Evangelism God's Way, Part 7

The Evangelistic Mandate and Sermon Series Framework

0:04 While this portion of the Word of God will not be the exclusive nor primary focus of our study, I do want you to follow with me as I read from Luke chapter 24, verses 44 to 48.

0:24 Luke chapter 24, at verse 44. And he, Jesus, said to them, These are my words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their mind that they might understand the Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance unto remission of sin should be preached, preached in his name unto all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you, but wait in the city until you be clothed with power from on high. Let us again pray, asking the help of the Spirit of God as we come to the study of the Word.

1:38 Our Father, once again we come to spread out before you our felt sense of need. If we are to profit in any way from our taking into our hands your Word and considering its contents, Lord, help me as I seek to open up that Word. Help those who sit before that Word that together we may be conscious that the Word of God is the Word of God. Let us pray.

2:16 Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.

2:17 Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.

2:17 Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. The promised Holy Spirit is among us, clothing your servant with power to speak your Word as he ought, giving to those who sit before that Word the opened mind, that there may be spiritual perception and understanding, that insight and understanding that go far beyond the ability of any unaided mind to have.

2:45 O God, send your Holy Spirit upon us, we pray for our good and for your glory. Amen. Forty days after our Lord Jesus rose from the dead on that first Easter morning, he went back to the right hand of his Father, and there he now sits as the reigning messianic King. And just prior to his ascension, he gave to his apostles a mandate which is now the perpetually binding mandate of the church, a mandate that rests upon the church that he has purchased with his own blood, to be fulfilled until the end of the age. And what is that mandate? It is the mandate to communicate, to communicate the message of the Gospel to all peoples in all places of the earth, as we have read here in Luke chapter 24, and to do so according to Matthew 28,

4:08 with a view that those who embrace that message will become disciples of Jesus, will declare that attachment in faith, love, and submission to Jesus by the ordinance of God, and the promise of baptism. And then he gathered into structured, visible communities of disciples, committing themselves to a ministry of instruction that will teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded through his apostles. That mandate rests upon Trinity Baptist Church this morning. And there is one expression of our desire to be obedient to Christ, we are in the midst of preparations to begin six bi-weekly, geographically structured, home-based evangelistic Bible studies. And as one expression of my desire pastorally to be part of those preparations, I have been preaching a series of sermons on this theme, some Biblical perspectives concerning God-honoring, Spirit-empowered evangelistic endeavors. And as a structural framework for these sermons, I am using the analogy of a tree.

Review of Taproots for God-Honoring Evangelism

5:37 A tree firmly rooted in deep, deeply rooted in rich, moist, nourishing soil. A tree with tap roots to support and contain, continually nourish the main trunk and its branches and its leaves. Thus far, we have considered what the soil is. The soil, of course, must be the Word of God, the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments, which, according to 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, are not only God-breathed but so profitable as to make us thoroughly furnished unto every good work, even the good work, of fulfilling the church's evangelistic mandate. Then I suggested that if the trunk of that evangelistic endeavor is to be a healthy, strong, and productive trunk, it must have tap roots. And so we have considered together three such tap roots for God-honoring, Spirit-empowered evangelism. And they were these.

6:50 We must first of all have a biblical understanding and personal conviction concerning who and what men, women, boys and girls really are. Our evangelistic endeavors will not be God-honoring, they will not be Spirit-empowered, if we have unbiblical notions as to the nature and condition of men. The second tap root is, that we must embody and consistently manifest in our lives the transforming power of that gospel that we would communicate to others. And I again remind you of my word of qualification. While there will be situations in which it is our privilege and even our duty to communicate the gospel to people with whom we have had little or no previous or will have little subsequent interaction ordinarily, the gospel is effective in the witness of the church when those who convey that gospel themselves embody and consistently manifest the transforming power of the gospel. In the language of Paul in Titus, such manifestations of the power of the gospel

8:15 adorn the gospel. They make it attractive and beautiful. And then the third tap root is this, we must engage in earnest and persevering prayer for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon all of our evangelistic endeavors. Now this morning we move from the soil and the tap roots to focus our attention upon the main trunk of the tree of evangelism.

