75a) The Church Evangelizing #2

The Complex and Varied Nature of Evangelistic Motivation

0:02 We come now, large letter B, to the biblical motives which ought to impel us towards and accompany us in the fulfillment of the task. And let me say by way of introduction that perhaps few matters of greater difficulty at the level of articulation and implementation than is this matter of motivation in conjunction with the task of evangelism. But I want to say two things by way of introduction that the motivation is not simple but complex. The Bible sets before us more than one motive that ought to impel us towards and accompany us in this task and recognize that in that complex of motivation in the heart of any servant of God and any child of God at any given point in his experience, one motive may dominate. One motive may dominate more than another and that which dominated today may be sub-dominant tomorrow. And just as in the Christian life we are given many motivations all the way from escaping hell is a motivation for believers. And they're given by Jesus himself.

1:15 Don't be afraid. I say to you, my friends, don't be afraid of those that kill the body and after this have no more than they can do. I will tell you whom you shall fear, my friends. Fear him who after he is killed can cast soul and body into hell.

1:28 But now. If someone makes that the sole motivation, they're going to have a very lopsided Christian experience. Just as lopsided is the one who says, I have such motivations from the language of the love of Christ constrains me. I need nothing else.

1:43 Well, is that so? That same man said in his first epistle, I buffet my body and keep it under lest in preaching to others I myself should be a documos. You mean, Paul, there are times when the love of Christ doesn't constrain you and you're scared to death you'll apostatize? He said, yes.

2:01 You see, anybody that goes beyond needing the full complex of biblical motivation in the Christian life has gone too far. Well, it's the same with the matter of motives to the task of evangelism. If we were all what we ought to be, just pure love to God and selfless, what the old writers called disinterested love to men, should be enough. But we aren't all we should be.

2:23 And God knows that and therefore he's given us a whole phalanx of motives. So the motivation is not simple, but complex. And the motivation is...

2:30 The motivation is not uniform, and I've already hinted at this, but it's varied. And therefore, in instructing our people, we need to set before them this biblical realism. Now, I'd like to suggest that the motivation that is biblical is basically, at its foundation, the motivation of evangelical obedience to the law, that is, love to God and love to man as conditioned by the objective realities and subjective dynamics of the gospel. If you want...

Evangelical Obedience: Love to God and Man as the Foundation

3:00 In Albert N.'s definition of evangelical obedience to the law, it is love to God and love to man conditioned by the objective realities and subjective dynamics of the gospel. And the summary of the demands of the law is given to us in Matthew 22, 36 to 40, and that will form the framework of our treatment of the motives that ought to be present as we seek and seek to train our people to think, and act biblically with respect to the task of evangelism. You are familiar with the words, I'm sure.

3:38 Our Lord is asked by one of the experts in the law, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second like unto it is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Love to God: Grieved by Indifference, Constrained by Obedience, Speaking from a Full Heart

4:04 On these two commandments the whole law hangs and the prophets. So the motivation, this complex motivation, involves first of all love to God. Now, how does love to God manifest itself in evangelistic motivation? Well, it manifests itself first of all in that love is grieved by the sinner's indifference to God.

4:31 God's law, His glory, His fellowship, etc. When a man, a woman, a boy or girl has a heart that loves God, that heart that loves God cannot help but be grieved in the presence of indifference to the law of that God, to the glory of that God, to the fellowship with that God, the honor of that God in everything that pertains to that God. We read in Psalm 119 in verse 13, an expression of this very reality. Psalm 119 in verse 136, Streams of water run down my eyes.

5:11 Why? Because they observe not your law. And He so loved the law and the God who gave that law and the God whose character is reflected in that law that His love to God is provoked when He sees people not observing the law of God. We find another nuance of this in Ezekiel 9 in that strange passage where those are to be marked off as exempt for judgment who are not a part of the terrible declension in Israel at that time.

5:48 And how are they described in Ezekiel 9 in verse 4? And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry, over all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. What moves them to sigh and to cry so that they should be marked off as those who should not be the objects of God's judgment? Well, they're sighing and crying because the ways and institutions of God have been profaned and they love God.

6:20 And you cannot see that which touches the honor and the dignity of one loved. You cannot see such things profaned and not be grieved. They sigh and they cry. We see this with the, in Romans 1, 14 and 15.

