Pastor as an Evangelist

The point: Do not claim exemption from evangelism based on other pastoral gifts or responsibilities; evangelism is a universal task for teaching, ruling elders.

Martin humorously recounts accidentally taking someone else's water bottle, a brief moment of levity before returning to the sermon's main point.

In the midst of all of these things, with no thought of the so-called professional evangelist as we know him today, a role which I think is very much suspect in the light of the scriptures, but in the midst of all of this work, bound up in the total life of the church, Timothy, do the work of an evangelist, proclaim the evangel with a view to seeing men embrace the Savior who is the sum and substance of that good news. Now, the second passage that I trust will set the biblical framework for our study this afternoon is Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10.

13:43 - 14:20 Read in full sermon

The point: In the week-by-week ministry of the Word, make a conscious, constant, and God-blessed effort to evangelize and proclaim the good news of salvation.

Paul's digression in 1 Corinthians from addressing divisions to expounding the gospel is used as an example of being so consumed by the gospel that it takes over one's train of thought.

He just took off. The moment he said gospel, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And then he takes off all the way through the end of chapter 1, verse 18, through the end of the chapter, and on into chapter 2, and right on into chapter 3, and then in verse 1, he gets back on the track again. What a wonderful thing to have such an overflowing love and involvement with the gospel that the very mention of the word gets you off your track.

21:41 - 22:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Press upon children the tragic possibility of squandering their privileges and intensifying the weight of their own damnation.

Martin shares a personal story about his daughter Heidi lying and his younger daughter Beth's immediate concern about Heidi going to hell, illustrating how children can grasp biblical connections between sin and judgment.

If thou seek him, he will be found of thee. But if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. Children need to hear that, not just in the family worship when it's appropriate in the study of the scriptures and in our catechizing of our children to instruct them and to warn them, but by the sent messenger of Christ looking those children right into their tender, upturned faces and with tears warning them and pleading with them not to squander the privileges of their covenantal training and the blessings their opportunity. Just the other night I had occasion to thank God that at least in s...

30:52 - 31:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Evangelistic sermons are just scriptural sermons, the sort of sermons that a man cannot help preaching if he's preaching the Bible biblically.

Martin quotes J.I. Packer to support the argument that scriptural preaching is inherently evangelistic, emphasizing that evangelistic sermons are simply biblical sermons.

world to save sinners. As we would speak to men and preach to men. Let me quote from Packer's excellent little book. And I hope you never get so sophisticated that you can't read little 80-page paperbacks after you get your B.D. There's an awful lot of good

45:54 - 46:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Evangelistic sermons are just scriptural sermons, the sort of sermons that a man cannot help preaching if he's preaching the Bible biblically.

Martin quotes Puritan Robert Bolton, who stated that Christ is offered 'most freely and without exception of any person every Sabbath, every sermon,' reinforcing the constant evangelistic nature of preaching.

present the Lord Jesus Christ as the Bible presents Him, as God's answer to every problem in the sinner's relationship with Himself. and not be, in effect, evangelistic all the time. The Lord Jesus Christ, said Robert Bolton, one of the great Puritans of a bygone age, quote, is offered most freely and without exception of any person every Sabbath, every sermon, either in plain and direct terms or in pliantly at the least. End of quote.

48:01 - 48:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Christ is the central theme of Scripture, and therefore, all biblical preaching is inherently evangelistic. He illustrates this by showing how to find…

Martin describes John Owen's exposition of Psalm 130 as a prime example of 'purest, most free, warm, urgent, tender, gospel preaching,' even within a deep theological exposition.

But the thing that amazed me was though they might be on sub-point C under... Second heading D, under main heading 1, under general proposition 35, on Ephesians 4.13,

51:07 - 51:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Christ is the central theme of Scripture, and therefore, all biblical preaching is inherently evangelistic. He illustrates this by showing how to find…

Martin quotes Hugh Martin's profound exposition on Gethsemane, illustrating how deep theological exposition can transition beautifully into tender gospel pleadings and warnings to sinners.

If you're not familiar with his book, Shadow of Calvary, Hugh Martin, of course, is the great Scottish divine, the 1800s. This was one of the most profound books I've read in the past four or five years. As he takes you by the hand into Gethsemane and opens up the mysteries of Gethsemane, but in the midst of this most profound exposition that is, strong meat for mature Christians, he shifts so beautifully into tender gospel pleadings. Let me quote as an illustration.

53:02 - 53:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Christ is the central theme of Scripture, and therefore, all biblical preaching is inherently evangelistic. He illustrates this by showing how to find…

Martin shares his own experience of preaching on Romans 8:34, a text rich for saints, and how he consciously found an avenue to preach the gospel to unconverted visitors, demonstrating practical expository evangelism.