Defining the Trunk: The Nature of Evangelism

8:47 The trunk is the activity of evangelism itself. And we must ask this question, what is the precise identity of that trunk? To state it in a different way, what is the nature of that activity which fulfills the mandate given by our Lord Jesus? When our Lord Jesus commanded us and commanded his people to communicate the gospel to the ends of the earth until the end of the age, what is that task of communicating the gospel?

9:28 Well, in seeking to answer that question and thereby identifying the main trunk of the tree, my method will be this. I will begin with a definition of evangelism. Don't be scared away by it. I've pared it down as spartanly as I know how.

9:48 And after giving the definition, I'm then going to break it down into three separate sections and seek to show the biblical substance that goes into that definition. Well, the definition. If we draw near to that tree, and if it is indeed a tree of biblical evangelism, what will it look like? My answer is this.

10:15 Evangelism is communicating with words the God-revealed truths which comprise the foundation and substance of the biblical gospel along with the promises, demands, and entreaties which accompany that gospel. I give it to you again. Evangelism is communicating with words the God-revealed truths which comprise the foundation and substance of the biblical gospel along with the promises, demands, and entreaties which accompany that gospel. Now, let me seek to open up the biblical components of this definition under three heads. Number one. The essential activity of evangelism.

Component 1: The Essential Activity of Evangelism is Words

11:23 What is it? And I answer it is an activity involving words. Evangelism is communicating something with words. Hence my definition.

11:39 Evangelism is communicating with words. Now, go back to the passage that I read earlier in your hearing. Luke chapter 24, verse 44. And he, Jesus, said to them, These are my words, which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms concerning me.

12:12 Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures, that is, God's words in God's book. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, words in God's book, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached, and activity with words in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses, that is, you are the ones who are to testify and exercise of words. You are witnesses of these things. You see, the great commission, the evangelistic mandate, is word saturated. And when our Lord says, Wait in the city, until I send you, send forth the promise of my Father upon you, the Spirit comes upon these followers of the Lord Jesus to empower them to do what? Acts 1.8 answers that question.

13:27 You shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. The Spirit comes to empower witness. He comes to empower a word-focused message. And when the Spirit does indeed come on the day of Pentecost, ten days after our Lord told them to wait in the city of Jerusalem, what does the Spirit move these people to do in fulfillment of that prophecy?

14:04 You shall receive power, the Spirit coming upon you, you shall be my witnesses. Well, most of you are familiar with what happened. The Spirit came in this unusual manifestation of His presence and power, the sound of a rushing mighty wind, tongues of fire over the heads of each of the hundred and twenty. They begin to speak in dialects that were not their own natively acquired dialects, and the mighty works of God are heard by the different people gathered on the day of Pentecost.

14:35 But then, after this stir over these unusual manifestations of the presence and power of God, look at verse 14 of Acts chapter 2. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke forth unto them, saying, You men of Judea, and all that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words. And from that very moment onward, when the church is true to her commission, and gets her definition of evangelism from the Bible, she comes up with this definition that evangelism is communicating something with words. And this emphasis follows right through the book of the Acts. I give you two other specimen indications of this. One in Acts, I'm sorry, and one in Romans.

15:43 Acts chapter 11. As the gospel moves out from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and now is going to penetrate into a Gentile community, or to a gathering of Gentiles in the household of Cornelius. Again, many of you familiar with the facts. Peter falls into a trance.

16:06 He's hungry. He's up on a rooftop. God gives him a vision. And in that vision makes it plain that Peter is to be ready and willing to go and bring the gospel to Gentiles.

16:18 And at the same time, God is working in this Gentile cord called Cornelius, a Roman soldier, and revealing to him that someone is going to come and bring to him the message of salvation. Well, Peter goes. Peter preaches. God works mightily.