6:35 He regards himself a debtor and is ready to preach the gospel to all men. And how does he view the men to whom he is ready to preach the gospel? Well, he views them primarily with reference to what they are doing to God by their state of sinfulness. Because that, knowing God, verse 21 of Romans 1, they glorified him not, but as God.

7:03 This is what the apostle sees when he looks at the state of these pagans who do not have any substance of revealed religion. They are reacting and rejecting what we would call general, natural revelation. And he sees them as those who, taking what they know of God, they don't give God the glory that is his due. They don't give him thanks.

7:26 He sees God as infinitely worthy of their thanksgiving. Infinitely worthy of being, being glorified by them, even with their limited knowledge of him. And it grieves him. And it pains him.

7:38 And he describes them then in verse 25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. He cannot speak of God's glory without his own affections being stirred.

7:54 And when he sees the masses of humanity robbing God of the glory that is due to him, changing that glory, into a lie, worshipping and serving the creature, love to God cannot look upon those realities with indifference.

8:10 See how important then is our regular ministry to our people in seeking to feed the springs of motivation, of love to the glory of God, the majesty of God, the privilege of knowing God. As our people grow in those realities, their capacity to be grieved in the presence of those who do not glorify God, who do not honor God, that capacity will be increased. You remember that clear illustration of this when Paul comes into the city of Athens and he sees people given over to idols. His spirit is stirred within him.

8:44 Why? Essentially and fundamentally because of his passionate love for the God whose glory was being stained, who was being robbed of the honor that was due unto him. But then secondly, this love to God will not only be a love grieved by the sinner's indifference to God, but the love that constrains us to obedience to a clearly articulated duty. How do we know that we love God?

9:12 Well, the scriptures tell us in John 14, 21, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loves me. Verse 24, He that loves me not, keeps not my sayings. John 15, 14, You are my friends if you do the things I command you. And so if there is genuinely, when loved to Christ, there will be constraint unto obedience to a clearly articulated duty that Christ has laid upon us.

9:42 And here again, you see how crucial it is then in our regular ministry. If we are not setting forth the glory of Christ and the magnitude of the provisions that are ours and our people's in Christ so that the stream of love to Christ is being constantly fed, you simply cannot come to a people's in whom those streams have become almost a dried up trickle and seem to see them motivated to the work of evangelism. So that our ministries, as they are owned of God and set Christ in His glory, in His provisions, in the benefits of the gospel before our people, those things will become part of the subterranean streams that flow into this river of the constraint of love to fulfill this duty. But then thirdly, it will be a love that speaks out of a full heart concerning its object. And here I've quoted these several texts. First of all, Matthew 12, 34 and 35 where our Lord states that there is a direct relationship between what comes out of the mouth and what is filling the heart.

10:56 Matthew chapter 12 and verse 34. You offspring of Vikings, how can you being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks? The mouth is the echo of what fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good things and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil things.

11:25 The heart, unless there is deliberate hypocrisy, is the echo chamber. I'm sorry, the mouth is the echo chamber of the heart. The mouth, is the visible stream of the hidden springs of the heart. Well, if this matter of bearing witness to Christ, of seeking to communicate the gospel of Christ, is a verbal activity, unless it is something to be forced and constrained in an artificial way, it has its beginnings in the state of the heart.

11:55 And therefore, the motivation of love is crucial. For if there is love to God and love to Christ and that love is not waning, so that our Lord has a complaint against us that we've left our first love, then it will be one of the things that motivates us to speak of Christ and His truth to others. And then, love to men. Love to men will be one of the constraining motives in fulfilling this task of evangelism.

Love to Men: Longing for Gospel Privileges

12:27 And here, I've broken this down into two subheadings. First of all, a love that longs that they shall enjoy, all of the wonderful and distinctive privileges of the gospel. When there is love to a given person, that love constrains us that they would enjoy what we enjoy. That if there's something that brings us delight and pleasure, we desire it would bring delight and pleasure to them.

12:55 And surely, this is the motivation of the psalmist in Psalm 34 in verse 8. You remember the setting of that psalm. David has been exiled. He's found with a group of off-caste in a cave.

