Jeremiah 8:14

Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.”

Jeremiah 14:20

“We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.”

Psalms 51:4

“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”

   No one claims to be wrong anymore. It is always someone else’s fault. The youth blame the older generation and vice versa. The uneducated blame the educated and vice versa. Management blames the workers and vice versa. The Democrats blame the Republicans and vice versa. The church blames the pastor and vice versa. But the Bible says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” and in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” This includes me! Not only do I need to say that “we have sinned;” first of all I need to say that I “have sinned against the Lord.” Sin means to come short of God’s glory and His holy standards. Sin means to miss the mark and we Baptists have been missing the mark for years. We need to be honest and say “WE HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE LORD!”. Therefore “we sit still.”

   We have “sit still” for decades and are now going backward because “we have sinned against the LORD,” in that we have not done what we are supposed to do. Whether I want to admit it or not I am more guilty than most others for our deteriorating condition. I have sit back and watched Baptists fall from the top of the popularity poll in this country to the bottom of it. Something must be wrong. It didn’t just happen on its own. There is a definite cause for it. Since we have such a great history; we need to continue to make history. We certainly cannot rest upon our great historical past.

   Nothing will be straightened out for any length of time until we personally get straightened out. We didn't just stumble, make a mistake, or accidentally go astray. “We have sinned against the LORD.” There never has been but one cure for sin and that cure is repentance. David committed terrible sins in his life. But the thing that separated David from most others was that David confessed his sins and repented. I realize that most of us have answers for correcting our downward trend; but God’s solution is repentance. We are willing to do anything except repent of the sin that has caused our problem. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

   There are two kinds of sin. There is the sin of commission and the sin of omission. We sin when we do wrong and we sin when we fail to do right. James 4:17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” The sin that is causing us to “sit still” is our failure to do what God wants us to do and we know better. I have been told all my life what I am supposed to do for God; therefore I cannot blame my sins of omission on ignorance. Someone who has not been in church all of their lives and in the ministry for half a century may be able to claim ignorance as an excuse, but for me it is absolutely inexcusable!

   I don’t need a pep talk on soul winning; neither do I need to go to a soul winning seminar; neither do I need another book on how to go soul winning. What I need is a burden for lost souls like I once had and then I need to go into action. “We sit still” because “We have sinned” against God by failing to carry out the first part of the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,” Mark 16:15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Someone once said, “What part of ‘go’ don’t you understand?” Luke 24:46 “Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” We are to begin at home; to begin in our local community or city and go from there. John 20:21 “...as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Acts 1:8 “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 Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The waiting period was over on the day of Pentecost; now its time to “go”! The Jerusalem church didn’t go so God made them go by allowing persecution to come on them! Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria.

   Each part of the Great Commission is very, very important! We get into trouble and sin against God when any part of it is ignored. The first part which involves soul winning is important. The second part which is baptism is important. The third part which is teaching is important. The fourth part which is to keep on doing the first three things throughout the church age is important. Can I not also say, that doing things in the order that Jesus gave them is of utmost importance. We are to put first things first, second things second, and third things third. In baseball you have to get to first base to begin with. Years ago, I heard a message entitled, “Dying on Third Base.” We are not even dying on first base; we are not even getting to first base. Most of the time we are not even getting up to bat. First and foremost people must get saved for the other things to take place. If you fail to start with square one there is no place to go and that is where many of us “sit still” today. “...we sit still because we have sinned against the LORD.”

   Paul was a doctrinally sound zealous soul winning missionary. Romans 10:1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” I had a football coach that always talked about the desire to play football. Paul’s desire was for the salvation of his lost nation as well as all others. May God give us that kind of desire! Our desires need to be placed on the altar of sacrifice so we will have room for the desire of the salvation of those who need Jesus.

   The different parts of the Great Commission are not possible answers to a multiple choice question. We are not free to choose one of the above; we are to choose all of the above. We are to choose evangelism, baptism, and indoctrination! We are not free to choose between them because God has already chosen all of them for us. It doesn’t really matter which one we like the best. The only thing that matters is what God wants and everyone who knows anything about the Lord’s work knows what to do. We are to: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew. 28:19, 20

   It is very unwise to omit the first command of the Great Commission. Proverbs 11:30 “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” This passage is very condemning toward us who have become non-evangelistic. It accuses us of not having common sense. Winning souls just makes good sense. A sensible person, a reasonable person will win souls. We need to start using more common sense. We have been out of our senses far too long.

