Thank you for your concern and for your support in the work of God. We've enjoyed our sister's messages in Soane. We've never had her in Convoy or in Londonderry. There's another singer we could get to come to Harvest meetings and so on. It's one I wasn't aware of, but sister, we appreciate your singing tonight. Folks, I'd like us to turn in the Word of God to a very familiar passage in Mark chapter 16. And we're not going to preach as such from this chapter tonight, but we want to read a section of it together. We'll be looking at various verses throughout the Scriptures in relation to the message. And we're going to read from verse 15 of Mark 16. Verse 15 in Mark chapter 16, and he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, and they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. After the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. And amen. God will bless this short portion we have read together for his name's sake. Let's just have a wee word of prayer. Father in heaven, We thank Thee for Thy presence in this meeting. We thank Thee for all who have come. We pray, Our Father, that Thou wilt fill our hearts now as we would come to Thy truth. We thank Thee that Thy Word is the truth and the truth shall set us free. We bless Thee for the liberty that comes with the gospel. May we be exporters of it. We ask for the help of Thy Holy Spirit now that Thou wilt bring every thought into captivity. We ask, O God, that thou wilt concentrate our minds upon thy truth and upon thyself and upon what thou dost require of us as believers. Bless us now, we pray. We ask that, Lord, as we would go home from this meeting tonight, that our hearts will have been stirred. Thou wilt plant thy truth in our hearts that it might be fruitful for the glory of thy name. We ask these things for Jesus' sake. Amen. In the Scriptures and throughout the history of the cause of Christ, there has been many a fine example of a soul winner and what a soul winner actually is. We can read in God's Word and in the history books of a multitude of individuals who were burdened to give the truth to those who were lost and perishing. And that burden to evangelize and to spread the truth of the gospel and sow the seed in the hearts and minds of men and women can be traced back to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is our pattern to follow. It was the Savior who commanded His followers, His saved ones, in this portion of Scripture, in verse 15, to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to every creature. There's many a person, a missionary, a preacher, an evangelist, who has felt the call of God through those words. And some of them have left these shores to go to far off lands to carry the good news that Jesus saves. And you know, we are familiar with this verse tonight. I don't think there's any in this meeting that are hearing this verse for the first Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And folks, because it is a familiar verse, it's not therefore a verse that we should dismiss. We can come up with the excuse, can't we? Well, I know that verse. I've heard it often before. I've often heard messages preached on that verse before. I need a different verse to answer the call of God. If God's going to call me, well then, I need something more obscure that I haven't seen before in the Word of God. Folks, that would be a very wrong attitude to adopt. You could not get a clearer verse than Mark 16, verse 15. A clearer verse regarding your obedience to the command of the Great Commission. It was through this verse of Scripture that the Lord called Pixie Caldwell. to be a missionary. She later became known as Pixie Moulds. She was born as Pixie Colwell and it was later in life that she married Dr. George Moulds. She was born in the 1920s and in the years prior to World War II, the family home was in East Belfast. In the year 1941, wave after wave of German lift-off aircraft streamed overhead in the night skies in Belfast during the blitz as they sought to bomb the Harland and Wolfe shipyard. And at that time it was a very frightening experience for people in Belfast. And they were challenged greatly to the reality that they could be suddenly ushered out into eternity at any time. And they were challenged greatly also about the reality of the conflict now with Germany. It was a very dark time. in the lives of many in Belfast. And folks, it was during that dark time that young Pixie Colwell was first challenged about another conflict, a different kind of a conflict. Her father had taken her to many missionary meetings in Belfast's Wellington Hall. And there she heard of the need to reach out to the millions of souls in West Africa. Pixie's heart was challenged. And the words of the missionaries at those meetings encouraged her to go home and to read the biographies of various missionaries, set times in history. And unknown to Pixie, God had his hand upon her young life at that time, and he was shaping her for similar service in years to come. It all began