Cry for the Souls Lost...That They Be Not Lost!

Listen to the Blog - Cry for Souls Lost

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The cry of the soul is the beginning of hope. Whom among the living are

spiritually lost to God? Christ cried over the tragedy of a lost opportunity. The

Israelites who gathered in Jerusalem for Passover, due to spiritual

ignorance, missed the chance to be saved from both earthly and eternal

destruction. We too cry for those who have spiritual blindness. We cry for the

living. Earth is as God’s waiting room of life. Divine mercy allows revelations

and lifts for us a corner of the veil hiding the most awesome mysteries which

await us all at the term of our days on earth. Time is short, hastening to its

close. Time which will never return. In view of eternity, occupy our thoughts

with souls indifferent to the realities of heaven. Many souls of the children of

God have no regard to the gospel, the lack of desire, the purposelessness

or indirectness of prayer, and the absence of travail, is none the less

apparent, and hardly less sad; yet of these matters all we would now say is,

God save each of them, of us, from taking eternal realities as matters of

course, and from becoming ourselves as indifferent to them as the sleeping

among us. We plead that each of us being moved by God’s grace should be

doing his special work for Him. It is marvelous grace, that He has put His

Spirit in His people, and He gives His people to feel for sinners, to yearn for

sinners, to weep and travail for their souls. It is the love of God moving the

hearts of men for men. Through the very hearts of His servants God speaks

and commands the attention of the careless and indifferent. Mere lucid

gospel statements stir no souls; the character of disseminating truth moves

no hearts. Though we edify understandings, they do not lay hold of the spirits

of men. Neither the love, nor the light warms them. Our service is under the

guidance of the Spirit of God. The grace of spiritual insight offers a deep and

meaningful understanding of one's self and others, the world we are in and

the world they are of, and the interconnectedness of all things, often gained

through personal reflection, meditation, prayer, or other spiritual practices,

allowing for a broader perspective beyond the physical realm and leading to

a sense of inner peace and wisdom; essentially, it's the ability to perceive

truths beyond the surface level of everyday experience. We do not need

intelligence in order to be earnest, but God forbid that increase of intelligence

should mean a diminishing of our earnestness. True earnestness is only to

be gained in one way: we must get near to the heart of God. His love kindles

ours; His compassion for a perishing soul moves our spirits. His Spirit stirs

our souls, and works in us and through us for the salvation of men.

Love cannot but be active. Love asleep, while the objects, the very souls of

its affection are perishing, is but love's image; it is but a block of stone carved

into the shape of the reality, and hewed up to look like life. We do not want

images, we are to be men and women laboring in the gospel for the souls

Christ died for. Though heaven be our home sought for, we cannot rush out

of this world having any infidelity in the foundation of the gospel. Our

instruction begins with meditation. Meditation upon eternity. Praying about

its realities, seeking for grace to be possessed with its tremendous issues;

hoping that other souls will begin to act for eternity. Let us take yet another

step. Shut ourself in the chamber alone, and speak to God about eternity,

with the name of just one soul upon our lips. Let that name and eternity be

breathed together before God. What is the account of a soul? Think over it,

pray over it, weep over it, and, possessed with the reality, witness to this

soul. We must plead for what God loves. Consider the tears of Jesus over

rejecters of His grace; think upon his sighs, how he sighed deeply over the

unbelief of men. We are to bring all we can out of the darkness…even if that

is just one soul. Help them to see the countable years of grace received.

Help them to see that the first death is not the last reality. Before the

foundation of the world there was a choice made. The last name written in

that book is the soul being searched for. When this last one soul comes in,

Jesus is coming.