   The first rule in catching a fish is to go fishing. Matthew 4:19 “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Are you fishing for men? In order to follow Jesus we must fish for men. Was this not one of the first orders (if not the very first order) of the Lord to the first individual church members. If you are not fishing for men you are not following Jesus. I used to catch fish but haven’t in years because I quit fishing. If you fish for any length of time, sooner or later you will catch fish. If you constantly fish for men; sooner or later you will catch men. You have to sow seeds to reap a harvest. Most Baptists haven’t sown a gospel seed in years; therefore we haven’t had any revivals. Yes, you reap what you sow. When you sow nothing you reap absolutely nothing.

   Fishing for men is not a job for professionals; it’s our duty, it’s our responsibility. It is the church’s responsibility and that brings it down to us as individual members of the local church. It takes individual members to do the work of a church. It’s not just the church leader’s responsibility. The pastor can encourage it; but if we as individual members fail to do it; it will not get done. The organization can not do it; it takes people to do it. Whatever the excuse for not doing it we are disobedient to the Lord that saved us and used someone else to lead us to Him.

   The salvation of a lost soul is very, very important. It certainly was when I got saved. Yes, scriptural baptism is important, but you must have a saved person to baptize. Yes, indoctrination is important, but you need a baptized saved person to teach. Jesus commanded the church, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:” This involves more than just teaching the truth. Most Baptists know the truth but apparently we are not observing the truth or doing the truth; because we have ignored the very first commandment of the Great Commission by failing to be witnesses to the lost. This part of the Commission strongly implies that churches are to teach people to be witnesses. THE WORD OF GOD PLAINLY AND STRONGLY TEACHES US TO DO IT, DO IT NOW, AND DO IT CONTINUALLY! This is the permanent God given job to each church and each member.

   Baptists have been taught the truth; but more than this we are to be taught to do the truth. We teach about prayer; but fail to teach them to pray. Luke 11:1 “...one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” This disciple asked Jesus to teach him to pray. We sometimes teach soul winning but fail to teach them to actually win souls. I was taught architecture drawing but I have never put it to use. It’s like the housewife who knows how to cook, but does very little of it. It’s like the man of the house who knows how to fix the family car, but will not do it. We can win others to the Lord. We have done it in the past and we still can do it. Our “want to’s” need to be fixed and when they get fixed we will quit sitting “still” and sinning against God. Maybe then we can start progressing in the proper direction.

   Everyone who is saved can tell the lost about Jesus. I was saved at the age of eleven. The first thing that I did after I was saved was to tell one of my lost friends about Jesus. I did not have any instructions about soul winning. I just did it. If I could do it before I became a teenager then surely I can do it now as a senior citizen! It’s not rocket science. We just need to get burdened and we need to get down to business with God and do it now! The world is full of lost sinners and there are more of them than there have ever been. They are not hard to find and they need to be brought to Jesus. Psalms 126:6 “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” The seeds must be watered with tears if they are to produce.

   If you are one of the precious few who is evangelistic please don’t die on first base because most of the doctrinally sound fail to be evangelistic. Don’t make the same mistake that we have been making by promoting only one part of the Commission. If you are evangelistic and doctrinally unsound you are just as guilty as the doctrinally sound who are not evangelistic. Anyone who ignores any part of the Great Commission is guilty of sinning against the Lord. Baptism is becoming less important. Do not ignore the utmost importance of baptism. With the first Baptist, baptism naturally followed repentance. John 3:23 “And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.”

   Would it not be great to see many people who are burdened about carrying out all of the Commission. This civil war between the doctrinally sound and those who are evangelistic needs to cease immediately. Both sides need to surrender to God. This has to be one of the most stupid things that I have ever seen and even been a big part of it. Both are wrong in one thing and right in another. You don’t have to ignore half of the Bible to be evangelistic. And you don’t have to ignore the other half of the Bible in order to be doctrinally sound. Forget about being traditional and uncaring about the lost. Forget about being contemporary and doctrinally unsound. We all need to learn anew to be scriptural and obedient to God. If we are what God wants us to be we must be both evangelistic and doctrinally sound constantly, continually, and perpetually. Haven’t we gotten ourselves into a pathetic mess!