16:37 And then in Acts chapter 11, we have this reflection upon the facts of what happened in that whole story. And here we read in Acts chapter 11 these words in verses 13 and 14. And he told us, that is, Cornelius tells this group of Jews who accompanied Peter to the household of Cornelius. And he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and fetch Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall speak unto you worse, whereby you will be saved, you and all your house.

17:22 Now Peter says, And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them. You see, the emphasis could not be more precise and focused. He will come and speak unto them to you words. He will not come and show you pictures.

17:41 He will not come and sing you a song. He will not come with an acting troupe and give you a play. He will speak unto you words, words, words, whereby you will be saved. And Peter does precisely that.

18:03 He stands up and he begins to speak words. And God the Holy Spirit empowers those words, makes them go home to the hearts of all in that household. And there is a household conversion leading to household baptism, great rejoicing, and a new frontier of gospel advance as the great commission, the evangelistic mandate is obeyed by the people of God. Now, one other passage that again shows us how word focused is the task of evangelism and that's found in Romans chapter 10.

18:45 Romans chapter 10. A passage we read last Lord's Day in our consecutive reading through the book of Romans. In the midst of setting forth the argument that salvation has always been by grace through faith in the one Savior, verse 12, there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

19:20 Salvation comes when sinners call upon the name of the Lord. And what leads them to call upon the name of the Lord? Verse 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?

19:34 And how shall they believe in him whom, not of whom, but whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Even that is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!

19:55 But they did not all hearken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So belief comes of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. And you see this tightly knit argument of the apostle, that if people are to call upon the name of the Lord, they must hear of him and hear unto believing.

20:20 And how do they hear unless someone is sent and brings the message? A word-based, a word-framed message. And as someone has very cheekily said, when God would convey his saving word, he did not give us a picture book, he gave us a word book. And in a book, a man-authored book that I recommended some months ago in a Sunday School class called The Vanishing Word by Arthur Hunt III, he has tremendous insights captured even in the subtitle of his book, The Veneration of Visual Imagery in the Postmodern World. And many in our day are accommodating their presentation of the gospel, they are accommodating their evangelism to a mindset and to a cultural ethos in which people don't like words, much less authoritative words, in which there is an undermining of the very idea that words can convey anything definite and specific. And so people are accommodating themselves to this obsession with images, which appeal primarily not to the cognitive faculties but to the emotional faculties. And there are places this morning that call themselves evangelical churches where no man is standing in a pulpit

21:49 explaining the words of the Bible, heralding the words of the Bible primarily, but he is orchestrating visual images slashed on a screen taken from clips from television programs and pictures that have been scanned on his computer technology from Time magazine and other things and confronting people with a barrage of images and calling this gospel proclamation. No, evangelism is communicating with words, whether words written, whether words signed as our brother is doing right now, or whether words spoken as I am doing. When we go to our Bibles for a definition of the trunk of evangelism, what is it made of? We see from our Bibles that evangelism is communicating something with words. So much then for the essential activity of evangelism.

Component 2: The Source Materials of Evangelism are God-Revealed Truths

22:56 It is communicating with words. We move secondly to the source materials of evangelism. The source materials of evangelism. Listen to my definition.

23:09 Evangelism is communicating with words the God-revealed truths. Evangelism is communicating with words God-revealed truths. The raw materials of the words that comprise the activity of evangelism, those raw materials are mined out of revealed truth. And though God has two books in which He reveals truth about Himself, the book of nature, the world above us, around us, and within us, and secondly the book of Holy Scripture, God-breathed words. And though it is right in our evangelism to make reference to what God has said in the book of nature, Paul does this in Acts 14, Acts 17, he does it in Romans 1, and Romans 2. Essentially and primarily, evangelism is communicating with words the God-revealed truths found in the Bible, found in the Scriptures of the Old and of the New Testaments. The Apostle Paul could write as he did to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3

24:39 and verse 14. Listen to his words to Timothy. Abide in the things that you have learned and been assured of, knowing of whom you learned them, and that some a babe, a brethos, a babe in arms, a suckling child, Timothy, you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Timothy, it is the Scriptures that make wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus.