13:07 And yet he says, I'll bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. And after blessing God, it's as though he says, Oh, I wish that everyone were to know what I know of the sweetness of communion with God. And he says, Oh, taste.

13:20 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts in Him. Just taste. And if you taste, you'll see.

13:28 And you'll be forever spoiled. Here is a heart that reaches out in the constraints of love that longs that others shall enjoy the wonderful and distinctive privileges that David knows in his relationship to his God and to his Savior. We see this in our Lord as He looks out on the masses, Matthew 9, 36 to 38. And is moved with compassion.

13:53 Why? He sees them as sheep that are scattered, vulnerable, having no shepherd. And then He says, Pray therefore, the Lord of the harvest that He send forth laborers. Why?

14:03 Why? Why? Why? Why?

14:04 Why? He wants them to enjoy those privileges, those blessings that come only through the believing reception of the gospel. And in His love to men, He yearns that they shall enjoy these blessings. We see it in the very spirit of Revelation 22 and verse 17.

14:23 As that marvelous book comes to a close, one of the freest, fullest, all-encompassing gospel invitations, the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Why do the Spirit and the Bride say, Come? He that hears, let Him say, Come. And he that is a thirst, let Him come.

14:43 He that will, let Him take the water of life freely. Here is the voice of love yearning that others will know the blessedness of what it is to partake of gospel realities. And then that moving imagery of Isaiah 55, 1 to 3, where God says through the prophet, taking the posture of a street hawker, a hawker of goods, who unlike others is out to make a few shekels by hawking his wares. This one comes hawking his wares free of charge.

15:16 Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He that has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. And then he expostulates with him, Why do you spend money for that which is not bread?

15:31 I'm offering something that you don't have to pay a thing for. And it will truly satisfy your laboring and working. And you take your hard-earned money and you buy something that can never satisfy your hunger. Why, he says, do you spend money for that which is not bread?

15:46 And your labor for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me. Eat that which is good. Let your soul delight itself in fatness.

15:56 Incline your ear. Come unto me here and your soul shall live. This is love yearning. This is satisfied love yearning.

16:04 This is love yearning. This is love yearning for those who do not know that satisfaction. We find it in our Lord in those moving words of John 7, 37 and 38. On that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried.

16:19 He didn't whisper. He cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. As the scripture says, He that believes on me, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. There was our love for men.

16:34 Reaching out in that yearning that they would know the refreshing water of life that is found in him and him alone. And then in 2 Kings 7 and verse 9, that fascinating incident of those lepers who came upon the spoils of the Syrians. And this was a marvelous discovery to which they had come. And all around them is this plenty of food and other things of the spoils left when God sovereignly intervened and gave them and routed the Syrians and they left all of their food and their goods and accoutrements behind them.

17:10 And what do these lepers say? In 2 Kings 7 and verse 9, they said one to another, We do not well. This is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning light, punishment will overtake us.

17:25 Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. You see, while there, in their impoverished state, suddenly surrounded by all the people, all of this food and the other spoils, their love for their fellow countrymen constrains them to say, We do not well. This is a day of good tidings. And if we violate this fundamental, instinctive canon of love, surely judgment will fall upon us for our crass lovelessness.

17:55 The spirit of the people of God should be one that lives under this text. Freely you have received, freely give. What have you that you did not receive? And we say nothing.

18:07 Therefore I hold it as a treasured gift of grace in the spirit of grace that longs to share its blessings with others. Now here again you see how vital it is that our overall ministry to our people be one that constantly reminds them of their privileges in Christ, of what they are and what they have in Christ, so that as they behold the spoils of Christ's conquest over society, sin and death, they will be moved to say we do not well to keep silence. We do not well to keep silence. But then secondly, the love at the horizontal level is a love which desires that they, that is, our fellow men, shall escape the frightening consequences of their sins.

Love to Men: Desiring Escape from Frightening Consequences of Sin

18:58 The one is the more positive we long that they shall know the positive conferral of the blessings of God found only in Christ. The other is the solace, the number, negative overtones of what will be their plight if they do not come into the possession of those benefits. And love cannot be indifferent against the backdrop of coming judgment. And we see this in several of the texts that I've listed for you.