The soul that is suffering is important to us because of our belief in the

sovereignty of our loving and merciful God. Consider with much spiritual

contemplation the full depth and genuineness of Paul’s grief expressed in his

almost unbelievable declaration. “For I could wish that myself were accursed

from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” For the

salvation of his fellowmen, Paul was willing even to forfeit his salvation, if,

somehow, that could save them from God’s condemnation. An awesome

statement of self-sacrifice. Salvation is a believer’s most precious treasure,

and that only Christ’s sacrificial death has the power to save. Paul felt such

love that he was willing to relinquish his own salvation and be separated from

Christ if somehow that could bring his fellowmen to faith in Christ. This done,

calling Christ and the Holy Spirit to witness his sincerity. God so loved the

unloving and evil world that He sent His only begotten Son to redeem the

lost. Paul’s passionate offer of such an ultimate sacrifice reflected the

gracious heart of God. It also reflected the equally gracious heart of the Son,

who, in obedience to the Father, gave his life that others might live. This

servant of God understood the absolute security in Christ, from which

“neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things

present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,

shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus

our Lord.” Yet his love, his cry for the lost in Israel gave him the willingness

to surrender those intimate, inestimable, and eternal blessings, if doing so

would bring his brethren to Christ. This is the love that the people of God

must have for the people whom God sent our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

to die for. Remember how Moses pleaded with God for the lives of the

people.

“Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee,

out of thy book which thou hast written.” Our devotion to Christ warrants that

we cry for the souls lost that they may be brought to repentance. Can this

ultimately bring glory to God? Is this a mystery of the will of God?

Here is why the scriptural truth - for the children being not yet born, neither

having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election

might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth - is crucial to the life. This

wonderful, reassuring truth that all whom God foreknew, was decided

beforehand to enter into a relationship with, and predestined to salvation will

be saved and glorified for all eternity, so that Jesus will have the

preeminence. God inspires the concluding verses in the chapter with the

strong assurance that He by no means will forego mercy and compassion

for His glory. In His eternal counsels, God has taken an account. His dealings

with them are pursuant to these counsels: and He will finish the account,

complete the mystical body, call in as many as belong to the election of

grace, and then the account will be finished. They have a fair offer of

righteousness, and life, and salvation, made to them upon the gospel terms,

which at this time they do not like, and would not come up to; and therefore,

if they perish, they may thank themselves - their blood is upon their own

heads. This renders God’s righteousness, in favor to us, who in justice to His

own design and counsel cry for the souls lost. We should be burdened for

the salvation of lost souls because the love of Christ and the love of God’s

truth impel us. What love did, we receive as sinners before coming to Christ?

Do we not desire others to experience this love? Are we to imitate Christ?

Was it Christ’s love that bore the wrath of God and moved Him to lay down

His life for all…for the… to be saved… and for…the to be lost”?

So, Christ’s love reaches down to us in our sin to impel us to cry out to the

souls lost and share our trust in Christ to save them. It is possible to have

great sorrow over the lost at the same time that we have great joy in Christ.

It is our sorrowing in rejoicing that moves us to want others to know the same

joy, along with sorrow over the sad condition of the lost, so that we cry out to

them with kindness and compassion. We love the truth of God’s promises.

And there is power in His promise. We want all to know that the word of God

cannot fail. Our primary motive for crying for lost souls to be saved should

be God’s glory. The book of Romans reasons God’s main purpose for

creating the world was not to save souls, His election stands according to

His call. His main purpose is to display His infinite glory. It is this to which we

bear witness. The difficulty with many lost people is that they trust in their

religious privileges, not in the Savior. What a tragedy to be religiously

zealous, but lost! Salvation is not a matter of spiritual privilege alone, but

rather of God’s sovereign grace that imparts life to dead sinners. We cry for

the souls lost that they come to know Jesus Christ as God in human flesh.

Jesus Christ is eternal God in human flesh, who offered Himself as the

sacrifice for our sins, who was raised bodily from the dead. Salvation

depends upon this truth. We must be burdened for the salvation of lost souls.

God is calling us to cross barriers. The most terrible view that can ever be

seen will be when all flesh is alive, and some are in the city, and all the rest

are outside the wall of such pure gold that it’s like clear glass. The view is

terrible to the inhabitants in the city because these see the souls they cried

for who rejected Christ. The view is most terrible to those outside the wall

because they see the privilege offered them that they lost. The horrible

situation of lost people. By God’s grace and through His purposes we can be

instruments of change to not only be found in the city of God but to help

others find solace in caring about their spiritual condition on earth today.

