One spring a handful of years ago we saw a handwritten note on a bulletin board of someone wanting to sell some of their young ducklings. So we called up the number, went out to the address that they gave us and we bought four little ducklings, 2 white and and two brown. After we got them home I spent a couple of hours fencing in a small area in the backyard to keep them in, away from the number of small predatory animals that we have up here, of which we have many. Owls, eagles, foxes, raccoons, weasels, skunks, bobcats, wolves… they are all looking for a nice plump meal. So I kept those ducks in their fenced yard.
Over the next three or four months those ducklings eventually grew to full sized adults, and each night I would make certain that the ducks were safely enclosed in their yard. One day as I walked by, I noticed that one of the ducks was missing. I counted 1, 2, 3, but the 4th was missing. I carefully examined attend around the fence and quickly discovered an area where the duck had escaped, but I quickly found it in a nearby water puddle and returned it. This happened a few times, but every time that a duck escaped I would go out and find it, returning it back into the fence so that they would be safe from the wild animals.
James taught kind of a similar thing, about how if you can convert a sinner from the error of their ways that you will save a soul from death.
James 5:19-20 “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
Just like I kept my ducks in a fenced in yard to give them a safe place to live, when we become Christians it is like a spiritual fence that separates us from the sins outside, out in the world. Outside of the church out in the world you will find many sins, evils and temptations, trying to entice you to sin and draw you away from Christ, just like like that water puddle drew my duck out of the safety of the yard out into a place where it could be harmed.
It is our job as Christians to try to win people to Christ. To be fishers of men, as Christ put it, when He called His apostles. It is our duty to warn others of the danger that will happen if they continue to live in their sins, and that they have the promise of eternal life when they believe in the Lord. We need to try to help them come back into the safety that is found in Jesus.
1 Timothy 4:16 “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”
That is what we are called to do, to save souls and to pursuade others to turn from sinners into saints. Christ is our salvation, the One Who saves us from the death of our sins. He is our Deliverer, our Shepherd Who protects us. He is the door, and when we enter in we shall be saved.
John 10:7-9 “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Are you inside of that fence?
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 