19:25 As John the Baptist is preaching, he hurls out the challenge of Matthew 3 and verse 7. You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? That wrath, is coming. It is on its way.

19:40 And the one who will mediate that wrath, the Messiah, is about to appear. And though John sees in that prophetic vision the mountains one against the other and sees Messiah as the one whose fan is in his hand and who will not only baptize in the Spirit but in fire. And this shakes his own faith. And he asks later on, do we look for another?

20:02 Are you he that should come? We don't see your judgments. He did not understand what we now see, that between us and between the coming to baptize in the Spirit and in fire was the whole gospel age. John did not see that.

20:15 But John saw the reality that in the coming of Messiah there is the certain sure pouring out of God's wrath upon the impenitent. And he's moved with love even for these who were so despicable in their hypocrisy that he calls them offspring of vipers. He hasn't consigned them to hell as though he could read their reprobation. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

20:41 Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance. In spite of their horribly degenerate state, he's yet calling them to repentance. He's not saying the door of mercy is shut. He's saying now, if you're to escape the judgment of God, there must be more than a ritualistic identification with me and my message.

21:02 Bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Don't think to say within yourself, we have Abraham to our father. He reasons with him. He wrestles with him.

21:09 But he's all within what we might call the vehemence of a gracious heart. Not the vehemence of a heart that is hard and calloused and says, you bunch of scallywag hypocrites, go to hell. That isn't his disposition at all. It is a love, a genuine love to men that desires they shall escape the frightening consequences of their sin.

21:31 Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And then that moving imagery of Jude in verse 23. Jude in verse 23.

21:45 This is the text that John Wesley said was the explanation of his life. He regarded himself as a brand plucked from the burning. And after urging the people of God in the midst of a period of declension surrounded by false teachers and false prophets, they are to build up themselves in their most holy faith. Verse 20.

22:09 Keeping themselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus. But they are not to be indifferent toward those around them who are not in that safe condition and on some have mercy who are in doubt and some save snatching them out of the fire. Graphic imagery. And some save snatching them out of the fire.

22:35 You view them as just about to drop into the pit and you're snatching. them from that horrible fate and on some have mercy with fear hating even the garments spotted by the flesh he assumes that within the hearts of the people of god within their hearts will be this presence of love that is the fruit of the spirit of love that cannot but be moved at the thought of the ultimate destiny of those who are yet impenitent and then i've listed second corinthians 5 10 and 11 we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of christ that each may receive the things done in his body whether good or bad knowing therefore the fear of the lord we persuade men knowing the fear of the lord we persuade men the fear of the lord in that context in some way identified with the coming day of judgment in which all men will be fully known for who and for what they are and here i commend to you the comments of bridges on psalm 119 and verse 136 he writes indignant grief for the dishonored done to god amazement at the affecting spectacle of human blindness detestation of human impiety compassionate yearnings over human wretchedness

24:01 and ruin all combined to force tears of the deepest sorrow from a heart enlightened and constrained by the influence of the saviour's love and then he gives probably a hymn i don't know he doesn't state who the author was my god i feel the mournful scene my bowels yearn or dying men and fame my pity would reclaim and snatch the firebrands from the flame this as we have seen was our master's spirit and the firebrands of the firebrands of the firebrands of the firebrands of the firebrands and let none presume themselves to be christians if they are utterly destitute of this mind that was in christ jesus if they know nothing of his melting compassion for a lost world or of his burning zeal for his heavenly father's glory oh for that deep realizing sense of the preciousness of immortal souls that would make us look at every sinner we meet as a soul to be pulled out of the fire and to be drawn to christ which would make us look at every sinner we meet as a soul to be pulled out of the fire and to be it would render us willing to endure suffering reproach and the loss of all so that we might be instrumental in bringing one soul to god and raise one monument to his everlasting praise happy mourner in zion whose tears over the guilt and wretchedness of a perishing world