May I just, from my own experience a week ago, to bring it up to date and make it relevant, not setting myself forth as the epitome of attainment in this area, but to show, something of the practical discipline of this. Knowing that we had a number of Christians who, people who have been brought to the Lord in the past year, for whom this past Easter was their first Easter, I felt perhaps I should digress from my regular expositions in Ephesians 1, Sunday mornings, and bring a more directly related, a message more directly related to the Easter theme. And someone had given me Goodwin's book on...

55:14 - 55:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Christ is the central theme of Scripture, and therefore, all biblical preaching is inherently evangelistic. He illustrates this by showing how to find…

Martin uses his recent sermon on Proverbs 2:16-19 (warning against immoral women) to illustrate how even a specific warning can be legitimately connected to Christ as our wisdom and preached evangelistically.

And I say a man is sick spiritually if he cannot take what seems to be exclusive choice meats for the saints of God and find some avenue out of that text into the hearts of the neediest sinner. Well, then, last Sunday evening we made a tremendous switch from that text into Proverbs 2, 16 to 19, one of the three purposes of the wisdom, promised in Proverbs 2, in the first 11 and 12 verses, to those who seek it, hunt for it as for hid treasure, cry out to God for it, to keep thee from the evil woman, from the foreigner that flattereth with her lips. And it was a warning against immoral women.

58:30 - 59:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Christ is the central theme of Scripture, and therefore, all biblical preaching is inherently evangelistic. He illustrates this by showing how to find…

Martin recounts preaching on Ephesians 1 and finding an evangelistic application in the phrase 'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' emphasizing that one cannot call God Father until Jesus is acknowledged as Lord and Savior.

The only way to be preserved from all the influences that would drag one into the terrible quagmire of immorality is to have Christ as our wisdom dwelling within our hearts, exerting His power over the mind and over the affections. And then you've gone into preaching Christ legitimately and earnestly to the hearts. I remember a couple of weeks ago, as I was preaching on Ephesians chapter 1, for this cause I also, having heard of your faith, in the Lord Jesus and your love to all the saints, ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in our prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus ...

59:30 - 60:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Set forth a mighty and able Savior, and then entreat men to embrace Him, letting them know Christ turns none away.

Martin uses Spurgeon's analogy of a hyper-Calvinist with an apple – showing it but not offering it – to illustrate the error of those who understand particularism but fail to freely offer the gospel.

free offers of the Gospel, urging Christ upon all men, and urging men to embrace the Savior. You become like the man Spurgeon describes. He says, the hyper-Calvinist is like the little boy who has the apple in his pocket, and he says to his buddies, see my apple? And he says, yeah.

65:06 - 65:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Set forth a mighty and able Savior, and then entreat men to embrace Him, letting them know Christ turns none away.

Martin shares anecdotes of ministers, including a brilliant scholar, who struggled to reconcile their new Calvinistic theology with evangelistic preaching, highlighting a common 'problem of the head.'

And so I say this sympathetically. I preached just two weeks ago at a group down in Roanoke, a group of some 60 to 70 ministers, most of whom have come into Calvinistic truth in the past couple of years. And many of them, I spoke on the free offers of the gospel, came to me afterward and said, what a helpful thing it was, because having come out of the other and overthrown this, they just didn't know how to adjust their new theology to the actual context of preaching evangelistically to men. There's a man with two earned doctor's degrees, who stood in the question and answer session in Leicest...

66:30 - 67:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not assume everyone in the congregation is saved; recognize that some are playing games, and others are deceived.

The analogy of a doctor with a potent remedy for a rare disease is used to explain that a preacher will not urge men to take the gospel 'pill' unless he believes some in his audience have the 'disease' of being unsaved.

. It is rather more accurate to assume in any congregation there are not only the uninstructed and the unenlightened, but the deceived and the doubting. A doctor who's got a potent remedy for a very rare disease will never be too concerned about pulling it out of his satchel and urging men to take that pill, unless he's convinced some in his auditory have the disease. And I'm convinced the reason some men don't do the work of an evangelist in their expository ministry is they really don't believe.

69:21 - 69:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Be encouraged that as you hold Christ up before sinners, even if they despise Him, God smiles and is pleased by the fragrance of His Son in the gospel.

Martin expounds on 2 Corinthians 2:14-15, using the metaphor of the 'sweet savor of Christ' to God, explaining that the fragrance of Christ preached is always pleasing to God, regardless of human response.

and I can't go into it. I'll only go into it in a minute. I'll only give two or three suggested thoughts on it. Paul says, Thanks be unto God who always leads us to triumph in Christ and make it manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place, for we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God in them that are saved and in them that are perishing.

76:10 - 76:31 Read in full sermon