with her conversion to Christ in the year 1938. Along with her brother and her two sisters, she was sent to God's house, the Sabbath school, on a regular basis. And every Friday, or every February, she was sent to the Young People's Convention in the Wellington Hall, where it attracted large crowds. It was there at the age of 12. Pixie Caldwell asked the Lord to save her. And soon after her conversion, she was challenged by these words. in March 16, verse 15. And she began to ask herself, and she wondered how any young person or man or woman with good health and strength could fail to see what these verses mean and could fail to heed the command to evangelize whenever at the same time multitudes had never heard of the gospel before. She was a pupil at Bloomfield Collegiate On one occasion, she told her teacher, one of the teachers, that when she left school, she was going to be a missionary to China. When she studied at Queen's University, she was again challenged about serving the Lord as she read Dr. Andrew Murray's book entitled Abide in Christ. After her graduation, she became a teacher in Victoria College in the city. And she continued there as a teacher feeling the burden for missionary service. And she gave up her post as a teacher at Victoria College. And she enrolled at Ridgelands Bible College in Kent. And in the year 1952, she sailed for Nigeria. One month before she left home, she told her father, or her father told her that 40 years prior to this, he too had heard the call of God, but he rejected the call. And he admitted that he had lost out with God, living in God's second best for over 40 years out in Nigeria. Pixie Caldwell taught in the mission boarding school, teaching young boys from various pagan and animistic tribes. And having returned home on furlough on one occasion in 1964, she came in contact with every home crusade and the gospel tracts that they produce. And she wrote to them. And she asked, could they supply a consignment of gospel literature for Nigeria? And over the next decades, God's word in tract form flooded into the land of Nigeria and the floodgates absolutely opened. For many years, that's all she did. Pixie Caldwell gave out the little folded printed sheets to the Muslims of that area, the Muslims from the Hussa and Fulani and the Kurani tribes. And she visited Christian hospitals and clinics, placing the little folded piece of literature into outstretched hands. On one occasion, one Fulani Muslim man arrived at her door unannounced. And he said to her, you've never seen me before. All you saw on one past occasion was a hand, a hand underneath a half door. As you slipped in the Gospel tract, that was my hand. lifting that gospel tract from you, and when I read it I believed the gospel. She could recall a young Fulani mother coming to the mission clinic, having read the tract from every home crusade, the broad and the narrow way, and how she too was saved. On another occasion she remembered seeing a long caravan of Muslim tribe men coming along, driving their cattle. One of them broke ranks and came over to her, having recognized her face and asked for a supply of gospel tracts. And she wrote the words of Mary Schleser, her predecessor in the land of Nigeria, in her notebook. And she made it her prayer. She says, my life has been one long daily record of answered prayer for physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance marvelously given, for dangers averted, for enmity to the gospel subdued, and for food provided. She wrote those words, gave them her prayer. They were a reminder of God's faithfulness to her. And though she did not endure the hardships that her famous predecessor had, yet she was able to praise the Lord for His protection all of her life and the favor God gave her. in reaching the Muslims of northern Nigeria. She also proved God's faithfulness in many practical ways. She didn't find it easy to drive on Nigerian roads, and yet she travelled thousands of miles without one single accident. And she was able to testify that any punctures she got always seemed to occur near her home. Pixie Caldwell, folks, had travelled thousands of miles giving out the little printed The tracts that we give out in the Consider Christ Champion are also printed by every home crusader. Here's a lady that had a burden to win the lost for Christ, and she simply handed out the folded leaflets. God called her through Mark 16, verse 15. And when the Lord called her, he gave her a promise also in Isaiah 32, verse 20. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters. That verse seemed to strike home all the harder when that hymn was sung, Blessed is the service of our Lord and King. Especially when it came to the verse, Out upon the highway, going forth with prayer, For the lost and straying, seeking everywhere. Close beside the shepherd we his joy may share, Healeth when a soul despise. Can you picture her in your mind's eye? In the words of that verse, out upon the highway going forth with prayer, that's what she did in the land of northern Nigeria. You know folks, this is something that every believer in this meeting can do. We can let that little page do the talking for us when we are on outreach. Isn't there a great need across the Church of Jesus Christ today to have that passion like Pixie Caldwell did? To reach out, be a soul winner. A soul winner? It's a rarity these days, isn't it? Passion for souls, folks, as we could say in the lives of many. It's a rare thing. A rare thing amongst many professing Christians. And the great mass of believers today don't feel the slightest responsibility to the souls of their fellow men. It never seems to dawn on them that they are their brother's keeper. And the attitude, of course, is that, well, I've seen myself saved. That's as far as their burden goes. As long as I'll never be in hell, that's as far as their concern goes. There seems to be a great apathy amongst many professing believers today. Dear folks, this command that the Lord Jesus gave in this very well-known verse still stands. And the subject of soul winning has never gone away. and is still obligatory on God's people. Though we have read together from Mark 16, folks, we're not just going to refer in the message tonight to the words of verse 15. We're thinking of the subject of soul winning, but we want to look at other examples as well in the Word of God where this tremendous subject is brought to our attention. Let's notice first of all tonight that there needs to be a conviction that souls are lost. There needs to be a conviction that souls are lost. We read in Mark chapter 8 verse 36, again a very well known verse of scripture. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? A conviction that the soul is actually lost. Here we have it in Mark 8 verse 36. Here with the way that New Testament Christianity has progressed over the centuries, it seems today among many that there's a spirit of, we could say, lukewarmness. Some churches don't really adhere to the creed. that their church proclaims. And the standards that were once declared many, many years ago have fallen by the wayside. There's been a modernising of the trends regarding the teaching of the Word of God and how we are to worship the Lord. And the conviction that the soul is actually lost has been lost in the translation, hasn't for many people, there's a lack of conviction that the soul is actually heading for a lost eternity. And there's a lukewarm attitude to set in that, well really, men and women out there in society, they're good living people, they're good givers, and there's not really that much wrong with them. As far as God can see them, well, I'm happy enough that they're my neighbour, they're good folk, and there's therefore not that much of a need. to evangelize them. You know, on the other hand, a church can be very orthodox in their creed. There can be a tremendous soundness regarding the stand that they take, and they might tick all the boxes, especially the one on the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment. But you know, folks, there's an absolute world of a difference in saying that you believe in the doctrine of hell and having a working faith about that doctrine. There's a world of a difference. You know, it's one thing to say that you believe in hell, and that the unsaved soul, when they die without Christ, that they're going to that awful place. But it's an entirely different thing for that same individual to have an active belief and a sense of urgency that souls are going there. In the words of Charles Wesley's hymn in our hymn book, 512 and the verse 2, He says to save poor souls out of the fire. The Lord Jesus Christ was the master soul winner. His life was absolutely consistent with his belief and with his conviction that the soul was lost. He says it here in Mark 8 verse 36. The Lord was convinced that the soul was destined for a lost eternity and he laboured to save poor souls out of the fire. His mind was to reach them and to save them. He viewed the sinner as a lost sheep, someone who has gone astray and he went out of his way to seek the lost and to save them. He came to seek and to save. That which was lost, the great gospel text in Luke chapter 19. He often spoke to the big crowds, didn't he? You read that often in the gospel account. But there were other times when he spoke to the 2's and 3's. And he spoke to individuals as well. It wasn't the size of the crowd that mattered to the Lord. It was the lostness of the soul that mattered to the Lord. If you remember religious Nicodemus, when he spoke to him, that plain living, moral, upright sinner, we could say, a religious man. a man that adhered to the laws of Moses, the Lord saw Nicodemus as a lost sinner, plain and simple, and told him that except in Nicodemus, you're born again, you'll not see the kingdom of heaven. The Lord knew that that's where Nicodemus was heading. He was heading to a lost eternity. His soul was lost, and he needed to be born again. He needed a new birth. In Luke chapter 8, when the Lord