25:26 are the outward indications of thy secret pleadings with god and the effusion of a heart solemnly dedicated to the salvation of thy fellow sinners but feeble my compassion proves and can but weep where most it loves thine own all-saving arm employ and turn these drops of grief to joy rivers of water run down my eyes because they keep not thy law and here again you see how important is the general overall climate of our ministry that it give due place to the doctrine of eternal retribution that it give due place to the doctrine of eternal retribution that it give due place to the doctrine of eternal retribution that it give due place to the ultimate state of the impenitent and the protestations of john stott and hughes and others who are at the vanguard of having denied or brought into question the biblical doctrine of everlasting punishment upon the impenitent it is impossible to sustain biblical motivation in the task of evangelism if you rip out this biblical concept of the ultimate destiny of the lost impossible we simply can't we are not so sanctified has to be motivated by desire that they know the blessings that are ours in christ because no little part of those blessings is the

Summary of Motivation and Recommended Resources

26:51 realization that we ourselves have grabbed and you know in your own experience it's when you reflect on where you would be apart from the grace of god now and in eternity that heightens your appreciation for that grace and stirs up your motivation to be an instrument to convey that grace to the world that grace and stirs up your motivation to be an instrument to convey that grace to the world to others as a rescued sinner you long to see others rescued as well and i've listed there at the summary in conclusion to see packard's evangelism and the sovereignty of god pages seventy five to seventy eight this is one of the most helpful summary statements in this whole area of the matter of motivation he writes that loved to god the chief and primary fundamental is our desire to glorify god and our passion to see others glorify him but the second motive that should prompt us to assiduous evangelism is love to our neighbor and desire to see our fellow men saved and then he opens up this whole matter of the motivation and covers much of the ground that i've covered in a far more eloquent and penetrating way and i would urge you just to note those pages and to use them to stir up your own heart and in due course to use them as you would seek to

28:15 communicate these things to your own people now i've listed here by way of some bibliography several books that i trust if you don't have them in your library you will seek to acquire them and it will be helpful to you in shaping your own thinking and in drawing materials with which you can help teach your people in this area of the evangelistic ministry the mandate and task of the church of course packers evangelism and the sovereignty of god perhaps never equaled and surpassed in anything that i've read though it's now becoming something you could almost call a 20th century classic and it's gone through several reprints but then i've also listed will metzger's book to tell the truth the whole gospel the whole person by whole people a training manual on the message and methods of god-centered witnessing and while i would not endorse every single book that i've read i've also listed the book of will metzger's book that will metzger sets before us i believe it's a case again where often the man who's given a peculiar gift in the given area denies that he has any special gift and then in his treatment of the subject i believe is a bit imbalanced in imposing what is really an expression of his own peculiar gift on the generic on the people of god generically for example miller would deny that he had any special gift of faith all of us read john george miller and say if we don't believe he had a special gift of faith we don't have any special gift of faith we don't have any special gift of faith

29:38 we've had it we might as well pack it and ask the lord to take us home and my dear friend pastor blaise he would deny he has any special gift of intercession but if you've prayed with him for an hour and you say god giving him something he ain't never given me and you realize that god has given a peculiar gift of intercession and ability to take hold of god with great intensity for long periods of time more than once in praying with him i'd say brother i said i poop out after 45 minutes you gotta let me get my get my second wind and uh... and i had to come to grips with that or i'd leave our prayer sessions every friday when he was here for two years just laden with guilt i said lord i'm never gonna pray like that and then i finally came to grips and said i probably won't unless god gives me some measure of a gift of of in that area so i just say that by way of of qualification not to undermine my recommendation because there is so much that is helpful and will writes from the standpoint of someone who's a thoroughly committed uh calvinist in his understanding of the word of god and uh... has a uh... a wholesome view of the place of the church but this is a very helpful

30:47 how-to book from the perspective uh... that we would share in its basic theological uh... substance and then i've listed ernie reisinger's book today's evangelism which is more a polemic uh... in many areas about some of the unbiblical and distorted views of evangelism but uh... you may be ministering to people who don't understand the word of god but you may be ministering to people who don't understand the word of god people who come out of such a background we had hoped to have ernie here years ago shortly after he wrote this book to go through this material with us and he had an eye operation wasn't able to come in one of our intercessions that's what we did and all these markings and questions and the rest i led a guided discussion for two weeks in that book and then if you can come on kuyper's god-centered evangelism i don't think this is still in print but it's it is oh good good excellent in terms of the kind of materials that if you're preaching on the subject you'd find much helpful material here in the broad comprehensive way that he approaches this and then i've listed a couple of tapes as well all of them from the trinity pulpit