To the angels and the unfallen worlds, the cry, “It is finished,” had a deep

significance. It was for them, as well as for us, that the great work of

redemption had been accomplished. They, with us, share the fruits of Christ’s

victory.

We cry out to God to hear our cry for the souls lost. Our cries for the souls

lost is our faithfulness in God’s power to act in His unfailing love for all. We

trust in God and in his ability to act on our behalf in spite of and in the face

of our current troubles. Because of who He is we praise Him simply because

of who He is. We have this faith that when we cry for souls God is there.

God’s past faithfulness proclaims our confidence in every situation. We trust

that our cry for the souls lost will end in praise for God. It is for that character

that we praise Him, not the circumstances. Our cry for the souls lost is our

cry to God from the depths of our spirit. If it be thy will speak salvation over

the souls we cry for.

There was a cry from the cross for souls lost. “My God, My God”. Let’s

understand what this cry was…it was God forsaking God! Beyond the grasp

of our minds, this cry found Christ speaking to God as his Father. Imagine

having the thought of all the woes caused by sin in this life. But here is the

truth. God did not forsake man. This is why we can cry for souls lost. Because

Jesus, the Son of God, was forsaken for our sins that his cry so increased

the love of the Father. The lost soul, so hardened in sin can now be

persuaded that the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was

lost. What can we say to a soul who is lost, and who feels that God has

forsaken him?” We ask, “what became of that Man who died for you, whom

God really did forsake”? Light comes to those who have been in the dark

when we cry unto them. Christ was where they are and where they can now

be – at the right hand of the Father! We are to hear the cries from the cross

for the souls lost. Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. God

expressed the pain of sacrifice, but no regrets. The pain of sacrifice is

temporary. The pain of regret is persistent. The most significant regrets will

not be the choices made, but instead the decisions never made. In our crying

we will have pain. Know this, the pain of giving all we’ve got and coming up

short isn’t the same as never having tried. The question is, when the pain of

all that is too much for others and they give up, will we still be there? Will we

see obstacles as temporary? Will the pain drive us to move away from the

work of Christ, or will it move us forward? Souls are only a decision away. If

we can help them take a step today, the morrow will take care of itself.

Christ’s words from the cross meet the soul’s most urgent need. When we

were manifesting our greatest hatred for God; Christ was manifesting His

greatest love for us. The dying thief was a lost soul. He will see his day of

rejoicing. The second death hung on Calvary as a cry of abandonment

echoed throughout all creation. And the Christ descended into it and bore its

horrors in our place. It was a cry of overwhelming distress, but not of distrust.

It was this cry to restore communion between God and man. This is why we

cry for the souls lost.

Our cry for souls lost resonates from the cross as an act of deity. The far-

reaching cry for the whole human race. Cries of forgiveness, cries of love,

cries of salvation, cries of victory, cries of commitment, cries of humanity. Our

cry for souls lost must show the depth and the severity of the truth of the

matter. Unless God intervenes, every soul lost will enter into the depths of

agony and sorrow, blackness and darkness. God’s people cry for souls lost

and it is calculated to benefit us. When we come to a soul that Christ died

for, we too are afflicted and appalled. But the sufferings of our Savior, while

they move us to grief, have about them something sweet, full of consolation.

Here, even here, in this black spot of grief, we find heaven. We lament, we

cry for the cause to help souls, and we rejoice in the consequences.

