Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 23
August 5, 1971
NUMBER 13, PAGE 4b,5b

The Mission Of The Church

George Welsh Tyler

To "make disciples" is the number one task of the church. It would be a GREAT DAY for the kingdom of God and Christ if every congregation that confesses Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour of the world set itself to the task earnestly and resolutely with the zealous consecration that the church of the first century did. Every preacher should speak with the courage and conviction of a faithful prophet (teacher) of God. Every Bible school should be a recruiting agency of the kingdom of God and Christ. Every scriptural effort should be made to prepare the members of the church to do personal work for Christ. Every pulpit should ring with strong evangelistic appeal every Lord's Day of the year. There should be set apart by every congregation of Christ's church special periods when the whole church concentrates on ringing doorbells, inviting people to attend the services and distributing short pithy pieces of literature in the divinely commissioned task of winning souls.

It seems strange that it should be necessary to urge the importance of doing personal work upon those who wear the name Christian, those who have declared their faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and who, in their baptism registered their vow of allegiance and obedience to Him. But alas! There are many wearing the name Christian who have confessed faith in Him and obeyed the initial command to be baptized, who seem to think that they can do as they please about obeying the great evangelistic command of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to "make disciples of all nations." When Jesus said "GO" he meant exactly what He said.

What a harvest we could have if every congregation would crown continuous personal evangelism with the annual evangelistic meetings; if every preacher would give himself, body soul and spirit, to the effort to win people to Jesus; if the members of the congregations could be trained to carry the message of salvation from door to door; if all who are of the faith would seriously undertake the task of winning souls to Christ! The music of the sickle would fill the air and heaven and earth would rejoice as sinners repent of their sins and bow in obedience to the commandments of our loving Saviour and be baptized into Him. No one will ever get into Christ without being baptized into Him. (Gal. 3:27).

"Behold I say unto you. Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, they are white already unto the harvest" (John 4:35). Again, "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth laborers into his harvest" (Matt. 9:36-38).

Are you keeping the commandments given you by our Saviour? Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my commandments" (Jno. 14:15). Do you love your Saviour? He said for us to "GO." What are you doing about it? Are you going to keep His commandments? The A. V. gives Rev. 22:14 as follows; "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." You will not have the right to enter the Holy City and be with God and Christ throughout eternity unless you are obedient to the commandments given by them. Jesus said, "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say" (Luke 6:46).

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