25:22 Again, our passage in Luke 24. What did Jesus do in preparing these apostles who would be given unusual, miraculous powers? They would have power to heal, power to raise the dead, power to straighten out crooked arms and open blind eyes. Yet, what does our Lord do as He prepares them for the evangelistic endeavor for fulfilling the mandate of taking His salvation to the ends of the earth?

25:54 He opens their minds to understand the Scriptures. And He says, thus it is necessary because it is written. And He gives them insight to the Scriptures for they are the source material of their evangelistic endeavor. That's why, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, the Gospel I brought to you, the Gospel which you believed, the Gospel by which you are saved, the Gospel that you must continue to retain in faith.

26:28 What is it? Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures. Yes, I received this Gospel by revelation.

26:45 But as God revealed it, God Himself made it plain to me. The source materials were the Scriptures. And this is why when we turn again to the book of Acts and read the synopses, the little summaries of the evangelistic sermons of the apostles, what were they doing? Those sermons are not anecdotal.

27:11 Those sermons are not philosophical. They are exegetical. They are quoting and explaining Scripture. When Peter says, listen to my words, he said, these folks aren't drunk like some of you were saying.

27:26 This is that which was promised by the prophet Joel. And he quotes from the prophet Joel. And then he quotes from the Psalms. His evangelistic preaching was exegetical.

27:37 In other words, he quoted, explained, and applied the Bible. That's what evangelism is. Now, there is certainly a place for us to give our testimony in seeking to demonstrate the power of the Gospel and to have that as an ancillary, subservient dimension of our evangelistic witness and testimony. We have recorded in the book of Acts the testimony of Paul before he even potentates.

28:08 But in its essence, evangelism is communicating with words the God-revealed truth that is found in the Holy Scriptures. I can remember too many years ago, we're talking about the late 1950s. Ancient history, kids. Ancient history.

28:33 Think of it. I was actually alive then and preaching. And my identity at that time was that of an evangelist. Churches would write to me and say, would you come for a week or two weeks of evangelistic ministry?

28:49 So I would go and I would seek to do the work of an evangelist. And more than once, I had people come to me and they say, you know, Mr. Martin, you're really not an evangelist. I said, well, what do you mean?

29:00 Don't I preach the gospel? Don't I urge sinners to go to Christ? Don't I seek to...

29:07 Oh yeah, but you're more a Bible teacher. You see, what they were doing was reflecting the concept that was so rife then and apparently still is in many circles today. The evangelist is this guy with this slick, high-powered personality, usually had quite a story. I mean, when he'd one night give his testimony, that really made people drool as he talked about his past.

29:32 But the evangelist was the one, you see, who could string together when I was here and when I was there and give you anecdotes that had you on the end of your seat and belly-laughing or crying and once in a while interspersed with Scripture. But they said, you're a Bible teacher. What they meant was they had a concept of evangelism that was something other than mining out of Scripture the fundamental content of the evangel, and that is utterly, utterly unscriptural. Evangelism is communicating with words God-revealed truths.

Component 3: The Components of the Evangelistic Message

30:10 So we've seen that the essential activity of evangelism is communication with words. The source materials of evangelism, God-revealed truth. Now we come to the heart of my message, heading number three, evangelism the components of the evangelistic message. What are the components then of the evangelistic message?

30:36 Listen again to my definition then we'll break it down. Evangelism is communicating with words the God-revealed truths which comprise the foundation and substance of the biblical gospel along with the promises, demands, and entreaties which accompany that gospel. Alright? The components of the evangelistic message then, I've identified three major components in that definition.

Sub-component 3a: Truths Foundational to the Gospel

31:10 Number one, the truths foundational to the gospel. In our evangelism we must communicate the truths foundational to the gospel. Let me state it this way, John 3.16 makes no sense unless you understand Genesis 1.1.