triumphed in power over the man with the legion of devils, the Lord saw that man also. as being entirely lost and heading for a lost eternity. Yet he loved that man with the same compassion that he loved Nicodemus with. They were two men who were at opposite ends of the scale regarding religion. But they were both lost, both in the same boat, both heading to a lost eternity, sailing out. But the lifeboat of salvation drew alongside them and rescued the two of them. The Lord saw their doom and He rescued them. How is it with us in this meeting tonight? Maybe you can see those in society. You can see how the legion type of sinners are lost. But the Nicodemus type, they're not that bad. You know, the fact of the matter is, folks, the legion type and the Nicodemus type, they're all in the same boat. They're all lost this evening. And folks, the measure of your belief in that fact will determine the efforts that you will go to to save that person. You know, perhaps our conviction that souls are lost isn't all that hot this evening. It doesn't really make much of an impression upon us. And we're just content, well, I've saved myself. And that's as far as my conviction goes. General William Booth did a tremendous work for the Lord. He founded the Salvation Army. General William Booth said that he would like to send every candidate for the Lord's work to hell. for 24 hours as part of their Bible college training. And the reason why he wanted to send them all to hell for 24 hours was to instill in them all the reality of that place and the irrevocable doom of the unrepentant sinner. He believed that if every candidate in Bible college and in God's work was sent to hell for 24 hours, it would galvanise the Church of Christ into action, wouldn't it folks? Oswald J Saunders was a well-known soul winner who laboured tirelessly for the Lord in Auckland, New Zealand. He tells the story of a criminal that he knew back in England who had been sentenced to death by a judge for the crime of double murder as he was being led to the scaffold The prison chaplain was accompanying him, going in front of him, reading various passages of scripture that seemed to fit the occasion. And the condemned man turned to the chaplain and he says to him, sir, do you believe in hell? The chaplain says, I do. And the condemned man turns and he says, well, if I believed that, I would willingly crawl across England on broken glass to tell every man that it was true. There's a condemned man. who felt the reality of an oppressing in on his soul. The chaplain couldn't care less. It was his job just to read the passages of scripture before the man was going to his death. You know, Lord, maybe folks, if all of us in this meeting tonight were sent to hell for the next 24 hours, I dare say we'd all come back different people. A conviction that the soul is lost. Maybe we'd all spring into action after that. Jesus said here, what shall I profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? How important the soul is, because my friend, that is the real you at the end of the day. That's all you have and that's all you ever will be. And Jesus spoke of the possibility of that soul being lost, irreparably lost, and nothing can be given in exchange for it. Surely amongst us this evening, folks, there needs to be a conviction that the soul is lost. Secondly, there needs to be a concern for the lost. Over there in Matthew chapter 9, verse 36, we have our next verse that we want to draw your attention to. Matthew 9, verse 36. A concern for the lost. Here again, speaking of the Saviour, the Master Soul Winner, our pattern to follow. It says there, But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. He had a concern for the lost. where they were going, who was looking after them. The Lord had a tremendous concern for them. Not only did he have a strong impulse of the conviction that they were lost, but in knowing their state, he had a concern for them. And folks, that's what drove him on. That's what drove him on in his earthly ministry. He didn't sit back and wait for the lost to come to him and try and find him in some wee corner. But the Lord went out after them. He was motivated to find the lost sheep no matter where they were. Sometimes he spoke to the multitude. Sometimes he spoke to the individual. Because that was his concern. That's what drove him on. He was the manliest of men. The Lord Jesus Christ. Yet he wept. The manliest of men. Yet he wept. You think of how he lamented over Jerusalem and knowing their plight. And the concern that he showed for Jerusalem. in spite of knowing their treatment, that they would dish out on him, in spite of knowing how they would all reject him and crucify him someday, yet he longed. He longed for those people and he had a concern for them. Jesus said in Matthew 23, verse 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou which killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and he would not. He mourned over knowing what they would do to him. He mourned over their