Well, he had me.  One look and I knew he was on the level.  I apologized for bothering him. . . .  [As I was] leaving, he invited me to his church.  ‘Thanks, but I belong to a church myself.’  The he said the strangest thing.   ‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘that possibility hadn’t occurred to me.’

            “As I rode home, I kept wondering what he meant by that last remark.  It wasn’t until a Sunday or so later, when I was in church and started to put my usual dollar in the offering plate that it came to me.”  (Pulpit Helps—1/1977)

            We are witnesses, you and I.  We need to renegotiate the terms of our witness, and offer a more positive face to unbelieving friends and acquaintances.  To that end I share “The Five ‘R’s’ of a Winning Witness.”

I.          Realize—that Man in His Natural State is Separated from God.

            The Old Testament concept of sin is shared by those who knew its power, and the grace of God’s forgiveness.  Psalm 32:1 (David), “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”  Proverbs 11:3 (Solomon), “The perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.”  Isaiah 59:2 (Isaiah), “Your iniquities have separated between you and God.”

            These were men who had walked under the heavy burden of personal sin, but who had experienced God’s forgiveness.  Realizing that through which they had been, they were bound to witness to others of the way out.

            This ancient concept of sin, and separation, was not altered by the teaching of Jesus, nor by the instrumentality of the church.  John 3: 19 (Jesus), “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  Luke 15:17f  (Jesus), Parable of prodigal son/loving Father.  Romans 3:23 (Paul), “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  And, risking misunderstanding here, I remind  you that Jesus knew about sin from personal experience.  Hebrews 4:15 reminds us “He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”  He knew that sin separated.  That was reason enough to dread the cross.

II.         The Next “R” is to Recognize that We Cannot Save Ourselves.

            A story was told in “Reader’s Digest” a while back entitled “The Trail.”  It was the story of a man who went back to a wilderness trail that he had traveled with his wife.  He was in a state of agitation because of her death.  She had been killed in a needless accident.  While on the trail, there came a sudden worsening of the weather, and he suddenly became resigned to his own death on the trail, rather than to struggle to safety and survival.  Suddenly, as his strength was ebbing, he heard a cry for help.  Managing the strength to reach the victim, he found a boy injured in a snowmobile accident.  He cared for the boy through the night, and with daylight, managed to get the boy to safety.  Visiting the boy in the hospital he  heard him say, “‘Thank you for saving my life.’ I did not say so to him, but it was he who saved my life.”

            How often has the word of a friend turned us from despair to destiny?  Why should it seem so unbelievable that God chooses to arrange our salvation through another?  John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.”  Ephesians 2:5, “Even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us together with Christ.”

III.       Next Comes Repentance.  I John 1:9, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin.”  Luke 13:3, “Except ye repent, ye shall all . . . perish.”

            We must not overlook any important aspect of repentance.  One can easily claim to be a Christian:  Brought up in home/church; taught the language; participate in the extraneous.  With glibness we measure ourselves by our functions rather than scripture.  We may even know 4 Spiritual Laws.  Can we point to an experience of “repentance” with life-changing emphasis?

            Nothing brings sin home to us like repenting of it.  It’s like living in a house with dirty windows, refusing to go outside because it looks so dismal.  Finally, being forced out, we discover that the bleakness is over us, not the world.

IV.       Hence Comes the Two-Fold Stage of Request and Receive.

            No because of what we are, but because of what God is that they can’t be separated.  To come to His altar, to seek His grace, . . . is to receive His bestowal.  Romans 10:13, “For whoso shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.”  John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them God gives the power to become His children.”

            We must be reminded where that altar is:  Not the place where we stand, [but rather] a place for which we are reaching.  Just as marriages are not sanctified by a place, but by a vision for which we are reaching, by two who together are seeking the will of God in communion with each other.

            May it be stated as simply as ever it can be, “to seek . . . is to receive.”  The burden that is upon the preacher is that of proclaiming unadulterated truth with simplicity.  The story is told of Andrew R. McCheyne:  Talking with a fellow preacher he asked what he had preached the Sunday before.  “That the wicked shall be turned into hell.”  McCheyne replied, “Were you able to preach it with tenderness?”

V.         Finally, is the Certification that the Believer Rejoices in His Salvation.

            To hear gladly is to believe gladly. Mark 12:37, those who heard Jesus “heard him gladly.”  Likewise, those who believe in Jesus, “believe in Him gladly.”

            The very word “gospel” is from a Greek word meaning “good news.”

            Christmas brought and brings a proliferation of the word joy, in a form that rolls out as “jolly.”  Anyone can be jolly: the clown beneath his external hilarity .. . , even Santa Claus, behind grandfatherly beard, and pink cheeks—may be grieving to death or loneliness.  But Christian  joy is something else—not a mask (Mardi Gras) or cloak (expensive furs); it is an inner presence that no misfortune can conceal.

Conclusion

            A message preached years ago carried a story of an event of early WWII vintage.  Protectionism was running scared, especially on the West Coast.  Threats were seen everywhere.  A bottle washed ashore.  Inside, a message, but sun and salt had bleached the words.  Suspicion developed immediately.  FBI, and Secret Service were called in.  Every skill applied. Finally, “two quarts of milk, no cream.”

            What is the real message, told by our inner lives, though we try to conceal it from the world?  What kind of witness do you want to be?

McCheyne: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/he-died-early-in-the-smile-of-god