31:34 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten... Whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

31:42 God? World? What's this all about? You see, foundational to understanding John 3.16 is Genesis 1.1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and Genesis 1.26 and 27 and God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness.

32:07 And in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. John 3.16 means nothing if you view yourself as just a pile and a collection of cosmic dust along some mindless brute force evolutionary string of events. John 3.16 means something when the word God takes you back to the independent, glorious, self-sufficient being who existed from all eternity needing nothing outside of himself. And this God who created the heavens and the earth simply because he desired to create it. And in that creation he placed man, this creature utterly distinct from all the other creatures, only man, made in his image, made in his likeness, the only one with whom God held intelligent verbal intercourse, God speaking and interacting and giving commands and directives.

33:14 And John 3.16 makes no sense without Genesis 3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said?

33:29 And then the tragedy of Adam and Eve disobeying God, plunging themselves and all of their posterity into a state of sin and death. John 3.16 must have Genesis 1.1, Genesis 1.26 and 27, Genesis chapter 3 as its foundation. And if you doubt this, again turn to the book of Acts and we have the recording not only of synopses of sermons in which there is exposition of Scripture upon Scripture, but when the Apostle Paul is at Lystra, Acts 14, and when he is at Athens, Acts 17, and he's in a totally pagan context, he doesn't begin with the cross. He doesn't begin with Jesus Christ. He begins with the foundational elements of God as creator, as sustainer,

34:31 as upholder of his world. God is the moral governor of his world. God as the judge before whom we will all stand in the last day. Acts 17.30 and 31, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he's appointed a day in which he'll judge the world in righteousness. Now he mentions Jesus, by that man whom he hath raised from the dead. Give an assurance unto all in that he raised him from the dead. Evangelism is this activity of words, communicating with words, the God-revealed truths which comprise the foundation, the foundation, as well as the substance of the biblical gospel.

35:23 So, truths foundational to the gospel must be proclaimed in gospel proclamation. Paul does it in Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through chapter 3 and verse 20. He gives his theme in verses 16 and 17. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

35:44 It is the power of God unto salvation, for therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And it's like someone says, what's the big deal? He said, I'll tell you what the big deal is for, verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And he indicts men as sinners, as under the wrath and judgment of Almighty God.

Sub-component 3b: The Substance of the Gospel

36:16 Those are the foundational truths of biblical gospel evangelistic endeavors. And if we would be engaged in that, in God-honoring, Spirit-empowered gospel endeavors, then we must engage with words which, rooted in the Scriptures, set forth these foundational truths. But then, secondly, the components of the evangelistic message, truths foundational to the gospel, and then those truths that form the very substance of the gospel. The word gospel means good news.

37:00 To evangelize is to engage in the proclamation, the dissemination of the good news. And what is the very substance of that good news? It is the reality of God sending His only begotten Son into the world. And that substance focuses upon the person of Jesus in the uniqueness of who He is, and the work of Jesus, what He has done in order to provide a righteous forgiveness, a just pardon.

37:40 What Jesus has done that we sinners might approach God and find in God forgiveness, acceptance, reconciliation, adoption, all in a way that does not stain the righteous character of this gracious, gracious and glorious God. Those truths which focus upon who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. The Gospel of Mark, where I just began again in my own devotional reading, I was struck again with those opening words which form the very theme of this gospel, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is good news. It focuses upon Jesus of Nazareth, God's anointed Messiah, who is God the Son. He is the Son of God.

38:38 That's good news. And Mark tells us, if you pick up my treatise, you're going to be confronted with good news. And that's why on every page you're going to learn something about Jesus. And you're going to learn something about Jesus who is no exalted, no exalted man.

38:57 He is the Son of God. God the Son. And as you read through that gospel, you find whereas whole segments, months of our Lord's life are passed over with a few words, you come to the last week and it's all expanded. All expanded.

39:16 And you have great details as He draws near to the cross, sets His face like flint to go to Jerusalem, tells His disciples the Son of Man is going to be betrayed. He's going to be spat upon. He is going to be crucified. The third day He will rise again from the dead.