We cry for souls lost that they be not lost! God is not indifferent to His created

beings. We thoughtfully speculate on profound reasons for Jesus’ tears. Why

would Jesus cry, knowing He was about to hear those He was to die for call

for his crucifixion? There must be more to the tears than empathy. Jesus

must have been weeping for the lost world, or mourning His own impending

suffering. Jesus was also crying because he knew we would have tears for

friends in the last day. He knew we would be hurting for souls lost, so Jesus

was hurting. In his tears, we hear these words: “I’m sorry I had to let you go

through this. I know your anguish, and my heart cries with yours.” It didn’t

matter that the pain would end. It mattered that there was pain. Jesus hurts

with us for souls lost. Our cries sound unto God. He hears them. We have

this spiritual closeness to God…we cry for souls lost, hoping that they be not

lost. To win the lost there is and will be much weeping. The tears we sow will

reap in joy. These are colorless tears, no taint of racial inequity, weighed with

collective sadness. There is no such thing as compassion for a lost soul that

does not effect great sorrow in the heart. It is painful to bear a lost person on

our heart and to stand between them and what being lost means. We know

what we are being saved from. Our cry for souls lost is a crucial and

foundationally formative experience for perfecting us to be that better thing

inspired by the faith of all the servants of God. It is nothing other than our

identification with all of those who are victims of violence. It is our existence

between the cross and the resurrection. On the cross the triune life of God

is thrown open for all to see. It is our cry for souls lost that the promises of

change and eternal life are truths accepted for the right and proper reason,

namely, that it illuminates and convinces as truth. Truth brings about assent,

it brings about change without exerting compulsion. In dialogue the truth

frees men and women for their own conceptions and their own ideas. In this

liberating dialogue we all come into the circle of brothers and sisters. We

become friends. When we see souls on their way to the fire and want to

“make a difference,” then we with “fear”, fear for them and fear for ourselves

if we have no compassion on their soul to pull them out of the fire. For this

purpose, we are appointed watchmen. We live in a world that is struggling

under the burden of the reality that all is not well with humanity. The cries of

the suffering creation are heard, incorporated, in the hearts of the redeemed.

Untold numbers will miss heaven because nobody cried for their souls. They

believe that God so rarely seems to accomplish his will in the world that often

God’s purpose, if it can be discerned, seems to be defeated. The actual

redemptive presence of God in the world is discerned less in God’s taking

the sovereign lead in events and more in God’s picking up the pieces after

history has misfired. The whole business of the Holy Spirit in conviction of

sin awaits the travail and great compassion of God’s election. We are called

to finish the unsolved problem of the suffering God. Our cries are in His cries.

The passion narrative on the cross was such a divineness of love. God

becomes man in Jesus of Nazareth, he not only enters into the finitude of

man, but in his death on the cross also enters into the situation of man’s god-

forsakenness. … He humbles himself and takes upon himself the eternal

death of the godless and the god-forsaken, so that all the godless and

god-forsaken can experience communion with him. This is the message for

invitation he offered by sacrifice and being forsaken.

“If you are lost, then we are lost together”. This message song sings of a God

who would rather be lost with us than be anywhere else without us.

This is Emmanuel, God with us. Where was God when we were lost? He came

in person to be for us. Jesus entered a broken and sinful world to stand with us, to be our friend, to carry our sin and to suffer our pain. Jesus reveals the heart of his Father

to us. He comes with a love that will not let us go. He comes to be in relationship

with us. He comes to share our lostness. This is why, this is how we cry for

souls lost. Because those who have not chosen Christ cannot truly

comprehend what took place at Calvary without first knowing who it was that

hung upon the cross. Since God’s action in redemption is revealed in the

person of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, any discussion of who it is that

was crucified on Calvary can only be conducted using personal, relational,

and finally the triunal concept and language. Jesus experienced death for

us, so that we could live with him. He offers to stand with us in our grief, in

our lostness, and by doing that, Jesus changes this awful place. And he

changes us.

Jesus cried with a loud voice. It is purposed for us by the word of God that

we are to live for others! In our cry for souls lost we are to make it apparent

unto all men that we are not ourselves the end-all, and be-all of our own

existence, but that we are spending and being spent; that through the good

we do to men God may be glorified, and Christ may see in us His own image,

and be satisfied. There is the world and Christ; there is sin and God. We cry

in the spirit to move the soul from the world, and from sin, to Christ and God.

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