rejection of him. He was concerned, not just for their physical safety, but their spiritual safety as well, because through it all, he could see what would happen to them at a future date, when in A.D. 70, Titus the Roman Emperor would come and flatten Jerusalem and carry them all away. The Lord knew that. I wonder, as we look out in our own community, look out in our own town and region, country area, do we have a concern like that? Whenever Pixie Caldwell was at Ridgelands Bible College in Kent, students in that Bible College had a motto. It was based on 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, the love of Christ constraineth us. But she personally, on taking that verse, added three more words to it and made it her own motto. The love of Christ constraineth us henceforth unto him. And that spurred her on. A love for the Saviour. She could picture the lost in her mind's eye in the remotest villages of northern Nigeria. And it was a love for the Lord and His Word that drove her on. That's why she clocked up the miles, distributing the written Word. I wonder, can you picture in your mind's eye as you sit in that pew tonight, the lost at home? On the home front, can you picture down south the little remote villages in Ireland with no gospel witness? Picture an isolated farmhouse up a long winding lane. You can picture a little whitewashed cottage on a rugged coastline near the Cliffs of Moher. Picture a terraced house in inner city Dublin near the River Liffey. What about the foreign nationals that are in this country? Polish folks, Ukrainians, Lithuanians. I wonder folks, is it so that God in his providence has them here on our doorstep, that they might be given the gospel because if they had it remained at home they would never have heard it? Is that why they're here? And if it is, is it not our job like Pixie Caldwell to give them the printed word in their language? William Chalmers Burns was greatly used of God in revival blessing in Scotland. particularly in Robert Murray MacLean's parish of Dundee. Later God used him as a mystery in China. One day his mother met him. She found him slumped over and sitting in a wet street in Glasgow city centre. She recognised the man that was her son and she went over to him. She found him weeping. She asked him, son, why are you upset? He says, I'm upset at the sight of the multitudes in Glasgow. who are passing through life unsaved. I wonder tonight, what makes you and me upset? How concerned are we, at the end of the day, reaching out to those in the neighbourhood, those down south, giving the folded leaflet out like Pixie Caldwell? You know, you don't have to be a lettered individual to give out the folded word. You can let that word speak for itself. Dr. Wilbur Chapman had been fired up on one occasion after hearing D.L. Moody preach about the saving of the lost. Dr. Chapman went back to his church and he saw a tremendous work of grace done, though nothing very much happened at the start. After hearing Moody preach, he called together the church office bearers and he asked them all to help him, and they promised that they would. And so too did an old farmer in the congregation. One of the church office bearers said to Dr Chapman regarding the old farmer, he says, you needn't ask that man to pray in public for he can't do it. The other one says, there's no point in asking him to speak to anybody. He's a shy individual. The next morning after this there was a severe snowstorm. An old farmer hitched his horse to a sleigh and he travelled four miles across country in absolutely atrocious conditions to the local blacksmiths. The blacksmith was shocked that anybody would be so foolish to be out in such atrocious weather. And he asked the farmer, well what on earth brings you out today? Tom, he says, that's all he could say. And the tears began to flow down his cheeks. He says, Tom, when your old man died, he gave you and your brother into my guardianship. And I have let you now grow into adulthood and never told you of your need to be saved. Tears kept falling down his cheeks. He couldn't say any more. He was so upset. Couldn't get any more words out, the poor man. And he just left the blacksmith's shop, got back onto a sleigh and drove home. And afterwards, he took pneumonia. Not long after that, That old blacksmith stood up in one of Dr. Wilbur Chapman's meetings to give a word of testimony. He says, never have I been so moved by a serpent in all my life as the day when my old friend stood before me with tears and sobs, having come through such horrendous weather to tell me of my need. And he says when he left, I thought about my need. And if he considered my soul important, it's about time that I considered it too. And I became a Christian. There was an old farmer. Felt he couldn't do very much, but he had a concern. And he was willing to inconvenience himself so that the blacksmith could be saved. What a concern he showed. What a concern the Lord Jesus Christ showed. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted. And we're scattered abroad, a sheep having no shepherd. Can you picture the scattered sheep down south? Down in Sligo? Way down in the Kingdom of Kerry? What about barren, rugged County Leitrim? Connemara? The Gaeltacht areas? You can picture a row of houses in inner city Dublin? What about those near our home, around us where we are this evening? Who's going to reach those four miles away like the blacksmith? Who's going to drive up that country lane in the rural areas? Is there that level of concern like the blacksmith showed, like the Lord Jesus Christ showed, like Pixie Caldwell showed in Northern Nigeria? Conviction that souls are lost, the concern that souls are lost. Thirdly and lastly, there needs to be a conception for the value of a soul. In relation to this point, we see what Jesus said there in John 3, verse 18. Again, a very familiar verse that's often taken in a gospel meeting. John 3, verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You know folks, it's true that until there's a conception of the value of a soul, of the object to be won, that not much will be achieved beforehand. The level of our conception of the value of a soul will show how strenuous our effort will then be to win that soul. Is it worth inconveniencing ourselves? Giving up a Saturday? It's your day off. Don't get many days off in the week. Is it worse than conveniencing ourselves? Like that poor old farmer, heading away to the far side of Galway, losing a lie-in on a Saturday morning. Is it really worth it folks? Heading away to Portlaoise, overnight stay down to Tralee. You know some people never could be bothered. Never want to be inconvenienced at all. How there needs to be a real true estimate of the value of a soul. Because folks, it's that fact that will spur a person on. It's the fact that if you were sent out to a quarry with a pick and a shovel and a crowbar and a sledgehammer and a wheelbarrow, you would work a lot harder to recover diamonds than you would recover gravel, wouldn't you? Why? because of the value of the object to be won. Isn't that right? You would work a lot harder. It's the same in the gospel, isn't it? I wonder, as the hymn writer says, will there be any stars in my crown? Another hymn writer says, let us gather jewels for a crown above. The Lord Jesus Christ had such a conception for the value of a soul that he exchanged the shining quartz of heaven to live a life of poverty and shame and ultimately the cruel death of the cross for a sinful world rather than let them perish without a single hope. He gave up all. He inconvenienced himself to come down from heaven's splendor to the ignominy of the cross. What a value he put on your soul. What tremendous lengths he went to that you might be a pardoned individual. Now again, to quote Dr. Wilbur Chapman, he said one night in a congregational meeting, he says, I'd like you all to take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 3 and the verse 18, that verse that we have read here, and underline the words, he that believeth not is condemned already. For the next minute or two, he simply reread that phrase over and over and over and over again. He said to the people, ponder what you've read. And then he read the verse, that phrase, several more times. Then he turned to the congregation and said, now put your daughter into that verse. Put your son into that verse. Your husband, your wife, your grandparent, put yourself into that verse. And he says then, I know that a soul thus burdened greatly gains its desire. Charles Finney, and with us we're finished. Another great old preacher of the gospel on a bygone day, he urged the professing Christian to imagine getting a telescope and to look far into hell. Listen out for what you hear. See their torments and then turn the telescope upwards and look into heaven and see the saints of God and glory there and splendor and ask yourself, is it possible? that I could so prevail with God to see a soul destined for down there raised to up there? Is it possible that I could lift a soul destined for hell and have them in the glory? It is possible, folks. Jesus said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You might not be able to preach. You might not be able to string two or three words together or sentences together, but there is the folded leaflet, isn't there? We can let that do the talking on the Consider Christ Outreach. That's what Pixie Caldwell did. You can read her life story and what she did for the Saviour. I wonder, will you be like that old farmer in the snow? Like Dr. Wilbur Chapman, the Lord Jesus Christ, like Pixie Caldwell. Hymn number 675 asks the question, who, who will go? Salvation storytelling, looking to Jesus, minding not the cost. Who, who will go? Will there be some from this meeting tonight? It could be you folks. May the Lord give us such a conviction and a concern and a conception for the souls of the Irish people on this island, home of ours. May God bless His word to every heart and soul in this meeting tonight. Amen.