39:37 And all of the gospel writers give about one quarter of the whole content of their record to the last week. Do you see the significance? They tell us many things in the opening parts that validate who He was and who He was in His person. But then they focus upon the things that are central to His work.

40:00 Not His miracles, not His marvelous teaching, but His giving Himself a ransom for many. That's the stuff that forms the very substance of the gospel. It is for this reason that Paul could say to the Corinthians, and I brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellency of speech. Now that doesn't mean he mumbled and garbled his words.

40:30 He meant I did not come trying to measure up to the standards of what your rhetorical experts say good speech is. I could not have cared less. I didn't come to you with what your rhetorical experts would call excellency of speech. I came declaring to you the testimony of God.

40:51 That testimony of which God is author. And I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him as crucified. That was the great focal point of his proclamation that in Christ crucified God had provided a way whereby sinners may receive a righteous pardon and just forgiveness. We read about it in 1 Corinthians 15 this morning, did we not?

41:22 This is the gospel I received. This is the gospel I preached to you. Christ died. Christ was buried.

41:30 Christ was raised. This was my gospel. It focused upon the very substance of the gospel. That unique person who has accomplished a unique work on behalf of sinners.

Sub-component 3c: Promises, Demands, and Entreaties

41:46 Who he is as the God-man and only Savior. What he has done by his death, his resurrection, his ascension and his sending of the Holy Spirit. But then thirdly under the components of the evangelistic message, truths foundational to the gospel, the truths that form the substance of the gospel, but then the truths that accompany that substance of the gospel. In Biblical evangelism there is not only a setting forth of the four truths of the gospel but also a setting forth of the four truths of the gospel.

42:18 In Biblical evangelism there is not only a setting forth of the foundational truths so that the central truths about Christ and his saving work make sense, but when that saving work is set before men it is never set forth in isolation from marvelous promises to those who will embrace that message with very stringent demands upon those who would desire the benefits of that message. And with passionate entreaties to men that these are life and death issues. Gospel proclamation in the New Testament is attended with promises, with demands, and with entreaties. The promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit. Remember Acts 2 when people cried out, what shall we do? Peter has indicted them as murderers of Messiah, and God has raised him up, seated in his right hand in his first act of messianic kingship was to send forth his Holy Spirit so that all that they were seeing and hearing was a validation of who Jesus is and what he had done.

43:35 And they said, what shall we do? They are stabbed in the heart. Peter says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is to you and to your children and to those that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God so called. He did not merely set forth the central facts that are the substance of the Gospel, but he accompanied that declaration with promises of forgiveness of the gift of the Spirit.

44:15 Acts 13, Paul does the same thing in his preaching at Antioch in Pisidia. And he says at the conclusion of his sermon in Acts chapter 13 and verse 39, by him every one that believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. There is the promise of full forgiveness. But then there are demands.

44:42 Those demands are couched in the language of repentance. And the promise of a faith that is not a mere tipping of the hat to Jesus, but is the going out of the whole person in utter trust and resignation and submission to the person of the Savior. Paul could say in Acts 20, 21 that wherever he went preaching to Jews and to Greeks, this is what he preached, repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, when I set forth the foundation of Gospel truth, when I set forth the central nerve centers, the very substance of Christ and His work, Christ in His person, then I said to people, you want the benefits of that salvation? Stack arms. Get out of the God business. Repentance toward God.

45:36 An utter change of mind to God in His person and His government, His ways, His people. Repent. And he said, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, it is the recumbency, the resting, the going out of the whole soul upon one who is a sovereign.

45:56 He is Lord. He is Jesus of Nazareth. He is God's anointed Messiah, prophet, priest and king. Faith in Him means I take Him to be my prophet from henceforth to have my mind utterly subject to His mind as revealed in the Scripture.

46:14 His mind about life, about God, about sex, about boy-girl relationships, about marriage, about child-rearing, about work, about money, about everything. I take Him to be my prophet whose word will govern me. I take Him as my priest, the only one in whom I trust for forgiveness, whom I trust by His intercession to keep me and succor me and bend to me in all of my trials and my weaknesses. My king to govern me, to rule over me, to embrace without reservation His crown as that which will govern my life.

46:58 Those are the demands. Put in the terms of gospel calls, the terms of discipleship. Jesus said again and again, you want to come after me? Say no to yourself.

47:09 That's right. Rear back on your hind legs and say a big, loud, irreplicable no to living for yourself. You see, and He cut through all the particulars. He didn't say say no to this, this, this or that.

47:26 He says say no to yourself. At the root of all of our specific sins is the determination to please ourselves. Jesus said you want to be mine? Say no.

47:38 And gospel preaching will set forth not just the foundational truths of who God is and what man is, not only those core truths of who Christ is and what Christ has done. It will set forth marvelous promises, but it won't con people into cheap decisions. It won't con people into thinking that they can have all those benefits without the demands of discipleship. He that would save his life will lose it.

48:11 He that will lose his life for my sake in the gospels, the same shall save it. Except a grain of wheat falling into the ground didn't die. He that hates his life shall save it. These are the words of Jesus.

48:26 We can't hide those from people. It is wicked to hide them from people and to hope that somewhere along the line they'll discover them. They will feel cheated if we're not honest from the outset. Promises, demands, but then entreaties.

48:43 When Jesus sets Himself forth to sinners, how does He do it? We sang a hymn based on one of the most moving answers to that question. As Jesus looks out and sees people burdened down with all the legalistic trappings of Phariseeism, weighed down with accusing consciences, unable to get out from under that heavy yoke, He says, Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. How do you think Jesus said it?

49:16 Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me. Can you picture the Lord saying it that way? I don't know what it sounded like in Aramaic, but I know it didn't sound anything like that.

49:34 What must His voice have expressed when all the loving heart of the second person of the God that caused Him voluntarily to leave the immediate presence of His Father, and all the adoring worship of angels and seraphim and cherubim, and come to the dark confines of Mary's womb? When that heart that moved Him to say, Lo, I come to do Thy will, a body You've prepared for Me, I take it there in Mary's womb. Love that moved Him to live among us, to pass through all the stages of normal human development, the infinite reservoir of all wisdom of whom Scripture speaks when it says, In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, knows the full secrets of the structure of the atom and quarks, and He knows the boundaries of the universe and all the rest. Sits on His mama's knee learning Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Dalet, He, Vav, Sion. He learning His Hebrew alphabet. What love to put Himself under all of the restrictions of a true humanity.

51:01 A love that He knows is going to take Him to a place where He will be inundated under the billows of the wrath of His Holy Father. What must love have done through His vocal chords, through His intonations when He said, Come unto Me, all you that labor. Or those words in John 7, and on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink entreaty. The Apostle Paul picked it up and he says in 2 Corinthians 5, We then are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did entreat you by us. We beseech you, in the stead of Christ, be reconciled to God. For Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Evangelism is communicating with words, yes, the God-revealed truths which comprise the foundation and substance of the Biblical Gospel, yes, along with promises and demands,

52:30 yes, but with entreaties that at least in some little measure mirror the yearning heart of the God who said, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn me, turn me. Why will you die, O house of Israel? Well, that's the definition, and I believe it holds up to the Bible.

Application: Shaping Evangelistic Endeavors

53:01 Now, what's all that say to us? As we prepare, for these days of concentrated evangelistic endeavor, well, it says all kinds of things to us, and here I want to make several applications as I bring the message to a close this morning. First of all, if this is the main trunk of the tree, if this is what evangelism is, communication with words, the God-revealed truths that comprise the foundation and substance of the Biblical Gospel, along with promises, demands, and entreaties that accompany that Gospel, that's what shaped everything I've tried to do, sitting at my desk hour after hour, composing the six lessons to be taught in these evangelistic Bible studies. If you've seen the posters, tonight you'll see the nice little individual flyers, cards to give to people. You'll see that we've put there, come to a Bible study, where we're going to learn about truth, God, man, sin, Christ, Christian life, the Church. Why have we chosen those subjects?

54:25 Because they fit the definition. We're going to start with what the Bible is. This is God's authoritative revelation of Himself, of who He is, and what we are, and how can we know Him. The second lesson is about God, and in it, ten characteristics of God.

54:46 I didn't use the word attributes. A flyover of ten characteristics of this God, who made the world, and made us, and before whom we'll stand in judgment. Then the next lesson is about man. Man as he was originally created in the image of God.

55:04 Man as he now is, has fallen. That people might see their need of those central truths of the Gospel, the next lesson is on the glorious person of Jesus, who He is, and what He's done that we might be right with God. And then the next lesson, the Christian life, is going to be on how do we enter it? Repentance and faith.

55:28 The hinge with two plates by which the door opens, repentance and faith. And then we enter into a life of attachment to Jesus, dependence upon Jesus, living out the implications of union, with the Lord Jesus. And then, if indeed we are united to Him, and we are living such a life, God has ordained that it should flourish and develop, and find expression in His Church. The great end of evangelism is to see people come out of the world and into the Church, by way of embracing the Savior.

56:08 So you see, that's the rationale. I hadn't yet worked out this definition of evangelism, but the principles were all there, shaping my thinking. See the connection? This wasn't willy-nilly, well let's pick this, let's pick that.

56:22 These are evangelistic Bible studies. They're Bible studies intended to fulfill the mandate to bring the Biblical Gospel to men and to women. And that's the rationale for the subject matter and the way the whole thing is being conducted. Now granted, this tree of what evangelism is has got to be nourished by its tap roots, the conviction that people are who and what the Bible says they are, with lives that validate our message, with prayer for divine blessing.

Encouragement and Call to Unbelievers

57:02 But the roots are not the trunk. We want to have healthy roots, but we want to engage in that activity that constitutes the trunk of the evangelistic mandate. And our great confidence, dear people, should be rooted in verses such as these. Jesus said, Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, and they shall hear my voice.

57:33 And there should be one fold and one shepherd. Doesn't that give you encouragement? Christ is committed that His sheep, loved by Him, from eternity. He is committed, having died for them, that He shall save them.

57:52 And to save them, they've got to hear His voice. And He's not going to come out of heaven and speak, but He's going to speak through His people who communicate His message as He's revealed it in His Word. And when they do that, some hear His voice. And when they hear His voice, then they come to Him in response to His voice.

58:15 And you see, that's what's going on even here this morning. I've been trying to teach, but I've been preaching as well. You sit here this morning, and you are not a Christian. This is what you need to hear.

58:30 You need to hear these truths that constitute the only message by which you can come to the knowledge of sins forgiven and into the knowledge of God. And I plead with you, take seriously what God says you are. Take seriously what God says He's done in His Son. Heed the imperatives of repentance and faith.

58:57 Turn from your worship of yourself and commit yourself to Jesus in all the perfection of His work, in all the glory of His person. And you have the promise of God that all of your sins will be pardoned. You'll be right with God. You'll know what it is to live in communion and fellowship with Him here with the prospect of a glorious eternity.

59:24 And I entreat you, I plead with you, I beg you in Christ's name, don't slough it off as just more Pastor Martin's bellowing. I got through it for another Sunday. God help you. God help you to have more care for your own soul than that.

59:50 Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the richness of its teaching. And we pray that You will take the things we've considered today, make them a means of grace and life and salvation to some sitting here.

60:18 Make them a confirming, instructive Word to Your people, one that will strengthen our faith and our confidence that this Gospel is indeed an instrument of power unto salvation. And may we see it operative in many lives in the days to come. Thank You for Your presence with us. We pray for the help of Your Spirit.

60:41 And we believe You have granted that help. And for this we are both humbled and thankful. Receive our praise in Jesus' name. Amen.